New Matter: Inside the Minds of SLAS Scientists
New Matter: Inside the Minds of SLAS Scientists
Career Trajectories | The Recipe for Continuous Career Growth with Rishi Mahajan, M.S. (Sponsored by Benchling)
Rishi shares his unconventional journey, from childhood with no clear career aspirations to becoming a seasoned automation engineer. He highlights his college major selection and how he navigated education challenges in India before pursuing his master's in biotechnology in the United States.
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SLAS (Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening) is an international professional society of academic, industry and government life sciences researchers and the developers and providers of laboratory automation technology. The SLAS mission is to bring together researchers in academia, industry and government to advance life sciences discovery and technology via education, knowledge exchange and global community building.
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Hannah Rosen:
Hello everyone and welcome to New Matter, the SLAS podcast where we interview Life science luminaries. I'm your host, Hannah Rosen, and today we'll be continuing our series on career trajectories. Our guest today is Rishi Mahajan, lead automation engineer at Regeneron. Thanks for joining us, Rishi.
Rishi Mahajan:
Thank you for having me, Hannah, pleasure to be back.
Hannah Rosen:
Yes, we love having you back, Rishi! So just to start us off, I'd love it if you could just kind of give us a little bit of insight into, when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Rishi Mahajan:
So actually, as a kid, I had no idea what I wanted to become when I grew up. I was a good kid. I would study and be good in school. But again, since I had no idea, I kind of enjoyed math and anything with logic and I knew I had a poor memory, so retaining information was always hard. And also, I didn't get much guidance, so I always went with the flow. Whether it was for education, or whether it was for work, except what I'm doing right now. It is something that I chose for my career and that too, after spending ten years in my professional life that I decided I would want to do this, which was a pivot from my regular job.
Hannah Rosen:
Interesting. So how did you then decide on your college major?
Rishi Mahajan:
Yeah, that was interesting too, because that's where I got guidance, and I wish I didn't had gotten that guidance. My dad, he started his business, which had to do with medicines at that time. I was like, finishing up my 12th grade and I was guided that I should do bachelors in pharmacy. So, as I mentioned, I did not have a very good memory, right? So, I don't think it really would have been a good career for me. But anyway, I went to do a bachelors in pharmacy in India. After doing bachelors I came to the US to do my masters in biotechnology. And that was actually guided by a friend who was doing a bachelors with me, and he was more aware of the higher education outside in the US outside of India. For me, why I chose my bachelors, I didn't have that many resources in my college. So, I loved the idea that I could go to US, which is a developed country and, you know, a college here would have all the resources that are needed for education and experiments. And second, I found an easy way out at that time, because the two options that I had was either take a GRE exam, which was only math and English, I was really bad at English and was really good at math, so, I got almost full marks in math that helped me, you know, to clear the exam. The other option was to appear for the entrance exam for masters in pharmacy, which means I had to study the full four years of education that I did for bachelor's in pharmacy. That would have been a nightmare for me to, you know, do all that and remember and appear in the entrance exam. So, I would say I found an easy way out, and that's how I ended up being in the US.
Hannah Rosen:
That's interesting. So, as part of your undergrad, you know, doing a pharmacy degree, did you do much of like, lab research as part of your undergrad?
Rishi Mahajan:
In undergrad there was not much research, it was just some, you know, lab experiments. But also, we did not have many instruments available. So, there were some experiments that we could do and others we just, you know, figure out like, what would happen with the experiment. So not really any research.
Hannah Rosen:
So then was your masters kind of your first introduction to lab research?
Rishi Mahajan:
Yeah. So, for my masters, it was a masters in biotechnology. There wasn't that much research either, it was a PSM, which is professional science masters degree. So, it would help you learn more techniques like, for real life or techniques that are used in industry. And it was a non-thesis program, although I did like, couple of semesters of research around here, but mainly it involves some mandatory internship to graduate from the program. That itself was challenging because I was in this vicious circle where I needed an internship to graduate and to gain experience, and for internship I needed an experience because nobody was ready to interview me since I had no experience. So that's where the networking saved me, so that's how I got my internship and after that my internship at Regeneron. It opened up the path for next batch of students. So, after me there were like six or seven students who did internship in the same department as me over the next few years.
Hannah Rosen:
So, you said that networking was kind of what saved you there. Can you talk a little bit more about your experience with networking during your masters to get that internship?
