Jyoti Rawat | Research and Development | Biocon
PhD | Research and Development | Scientist | Biocon | Cell culture | Biotech
Sci Career Profile
Bachelors: Bachelor in Science (Biotechnology), KC College, Mumbai University,India, 2009-2012
Masters: Master in Science (Biotechnology), St. Xavier’s College, Autonomous, India Mumbai 2012-2014
PhD : PhD in Biological Science, AcSIR, India, 2022
Postdoc (If any):Â No
Left academia after: PhD
Year entered into a non-academic position: 2022
Current Employer: Biocon
Current Position: Scientist
Job Sector: Cell line development
Job highlight: Research and development in the area of cell line development for biosimilar production
My research training set me up to Implement translation research for cell culture engineering.
PhD Talk Show
The PhD Talk Show by Biopatrika aims to shed light on the lives and careers of PhDs in both academia and industry. This initiative is part of the larger mission of the Indian Professionals Network (InPN) to support and connect Indian professionals across various industries.
In the show, viewers will get the opportunity to learn from in-depth interviews with PhDs who are working in various industry roles. These interviews will provide valuable insight into the daily routines and challenges that come with working in industry. The show aims to give a comprehensive understanding of what it’s like to transition from academia to industry and the different paths that PhDs can take in their careers.
Whether you are a current PhD student considering a career in industry, or simply interested in learning more about the professional journeys of PhDs, the PhD Talk Show by Biopatrika is a must-watch. So, stay tuned for more exciting and informative episodes!
#phdtalkshow
Informational interview
In the interview with Jyoti Rawat, a Scientist at Biocon, she discussed the key points for making a successful transition from PhD to industry. She highlighted the importance of planning your PhD with a particular field in mind, connecting with people, and developing soft skills. Rawat emphasized the importance of networking and developing strong communication and leadership skills to help make a smooth transition from academia to industry.
Interview
Question: Which place you studied and what are the roles you had before joining Biocon as a scientist?Â
Answer: I will start from the beginning. I did my bachelor’s and master’s from Mumbai University. I did my master’s in St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai. In the fourth semester of my master’s degree, I had to do a resource project. So, I looked at a lot of places, and by serendipity, I saw Dr. Mutakati’s lab in NCL Pune. I did my master’s project. She was working on bio-therapeutics and cell culture engineering. So, I was very interested in that because it is a real-life application, since we hear a lot about bio-therapeutics and drugs. I thought, this is something very interesting. After six months, she had a position open for a research associate. And then I joined her. During the research process, I was really interested in the cell culture, its techniques and how we can apply cell culture for studying different things. I applied for a PhD in the same lab and in June of this year, I completed my PhD. After PhD I joined Biocon in the molecular biology lab as a scientist. These are some of the roles which I was part of.
Question: What was the procedure for applying for industry jobs after completing a PhD?
Answer: Once you have decided that you want to transition from academia to industry, it’s very important to do cold calls. I was very busy since I was writing my thesis at the same time. However, I used to write 25 emails in a day. Interviewing is also a skill that develops over time. So, I did a couple of interviews just to prepare myself. Getting a job in the industry depends on a lot of factors. I also gave an interview for a company, but the hiring manager changed. So now I know that I was very close to getting selected. Since the hiring manager had changed, I could not get into that company. So, a lot of factors have to fit in to get a job. Initially, it can be frustrating, but once you get a hang of it, you get a sense of what are the right things to do for getting a job. Also, you have to constantly keep a track of jobs on company websites, LinkedIn or any personal connection or reference can be a great source too. So those would be like that is my thought process. But it takes time, and you have to be patient through it, especially if you don’t have any experience. Especially, if you are a fresh PhD, you don’t have any industrial experience. You have to be patient.
Question: When did you decide to pursue a career in industry rather than a post-doc or something else?
Answer: Actually, I decided pretty early during my PhD because the topic of my research as I mentioned. My lab works in the bio-therapeutics space which is very inclined with the current trends of the industry. And we had a lot of collaborators from the industries and various places in India also. But the work was very much having industrial applications. So, I was not trained to go into a regular post-doctoral position. I had skills which can be easily absorbed by the industry. Sometimes when we choose our PhD topic, we inherently decide what we want to do in the future. That’s the prime reason why I am in my current position. Also, doing a lot of research about the people who have worked there helps. Many of them have websites which help to know where the alumni are working currently. This also provides a great opportunity for people to look for mentors
Question: How does your day-to-day work life look in your current position?
