In this week's post on transitioning from academic to non-academic careers, I interviewed Dr Sheona Scales, Paediatric Lead at the UK’s biggest and most well-known charity, Cancer Research UK (CRUK). Although Sheona has worked in scientific fields important to cancer biology, her background is not in cancer research per-se. I can’t wait to find out more and discover how she made the transition from the laboratory into her impactful role.
So, what exactly is a Paediatric Lead?
Sheona explains to me that her role “works across CRUK’s research and innovation department developing and delivering strategic activities for children and young people’s cancer research”.
What makes this role really essential, is that the scientific questions underlying adult cancers compared to children and young people’s cancer are different.
Sheona works to understand the specific challenges holding back progress for research into children and young people’s cancer. Sheona then works with teams internally; developing and delivering against CRUK’s strategy to create real progress in this area.
Prior to her role at CRUK, Sheona had spent over a decade in the lab. She did her BSc in neuroscience at UCL, followed by a PhD in developmental neuroscience at King’s College London, before moving over to the Francis Crick Institute (previously the MRC National Institute for Medical Research) to study the biology of Down syndrome, which is where we first met.
“I absolutely loved science, I loved being in the lab, I loved working with my colleagues”
Sheona’s work focussed on developing better animal models to study Down syndrome. She explains that we still don’t understand what the true underpinnings of the disorder are. Why is it that three copies of human chromosome 21 causes things such as heart problems and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease? Individuals with Down syndrome are 400 times more likely to get certain types of leukaemia, but they're less likely to get solid tumours, so there's some differences that having three copies of chromosome 21 causes.
However there were some downsides. Building these kinds of tools takes years, especially in the time before modern gene editing techniques were used. Sheona felt that it was time for her to change.
What I really want to know is how Sheona’s PhD and post-doctoral roles helped to prepare her for a transition out of the lab. Sheona discusses the unique foundation her science background has provided.
I’ve come up with ‘Sheona’s Top 5 Skills learnt through an academic career’ to share:
Critical evaluation - “You know how to understand, research and evaluate”
Leadership - “for example teaching students how to design experiments, deliver an experiment, and how to build the pretty graph at the end”
Resilience - “you’re always trying to overcome challenges and problems. That is literally 95% of the job!”
Communication - “you present complex information all the time”
Strategic thinking - “framing the question and thinking through the solutions”
I ask Sheona how she came about finding her role at CRUK. One aspect that is very clear from her response is how much she wanted to stay close to science, without being in the lab itself. Sheona tells me that she’s always been interested in childhood disorders since working at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital as a student.
Throughout her career it’s clear to see her passion for genetics. She explains that this field, combined with her interest in the genes underlying children’s disorder, really spurred on her choice of post-doc position. CRUK offered the ideal position to be able to look at these areas from another perspective.
For many academic researchers, the idea of leaving the lab can be daunting. One aspect in particular is dealing with job descriptions, and how different they can be to post-doc or PhD adverts. I ask her how she went about thinking how her skills match up with jobs.
Sheona was on maternity leave when she began her job search. She explains that this time gave her opportunities to really talk to people from all career backgrounds . Her advice? “Cast a net wide, and invest in networks. Talk to alumni connections and others that have left the lab. All of these different people will give flavours of things that could be really interesting”.
She goes on to explain that asking colleagues what skills they think you have is a great way of understanding what you have and what you lack. Sheona remembers being told “what you're really good at is getting everybody excited about something”. She agrees with this observation even now.
Understanding those areas where you lack experience or skills are important. The transition from academic job applications to other industries can be quite different, and it can be daunting to know how to tackle those gaps. I ask Sheona how she went about filling some of these gaps in.
She gives me some handy hints.
Firstly, if you’re interested in project management, like Sheona, invest in courses. There are many free online courses that you can do, one example is through the Future Learn platform. You could also consider getting training through internships or shadowing. She recommends thinking creatively about how you could experience these different roles.
Secondly, write your CV and ask for feedback. Try to highlight and bring out the most important aspects. Once you start getting interviews, ask for feedback. She tells me “you might get knock backs, but if you ask for feedback you can understand what your gaps are to address them”. In fact, it’s these knock backs that directed Sheona to where she is now.
When you’re preparing your CV and interview, Sheona explains it’s important to think of the skills areas with examples. She tells me “If you’re asked about good time management, think about how you show that. What are the examples to really display how strong you are in those elements.”
Her most emphasised comment though, is how important it is to show passion for the job you are applying for:
“If I advertise a role in children's cancers, you need to discuss your passion for creating change for children with cancer in your application.”
To finish off, I ask Sheona about her proudest CRUK moment. She recalls one of her early projects, working on the experimental cancer medicines centre. Sheona, with her team, developed regional discussion boards. They split the country into four parts and developed a system where all the hospitals phone in once every two weeks to discuss patients whose cancers have relapsed. These discussions gave everybody visibility of these patients seeking treatment options and highlighted to the clinicians what treatment options are available.
CRUK has a real breadth of roles; from policy, science communication, marketing, branding, grants management, as well as people who look after research portfolios and committee work, in clinical trials and commercial areas. All of those roles have different underpinning skill sets.
“Think of your transition to new careers as a journey not a destination” she advises.
