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5
minutes
Dr Revathy Krishnamurthi
When Revathy joined Prosper she had been a Postdoctoral Research Associate at The University of Liverpool for just over one year. Working within the faculty of Biological and Biomedical sciences, Revathy’s research is centred on understanding the role of bacteriophages in the respiratory pathogen of Cystic Fibrosis patients.
Revathy is passionate about this area of research, and aims to make a move into industry that will orient her towards her long term entrepreneurship goal. Namely, to specialise in phage formulations for aiding global issues like antimicrobial resistance.
Role on starting Prosper cohort
Research Associate, Faculty of Biological and Biomedical sciences, The University of Liverpool.
Case study conducted
May 2023.
The challenge
Before moving to the UK and joining Prosper, Revathy felt like she had been following the traditional academic career pathway ‘by default’. Having worked incredibly hard to get where she is today, she rarely had the time to self-reflect on her career and long-term goals. She wanted the chance to explore all the options open to someone like her. And though highly skilled and accomplished within her area of research, Revathy still felt like there was a lot she could learn to help realise her future potential.
“Before Prosper, I had never thought about anything else other than academia.”
The Prosper journey
Though initially sceptical, Revathy found the ‘Reflect’ element of Prosper to be revelatory once she engaged with it. She realised she had been following a very singular path, and that this path wasn’t the be-all-and-end-all of success for a researcher, or even necessarily the path she wanted to follow in the long-run. Once she noticed this, she was keen to get a broader understanding of the options open to her.
“I just wasn’t aware of all the kinds of research settings that exist outside of academia – places where you can still do research, learn new scientific skills, even publish papers. It was only via Prosper, and the way it encourages you to talk to people in different organisations, that I came to appreciate the landscape. I realised that while I want to be a researcher, I would much prefer to do research in a non-academic environment.”
The Prosper resources in ‘Explore’ and ‘Act’ helped Revathy improve her confidence and ability to showcase her skills. She found the ‘STAR’ (Situation, Task, Action, Result) method particularly invaluable as a means of structuring and articulating her accomplishments, in a way that can be easily tailored for specific areas of interest or opportunities. She created a STAR-based record of all of her experience-to-date, which she continues to update and maintain – for use in future applications and interviews. She updated her CV for non-academic roles, revamped her LinkedIN page, and worked on her networking skills.
“Prosper has given me the confidence to articulate myself in a much better way. I can now speak confidently and proudly of my achievements. Updating my CV and online presence had immediate results – recruiters started contacting me directly about all sorts of opportunities.”
Revathy quickly put these skills to work making new connections on LinkedIN and elsewhere. With Prosper guidance, she started conducting ‘informational interviews’ with people working in industry, in order to find out more about their roles, organisations and what their day-to-day working lives involve. This gave her a better sense of what she might be interested in, and she discovered that people were quite happy to share their experiences with her.
“I’ve learned how to network and find people who have similar interests to me. I’m now very active on LinkedIn following people, connecting with them, and studying recent advancements.”
Next steps
Revathy also quickly found that her new connections made for a useful source of information about upcoming opportunities. In the course of her informational interviews she learned of several vacancies opening up in the summer – for which she plans to apply. Revathy’s postdoc contract is nearing its completion, and she plans on making the most of her newfound skills and connections to secure a role in industry, where she can continue to network, gain more skills and learn about what it means to run a business.
She also now has a much clearer plan for her career beyond the next role. She intends to use her next position as a steppingstone towards starting her own business, specialising in phage formulations as a solution for the problems caused by bacteria.
“I want to start my own company in the near future. My ideal next move would be a job in a start-up. I’ve got some skill gaps I need to fill, and need industry experience to understand what a company is all about, so that I can learn to build my own. It’s a challenging path with a steep learning curve, but thanks to Prosper I now have the information and skills I need to tread it, and I know it’s what I want to pursue.”
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