Speaker: Hutch Humphreys, VP, Regulatory Affairs & Quality Assurance - Endeavor Biomedicines
Let us a little bit about you.
Hutch Humphreys: Hi, I'm Hutch Humphries and I'm a member of the Corporate Relations Board of KGI. I've been a member for about 10 years. I have an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and following my undergraduate studies, I was a nuclear officer in the Navy on a submarine for five years. And following that, I actually went to KGI back in the early 2000's where I received the MBS degree in 2003. Since then, I have been working in regulatory affairs, primarily in small private companies, small molecule drug development, all in the San Diego area. Now I want to talk to you about some of the ways to optimize your school experience while you're at KGI.
Besides coursework, what aspects of KGI best prepare you for a job?
Hutch Humphreys: Besides coursework, I think the main aspect of KG I that helps prepare you for a job is the numerous opportunities to interact with people from industry, whether that's via the industry speaker series, interactions with the Corporate Relations Board or the Board of Directors. It's important to remember that all these people are coming to KGI because they want to help the students. They're not there for any other reason than to help the students in their journey through school and then to find a job. These are great opportunities to build relationships with those people and it's important to remember that in a short amount of time these people will be your co-workers. So get to know them now and you can make those inroads to a job once you graduate. I realized that it may be some what intimidating to interact with these people. I was intimidated when I was at KGI trying to interact with these people that had been in industry 20 - 30 years, they all seem very polished. However, just remember they are there to help you and those relationships really matter. And if you can stretch yourself, put yourself out there, take a little bit of risk. It will be well worth the effort.
What skills did you gain in school; which skills are most relevant for a successful transition into the workforce?
Hutch Humphreys: Besides any specific technical skills that you may be learning in a given class at KGI, I think the main skills you're learning that will help you in your future are related to communication, working in teams and cross-disciplinary thinking. All three of these are really intertwined. I think you'll see that these skills are stressed in pretty much every class you take at KGI, you may not realize that you're developing these skills on any given moment. But if you look at back a year from now, you'll see that your muscles in these skill areas have really developed. In terms of communication, I'm referring to the ability to communicate with technical experts across all aspects of product development. KGI is exposing you to all aspects of product development and helping you learn what the technical experts in any given area of development, what they're thinking about. So you understand the thinking of those technical experts and what's important about their role in the process and then that helps you in terms of communicating the important aspects of that role to the bigger picture. That kind of then also relates to the ability to work in a team. Unlike most traditional masters or PhD programs where the focus is still on individual accomplishment. KGI really focuses on team accomplishment. That may be uncomfortable, it may feel like it slows you down in your own development but try to remember that teamwork is a skill that you need to develop. Once you graduate from KGI most everything you do at an industry will be within a team and your success is tied to the success of the teams that you're on. So really embrace that opportunity to work in teams, learn how to storm and norm within teams and, work through any issues that a team environment might raise. And finally cross-disciplinary thinking, like I said, that's related to the other two items. KGI is training you to think about product development from multiple different roles. Again, traditional masters or PhD programs are really focused in one niche, one area of the whole process but KGI is training you across the whole process. And that's a skill that when you leave KGI actually will help you to stand out among the other graduates who are looking to work in the same areas of industry that you are so really embrace those opportunities for cross-disciplinary thinking as you move forward.
How do I best utilize TMP and internships to prepare for a job?
Hutch Humphreys: In terms of TMPs and internships and how to utilize those for your future success, I think the first two items to consider are the obvious ones, pursuing an area of professional interest for you but remembering that, even if your area of professional interest is not offered in a TMP or internship, there's probably something that's similar or closely related to your area of interest. For instance, if you're interested in clinical development, but no opportunities exist, there, there may be something in regulatory affairs, quality assurance, medical writing or several other areas that are peripherally related to clinical development. And so by working in a TMP or internship, in one of those other areas, you will get exposure to what you're truly interested in. The second consideration is really focus on companies with a proven track record of success. Even if you're not working in an internship or TMP in your specific area of interest, working in a successful company will help you learn what are the right processes to be putting in place which will be valuable to you regardless of what you do in the future. Once you're in the TMP or internship definitely focus on the technical aspects, learn those well, but also focus on getting to know the people. Those people may soon become your workmate or may soon become your work colleagues. So it's important to get to know them at a professional and personal level as much as possible and remember that these TMPs and internships are opportunities to really take risks. There's less at stake when you're in a TMP or internship than there will be once you're out in a full time job. And finally, I would say, try not to put too much pressure on yourself to find the ideal internship or TMP. Both of those experiences for me were in areas that did not relate to my ultimate job now in regulatory affairs. However, I still learned many valuable lessons.
How do I maximize/get the most out of my time at KGI?
Hutch Humphreys: In terms of how to get the most out of your time at KGI, I would encourage you to think of KGI as a dinner buffet that you're sitting in front of with many food options and your goal is to sample as many of those options as possible while you're at KGI. Whether it has to do with coursework, professional development activities, or social activities. In terms of course work, unless you know exactly what you want to do once you graduate from KGI, I encourage you to take courses outside of your area of what you think your interest is. KGI offers almost an endless number of opportunities to learn about product development and other aspects of the life sciences. Take some classes that don't lie in your specific area of interest, you'll learn things that will be valuable to you in your future career. Similarly, in terms of professional development activities, even if you think, you know where you want to go, once you leave KGI, expose yourself to other areas of professional activity. Even if you're tired on a given day and oncology is not your area of interest, attend that professional lecture related to the latest developments in oncology drug development. You're going to learn something that will be valuable to you in your future career. And finally, in terms of social activities, KGI offers almost an endless number of opportunities in that area to get to know different people, learn about different traditions. The diversity at KGI is amazing. And while you're there, you're not just there to learn all the technical aspects that you can about various things, you want to learn more about the world in general and that diversity really lends itself to learning amazing things that you've never been exposed to before.
