In this chapter of Career Stories, we bring you the journey of Sakshi Sharma, who is a biotechnology postgraduate with training in clinical research and data management. In a candid chat, Sakshi talks about her internship experience in academia and industry settings and shares some of her most memorable learnings.
What was your motivation behind enrolling in the Biotechnology Skill Enhancement Programme in Clinical Research Data Management?
Throughout B.Sc. and M.Sc. I did well in academics and scored fairly well in my exams. But in the back of my mind, it was always there that I don’t know much and am not practically trained. I was exploring courses that could help me in this regard. That’s what made me enroll in Biotechnology Skill Enhancement Programme [BISKEP], organized by Karnataka Government. There were many subjects to choose from, but I opted for Clinical Research data Management, as I was very much interested in research. It was of one-year duration, which included 6 months training program and 6 months internship.
How was your experience doing an internship at IISc?
I reached out to a professor at IISc who was a contact of my College Professor. Luckily, he selected me when I thought, maybe I didn’t give my best impression. The interview happened around March 2020 and I was expected to start in April. I had come home for a week in Chhattisgarh and Covid lockdown had begun. I couldn’t do my internship. But after a month or so, the Professor reached out to me in May and said there was work at the lab and if I was still interested. The flights had just begun, and without much thought, I flew down to Bangalore. I crashed at my friends’ place. Due to Covid, the lab wasn’t functioning at full capacity, and I couldn’t absorb the best out of the internship due to unfortunate timing. However, I did learn, how to read papers and analyze as well as interpret the data efficiently which has helped me immensely.
How different was your internship experience at Advarra Forte?
While I enjoyed the previous internship and had a great learning experience, I realized that it wasn’t aligning with my future career goals per se and hence started looking for industry-based experiences and also knew from a few of my friends that few companies offered a paid internship. I remember giving tons of interviews and after 3-4 rounds of assessments in a walk-in interview at Advarra, I secured the internship. It felt like less like an internship and more like a job. We got to sit in all the meetings and were treated like consultants. It was a surprise! Good pay and great work experience. I realized that there are so many things I do not know.
How did you come across these internships?
I would say by talking to people. I would talk to professors, and talk to people while attending conferences. I would never shy away from asking questions and always approached with an ‘I don’t know ‘attitude. Talking to people helps in understanding their journey thus far and helps in making your decisions. For instance, I came to know about the BISKEP program in my college while was in my second semester by talking to people in the neighbouring lab. And I happened to attend the induction program that year, even though hadn’t planned to enroll that year. I was curious to know more. It so happened that they were asking the people, why they are joining the program. And I remember one lay’s response vividly, that she realized the gap in her skills after working for a year. I thought to myself, why not equip myself with those skills even before I start job-hunting. So, listening to others’ stories can help you narrow down your choices and decisions.
What was your approach in preparing for the two internship interviews?
The IISc internship was just one round which felt like a chat that ran for an hour. On the other hand, my interview with Advarra Forte was systematic with one round after another, assessing me on different skills. In my experience of giving a lot of interviews in search of internships and jobs, what they are looking for is do you understand the kind of work they are doing and why you are there. For the IISc internship, I read a lot of papers published in the lab in understanding their work, but for the clinical research internship, I worked on understanding the technicalities and familiarising myself with the terms.
Any piece of advice for people who are looking for internships?
Give as many interviews as possible, and take every rejection as a redirection. The more you communicate to people in interviews or just anybody you meet that belongs to your field, make an effort to know about their journeys as it will help you know about different options available and different ways to achieve things. The more you converse, the more you learn about yourself.
You are doing very well dear. Keep it up and all the very very best for your future