This blog is part of a series of blogs written by the Business Area Advisors for Propel Careers. These blogs share insights into the life sciences industry and thoughts on career guidance. To learn more about the business area advisors of Propel, see link: http://www.propelcareers.com/index.cfm/about-us/advisors/

There is no question that education is one of the best assets that will jump start professional development. Education is the cumulative knowledge that you gained through various formal and informal engagements. Your formal education involves the process of obtaining knowledge through schools where the roles of teachers and students are properly established. Although knowledge obtained through this process is valuable in your professional development, the informal education has been proven to be as valuable.

Similarly, informal education in professional development also involves the exchange of knowledge with one another. Throughout your professional career, you are working with other professionals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. During your professional interactions, you are also constantly exchanging knowledge with your colleagues. One day you are the recipient; another day you are the contributor. Consciously or unconsciously, you are gaining knowledge through this informal setting. However since there are not formal exams in this educational endeavor you become your own mentor.

Inarguably, the informal education you receive during your job training is also very important for your development. According to the 70/20/10 rule, on-the-job experience and problem solving are responsible for 70% of your development; the other 20% comes from feedback you receive. Only 10% is coming from the formal courses and reading. Whether you are currently employed or still in school, you should take this form of education seriously.

There are several ways on how you can obtain informal education for your professional development. Here the six takeaways for your informal development plan:

1. Active in a professional association

Be active, I don't mean just being an active member of a professional association. Although you might get some benefits for being an active member, the most benefits are obtained when you are actively engaged with the organization. So it is important that your are motivated by the mission of the association. For example, volunteering in task forces will actually allow you to work with some other professionals in the field. Sometimes, you might find yourself working with a leader in your industry. Organizing professional events is another way to capitalize your informal development through the professional association.

2. Trade show

Personally, I am always a big fan of attending trade show. I suggest attending trades shows that are not in your field. There are substantial information and knowledge being transferred when you are conversing with the salespersons. Besides, you can always learn of the others' perspectives and values.

3. Find a mentor and a mentee

If you believe that you can learn from one another, a mentor/mentee relationship is the one you should never overlook. You should also search for not only an internal mentor, but also an external one. A mentee will serve your professional development purpose as well as a mentor. The caveat is to find the right mentor and mentee whom will match your interests.

4. Networking

When you network, you should always try to expand your circle beyond your industry circle. You would be amazed on how much you would learn from professionals from a different field. Sincerity and willingness to help are two of the most key important aspects for effective networking. Don't network when you are in need; but do so when you have the capacity to help. When you are trying to help out the other person, you subconsciously force yourself to disrupt regular thinking patterns. If you care about the ideas and perspectives of others, it is an innate response. This is a non-obvious development opportunity for you to tap.

5. Focus on quality and not quantity

It is not the measure on how much you know that eventually define your knowledge. It is the matter of how much you do to what you know. You should always seek to find the lessons learned and transferable skills from each of the project you are involved with. Have a document with some metrics to keep track of your professional development. Be creative, and reflect on these developments for professional and personal growth.

6. Share your knowledge

Eventually, what would knowledge do to you if you do not share it? Remember that education is the exchange of knowledge. The only way to keep gaining more knowledge is to keep it flowing. Once you have the intention to share, you instantly open yourself to absorb even more.

Looking forward to meet you in my informal education process...

This blog is part of a series of blogs that will be written by the Business Area Advisors for Propel Careers. These blogs will share insights into the life sciences industry and thoughts on career guidance. To learn more about the business area advisors of Propel, see link: http://www.propelcareers.com/index.cfm/about-us/advisors/

50% of the people reading this post are unhappy with their careers and thinking about an exit strategy.

That staggering statistic is from the What's Working™ Survey released by Mercer three weeks ago. According to the press release, "Nearly one in three (32%) US workers is seriously considering leaving his or her organization at the present time, up sharply from 23% in 2005. Meanwhile, another 21% are not looking to leave but view their employers unfavorably and have rock-bottom scores on key measures of engagement, a term that describes a combination of an employee's loyalty, commitment and motivation."

No one wants to be unhappy in their jobs but here we are. The good news is that 50% of people enjoy what they do and are satisfied with their employers. So if you have diagnosed yourself as unsatisfied, what should you do? As a career coach, I have helped professionals and students prepare for their next career steps; here are five individual qualities I have identified as critical to any successful transition.

