Katherine L. Lee, Senior Director, Head of Scientific Planning and Operations, Inflammation and Immunology Research Unit, Pfizer: [00:00:00] So I would, if it were me, bring it up with my boss. I would talk with other people at the company to make it known that this was my goal. It can be kind of scary, right? I can say that for many years at my job that, why yes, we had to do development plans that I just said that out loud, we had to do development plans.
But, that part about being honest about what I was looking for? I wasn't honest, I was very safe in what I'd write down. So I think saying it out loud, writing it down, having a discussion with my supervisor was really a key to putting it out there. All of my business experience, I experienced first through our ACS local section.
That's the first time I actually could understand that a budget was a forecast versus the real, the actual, and how to be responsible for a $300,000 annual operating budget. That was my experience. So then I guess when an opportunity came up, I felt comfortable applying for a position.
My current job is something I couldn't even describe to you what strategy and operations was before I applied for the job. But I had coffee with the person who was retiring and just said, "Hey, Paul, tell me what you do." And by the end of that 30 minutes, I knew I wanted to apply for the job.
So I think being open-minded, building up that expertise, whether it's from volunteer work or some other way is something that really helped me make that transition.
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