Many of us may have felt pigeonholed at one point in our careers. As a scientist, you are likely an expert in at least one niche area or focus. However, you can become overspecialized and may find it difficult to pivot in your career. You may have been given a certain label that you carry around with you that you just can’t shake.

The biopharma job market is increasingly competitive and yet, once you are “in,” you can find and experience rapid growth. As always, thinking of all the ways to sharpen and broaden your skills to step out of your comfort zone will help you stay ahead of the curve.

Recent trends indicate a rise of immunotherapies for treatment of disease, particularly cancer. These biological therapies and new classes of drugs have made it possible to leverage the body’s immune system to effectively target and kill tumors. We are also truly shifting into areas of personalized medicine, and utilizing genome editing technology, such as CRISPR, to target and correct specific DNA mutations. This “CRISPR Craze” will forever change medicine and the way in which we prevent and treat disease.

As a trained virologist, where I studied a specific virus for many years during my graduate years, I had to decide very early on in my career if this was too niche for a field I wanted to focus on. I also gauged whether I should branch out into other areas of the broader molecular biology field as more of a ‘generalist.’

I found that career trends, growth, and opportunities can be further dictated by how saturated or mature the current pipeline is in terms of commercial developments, market viability, or recent success. In other words, one has to be strategic in the sub-fields they commit to and learn to be flexible, as market needs and demand can shift and change.

In your career, deciding what is going to be your primary driving focus, with a mixture of other secondary focuses, will be important as you build your personal brand and define who you are as a key contributor in the field. Think of it as “niche-stacking,” which will help you build your experience as a science leader.

As science is quite cross-disciplinary, looking for stepping stones into other growth areas that could match up to your passion can also have both short-term and long-term benefits. Think of it this way, your employer has a picture of you in their mind. It’s in plain black and white, but that’s no problem as you’re still capable of doing good work. It’s just that it’s nothing surprising.

What you’d like to do is to change this image of you to something with color, texture, and depth. You’ll want their view of you to illustrate who you truly are—someone who is not afraid to stretch themselves beyond their limits. 

So let’s add some more variety and color to your story, and think about how to broaden your horizons.

The upside and downside of being niche focused
Having a niche expertise in a certain area of science can have a two-fold effect. First, it can open doors in companies that are developing these specific types of technologies. Having a focused path can be a very good thing, as you build your reputation as a field expert and gain respect among your customers and peers. You also become an established leader and major influencer in the field, making an impact on your organization and team.  

However, being overly focused for too long can limit the hub of opportunities around you. Science trends can change quickly, and so can the skills and knowledge that you need to possess. This equates to the need to have not only a niche expertise in multiple areas, but also a broadening of your skills so you are not put in a “career box,” which limits who you are and what you’re capable of, when opportunities come your way.

No one likes the feeling of being pushed into a corner come job promotion time. If you aren’t growing, you’re decaying. It is important to remain a lifelong learner.

If you are involved in multiple areas of science or cross-functional projects, pay attention to how these technologies, drugs, or new therapies are performing in the market and what trends are driving a certain desired or needed skill set.

By 2025, the FDA predicts it will approve between 10 and 20 cell or gene therapy products each year. Maybe you’re already working on the latest checkpoint inhibitor or NK cell therapy, and you’ve dedicated many years to answering a specific research question, but you’d like to take things to the next level.

Continuing to coast and ignoring crucial skill sets to make you a better or more well-rounded scientist or leader will only hurt your career. Although ‘matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization’ may be something you’ve had a lot of success in, if that is your only focus now and for the past 10 years, it likely won’t lead to new opportunities that capitalize on your full potential. The key is to not get tunnel vision and stay on a narrow path.

Get out of that “career box”
As my colleague Dave Jensen wrote about in a previous column, “Dead in Your Tracks,” there are three fears to overcome when it comes to realizing your full career potential. (Email me if you’d like a copy of Dave’s earlier column). The first is to overcome your fear of failure, which not only applies to a job search, but also to the need to expand on your science skills, focus, or expertise. It will be harder in the beginning to master these new skills, but over time, you will become more successful as you build your confidence.

This also ties in with a fear of change, and stepping out of your comfort zone. It isn’t easy to spend 10+ years in a niche area of science and feel like you are now doing something completely different or unrelated. After all, you’ve been the go-to person for so long, and it’s a good feeling. But adapting to certain change, whether self-guided or market-driven, is a key to career success as you grow and evolve.

The third fear is a feeling of imposter syndrome, where you feel like you’re not good enough at your job or you’ve been promoted up to your level by mistake. This self-doubt can fade away as you work on building up your confidence; it likely stems from being a perfectionist or having unrealistic expectations of what ‘fully competent’ actually means.

What these fears can do is stifle future growth, as you are unable to see your full potential and the skills that you could be developing now to stay ahead and be competitive. So overcoming these fears first is essential before you can break free and move forward.

The “crossover” in solving problems
As I’ve also written in past columns, following what gives you meaning and purpose will further drive your career satisfaction. Having purpose drives your motivation and passion, which can also stem from the desire to solve a problem. If you pursue and solve a specific problem, whether big or small, through scientific solutions, the skills that you acquire will be a result of that pursuit—potentially getting you out of that box and shuttling you into a new and exciting area of science.

When I speak to candidates, some say they discovered their niche expertise or area of science by accident, as one problem sort of led them into a whole new area or focus. That branching point didn’t become apparent until much later, where an adjacent problem blossomed into to a whole new stream of opportunities.

Closing thoughts
Lastly, it is important to avoid the label of a job hopper, which involves a series of short stays of a year or less just to gain marketable skills or jump on the next best thing. As an executive recruiter, I discourage very short stays and switching jobs often; yes, it’s true that new experiences can be invaluable as you immerse yourself in new cultures, challenges, or areas of science, but often these can be available in your present organization if you network internally and seek them out.

Looking back on my career, there were many fears that I’ve had to overcome. A few stopped me dead in my tracks before I was ready to make that next big move. I only wish that I realized I was putting myself in my own career box—limiting myself and my potential by being overly niche focused.

As I expanded into other areas and further developed myself, I found there are many exciting areas of science to pursue, and a handful of skill sets one can identify and acquire for a career in drug discovery and development, immuno-oncology, and human therapeutics. It is ultimately a lifelong pursuit as you manage your career.

It is my hope that you also realize your full career potential and pursue what you love, with no fear or limitations.

Ryan Raver, PhD
Contributing Editor

Ryan Raver is Managing Director and Executive Recruiter at CTI Executive Search, www.careertrax.com. He can be reached at (734) 658-3420 or via ryanraver@careertrax.com