How Mentors Help Biotech Science Careers and Entrepreneurship

What is the Impact of Mentors?

Successful biotechnology entrepreneurs often credit the mentors that helped them as critical to their success. Mentors can be informal and happen organically or formal. Reasons for having mentors include:

1. To improve technical skills.
2. To have someone to confide in who understands.
3. To gain anticipatory guidance based on their experience.
4. To get a different perspective.
5. To build your network.
6. To strengthen your confidence in moving forward.
7. To learn professional culture in the industry.
8. To help you focus your efforts most effectively and and advance your career more quickly.
9. To help you anticipate and prepare for challenges.
10. To have someone you can ask questions*

*Some women say they are concerned about looking incompetent by asking questions when they are the only women in a work environment. If this describes you and you are not comfortable with asking anyhow, which is your right, having a mentor (or at least a peer who is a step ahead of you in career development) to ask some questions might help.

For What Types of Help Do Mentors Provide?

Most scientists need multiple mentors. In part, this is because you are likely to have diverse needs and finding one person to meet them all is rare. Also, you may need different mentors at different stages of career or business development. But it is also because mentors are professionals themselves who may not have the time to meet all your needs. There are many aspects to forming a biotech company, so more than one mentor is often needed to become an entrepreneur. This is true, particularly if you are engaged in multidisciplinary development. For example, you may be able to manage your science yourself, but your product may need engineering in order to manufacture it. You may need mentors in, for example, the following:

• Science
• Science Methodology
• Career Development
• Psychosocial
  • Work-life balance
  • Developing confidence
  • Networking skills and connections
• Grant Writing:
  • Writing a good proposal
  • Navigating the grant submission process
• Starting a Business
• Hiring and Managing Staff
• Financial Issues
• Protecting Intellectual Property
• Attracting Investors
• Market Research
• Manufacturing
• Marketing

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