Answer: Since I have recently joined, mostly it’s planning a project. You have a lot of planning and things to take care of. Planning about experiments and talking with my manager about it. Since I recently joined the industry, I also discuss experimental designs with my manager and finally execute the experiments. There are a lot of cell culture-based experiments which take a lot of time, sometimes even months. Also, cell culture folks understand that cells need to be passaged every few days, irrespective of it being a weekend or a holiday. Also, it takes time to analyze the data, plotting it and then discussing the results with the team. Archiving the data properly for later usage is also an important part of the study.
Question: What are some of the key skills you believe are essential for these types of jobs?
Answer: I think sometimes soft skills matter more than our technical skills. Initially our technical skills are really important but then as we go higher up in the rank soft skills become a key factor. For example, planning the experiments, analyzing the data and looking at the big picture for the company goals. Also, once you become a manager, you can ask someone else to execute the experiment. But the thought behind the experiments, the controls, how to actually analyze data, what are we actually looking for becomes the key questions that you want to know. Having a PhD degree helps you to understand and think about these factors. So, I think that is one skill that you can start honing even when you are doing your masters. Because that will actually help you in any job.
Question: How easy is it to obtain internships or valuable experience in this industry?
Answer: I have not done any industrial internships, so I am not sure about that. But there are a lot of interns in Biocon. I know many people apply for these positions. As I mentioned earlier, we need to keep in mind that we should do cold calls before actually starting the process.
Question: What is the one thing you would recommend to everyone who is reading your interview?
Answer: I think we have to be technically strong but soft skills are as important as our technical skills. Many of these skills actually come only by practicing such as, performing well in the interview and focusing on your interpersonal skills. We should learn how to react to your interviewers if you don’t know an answer, how to acknowledge, eagerness to learn something new. There are a lot of resources now-a-days. So practicing how to provide proper answers for these questions is important.
Question: Do you believe that if someone wants to prepare for a career in this field, they should plan ahead and think about these soft skills more?
Answer: Yes, I think it is better to think ahead and prepare yourself for these kinds of skills.
Question: Are you in charge of someone, and how long have you been managing people?
Answer: Yes, I am managing some people as well. I am a first-time manager. Before this, I used to manage only my work. It was pretty straightforward because I used to plan and decide my time for experiment, data analysis and everything associated with it. But now others are also involved in this, and a lot of communication needs to be done. Training is an important factor. There are other factors as well, like motivating them or having a positive atmosphere when we are discussing results play a crucial role. Since, everything we do is not in our hands and sometimes experiments do not work accordingly. I am still learning how to be a good manager, but these are some of the pointers that I have understood in my past few months.
Question: What role did mentorship play in your professional development? Did you have a mentor or someone who guided you through your career path?
Answer: I would say my advisor had a very big role in mentoring. She clearly understood what the key skills are required to transition to industry from academia. She also guided me on how to approach people. After receiving the offer letter, I didn’t even know what variable pay was and she helped me to understand it. She played a major role in this transition and mentorship.
Question: If you could go back in time, would you change your mind or continue down the same path?
Answer: I would not change the career path. I think one thing that I could go back and do more is connecting to people because ultimately, it’s a very small industry and once you make those connections it becomes easier to ask simple questions like, do you have any openings. I think most of the PhD students that I have met are not very open about talking about jobs. So that is one thing that I would go back and redo. In the past couple of years, it has been challenging to meet new people because of COVID and form new connections. So, that is the only thing that I would like to do.
Question: Do you find time in your busy schedule to pursue any hobbies?
Answer: I started gardening recently. It’s again like an experiment because you are doing experiments on a lot of things like cutting and understanding botany. It also gives me immense pleasure when I see a plant, or a seed survive after all the hard environments it undergoes. We have such a busy schedule and especially in our world we think so much about experiments. So, I like to do this.
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Host: Nandita Sharma
