Science dictates comprehensiveness. It is not enough to simply answer the question; one must exhaust all possible explanations to any phenomena – insofar as experimentation will allow – before expressing a conclusion. In much the same way, it was not enough for me delve within myself to determine what career path to take after graduate school. I wanted to step outside what was familiar to me in academia and explore career options elsewhere. In a lofty sense, academia postures itself to be above the profit-driven, product-driven corporate world and there are those within academia that are particularly zealous in guarding this distinction. Thankfully, Stanford is more progressive in its views of the possible benefits when academia and corporate America collaborate (probably because of its unique location in the heart of Silicon Valley, with Hewlett Packard literally across the street). In this environment, I began to think more about the business of science. Science is expensive, so the simple equation is that discovery costs money. It made sense to have more than a passing understanding of the fiscal drivers of science: particularly biotechnology and health care.

Having never left school, my immediate thought was to pursue a Master’s in Business Administration. Stanford has a one of the world’s top business schools, and I was told that it wouldn’t be too hard to combine both degrees – provided I gained admission into this prestigious program. Upon determining what the basic requirements were, I decided to pass on the MBA. Mostly, it was because the thought of spending even more time in school (graduation was no where in sight at this point) was daunting. I was also concerned that with little work experience, I’d be over-qualified and under-experienced for most positions that would interest me. I may still purse an MBA at the almighty Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB), but it will have to wait until later.

What was I left with? Well, I looked first into who pays for science. More importantly, who’s in charge of deciding how much money to give to one biotechnological idea versus another? Did scientists have a say in this? Exploring venture capital, I was initially dazzled by the high-powered, high-paced, and lucrative potential of this field; it was a dramatic departure from my day-to-day in the lab! On the other hand, I learned that venture capital could also be highly stressful and there could be a lot of dues for someone like me to pay with no background in business finance. These weren’t turn-offs, just the other side of the coin. I found that there are scientists that participate in venture capital, and that most PhD-level scientists held consultant or advisory roles. I decided that this might be a little too far removed from the communication of science that I knew I enjoyed. I wasn’t ready to depart from science for investor relations, balance sheets, business plans, and the stock market.

Around this time, I learned that McKinsey and Company was paying a visit to Stanford PhD candidates. I had never heard of this firm, and spent a few days doing research on McKinsey and other strategy management consulting firms. Of course, I knew generally what management consulting was, as many of my colleagues from undergrad went to work for various firms, but my understanding was that management consulting was for MBA-types. During my research I learned that companies like McKinsey were actively, aggressively recruiting PhDs from all fields. They wanted the analytical and problem-solving training that PhD programs provided. Again, I was dazzled. Travel the world! Solve problems CEOs can’t solve! Work with health care and biotechnology! Be surrounded by other scientist-minded individuals...wow! I was hooked after attending the session and talking with former biosciences PhD students like myself. They seemed relaxed and happy (I ignored the fact that as recruiters, this was the image they were supposed to portray). I decided I would go for it, and in my fourth year of graduate school, I applied for McKinsey and other strategy management consulting firms. Unfortunately, I wasn’t invited for more than one interview at any firm, and that old fear I talked about earlier came back: “What if I won’t get the chance to do something else?” It was a rough time: I was trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel for graduation and wasn’t much closer to determining what was next. All I knew was what I didn’t want to be next (read: benchwork) and I wasn’t certain that I would have a chance to do something else.

I can’t say that everything magically got better. All I can remember of that time was turning my focus to my work and my leadership activities. I guess I thought, perhaps subconsciously, that all this anxiety about what might or might not happen after graduation would be pointless if I didn’t get data and finish my project. Six or so months passed during which I got really involved with more university-wide efforts to better graduate diversity and student life. I learned about how much work there was to be done with respect to increasing women and minority participation in the sciences. What was a leadership activity was quickly becoming a passion, and so, my forays through the many different ways to apply a PhD in the sciences returned me to where I started: higher education.