Your Insider’s Guide to Breaking Into Life Sciences
The Industry Is Booming. Are You Still Figuring How to Get In?
Whether you look at clinical trials, revenue growth, or the market performance of top companies: Life Sciences is booming.
At the center of this growth is complex, cross-functional innovation spanning biology, chemistry, digitalization, AI, and business strategy. If you want to stay close to science but step away from Academia, there’s never been a better moment to pivot.
As an academic scientists, it's natural to doubt yourself when it comes to business role:
"I don’t know which roles fit me.”
“Do I need more qualifications?”
“My CV just gets ignored.”
That’s exactly why I wrote this guide.
Built for Scientists Like You
This guide is specifically for those who want to stay close to SCIENCE but pivot to INDUSTRY, specifically Life Sciences. If you chose to leave the lab bench behind, you will find a more dynamic, better-paid, and impactful role beyond Academia.
I’ve worked in the industry for 10+ years, with two major players and 30+ partners. I’ve interviewed 100+ professionals - job seekers, managers, executives - and supported dozens of scientists through this exact transition.
And I’ve packed all of that into this guide, so you don’t have to figure it out on your own.
What Makes This Guide Different?
Most “career guides” give you a list of job titles.
This guide selects a few that are a great fit for someone straight from Academi and it shows you how to actually land one of those roles.
Inside, you’ll find:
🧭 A Clear Role Overviews + Skills Matrix
A helicopter view of the five most accessible roles in the industry:
- R&D / Application Scientists
- Field Applications / Service
- Product Management
- Marketing
- Sales
For each role, I break down expected tasks and skills so you can immediately assess what fits your interests and profile. On a high level, it's easy to figure where your affinity lies - would you rather do more data analysis, or manage complex projects with inter-dependencies or go out and visit customers, etc.
But once you know which role to target, there comes the tricky part. You're expected to demonstrate knowledge and/or practice of certain role-specific skills beyond academia. For example, if you don't know what these acronyms mean - MQL, NPV, ROI, PoC, VoC - don't get scared: there's a couple of standard terms that everyone in industry operates and you don't need a PhD to comprehend what they stand for. So it's easy to find out, the point is to know what to look for! And that's exactly what I assembled in my guide. If you come to the interview without the knowing any industry terminology, you will not stand out from your peers. This guide will give you the required basics, not only to stand out in the interview, but also to ease your way into the role once you're hired.
🧠 Explanations of Core Skills You’re Expected to Know but Academia Never Teaches You
Want to know what hiring managers really mean when they say “business acumen” or “stakeholder alignment”?
This guide explains those concepts in plain language and shows how to connect them to your own experience.
For example:
- What does “low ROI” actually mean in product decisions?
- Why would a project be shelved due to “COGS erosion”?
- What are “MQLs vs SQLs”—and why do they matter in marketing?
If these terms sound unfamiliar now, don’t worry. You’ll get clear explanations so you can follow—and contribute to—these conversations.
📝 Guiding Questions That Help You Build a Strong Application
Each chapter includes reflection prompts to help you:
- Identify relevant skills you already have
- Fill knowledge gaps without needing an MBA
- Craft a CV and cover letter that speak the language of industry
🎯 Transferable Skills: What You Already Bring to the Table
Most scientists underestimate themselves.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to spot and reframe experiences you’ve probably overlooked:
- Coordinating international research = cross-functional teamwork
- Grant writing = budgeting and strategic planning
- Giving conference talks = stakeholder communication
- Managing a side project or blog = commercial awareness
These are not just soft skills. In many cases, they’re exactly what you’ll be asked about in interviews.
📄 What Hiring Managers Actually Want to See
You’ll learn:
- How to talk about your academic background in a way that’s relevant to business goals (trust me, it's a whole different language)
- What not to say in your CV or cover letter (all of us academics are guilty of certain things that are so obvious in academia but not the point in industry)
- How to shift from “explaining your research” to showing how you solve problems
Why This Guide Is a Smart Investment
You’ve spent years developing your scientific expertise.
This guide helps you turn it into a career. Strategically and with data points.
If it helps you land one good interview—or avoid wasting six months on the wrong roles—it’s already paid for itself.
Plus, most industry roles covered here come with salaries 1.5–2x higher than typical postdoc pay. Wouldn't you want to monetize your experience and have a more stable work which will still be intellectually stimulating and fulfilling? Unless you're eyeing the Nobel prize, this really is a no-brainer.
You don't need to start over, you just need to be strategic.
See What’s Inside
I walk through the full structure of the guide on my Instagram page.
📲 Watch the explainer video: @careercatalystlab
It's pinned right at the top.
Sneak Peak Inside
Industry Roles & Skills Matrix: Helicopter View
Discover core Roles at Life Sciences suppliers surrounding product development and commercialization—whether they specialize in instruments, reagents, consumables, or services. These are the positions where graduates in biology, chemistry, and engineering can take their first steps into Industry, in some cases with little to no prior experience.
This table describes what you can expect in different industry roles.
Activity Key:
xxx Expected regularly
xx Expected from time to time
x Expected occasionally
- Not expected
Take a closer look at the list of Activities. The top one to three items likely fall within your comfort zone. You may be unfamiliar with some of the others—and that’s completely normal as Industry operates differently from Academia. This guide will break down each role in detail, giving you a solid understanding of what these roles represent.
Here’s one key insight upfront: candidates can be hired directly from Academia into all five of these roles—R&D & Applications, Field Service & Applications, Product Management, Marketing, and Sales.
Naturally, the less experience you have outside Academia, the more you should focus on entry-level roles. You’ll be competing with both fellow academics and candidates with some industry experience.
The last column in the table is for self-assessment in terms of what you think you would enjoy and succeed in. Consider filling it out straight away and revisiting it after reading the full guide. Your understanding and affinity for certain Roles and Activities may shift as you gain deeper insights.
You will likely find that your Skills don’t align perfectly with all the Activities listed for a given Role. Don’t be discouraged! In reality, most candidates don’t check every box. What truly matters is the overall impression you make during interviews. Your technical skills are just one piece of the puzzle—your industry knowledge, understanding of the company, cultural fit, and even your compensation expectations all play a role in landing the job.
This guide will help you leverage your existing skills, present them competitively, and identify additional learning opportunities to strengthen your profile.