1. BE Intentional Forget career serendipity. It is your life; think about what YOU want. It is amazing just how many people 'end up' in a job they ultimately do not enjoy. One of the biggest culprits for this is poor planning. Great career managers specifically define their interests, strengths, values and goals and actively employ them. If they do not like what they are doing, they create a plan and they make a change.

2. BE Competent People are hired first for their skills and results, then their attributes. I am not sure anyone was every hired exclusively because their resume said 'hard working', 'thoughtful' or 'creative thinker'. If you are preparing for a role change, you should be actively building relevant, specific and appropriate skills. You should be able to demonstrate how your existing skills are directly and indirectly transferable to the new position. Someone reading your resume should always be able to understand the implications and outcomes of your professional and academic accomplishments.

3. BE Explicit Vagueness is not your friend. If you cannot articulate who you are and what you want, how can you expect people help or hire you? Before making any change, you must be ready to clearly explain your value, you needs and your expectations as you understand them to anyone in position to support you. This does not mean you have to have all your answers but what you do share should be thorough and explicit. Provide context and specific examples when communicating; clear understanding and relatability are great ways to open new doors.

4. BE Interesting You are more than your job. You have accumulated personal and professional experiences that when aggregated, define your unique value proposition. That unique value proposition is what separates you from the next candidate and what hiring managers are looking for. Be willing to share and contextualize the interesting, differentiating parts of yourself in your career documents and during your interviews.

5. BE Patient Career planning and transition is a process. There really are no fast answers to finding and landing the job you want. Take the time to make a thoughtful, informed choice about your future and work smartly to realize it.

Matt Casey, Career Coach www.mattcasey.net

Tom Brady. Good, I have your attention.

What a game coming up Sunday! The Vikings with Randy Moss and Brett Favre against Brady and the Pats, how great is that going to be??? I'm a Kansas City Chiefs fan, so I'm unbiased as per the result of the game, but certainly interested in the drama. What does this have to do with the champion and the zealot? Read on...and send me your thoughts.

I recently had the opportunity to hear Julian Adams give a slide-less discussion on the discovery of Velcade, a drug that has extended the lives of countless patients who have been diagnosed with a lethal condition called multiple myeloma. Julian's story is filled with highs and lows as his teams fought through the many hurdles of getting a drug approved for use in patients. Some of his actions and decisions along the way could certainly be labeled aggressive and risky, but without taking this approach it's clear that Velcade would not have made it through. Julian was the champion for Velcade and without his persistence it would probably not be available today for patients suffering from this terrible disease.

Afterwards, I had the opportunity to sit down and discuss the process, as well as his approach, that led to Velcade getting approved, and I asked him to comment on the following: there is a constant tension in our business (drug discovery) between knowing when to be persistent (do anything to keep the project alive) and knowing when to call it quits (assess the cost of opportunity and decide there are other more fruitful things we could be doing). He acknowledged the tension and said "yes: a champion versus a zealot"'. His answer: follow the data. That simple. If you let the data drive, you will be a champion. If politics or other unhealthy dynamics begin to influence decision making, you risk becoming a zealot.

Every drug needs a champion...no one will argue that. So I began to think about what it means to be a champion and how organizations can promote the champion and avoid the zealot. With this in mind, two principles struck me as being critical to shaping a champion: one is the notion of a champion 'asking for forgiveness, not permission'-- couple that with a keen awareness of all the potential resulting upsides and pitfalls of each decision. Remove one of those two principles and you've lost your champion: if he/she always has to ask for permission, the champion dies; if the champion doesn't recognize, or isn't willing to acknowledge, the potential rewards and risks of every decision then he/she could easily kill the project/team/relationship (or even worst-case a patient) and a zealot has been born.

Back to what made you read on: Tom Brady and Brett Favre (remember, I'm a Chiefs fan here, so no bias). Due to the 'live' nature of their job, both always adhere to the 'ask for forgiveness, not permission' rule – they can't look to the bench during a play and ask permission to throw it to receiver X. What about the second aspect being a great champion? The one where I say 'if the champion doesn't recognize, or isn't willing to acknowledge, the potential rewards and risks of every decision'... so Brett Farve and Tom Brady: which one recognizes all the potential rewards and risks of his decision? Who throws it away on 3rd and 8 and who continually 'zealots' himself into game-changing interceptions? Ah...The Champion versus The Zealot.

In my opinion, in order to discover a drug, there are absolutely 2 'must haves': a great champion (intuitive, dedicated, hard-working, data-driven, etc) and serendipity. Attaining serendipity is...well...serendipitous. Finding and empowering a great champion is not.

I'd like your thoughts...

