Individuals with a bachelor's or master's degree with 2 or more years of project management experience are generally hired as project leaders for smaller projects and can expect to earn about US$30,000 or more. That post is the perfect jumping-off point to a project management career. Formal professional certification programs have been established by the following project management associations: Australian Institute of Project Management (AIPM), International Project Management Association (IPMA). Certification demonstrates your knowledge and understanding of project management principles and concepts. There, he had the chance to work at the bench while assuming a project manager job, coordinating shared interests with his employer's external partner, Merck and Co. “Only in a small company can you get the experience of working ... in the lab as well as managing a relationship with a partner as important as this one,” Todd says. No matter what industry sector you consider for employment, you will find employers readily hiring people like Todd Pray–people who show that they have the detail management, communication, and people skills that it takes to manage projects. 50 years ago to manage technical development and manufacturing projects of great complexity Every company has relationships that extend beyond its labs, and each of those companies has someone to manage it from inside. Overview. And by attending local chapter meetings and events, says Marmur, you'll have the opportunity to talk to project managers and get their perspective on project management and the challenges they face at work, as well as what they like and dislike about their jobs. “I started to develop an interest in this type of work back in my graduate school days, because the lab I came from was such a collaborative environment,” says Todd, the associate director of project management at Amyris Biotechnologies, a San Francisco Bay–area company involved in medical research and biofuels. You can also consider becoming a member of PMI Specific Interest Groups. In fields such as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, project management skills allow scientists to balance the rigors of experimentation with product development’s formal processes. Eventually, your new contacts might be able to assist you in targeting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He moved to this company, Amyris, in 2006 as a research manager for all malaria projects. The central part of the course covers the classical project management approaches to organizing, planning, and executing a scientific project. Given that more and more companies need to be data-driven, data science is one of the most sought-after fields of expertise today. “After a couple of years of working with Merck, and an evening MBA program at UC Berkeley, I was as ready as I could be to take a full-time project manager role.”. Project Management for Scientists, Part 2: Getting Experience Follow Science Careers Search Jobs Enter keywords, locations or job types to start searching for your new science career. Here, Todd isn't talking about the technical discipline of project management but about one of the biggest challenges to getting things done in complex organizations, which is the job, ultimately, of most project management pros in biotech and pharma. But even if you don't have a lot of industry collaboration in your lab, it's possible to get training with outside coursework on project management. An excellent site for a primer on project management, recommended project resources, and books can be found on the Mindtools Web site. He has moved from malaria research to concentrating primarily on biofuels. or M.Sc. The membership fees of most organizations are quite affordable, and prior project management experience is usually not a prerequisite for membership. Whatever tools and support a project leader needs in a research group, it's up to Todd to provide. While I'd love to manage one project and have the joy of watching it move from the lab into the field, with the number of projects we have here now, my job has shifted to one of facilitating the whole portfolio. In addition to your science training, it's a good idea to acquire additional training in project management principles, tools, and business skills. Furthermore, project management is also a toolbox used by those in other lines of work. And annual membership fees for various Project Management Associations are AUS$297 per year for AIPM, US$119 for IPMA, and between £85 and £120 for APM. “A screening operation for small molecules was being set up at the university, and I had the opportunity to introduce this new service to the biotechnology industry. Project Management for Scientists and Engineers by Kem Robinson offered at the U.S. That post is the perfect jumping off point to a project management career. He recommends that while you are still engaged in research, explore opportunities that are "miniprojects." Big science is different from small science Management goals in big science The “linear project” Complex projects Structuring the linear project New kinds of projects Gary Sanders 2004 SLAC – Managing Big Science … This is in the second installment in an 8-part webinar series, A Billion Dollar Project Health Framework, presented by Uri Galimidi. Sooner or later, many scientists arrive at a crossroads in their career. Enter keywords, locations or job types to start searching for your new science career. But while data science is a relatively new field, its best practices reveal how much it depends on strong project management. “I saw how it is possible to produce results in a highly coordinated way. Once you have completed the training, it's time to obtain certification. 20, 2009 , 10:00 AM. For example, the Pharmaceutical SIG provides an opportunity for project-management professionals in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, contract research, and medical-device industries to network and learn from one another. Yet many of the people who do this kind of work in scientific industries do it without this formal training–or they pick up that training later. Project management might just be the ticket for scientists who imagine themselves in a challenging career away from the bench, managing cutting-edge science projects. Project management isn't something that you can move to directly from academia, but you can take certain actions during your graduate school training that will help you further on in your career. It's also a good idea to attend symposia, conferences, and seminars in project management for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Meenakshi Kashyap has a Ph.D. in applied biology from the Cancer Research Institute, India, and currently works as a biotechnology scientist for Spatial Dimensions Canada Inc., an IT and bioinformatics consulting and outsourcing company. She can be contacted at meenakshi.kashyap@spatialdimensions.com. Salaries for Ph.D.s with project management experience tend to be higher, but jobs for people with a bachelor's or master's degree and relevant experience are more plentiful, especially in clinical research. “Along with outside training on project management, it's interesting when you see an individual [who] has the common tools we use, like software programs, listed on their CV: Microsoft Project or @Task,” Todd says. Some noteworthy Web sites to check out job opportunities in this field are: Career opportunities are posted at most project management association Web sites. By Meenakshi KashyapJun. The Project Management Institute (PMI) is by far the largest project management organization, with chapters in over 45 countries. However, before you convince yourself that it's time to leapfrog into a new career in this discipline and spend your hard-earned money--and lots of it--on the required training, it would be prudent to get some experience, just to make sure. A writer and speaker on career issues worldwide, David Jensen is the founder of CareerTrax Inc. In 2003, the biotechnology industry headed into a nosedive that hadn't been equaled in the industry's history–and wasn't until 2009. (Information on PMI chapters can be obtained here.) Todd landed a position as a research scientist at Rigel Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company with 120 employees, where he worked on assay development for drug targets and did experimental biochemistry. Todd had another contractor role with a major biotech company before jumping into the world of start-up companies in 2004, at Acumen Pharmaceuticals. “I became our company's scientific contact for work that was being done by an external collaborator, and so it was my job to keep both parties up to speed on our mutual progress,” Todd says.