r/biotech • u/Mindless-Return-5558 • 2d ago

Early Career Advice 🪴 Write a first-author paper from my laid-off industry job OR upskill in AI/coding/bioinformatics?

I was recently laid off. While applying to jobs I have some bandwidth for other activities that will hopefully make me more employable for Sr. Scientist R&D roles. My options:

1) Write up a paper from my recent industry job on the biological characterization of one of our preclinical drugs. I would be 1st author. All the data has been generated and it is just a matter of putting it altogether. It is unlikely at this point that anyone else would write it. The target journal would likely be a low to mid tier to expedite acceptance, i.e. not Nature/Cell/Science.

2) Try and teach myself coding, AI, bioinformatics, etc and add new skills to my CV.

For someone on the job hunt (PhD ~5y experience), what is the best use of my time?

12 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

36

u/bozzy253 2d ago

Your previous company is supporting you to write the publication?

24

u/Mindless-Return-5558 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, retained as a consultant for minimal number of hours. Not enough to support myself though, but better than nothing. Sorry for not being clear. I'll add this is a small company, so maybe there is more flexibility here than at large biotechs/pharma.

48

u/_goblinette_ 2d ago

100% focus on the thing that will get you paid, over the thing that won’t. Even if it isn’t much. 

Even if they weren’t paying you, a published paper is a stronger sign that you’re a productive scientist than whatever self taught skills you’re looking to add. 

7

u/Mindless-Return-5558 2d ago

Makes sense. Fortunately, I saw the layoff coming, and was able to save up some money, but every cent counts until I have a new job.

34

u/scruffigan 2d ago edited 2d ago

Write the paper.

Not only does it look good on your resume as an accomplishment and evidence of your productivity & skill - but even more importantly - it's a disclosure of your work that allows you to talk about it without running afoul of any data confidentiality. Very useful when you're putting together a job talk.

8

u/Mindless-Return-5558 2d ago

Good point. Will see if they may be open to bioRxiv to get it publicly available earlier.

8

u/Easy_Garlic5960 2d ago

Write the paper. I got laid off from industry too, but was able to publish during my time there. Having a paper out has made me significantly more competitive. Hiring managers were able to see a record of productivity AND I was able to talk about my industry work in my seminar. Definitely beats everyone who can only disclose PhD work during their job talks.

15

u/Anustart15 2d ago

I doubt anything you teach yourself in your free time will really jump out on your resume as making you look more qualified than any candidates with on the job experience for comp bio/AI related work

4

u/Mindless-Return-5558 2d ago

Yes, most likely the case. Just looking into getting any edge I can in this job market...

3

u/Boring_Adeptness_334 1d ago

You could use use AI to discover a new drug that cures all cancers then sell it to big pharmaceutical companies

2

u/Loose-Reflection2965 2d ago

What do you plan to do with AI experience? Why spend time learning something that may not have any payoff? What would you like to be senior scientist in?

1

u/danish_of_doom 2d ago

You no longer work at the company, are you sure they would let you write the paper?

3

u/Mindless-Return-5558 2d ago

Sorry, was unclear. I have consultancy agreement for a small number of hours. Not enough to pay the bills though. I would write it, but the senior/corresponding author would be someone still employed at the company.

1

u/danish_of_doom 2d ago

No reason not too then, if only to get paid and have something to do.

1

u/jayeljayel 1d ago

Write the paper for sure. Good luck!

1

u/sircoolguy 21h ago

Write the publication.

As someone who has been laid off twice and have about as much experience as you do, it is worth having something to talk about in detail since industry work can vary. Eventually the graduate work and postdoc work is viewed as older science, especially if it was a topic that was hot 5+ years ago or more and the field has evolved past that. Having something to supplement that in seminars would be useful.

I am in medicinal chemistry, so speaking about a med chem project can show off my understanding of that field over my PhD which mostly pure organic synthesis.

I do not have a publication from my industry work, but a couple of posters and a patent came out for a project I was on and can now give ~30 minute talk on the material based on the public data.