In addition to each Alumni Career Paths panel discussion, we ask our panelists several fundamental questions about their fields so you don't have to! Use the answers they've provided below to get a quick take on whether you want to further investigate this career path, learn about the differences between roles and organizations in this field, and as a starting point for informational interviews if you want to learn more:
- What are the responsibilities of someone in your role?
- Is a postdoc required, recommended, useful, or unnecessary to enter or excel in this field?
- What types of experience are important to highlight in your resume and interview?
- What characteristics make someone good at this position?
- What do the typical application and interview processes entail?
- What possibilities do international folks have to work at your company/organization?
Field Science questions answered in May 2021 by:
Eleanor Zoe Kincaid, PhD
Regional Applications Manager at Cytek Biosciences (UCSF PhD in Biomedical Science, 2006)
Andrew Mancini, PhD
Field Application Scientist at MaxCyte, Inc. (UCSF PhD in Biomedical Science, 2018)
Mayra B. Pastore, PhD
Medical Science Liaison at Bristol Meyers Squibb (UCSF Postdoc alum, 2019)
What are the responsibilities of someone in your role?
Eleanor Zoe Kincaid
I manage a team of 6 technical applications specialists. I provide technical support, identification of areas where more training is required, advice on working with customers, and work on setting and achieving annual goals. When complex issues occur at a customer account, I help get cases assigned to the right person. I also have a number of Tier 1 accounts that I am supporting.
Andrew Mancini
I primarily work with our customers in both the commercial and academic spaces focusing on providing scientific support at all stages in the sales process and post-sales. I also work with dedicated collaborators on research projects and process development related to our area of interest (cell therapy). Finally, I work with our internal marketing, business development, and research teams on a variety of projects.
Mayra B. Pastore
A Medical Science Liaison (MSL) functions as a field-based scientific expert, interacting on a peer-to-peer level with key opinion leaders/thought leaders, payer and advocacy groups. Thought leaders are physicians, researchers, nurse practitioners and any other healthcare professional. MSLs support the company’s research initiatives and develop, build, and maintain long-term relationships with current and future thought leaders in academic and clinical settings. Those relationships are important to understand treatment paradigms, unmet medical needs, or the use of a product for off-label treatments. We bring all these insights to the company, and it can help inform the company’s overall medical goals. MSLs also work with cross-functional internal stakeholders to ensure scientific information exchange, education and research needs of healthcare professionals are executed based on medical goals and objectives. Stakeholders can include sales representatives, HEOR (health economics and outcomes research) personnel and executive account managers.
Is a postdoc required, recommended, useful, or unnecessary to enter or excel in this field?
Eleanor Zoe Kincaid
Useful
Advanced technical experience is necessary, and a postdoc is one way to achieve that.
Andrew Mancini
Useful
It varies from one position to the next, but generally having a postdoc is useful.
Mayra B. Pastore
Useful
If as a graduate student you had little exposure to a project related to human health, had no exposure to clinical trial design, or had little contact with healthcare professionals outside of researchers, or want to pursue or expand to a specific therapeutics area then a postdoc can be useful.
What types of experience are important to highlight in your resume and interview?
Eleanor Zoe Kincaid
The Regional and National managers for the Cytek Applications team have all been filled by former Cytek Technical Applications Specialists. The resume for a strong Technical Applications Specialist should include experience with the specific technology. SCYM Certification, ISAC membership, and having attended the Annual Course in Flow Cytometry all indicate interest and knowledge in the field. A strong interviewee is excited by problem solving, and gives a good technical seminar (both in terms of content and in terms of public speaking).
Andrew Mancini
Outside of traditional lab skills, we typically look for individuals with substantial experience in presenting, networking, and other forms of scientific communication. The ability to clearly and concisely convey your points to a varied audience is critical in my role and something that many bench scientists may lack when coming directly from academia.
Mayra B. Pastore
Communication!! Everything we do as scientists to prepare for an oral presentation at school, seminars, and local/national/international conferences is one of the most important experiences that need to be highlighted. Relationship building with key experts in your field or collaborations you were able to participate in and what outcomes came out of that teamwork are also important.
What characteristics make someone good at this position?
Eleanor Zoe Kincaid
For a Technical Applications Specialist: strong problem solving skills, public speaking, able to work with stressed out scientists, able to stay on top of multiple accounts. For Regional Manager: interpersonal skills (assessing what kinds of support team members need), organizational skills (identifying problems that need to be solved at the management level to allow team members to get their work done).
Andrew Mancini
Confidence is very important in this position - you need to be confident in your own abilities as a scientist, but also confident in your ability to talk to with a wide range of individuals on both scientific and non-scientific levels. Organized individuals also excel at this position since it requires juggling interactions with 20-30 customers at a time while also managing internal stakeholders.
Mayra B. Pastore
Coming across as an expert in your field, being a great communicator – explain a complex problem in simple and precise ways so anyone can understand it, being a supportive team member, easy-going and coachable, able to flex your social style, i.e. personality.
What do the typical application and interview processes entail?
Eleanor Zoe Kincaid
For Technical Application Specialists, the interview is: a technical assessment questionnaire, one-on-one interviews with the hiring team, a technical presentation.
Andrew Mancini
Per field application scientist position, we typically receive 20-30 applications and will interview in batches of 3. Our interview process consists of multiple rounds of phone/Zoom interviews followed by a full (8-9 hour) on-site interview day.
- Interview with HR manager for job overview and initial screening
- Interview with hiring manager for primary behavioral interview + some technical screening
- 3-4 interviews with various members of the technical team focused on technical skills
- On-site interview day with 5-6 1 hr interviews + 1 hr technical assessment + 1 hr presentation
Mayra B. Pastore
A 2–3-page resume is enough. Depending on how you learned about a position, there may be anywhere from 3-6 interviews. If working with an external recruiter, there is the first 10-15 minute intake interview where the recruiter wants to know your expertise, experience, and what you are looking for. If a position fits, the recruiter will connect you with the company’s recruiter/HR person. The company’s recruiter/HR person may decide that you fit within the job description and can connect you with the hiring manager. The hiring manager usually interviews candidates for 20-45 minutes and can decide whether the candidate can be a good fit and move that candidate to a potentially last interview with others from the team. The last interview can be up to 2.5 hours long.
What possibilities do international folks have to work at your company/organization?
Eleanor Zoe Kincaid
Cytek is an international company with applications teams in Europe and Asia. I do not know the visa details of my US co-workers.
Andrew Mancini
Many, many opportunities for international applicants, both working in the US and remotely from other countries.
Mayra B. Pastore
There are some companies who are open to hire international folks. However, it is extremely hard to land an MSL job as an international person.
