Thread by @DrLCsquare

Authored this thread in support of #YoungScientistNetworking, to let you know a little more about my training and career path. I’m writing in free form, stream of consciousness, so feel free to reach out with specific questions or missing links in the 🧵1/..

I grew up in a small border town in Ontario, Canada on the St-Lawrence river. I am the youngest of 5 kids. My 1st language is French. Didn’t speak English until around grade 2. As a child I was interested in how stuff worked and asked a lot of questions. 2/..

In high school I became inspired to pursue STEM subjects via great teachers I had. I was the 1st in my family to have any interest in science and I ultimately decided to pursue a B.Sc. In biopharmaceutical sciences in FTE school at @uOttawa. 3/..

I fell in love with organic chemistry when I had @thebarriaultlab for 2nd year and decided to focus on chemistry for my elective which gave me a medicinal chemistry specialization. Had my 1st research experience in 4th year as part of the honors curriculum. 4/..

It’s worth noting I was a good, but not great student. I had essentially a full time job as a waiter for all of undergrad working 4 days/week, including 12h overnights shifts, at @LaStation611 Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights making attending Friday classes “optional”. 5/..

However, working as a waiter for ~4 years taught me a lot about time management, conflict resolution and how to interact with people. It also offered me a greater diversity in my network as the folks I was working with vs studying with were of different spheres of life. 6/..

It’s around this time that Keith Fagnou started in the chemistry department. My 2 best friends had decided to join his lab for grad school & I figured it would be fun to continue to work with them & went to talk to him about joining his lab. He had no students, no equipment. 8/..

I applied and was accepted to the grad program and went on a whim. I joined his lab in Sept. 2004. I kept my waiter job (Saturdays only) for another 8 months to help increase my income until I was able to get a fellowship in 2005. 9/..

During my PhD, we often had the opportunity to meet with speakers, both industrial and academic. Through those interactions I met @greg__hughes and was inspired by his talk. Then and there I knew I wanted to be a process chemist at #MerckChemistry 11/..

The summer of 2006, Merck’s process team in Montreal was starting a search for a new PhD hire. The timing wasn’t ideal, but given my prior interactions with several members from that team, and a hearty recommendation from Keith, I was invited to interview. 12/..

Keith explained that it would be on early side to interview, and I’d likely get beat by a more qualified candidate, then graduate, do PDF and be invited to interview again if I made a good impression. “Just don’t screw it up…” he said. So I prepared like hell! 13/..

I was lucky to get a job offer that winter and started in August 2007. Right away, I loved my job. The colleagues were fantastic, the science was exciting and the novelty of running on kg-scale was a thrill like no other (spoiler, it wears off) 14/..

It was also exciting to also interact with the Merck-Frosst discovery chemistry team. This was a world renowned group, with an amazing track record. We could sit in on the famous “Friday project review” meeting where I honed my drug discovery knowledge. 15/..

This wasn’t part of my job, but I was encouraged to learn more about what I was interested in as part of my employee development plan. I also built a strong network with my peers in discovery which served me very well later… but my young career was disrupted by quickly 16/..

Big pharma had a rough 2008-2013… we were no outlier. One day in 2008, 1/3 of my colleagues were let go. Shortly after in 2009, Merck merged with Schering-Plough leading to more changes at the site and a refocus on infectious diseases. 18/..

My job was completely changed overnight. We were asked to work in collaboration with our discovery colleagues in order to eliminate synthetic bottlenecks and positon programs for transition to development. There were no more kg-scale reactions. We had an identity crisis 19/..

Feeling lucky to still be employed, I plowed myself into learning what my new role was. This was the seeds of what we call #DiscoveryProcessChemistry now and I was able to leverage the network and knowledge gained thru those early interactions to carve out a niche for me. 20/..

The highlight of this period for my career was my collaboration with @DrBanjoCrush on the discovery of a next generation NNRTI, which was eventually approved as a drug in 2018. sciencedirect.com/science/articl… 21/..

In 2010, more bad news. The research site in Montreal was being shuttered. I was faced with the choice of relocating to the US or leaving the company and finding a job locally. At this point my wife and I had put down roots. Our son was ~1. Grand-parents & family, <1h away. 22/..

Hardest decision of my life for sure. Ultimately, we decided to “run an experiment”. We’d relocate to NJ and if after a few years we weren’t happy with the results, I’d quite and we would move back. Keith always said, “don’t talk yourself out of running experiments.” 23/..

