Name: Kendra Lechtenberg (she/her)
PhD: Neuroscience, Stanford University School of Medicine, 2019
What was your main area of research?
I studied how microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, initiate and coordinate the inflammatory response that happens in the brain after ischemic stroke.
What is your current job?
I am a Scientific Program Manager at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) in Denver, Colorado.
I coordinate large committees of clinical scientists to conduct international projects focused on improving clinical care for lung cancer and other thoracic malignancies. Many of my responsibilities are in project management (defining timelines, creating budgets, executing tasks or making sure project members complete tasks), but I also facilitate complex scientific conversations to drive projects forward.
The best part is that the projects I lead can have a significant real-world impact for people living with lung cancer, and I work closely with a large, international network of some of the top thoracic surgeons, medical oncologists, and pathologists in the world. My PhD research and my previous jobs were in more basic/translational research or drug discovery, and it's been enlightening and humbling to see the practical challenges of implementing new research into better standards of care. I love working for a non-profit, which can prioritize patients over profit.
How did you find this position? What were the career steps you took to get to where you are now?
I found my job through LinkedIn.
PhD graduate ➡️ scientist at neuro drug discovery ➡️ scientist at startup CRO ➡️ scientific program manager
Why did you decide to not pursue a career in academia?
It was a long decision but I think I knew fairly early that academic research didn't quite fit my working style or strengths. The bigger challenge was identifying what I wanted to do instead, and I think I will always be figuring out what the right fit is!
After grad school, I worked at a neuroscience drug discovery company in the Bay Area which I really enjoyed and was a good fit for me. The work life balance and the collaborative nature of the work was great and I learned a lot of science during my time there. My partner and I decided we wanted to move away from the Bay Area so I started looking to transition into remote work but in the meantime took a job at a contract research organization. This was a lot less intellectually engaging or rewarding than drug discovery, and I don't recommend working for a CRO unless there's a big technology innovation component to be involved in.
I was keen to get away from bench science and had become interested in project management or scientific administration of some kind, and learned through friends about project management-type roles at scientific non-profits, which is how I found my job at the IASLC. It has been an adjustment to step into a more "behind the scenes" role, and I know this type of work isn't a good fit for all personality types, but I love how central I am to the scientific projects I'm leading and feel that project management utilizes a lot of my strengths (communication, organization) which were underutilized as a bench scientist.
What advice do you have for someone getting their PhD and looking to pursue a career outside of academia?
Informational interviews can lead to jobs, and get to know different types of people you interact with in academia on a personal level. Many friends and colleagues had partners or friends outside of academia who were always more than happy to chat with me about their experiences and their career decisions.
I got my first job in drug discovery because a professor I taught a class with had a wife at a drug discovery company who I talked to for an informational interview. When she had an opening on her team, she reached out to me, because she already knew I was interested and knew I was a hard worker.
It's silly that anyone still thinks it's more virtuous to stay in academia. Wanting a different style of life or just being realistic about how many sacrifices you have to make to stay in academia does not make anyone a worse scientist. Just ignore these comments, but if they come from someone close to you like your advisor, explain how you are making a self-aware choice to build your own life the way you want to see it and are seeking a career that best fits your personality and working style. They can't really argue with that!
Grad school is a great place to experiment with different types of work and to have a range of experiences, which will help you decide what your values are, what kind of career fits you best, and will give you more different types of experiences you can add to your CV or talk about in a job application/interview.
For example, I took a science policy workshop and served on the animal care and use committee at my university; I also took a teaching course and taught several different types of classes during grad school; I served as project coordinator for a multi-center grant my PI was leading; and I sought out research collaborations to expand my network and my scientific expertise. Not all of these things directly led to my positions outside academia, but they helped me learn about myself and learn about different types of opportunities.
Want help organizing your informational interviews? Check out the free PhD Paths Informational Interview Template!