{"id":25063,"date":"2026-03-18T12:54:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/?p=25063"},"modified":"2026-03-18T12:54:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T17:54:46","slug":"know-your-audience-a-vanderbilt-alums-guide-to-nailing-the-biopharma-job-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/2026\/03\/18\/know-your-audience-a-vanderbilt-alums-guide-to-nailing-the-biopharma-job-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Know Your Audience: a Vanderbilt Alum\u2019s Guide to Nailing the Biopharma Job Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Georgia Caso,\u00a0PhD Candidate, Microbe-Host Interactions<\/em><\/p>\n

The transition from academia to industry can feel daunting to many PhD students and postdocs. Just getting your CV past the hiring manager may feel like running a marathon, but once you do, you still have miles\u00a0to go\u00a0before that job is yours \u2013 multiple rounds of interviews and, perhaps the most nerve-wracking, a presentation about your research to your prospective\u00a0employers. PhD students and postdocs are no strangers to research presentations, but an industry job talk is\u00a0an entirely new challenge.\"\"<\/p>\n

To demystify the biopharma industry job talk, the BRET Office of Career Development hosted a workshop through their ASPIRE Up professional development series featuring alumnus Lawrence (Larry) Thompson, PhD, an associate research fellow at Pfizer. Larry earned his PhD in Biochemistry in 2006 from the lab of Richard Armstrong, PhD, and completed\u00a0a postdoc at UT Knoxville. He then made the jump to\u00a0industry, first at a couple small biotech companies and then\u00a0later at\u00a0Pfizer in 2016, where\u00a0he\u00a0has held various roles in biotherapeutics within analytical R&D. He is committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists as they transition into industry careers.<\/p>\n

According to Larry, the biggest unknown when going into these presentations is the audience. The composition of the audience can vary, but one thing is for certain: these are not going to be like the audiences in a grad school seminar. If an industry audience is lost in the first few minutes of the job talk, it is nearly impossible to recover them. To avoid a situation involving glazed-over eyes and scrolling phones, it\u2019s important to do some detective work. An applicant\u2019s best resource in this scenario is the hiring manager \u2013 it is perfectly normal to ask them who the audience will be. Next, look into the size of the company: is it a startup? Mid-size? Big pharma? The composition of the audience will depend on the composition of the company, which is again why discussions with the hiring manager prior to the interview presentation are key.<\/p>\n

Most of the job talk audience will be scientists, but they will have different skills and backgrounds. In industry, people with bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s, and doctorate degrees all work together in teams. The goal is not to overwhelm the audience with technical knowledge \u2013 the fact that you know your own science is (hopefully) a given. What you really want them to grasp is the impact of your work.<\/p>\n

Larry emphasized sharing research as a story, with two options for the story structure. The first option is traditional, and very familiar to academics:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Introduce yourself<\/li>\n
  2. Research Introduction<\/li>\n
  3. Methodology<\/li>\n
  4. Results<\/li>\n
  5. Discussion<\/li>\n
  6. Time for Questions<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    This is a tried-and-true approach and may be especially useful if your prior research work matches well with what the company does. However, Larry advised that unique presentations could help interview candidates stand out. He presented an alternative to this format, which he called the Business of Science, and then broke down each section.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Introduce Yourself<\/li>\n
    2. Problem<\/li>\n
    3. Impact<\/li>\n
    4. Solution<\/li>\n
    5. Consequence\/Outcome<\/li>\n
    6. Time for Questions<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      The introduction<\/strong> is crucial as this is also where you set the tone for your talk and give insight into your personality. For example,\u00a0when Larry introduced himself, he talked about his family, where he’s from, his interests, and even what cartoon character represents him best (Spongebob!). The science needs to be serious but not stiff, focusing on authenticity and enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

      The problem<\/strong>\u00a0is where you present the gap in knowledge that your research fills. For example, if you study an infectious disease, what problems does it cause for patients?\u00a0The impact<\/strong>\u00a0section addresses the “so what?” \u2013 how many people are affected by this disease? Why is it worth studying? The solution<\/strong>\u00a0section explains the work completed and how it connects to the problem while highlighting your skills and contributions. Finally,\u00a0the consequence\/outcome<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 how did this research fill those gaps? What are the broader implications?<\/p>\n

      This format may be especially useful if your research topic is unrelated to what the company works on, but you have translatable skills that can be applied in this context. It also is helpful for appealing to broad audiences and keeping them engaged. Larry showed us an example of this format being used in the 2011 film \u201cMargin Call.\u201d We watched a clip in which members of an investment company explain a crisis to the CEO. We then identified the problem, impact, solution, and consequences. Larry emphasized that a junior analyst was the one who discovered the problem. Everyone on the team had a role to play, which ties back into why industry interviews focus so heavily on behavioral questions. Prospective employers want to know how you will collaborate and contribute to the preexisting team dynamic.<\/p>\n

      Larry shared some other important tips: NEVER go over the time allotted. Ask the hiring manager upfront how long the talk should be. Your ability to meet the time frame is a key part of the interview! Also, keep the words in the presentation to minimum. The slides should show data and you tell the story. This strategy keeps the audience engaged with you rather than reading paragraphs off the slides. Finally, not everything needs to fit into the job talk. Discussions of experimental techniques, soft skills, and your enthusiasm for the company can occur during the smaller interview meetings. There\u2019s no need to put the company motto in the middle of your mass spectrometry data! The presentation is about showcasing your science and your skillset.<\/p>\n

      Larry left us with his key takeaways framed using the business of science structure:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The Problem: Most academics don\u2019t know who the audience is for a biopharma industry job talk.<\/li>\n
      2. The Impact: The audience could be lost in the first few minutes, and if they are lost, they probably won\u2019t recover.<\/li>\n
      3. The Solution: Ask the hiring manager who the audience is, use a narrative structure for the presentation, and follow the time allotment.<\/li>\n
      4. The Outcome: The audience will understand the high-impact nature of your work.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Larry acknowledged that the job market is hard right now, but doing a PhD is hard too, and your work matters! While no one can control the job market, everyone can control their effort. By taking every opportunity to learn something new and being proactive, an applicant can be best prepared for the job talk and the next step.<\/p>\n

        \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Written by Georgia Caso,\u00a0PhD Candidate, Microbe-Host Interactions The transition from academia to industry can feel daunting to many PhD students and postdocs. Just getting your CV past the hiring manager may feel like running a marathon, but once you do, you still have miles\u00a0to go\u00a0before that job is yours \u2013 multiple rounds of interviews and,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":8604,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-path-to-career-resources"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-main\/medschool-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/01\/JobPrep1.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25066,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25063\/revisions\/25066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/career-development\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}