International moves are complex. In addition to lack of local familiarity (I had only been to NJ 1x), there are immigration issues to navigate. I was lucky to have colleagues were very welcoming to us. I remember @Ruck_chem taking my wife & I out to dinner on our 1st visit. 24/..

For the next 3 years I was a group leader in Discovery Process Chemistry, but never got promoted. In 2013, I was passed over for promotion again + my closest friend & mentor left the company. I was starting to wonder if I had made the wrong choice. However… 25/..

Later that year I was asked to become Head of the Catalysis & Automation lab. It was my 1st time being a people manager & I had a lot to learn. I was able to learn how to leverage my strengths to their fullest. It’s hear i realized I needed to be more than just a scientist. 26/..

After 18 months, I did a lateral move to a position in Process Chemistry. In 2016, an Executive Director positon opened up. I was excited at the opportunity to lead a function that spanned multiple sites. I had interviewed for leadership roles before, but never got them. 27/..

But I was able to take the feedback from these interviews & incorporate them into actions for my development plan and interviewing skills. Ultimately I was successful. As Head of Discovery Process Chemistry, I set strategy for the team and helped build out group at 6 sites 28/..

I continued to learn a lot about how to be a leader. I discovered and decided I wanted to be a #StrengthBasedLeader and sought to develop that. I also learned to be part of executive teams. Through it all I always tried to stay close to some science. 29/..

It’s important to me and something that brings me much joy. Talking about our science with my colleagues is still my favorite thing to do. I also always sustained interactions and partnerships external to Merck in the academic community 30/..

In 2018, my role changed again as the span of my responsibilities expanded to include the Process Chemistry group. This was a new challenge we were active at both very early & very late stage of the pipeline. I learned how to prioritize more effectively and grew my network. 31/..

It’s also during this time that I got an opportunity to lead a development team. These are cross-functional teams which are responsible for the early pre-clinical and clinical evaluation of potential new medicines. This was a great learning opportunity as well! 32/..

And here we are today… as of 2 weeks ago I now lead the Small Molecule Process Research & Development group. It’s very fresh and I’m excited to learn even more about broader aspects of our business beyond chemistry. Looking back on it now I have the following take-aways. 33/..

1. Most of my biggest success came from being able to apply my strengths to the task at hand. We often glorify the struggle in graduate school, but it’s when we operate in the strength zone that we most engaged ans successful. Do you know your strengths? 34/..

2. Never talk yourself out of running experiments. Keith’s advice rings true, both in lab and in life really. With the benefit of hindsight, there were half a dozen times things didn’t go as I had planned, but being willing to give it a try made a huge difference for me. 35/..

3. Make others better. At all stages of my journey, I’ve tried to make those around me better. It is something that I now realize contributed to many friendships bit also to developing my leadership skills. In the end, leadership is measured by those willing to follow you.

4. Cultivate your network. My network got me my dream job. My network helps me get things done. My network helps me be more productive. My network has yielded a collection of mentors I can learn from.

5. Establish your work-life fit. Never mind what others are telling you, what works for you. What are your non-negotiable? What are your hobbies outside of your job? TAKE YOUR VACATION!

6. Make friends at work. So much of the fulfillment we get out of work comes from those we work with. Get to know them, find the ones with which you can develop friendships. Don’t let the org chart limit your interactions! Friend at work will help you love your job!

Addendum:

Wow! What an amazing response. Thanks to @QuantumTessera for the nudge to participate. I’m happy that so many of you found it useful. In that vein, here are a few more tidbits on what I’ll call « challenges » that can be opportunities for growth.

Challenge #1: going thru layoffs
This sucks, I won’t sugar coat it. What I took from those experiences (yes there were 3) was a nudge to ensure I was keeping up my CV and « external facing self ». This helped me take stock & document my accomplishment, maintain external network.

Challenge #2: Having to report to someone that used to be a peer (or subordinate)

Careers are long, org charts change. I’ve been on both sides of this. The best advice I got about this is “the best way to move your career forward is to help my your new boss/report be successful”

Challenge #3: Working with colleagues with opposite/clashing personalities to yours.

Reframe the conflict (in your mind), into an opportunity to complement your personality/gaps. How can you adapt to this and how can you benefit from the complementarity?

If you have any other challenges or weird situations you are curious about, just comment below!