This article is an interview with Eileen who is in the process of changing her career from Biotech Research to Healthcare Tech. In this interview she explained why she wanted to switch and how she did it. Eileen graduated from college in 2014 with a biology degree and after working for about a year, she applied and got into the Grace Hopper Academy. Since her background is similar to mine, I asked my friend to introduce us so that I could learn more about her career aspirations. First things first… Why did you want to switch from biotech to healthcare tech? Eileen did pre-med when she was in college with the…

This article contains useful information for those interested in the Project Manager role. David is a project manager in Biotech but his experience and lesson are not limited to this particular industry. Read on to learn more about this role and how you can become one. David and I graduated from the same university but we never crossed paths until we worked together briefly before he went on to pursue the MBA program at UC Davis to further his career. The following is a summary of our conversation on how he forged his path from a bench scientist to a project manager in the biotech industry. About his new job: Most of…

I had the chance to interview one of my friends who successfully made a switch to a different industry early in his career. Leo has an interesting background: in high school he did the pre-med track because Med school starts in college in Singapore. Despite seeing the rest of his classmates go on to become doctors, he broke off, came to a liberal arts college in the US, and chose to major in Economics and Government with “an almost minor” in Philosophy. Upon graduation he landed his first job in management consulting where he spent 2.5 years working on various projects for Fortune 100 clients: from finding $100M of cost…

I first met Annie at a friend’s company holiday party. My first impression was that she had a bubbly personality, greeted everyone warmly and asked about their families. I was struck by her sincerity and how she remembered details about most people she met. A few weeks later I asked my friend to connect us because I wanted to learn more about her career path when I found out she recently went through a coding bootcamp. I was delighted to find out that she is actually a serial career changer. She had compelling reasons why she switched from one to the next and during our call I quickly sensed that…

“There are women who look like you [in the tech industry] — everybody will find a role model for themselves, and I’m really trying to showcase that. Women are amazing and we really need diversity in technology, and this is how we can get there.” — Masha Zvereva, “Coding Blonde” Masha grew up in Russia and moved to England when she was in middle school. After finishing college she realized getting a job would be more difficult than she thought, due to the requirement of work VISA. What compelled her to change from marketing to becoming a digital nomad ? And more importantly, HOW did she switch ? Tune in to theepisode to find out! How Masha Made the Switch To…

Stacey is a young and driven manager at a Bay Area biotech company. I met with her on a sunny Thursday over her lunch break. She was warm and friendly and excited to share her experiences and career path. I can tell that she consistently demonstrated exceptional results at her jobs and her talent was clearly recognized by those around her. Here is the abridged Q&A of our conversation. Tell me about your past positions and how much time you spent at each one Like most of us, she switched functions within the same industry after working for some time. Her first switch came about 4 years into her career…

Alex is a process development and automation engineer at a biotech start-up in San Jose, California. He works at a company that aims to improve the current immuno-oncology therapeutics and diagnostics landscape through research and clinical tests. I had the pleasure of speaking with Alex about his career transition within the biotechnology sector not long ago. When he first started he worked in production labs where he manufactured products sold to external customers as well as internal departments. Later on he was promoted to more senior roles where he purchased materials, planned logistics and supervised technicians. His switch came when he was more than 10 years into his career. In…

“For what it’s worth… it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to…