Most students begin graduate school planning to pursue a traditional academic career path. As the years pass, some maintain this desire, while others explore so-called “alternative” careers to identify the path that excites them. Yet there are a few students, including CAMB alumna Margaret Fleetwood (DSRB), who plan from the beginning to pursue an “alternative,” non-research career.
When Margaret began graduate school in 2005, she estimated that 98% of her peers ostensibly planned to complete academic postdoctoral fellowships and continue toward tenure-track faculty positions. Margaret, however, knew that she wanted to enter the field of intellectual property (IP). She credits her interest in IP to her undergraduate advisor, who recognized that Margaret’s talents and interests were apt for this field. Margaret’s advisor connected her with IP professionals, and after some informational interviews, her interest in IP had been piqued.
When Margaret applied to graduate schools, she judged schools not only on their academic programs, but also on the connections they would provide to the IP world. She ultimately chose Penn because of its plethora of legal and business connections. In 2012, Margaret completed her doctoral work on the regulation of the human growth hormone locus, co-mentored by Drs. Steve Liebhaber and Nancy Cooke. Today, Margaret is a project manager at the University of Chicago’s technology transfer office, the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, where she is involved in patenting and licensing technology generated by the university. Margaret serves as a liaison between the commercial and academic realms to facilitate partnerships between them. She works on diverse projects simultaneously, and her responsibilities include translating science to companies and explaining to faculty the aspects of their research that can be patented. Margaret notes that the major skills from graduate school that she uses in her job are project management and science communication.
In addition to her project manager position at UChicago, Margaret is pursuing a law degree in intellectual property law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Institute of Technology. Currently in the third year of a four-year program, Margaret laughs at the comparison between graduate and law school. Law school is “so much easier mentally than grad school,” she says. “[In graduate school] you bang your head against the wall until you get there…You make it work.” In contrast, she describes law school as an environment where you take exams and either you succeed or you do not. Her experience working in technology transfer has also prepared her for much of the material covered in law school. However, she does stress that balancing work and school has been challenging. She is passionate about her job and often works after normal business hours, which cuts into time for schoolwork. It can be especially difficult, she says, to prioritize theoretical tasks like studying over the consequential, real-life tasks of her job. Her advice for anyone seeking to follow a similar path is to have work and life in order before starting law school. She stresses the importance of making life easy and living close to school if possible. Professional night programs like hers are less intense than standard law school programs, and some even have programs specializing in IP.
She advises current students to start thinking about careers early and discourages using a postdoctoral fellowship to bide time. “You can ride the train until it hurts,” she says. Margaret did not complete a postdoctoral fellowship, explaining that it would not have helped her reach her current position. In certain non-academic fields, she says, postdoctoral experience can actually be a detriment, as it suggests that the applicant did not prepare for their career path early enough. For students interested specifically in IP, Margaret stresses the importance of gaining relevant experience while in graduate school. Margaret was a fellow at Penn’s technology transfer office, Penn Center for Innovation, which she says provided “awesome, awesome experience.” The type of work that she completed as a fellow was directly relevant to the work she does today. Margaret was also a member of the Penn Biotech Group where she worked on two IP-based projects. These experiences set her apart when she was applying for jobs, but today, this type of prior experience is expected of all candidates. Interested students can also complete the patent bar exam while in school, which is a requirement for almost everyone wanting to practice IP in a legal environment. Last, Margaret emphasizes learning IP terms, such as “prior art,” “patent litigation,” and “patent prosecution,” before applying for jobs. She recommends reading IP pamphlets or websites to become comfortable with the language since candidates are expected to speak knowledgeably about the field during interviews.
Margaret entered graduate school as one of a few students interested in a non-academic career path. She remembers the frustration she felt with “the academic bubble” while in school, but in retrospect, she feels that CAMB prepared her well. “I loved CAMB,” she says. “I didn’t love being a grad student.” She credits the CAMB administration with preventing students from “falling through the cracks,” and with organizing informative events that prepared her for a career outside academia. Margaret, like other alumni, also speaks very highly of the CAMB holiday parties.
Margaret is happy to share additional information with students interested in IP careers and can be reached at MFleetwood@tech.uchicago.edu.