Question: Could you just walk me through your career path and your experiences that led you to this job?
Answer: Before joining my PhD, I completed my graduation from University of Delhi and then I did my master’s from Center for Medical Biotechnology, MDU, Rohtak in Medical Biotechnology. After that, I joined as a lecturer at Lloyd groups of institutions and then I always had this thing that I have to pursue research in my career. So eventually, I landed up joining the University of Delhi South Campus Department of Microbiology as a research fellow. From there I got admission in PhD in Central University of Haryana. So I joined my PhD in 2016 and during my PhD, I got the Bioenergy Research Award, which is conferred by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum and they give this award in the field of biofuels and bioenergy. They basically support a few, like five-six doctoral students to pursue a short span of time of their research in the US. It was a great thing in my career, I got the chance to work with a renowned professor over there in the US in the field of bioenergy. In my PhD, I worked in the field of industrial microbiology. So I was working on the development of thermo and inhibitor tolerant yeast to produce cellulosic ethanol, which is quite a hot field nowadays. Everyone wants to switch their energy to some other mode. After my PhD, I got this position of deputy manager at a resource and Infrastructure management wing at Ashoka University and I joined there after submitting my thesis.
Question: For this particular job, what was the interview and application process like?
Answer: During my PhD in 2018, I came across this workshop conducted by India Biosciences. It was about women in Sciences, Administration and Management. So from there I got to know that there are certain career paths beyond academia as well. This is kind of a non academic career path which I have chosen, and I got introduced to this path at that time. At the end of my PhD, I started looking for a job in the non academic field only. So through LinkedIn, I came across the position at Ashoka, I applied and I got the position.
Question: In this job, what does your day look like and what kind of things do you handle?
Answer: At the research and development office at Ashoka University we have a few wings like one wing handles grant management, my wing handles research infrastructure and management. I have to support new faculties who are getting on board to Ashoka University in setting up their labs by giving our technical inputs, like which thing you need to buy, and the setting up of whole lab by coordinating with the maintenance team, the architect people, and what faculty actually desires in his lab while setting up his lab. Apart from that, procurement for lab items, all the lab things, whether it’s equipment or consumables, I do that. And I’ll have to coordinate with the grant management team to do that like which grant has come for new faculty or which grant has come for the senior faculty. When a new grant comes up, we can start the purchasing process and then the technical presentations related to big ticket equipment, if we are buying. So we have to conduct the technical presentations, then a negotiation meeting, and then we’ll have to finalize the big ticket items if any faculty wants to buy. Well that’s what my day looks like.
Question: Which skills are the most important for a job like yours?
Answer: Yeah, I think particularly for this kind of job, you should be very good in communication skills first of all, and then you have to be critical and analytical. You have to put your eye on each and every single detail. These are the skills which are really important.
Question: What do you think is the best way to earn a job in this kind of industry?
Answer: You have to read a lot about this field, first of all, because India BioScience and India Alliance Research Management Initiatives (IRMI), they have created a lot of handbooks about non academic careers. It’s like a collated thing and it’s highly informative so you should go through that. If your temperament aligns with that and you don’t want to go to academia or you need to switch your field, then you should read a lot about it and if you think that you can pursue that field, then you should update your LinkedIn profile and connect with people, ask their experience about the transition. All that helps a lot.
Question: What is the role of mentorship in your career?
Answer: I have a habit of reading a lot, so nobody actually guided me about this field. I just came across India BioScience in 2018 and I asked my advisor that I want to go, I want to explore this new field. He didn’t mentor me, but he supported me to join this workshop. I have one of my seniors who is already in the industry, so he mentored me in designing my CV. Academic CV and non academic CV or industrial CVs are entirely different, so he helped me with how to put your information for industry and how to prepare for an interview.
Question: If you could do it all over again, would you choose the same path or would it be something different? If different, then what would you choose to do?
Answer: No, I think I will definitely choose PhD. Many people say that I will start doing a job after Master’s, or I won’t choose PhD but you should choose PhD because it gives you a lot of skills. Trust me, in the initial phase, you think it’s very difficult, it’s monotonous, you are getting depressed but after completing it, it’s a huge achievement. And you will be proud of yourself that, yes, I have achieved something. A PhD gives you a lot of things like patience and how to pursue any negative thing in your life and a lot of skills like reading, writing, managing your day to day tasks. And apart from that, if your advisor is good enough, he will involve you in this grant management thing as well. So you will get that sort of experience over there as well. I did that, so I got an advantage of that experience while getting this job.
Question: What is one hobby you still manage to do with this job?
Answer: I am a trained Bharatnatyam dancer so I still manage to dance. I have completed that and wanted to take up some other classes. Recently, since February, I’ve joined Kathak as a classical dancer and have started learning.