Every week we will be profiling an article from one of Propel Careers advisory members - Below is an article written by Kevin Sprott about Academia to Industry Transitions. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who would find this insight helpful. I am sure many who have made this transition, can relate to these comments.

Welcome to my first blog...ever. I hope you find it enlightening and perhaps entertaining. Please comment and I'll do my best to tailor it to the audience in the future. I'll attempt a monthly blog, let's see how it goes. I'm going start with an oldie but a goodie.

Fact or Myth: For a career in life sciences, transition from academia to industry is tough.

Myth, taking an industrial job out of academics is easy. Because after all, science is science. Period. You've been trained for 8 years and you have a skill set that's well defined, a toolbox that is full, and a proven track record of solving difficult problems. And not only that, you've done it on an island, completely alone, without much help and perhaps even some trouble along the way from competing and selfish lab mates. So in industry, you'll continue to demonstrate that your scientific prowess is unparalleled and that your peer-reviewed, highly touted manuscripts and spotless recommendation letters were earned and justly deserved. And when you demonstrate how competent you are as a thinker, doer, scientist, problem-solver, the world will be easy. The transition will be seamless as science rules the day and you have that in spades.

FACT, it's rough breaking into industry. You've been trained for 8 years and you have a skill set that's well defined, a toolbox that is full, and a proven track record of solving difficult problems. Unfortunately, you were trained to fix Fords in a one-man garage and you've interviewed on that platform, yet you show up to work day-one and you're put in an airplane hangar looking at a broken down F-16. And you're to work closely with your team who can 'help' yet they all speak different languages (science jargon) and have their own 'skill set that's well defined, toolbox that is full, and a proven track record of solving difficult problems'. How the hell are you going to navigate this one smartypants? Not to worry, your teammates are brilliant, know how to work well in teams, are willing to take the passenger seat, play nice all the time, etc...

In case you were having trouble reading through the thick sarcasm, my general opinion is that this 'fact or myth' is certainly fact. Not for everyone, and it's not black and white, but transitioning to industry is difficult, more so for some than others.

Why is that? Part of the reason is captured above. A typical Ph.D. student goes through 5-8 years of hell, grinding teeth on problems that they have to figure out how to solve. Yea, the PI is there, but figuring out how to solve tough problems (and create new ones) is on you. If you succeed, you may get a great job or postdoc. If you fail, not only will you not get a great postdoc or job, you may not graduate, ever. Your goals are many: hone and prove that your technical skills are in place, learn how to solve difficult problems quickly and creatively, bring to light new problems/projects, (first) author manuscripts for high quality journals, learn a new language and learn how to communicate it, the list goes on. And, oh by the way, exit on top (or at least near it)...all the other grad students are your competition as they have the same exit strategy: awesome job or awesome postdoc. There's only one #1. The academic world is about one thing: YOU.

It couldn't be more diametrically opposed in industry: the industrial world thrives on it NOT being about YOU. Teams are absolutely critical. The problem isn't single-faceted, it's multidimensional and needs all types people with different areas of expertise to all come together to solve very complex problems. If all these smart people work independently and do what they feel is best, you have a train wreck in the making: you need them and they need you. So team is #1, if team fails, everyone fails...which is so very different than how you've been 'raised' in academia.

So that's it? Simple recognition that I must put team before myself? That doesn't sound too bad. But there's more:

I have to learn more, but I thought I was an expert?? You'll most likely you have to learn new science, new language all over again. As stated earlier these problems are not one-dimensional as they were in grad school. The biology has to connect to the chemistry which must connect to the pharmacology and fit within the overall scientific plan. That scientific plan has to connect to marketing and business development and fit into some business plan (huh, business?) which fits into some commercialization (or fundraising) plan. And don't forget about the lawyers! Gotta have those to protect IP, check off on manuscripts, approve/sign contracts, etc. Perhaps I'm being a little dramatic, but I hope you grasp the point that this 'industry' is extraordinarily complex and requires many people with different areas of expertise. In order for you to perform highly and/or influence direction of the problem-solving, you'd best both be fluent in their language and understand what it is they do.

