Dan Knowland, PhD, is a Scientist at The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson. He received his bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from UCLA and his PhD in Neuroscience from UCSD. During graduate school Dan studied how neuronal circuits are generated and modified by behavior. Before transitioning to full Scientist, Dan was an industry post-doc at the same company which helped secure his current role.

Can you describe your academic and professional background? What path led you to pursue this field?

I received a B.S. in Neuroscience from UCLA and worked in a couple academic labs there – mostly doing image processing and behavioral neuropharmacology. I had a good idea that I wanted to do a PhD but had a lot of reservations based on the typical stories you hear of difficult PIs, whether a PhD was actually necessary for your career goal, etc. So, after a lot of cold-emailing and applying to a bunch of entry-level technician jobs I luckily got a position being the lab manager for Dr. Dritan Agalliu at the University of California, Irvine studying the blood-brain barrier. He was an amazing mentor and it reaffirmed my desire to pursue a PhD – so that’s exactly what I did. I’ve never had a particular scientific interest or field that I had to work in, I always figured that I could find something interesting in any topic. I focused a lot on the compatibility of the PIs personality and myself, and the scientific focus was actually secondary (maybe more of a 1b). I was lucky in that all of my rotations were amazing, but I eventually decided on joining Dr. Byungkook Lim’s lab at UCSD. I felt that our personalities meshed really well and I happened to find the research and the techniques he was using especially intriguing. I never lost interest in doing research, but the academic career path wasn’t appealing (particularly the constant grant writing and drive to publish in ‘high impact’ journals). One day I came across an ad on LinkedIn for a postdoctoral position at Janssen R&D. I felt this was the perfect blend of basic science and industry experience that could provide a good foot in the door for my ultimate goal of working at a pharma or biotech company so I applied and have been enjoying myself ever since. 

How did you find this particular position, and what was the hiring process like? Is there a typical structure for this in your field?

As mentioned above I came across the job posting on LinkedIn. The hiring process is pretty typical for PhD-level positions in industry. You give a ~1 hour seminar on past research and then the rest of the day consists of one-on-one interviews with members of the team and often the department head. If you’re coming from out of town I think it’s typical to go out for dinner as well, but that didn’t apply for me.

Can you tell us about your current responsibilities? What is a typical day or week like in your role?

My current responsibilities are very similar to an academic lab. I have my own project and I collaborate/help out on a few others from people in my same group. I’d say I spend about 80% of my time doing experiments and the rest of my time on the computer reading papers, planning experiments, answering emails, etc.

What do you enjoy about your current job and work environment?

Two main things. First, the science feels much more collaborative and team oriented. I do have my own project, but in general, teams are all working towards a similar target. It really feels like one person's success is everyone’s success. Second, the work-life balance. You can separate the two and still do cutting-edge, hypothesis-driven work with a sense of urgency.

What are some of the challenging aspects of your job? Is there anything you wish you had known about your job or industry before joining?

I’m in a larger pharmaceutical company so navigating the corporate structure can be difficult at times. I’m used to working in smaller <10 people labs so adjusting to the size of the company was a new experience. In terms of the science – I relied on a lot of transgenic mouse lines and viral constructs that were cheaply and freely available to academics. Because of licensing issues, this is not the case for the pharmaceutical industry, so a lot of the tools I was accustomed to using were not readily available any more.

Do you have any professional plans for the future? What are some future career paths that could open up for someone in your position, 5-10 years down the road?

In 5-10 years I hope to continue being a scientist in industry with a direct report or two working for me. I do miss the teaching/mentorship opportunities I had in academia, so having that and working towards the ultimate goal of having my own group would be ideal in the ~10 year future.

What’s changing in your industry? Are there any future trends we should be aware of?

Although small molecules still dominate the pharmaceutical space, I would guess that biologics will become much more prevalent in the future. Data science driven decisions – both preclinical discovery and in the clinic will increase as well.

What activities, internships, or organizations would you recommend someone get involved with to help them break into this field?

I kind of view the post-doc position as a paid internship for industry in itself. You continue to do research but I feel like the experience and connections I’ve made during my postdoc are invaluable. It’s a two birds with one stone situation – you get post-graduate experience AND industry experience (both of which are common qualifications for entry level PhD scientist positions). In terms of getting the position, publications are important to show you were able to see a project to completion, but it certainly doesn’t have to be a Nature or Science paper or anything like that. Critical thinking and the ability to convey your research simply are the most important attributes of successful candidates and that really comes through during your in person interviews.

Is it common for people in your field to have a scientific/academic background (i.e. have PhDs)? Can you think of any advantages or disadvantages someone with a PhD might experience while pursuing or working in your field?

If you want a scientist-level position with autonomy then it’s very common that you need a PhD. For larger companies (such as the one I’m working at) it’s essentially a requirement. For smaller ones or startups, you can get by without one but you are a much more competitive candidate with a PhD.

Do you have any final words of advice for those navigating these career questions? Is there anything you would have done differently given what you know now?

Even when you think it’s too early to start looking for a job, start looking. I had no intention of leaving when I did, but this job popped up and I applied on a whim and that led me to where I am now. Even if you’re a first or second year, set a job alert for the job you want (i.e. Scientist) and look for the techniques and qualifications that most commonly pop up. Even if it’s not what your lab does, you can try to set up a collaboration or go out of your way or field to learn something so that when you are ready to apply you will check a lot more of those ‘qualifications’ boxes. And finally – even if you don’t check all the boxes, always apply to the job. You never know and more times than not the person that gets the job won’t have all those initial qualifications.