Step-by-step pivots with timelines, skills to build, and the pitfalls that derail most candidates. Written by people who made the jump.
Try the featureThe pivots that actually work
Most career-change content is platitudes ("update your LinkedIn!", "network more!"). The new Industry Transition Guide at /industry-transition is the opposite: four detailed playbooks for the most common life-sciences pivots, each with concrete steps, realistic timelines, and the specific traps that kill candidacies.
The four launch playbooks
1. Academia (PhD/Postdoc) → Biotech/Pharma — 6–12 months, Moderate
Industry pays 1.5–3× academic salaries. The skills overlap is high; what changes is mindset, CV format, and vocabulary. We walk through reframing your CV (2 pages, impact bullets, not technique lists), getting 5 informational interviews with recent alumni, learning regulatory basics (ICH-GCP, GLP, GMP overview), and targeting the right rung (Scientist I/II, not Research Associate).
2. Biotech/Pharma Scientist → Life-Sciences Consulting — 3–9 months, Hard
MBB (McKinsey/Bain/BCG) and boutiques (ZS, IQVIA, L.E.K., Trinity, CRA) pay $180–250k base + bonus for PhDs. The playbook: decide MBB vs boutique, build case-interview muscle (30 live cases minimum), apply through the APD (Advanced Professional Degree) pipeline — not the standard MBA pipeline.
3. Wet-Lab Researcher → Bioinformatics / Computational Biology — 9–18 months, Hard
Bioinformatics salaries are 30–50% higher and remote-friendly. The playbook: learn Python first (not R), pick ONE domain and go deep (single-cell, variant calling, proteomics, or imaging), reproduce a published analysis end-to-end on GitHub, contribute to an open-source tool. Don't hide your wet-lab background — it's your moat against pure-CS candidates.
4. Big Pharma Scientist → Biotech Startup (Series A–B) — 3–6 months, Moderate
Startups give you 3–10× scope, equity upside, and direct line-of-sight to executive leadership. We cover tracking funded startups via Crunchbase/Endpoints, cold-emailing CSOs directly (at Series A they read every CV), negotiating equity (0.05–0.5% IC range, with vesting and dilution math), and planning for cash burn risk.
What each playbook includes
- Why this pivot is worth it (numbers, not vibes)
- Step-by-step actions with duration estimates
- Specific skills to build
- The pitfalls that derail most candidates
- Where on BioPath to go next (AI Advisor, Mentor Match, etc.)
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