I get along with folk fine, so why would I have to change behavior? In academia you are taught to be critical, very critical. Of yourself, of others manuscripts, of other presentations, of everything. In industry, we often say the 'how' is as important as the 'what'. How one 'criticizes' in industry is much different...if you aren't careful and politically savvy, your criticisms (justifiable or not) can cause a rift in this complex team and that fluidness as a team you once had is now gone: you're now not working together, you building divisions within the team ('Clark is an a$#hole, can you believe we have to work with him'). This can lead to work coming to a grinding halt, no one willing to scratch each other's back. We have a political firestorm and we can battle our way through it (extend this timelines, folks) or put it out. Well who's fault was it, certainly not the one who was right, right? It doesn't matter...you helped create a storm and whether you were right or wrong you're now billed as 'tough to work with'. In academia, you piss a colleague off, nobody cares....especially you because you're on an island and don't need him anyhow. So behavior often needs to be managed differently as well.

Why do industrial folks hire these crazy academic folks and not just train their own out of college? The most basic and best science in the world is done in the academic labs, and the students are doing it. From a scientific standpoint, it's the most finely tuned product you'll get: a fierce, bright, problem solving machine who is motivated. Every company wants that.

So back to the original question: fact or myth? It seems to me that if academia is all about YOU and industry is all about TEAM, it's quite natural to have some difficulties in going from one to the other.

And these are just a few points along the way, looking forward to yours.

Kevin Sprott, Business Advisor, Propel Careers

PharmaVOICE Names Laurie Halloran as One of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Life-Sciences Industry

Award Recognizes Contributions to Both the Industry and Community

BOSTON, MA, August 03, 2010 – Laurie Halloran, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of Halloran Consulting has been named one of the "100 Most Inspiring People in the Life-Sciences Industry" by PharmaVOICE magazine. Halloran Consulting provides both strategic oversight and tactical implementation of clinical, quality, and regulatory services.

In its July/August issue, PharmaVOICE reveals its annual list of the 100 most inspiring and motivating people in the life-sciences industry as identified by the publication's readers.

PharmaVOICE Editor Taren Grom writes in her Letter from the Editor, "It is our extreme pleasure to once again be able to pay tribute to the men and women who are driving change, providing guidance, and fostering relationships to position the industry in the best way possible to serve the ultimate stakeholders: patients. This special issue, now in its sixth year, has become a must-read and one of the most-anticipated publications of the year."

"It is an honor to be among the many distinguished honorees and to be recognized as someone who not only leads but also inspires industry colleagues," said Halloran. "Helping companies to bring their technologies to patients quickly, utilizing the most practical, compliant clinical development strategies, is what we do. This recognition is an incentive for myself and my team to continue to push forward and assist clients in improving their organizations as well as advise talented entrepreneurs on building their companies."

"Laurie has provided insights and ideas in her role as Advisor to Propel Careers that have been excellent and completely on target for our business. Beyond that, she is a person who always makes you feel better for having interacted with her than you did before," says Omar Amirana, Partner at Oxford Biosciences and Chair of the Board at Propel Careers. "I'm really pleased that she has been selected for this recognition, because she deserves it." The Halloran Consulting Group has grown tremendously in the past year because the industry increasingly understands that efficient strategies can avoid costly failures. The Halloran Group plans to continue to add more industry veterans to the team to expand its expertise and enhance its offering to biopharmaceutical, diagnostic and medical device clients.

"I have always believed that things can be done differently and still make perfect business sense," said Laurie. "We pride ourselves on practical solutions, and most decision makers that have worked with us in the past know that we are not afraid to roll up our sleeves and deliver the goods."

About the PharmaVOICE 100 Established six years ago by PharmaVOICE magazine, the PharmaVOICE 100 is an annual list of individuals recognized for their positive contributions to the life-sciences industry.

The PharmaVOICE 100 represent a broad cross section of industry sectors, including pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, contract research, clinical trial, research and development, patient education, patient recruitment, advertising, regulatory, technology, and many others. Furthermore, the leaders chosen as this year's most inspiring representatives within the industry have accomplishments that are diverse; this group of thought leaders contribute to the growth and well-being of not only their companies, but to their communities as well as varied industry associations.

About Halloran Consulting Group Halloran is a life sciences consulting firm specializing in enhancing the development process for biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Our mission is to empower our clients with practical solutions and expert advice on efficient and effective use of resources, implement appropriate infrastructure that optimizes our clients' development processes while maintaining compliance with regulatory and quality practices, and to promote innovation in the business of life science through thought leadership on best practices and virtual product development.

For more information, visit www.hallorancg.com .

On Saturday November 7th, 2009, Nancy Levy participated on a healthcare panel at the 2nd annual WMBAA Conference entitled "Conversations with Business Leaders" held at Boston University. The panel was made up of distinguished women leaders in healthcare who discussed opportunities in the health care sector as well as reflections from each of their distinguished careers.