Top 10 Skills You Must Have For A Successful Career In Biotech Sector

Skills For Successful Career In Biotech Sector – Top 10 List

When we think about building our careers in Biotechnology, we visualize a scientist in a white coat working in a laboratory developing drugs to improve the quality of life. However, this field has ushered a wide variety of career opportunities ranging from research and development to sales and marketing, from manufacturing to quality control and assurance in industrial sectors such as food & beverage industry, textile industry, biological products, and pharmaceuticals. Students are showing interest prodigiously in biotechnology as it has both technical and procedural dimension touching a vast array of disciplines. This, in turn, opens a lot many job opportunities for students who are seeking a stable career. Taking up Biotech as a career need a lot of personal exposure & Skills that actually makes your existence in this field more firmly.

In this article, we will talk about significant signs or skills one must have if you want to excel in your career in the Biotech sector. Listed below are Top 10 Skills For Successful Career In Biotech Sector.

1. Are you outspoken and have a dynamic Personality?

Renowned Companies charter scientists who are not afraid and take up

the initiative to speak up in a room of people and voice an opinion. A scientist or a new joiner who savor talking to the customers and help them in the best possible way is a huge asset to that company. Enthusiasm forms key behavioral aspect in keeping the morale of a team upbeat. And it also relates to a person who bears a positive mindset, it is a must when trying to meet a deadline for a product launch. If one lacks enough confidence in one’s ability to figure something out, then he probably is the most unfit for the position.

2. Are You A Team Player?

Whether it’s Creating and launching a new product in the research lab or accomplishing targets in a corporate company – all are a result of a team effort. It requires the input of operations, production, marketing, and R&D altogether. A person who cannot get along with others or makes it difficult for the rest of the team to proceed with their jobs will not be a good fit in any biotech company or Research Lab. The ability to work in teams is a must-have skill. A lot of biotech-based jobs require you to work on teams. Consequently, you would like to highlight how good you are at collaborating with others.

The interviews are the best and ideal platform to showcase one’s best possible personality. Most interviewers will ask about sharing one’s strength, accomplishment, or memorable work experience, so using this opportunity in the wisest manner is to illustrate your excellent teamwork skills. Of course, you will ensure that you will never misrepresent yourself in the application process. Start working to cultivate this skill right away if you want an excellent career in the Biotech Sector!

3. How well can you adapt to change?

Well, Biotech folks out there by now must have memorized these words by Charles Darwin – “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

This applies here in your Job as well. In biotech, in fact, in every aspect of your life – the only thing you can enumerate on being the same is change. It might be changing your desk 5 times in a year, changes in your teammates, changes in who you report to, etc. If you prefer a constant status and like the feeling of consistency, you may not be a good fit for this field. As Biotech sector is everchanging, with new rules, protocols being incorporated regularly either by the Govt or the organization you are working at.

4. Are you creative enough?

Let’s understand first what are the dreams of a Biotech professional in common -Whether he/she is working in a corporate biotech company or in a research lab. Earning a high salary, 9-6 Job, 5 days working in a week, Good appraisals regularly? If this is your dream then, there are very low chances you can grow in the Biotech sector.

If you are someone who dreams to be a great scientist by developing a cure for Cancer, the dream of winning a Nobel prize or to have a patent of your own! You sound like a creative person with big dreams & a purpose in life. And what you dream is what you become, of course, unless you follow them. This all will need creativity & innovation from your end at whatever position you are working at. So definitely unleash your creative skills, if you have not done it yet if you want to have a Successful Career In Biotech Sector.

5. Do you have management skills?

Management skills can be categorized into many sub-domains including time management & work management. Management is all about proper planning, organizing, coordinating & Executing. Be it a Job interview for a Laboratory technician post, Research scientist post or a manager level post, all recruiters look for this skill in common. The moment a Biotech company starts growing, the requirement for diverse management skills & experience increases. Thus most of the R&D labs hire only those candidates who are able to demonstrate Management skills either by some activities mentioned in the resume, or while enumerating once skills vocally during the interview or by portraying the skills during your trial or probation period of the Job.

6. How well can you handle the pressure?

Work and pressure, these two words go hand in hand! Obviously there will be pressure at all jobs and certainly, academic life has its own unique pressures and stress. In biotech, the pressure can become difficult because millions of dollars can be on the table, riding on your success. As the lead R&D scientist for a product with a projected revenue in supposing millions, definitely there will be pressure for you to produce a flawless product from the entire team: marketing managers, salespeople, and even within the team. Pressure also comes from tight and pact deadlines and problems staying on track when the research plan is set up by other members apart from you. Thus there is no escaping from pressure at work anywhere! Whether you are a research scientist working at a Govt Lab or a Corporate Scientific Manager – you need to be excellent at handling pressure. If you have this skill, you can ride off far ahead and climb the Biotech Career ladder faster then anyone.

7. Are your Communication skills Average or Great?

Biotech science requires a cordial personality. Since you are working in teams, you need to have that much level of self-confidence to speak up. And if you are an avid traveler, you will be doing a lot of networking, and giving presentations, so being comfortable in groups is an important task. To demonstrate your proficiency in English make sure each position listed on the professional resume should have one or more communication-related bullets. For example, you can include how you “participated in a team to develop new SOPs” or “gave weekly status reports to the executive committee.” If you are in Biotech filed this is a must-have skill! After all, you need to read papers, write your own & represent your research work globally.

8. How Flexible Are You?

Not everyone likes to do more than one chore at a time. Or handle multiple projects at a time. In the biotech field, this becomes a regime. Most people have to grip more than they are normally comfortable with so the extreme ability to manage multiple projects making the least mistakes will be a huge asset. If you enjoy tasting versatile domains of work, then you’ll definitely fall for Biotech. Biotech is a dynamic, ever-changing industry, which means the more adaptable you are, the more likely you will swing towards success.

9. Are you a Quick Learner?

In Biotech field, you’ll need to get up the learning curve very fast. Everyone is moving at a quick pace and in some companies, people do not have the time or patience to help the new joiners and. Everyone is multitasking which we have to remember. An ideal scientist is one who can read & interpret a protocol in a jiffy. They can get comfortable in a new surrounding quickly and get to work on the project assigned without any professional training. All new ones joining as a fresher needs to get trained, of course. But a strong technical background with hands-on training experience will serve you well in any biotech company.

10. The Entrepreneurial Spirit – Do You Have it?

An entrepreneurial spirit is a definite attitude and approach to thinking that actively seeks out change, rather than waiting to get adapted to a change. It embraces critical questioning, innovation & continuous improvement. “It’s about visualizing the big picture and thinking like an owner. If you have ever thought about starting your own company, or if you have dreamt about enjoying a challenge of developing a method and watch its commercial success, you are definitely going to enjoy working in biotech. The never quit & I can do it attitude is what will make you go a long way in your biotech career from a fresher – Intern to a research scientist to a CEO of a biotech company.

So here we are with Top 10 Skills For Successful Career In Biotech Sector. I am sure you all must be having most of these skills in you already, if not then start nurturing and cultivating these attributes from today itself. Remember its never too late to start anything, you just need to have the right perspective & the right attitude.