Rishi Mahajan:
Yep, and since I mentioned like, Regeneron, I just want to mention that these this podcast, it's all my own views and it doesn't reflect my company's view. So yeah, I want to go over like, how I landed my internship. So, as I said, it wasn't easy to find an internship. It was like, 15 years ago. One day I just sat down and all the business cards that I had, I just emailed everyone. So at that time I had emailed Mark Sleeman, who was leading muscle and metabolism. And I met him at the job fair, so that I was like, perfect timing because a scientist asked him that they needed an intern. That's how like, I got a interview call. It was a coincidence. I was bringing my newborn from the hospital to home and on the, like, drive home, I got a call for the interview. My internship also started in November, like, 3 days from today, uh, like November 10th. It was not a regular summer internship, so it was like for three months. It was extended for another three months, so I basically in turn for six months I finished it on Friday, graduated on a weekend, and started my full-time job on Monday in a different department.
Hannah Rosen:
Wow. So, you really liked working at Regeneron?
Rishi Mahajan:
I love working at Regeneron.
Hannah Rosen:
Yeah, I mean, it shows. You've been there for what, 15 years now?
Rishi Mahajan:
Yep, so all my career.
Hannah Rosen:
That's amazing. What's made you stay with them for as long as you have?
Rishi Mahajan:
As I said, it has been 15 years. However, in those 15 years, other than internship, I had three different full-time roles and they all were in the same department. So, throughout this time I have transitioned from being a scientist to becoming an engineer. So, my first role was to engineer the cell lines for therapeutic drugs. So, I did that for few years, and then I started high throughput antibody discovery, which was like, using lab automation and that's where I picked up all the lab automation that I know now. And then I realized that comes like, easy to me and especially because it's logical, you know, programming, figuring out the errors, all that stuff was like, related to logic. So, I don't have to remember anything and eventually, you know, I became an automation engineer when the opportunity came. It doesn't mean that it was like, easy decision. I did have some nightmares in the beginning because I was transitioning from being independently working with my own projects to having scientists who are relying on me for their, you know, samples. So yeah, now I'm an engineer without any engineering or computer background.
Hannah Rosen:
Well, so I mean that must have been a tough transition to trying to, you know, make sure that you had all of the knowledge and expertise to transition those role into engineer. How did you find the resources that you would need, you know, in terms of education and training in order to become an expert in this field?
Rishi Mahajan:
First, I would say it wasn't that hard because, as I was saying like, I went with the flow and this, my final role as an automation engineer, is something that I chose consciously. You know, that something I wanted to do so it's something that I enjoyed more so it came a little bit more natural to me. That doesn't mean like, I just knew things. It's just, I enjoy it. So, in the beginning I had to spend extra nights at work so that I could gain extra knowledge or figure out things before, you know, again, I didn't want like, scientists to have their samples lost while, you know, running lab automation like, new protocols for them.
So, having a science background, definitely help that I didn't have to spend too much time tinkering the protocol to make it work, so I just had to write some simple protocol. And I knew the science behind the experiments, so that worked. But for the resources like, everything that I'm doing now, everything I learned on the job, I would say it does come by doing. You know, there are not many courses out there that train you for particular this role. I have seen one like, which is MS in automated sciences from Carnegie Mellon University. I'm not sure how many more around there are. It will be helpful if more, you know, of those courses are available. But then, you know, as I said, like, I spent extra time to learn when I took over this role. If I'm stuck at any point, I would read through the help section and reach out to the companies whose product I'm using. Again, networking help here too, because I would create that connection with other people or network with them so that I could reach out directly when I had questions. You know, in the past I didn't even have to rely to go through, you know, proper channels. I would have a direct cell phone number. And I was always in good relation with people that I could directly ask questions, you know, and then one could also reach out to their network to get guidance. I have trained like, few people for writing programs to control liquid handlers, and couple of those like, I never met before, they just reach out to me like, by networking. And similarly, you know, I could reach out to people. I know a lot more people now who are in the same field. If I'm stuck somewhere or if I need guidance or if I need to learn from somebody else's experience, I could always reach out with anything new. One has to spend extra time to learn, you know, especially if you haven't learned that before.
Hannah Rosen:
You've talked a lot about the importance and the power of networking, but I know that, especially for early career individuals who are kind of just starting out and haven't really had the opportunity to build out that network, it can sometimes seem really intimidating to try networking. What are some of the biggest tips that you would have for people of, how to kind of penetrate that network?
Rishi Mahajan:
Sure. Yeah. And I talk a lot, but I understand, you know, it's not always easy. However, networking is, you know, not only for extroverts, anyone could network. If one doesn't feel comfortable networking, then I would say like, they're not alone. I met many people who say, like, you know, how to start networking, and I guide some people, I even have a mentee, to help them to get going with networking and they have started doing that. I could give some tips to try, you know, and even like, I have not just gained, you know, help for me from networking. I have helped many other people like, get interviews through networking. So, it's really important and how one could do is like, some of the tips are, one, doesn't need to be very formal. Like, it's just casual talk that one has to do. Some people feel like, uh, in a professional networking event they have to just talk about work, or they have to talk about their field of study or anything. That is not true like, it's more about being known. How you are gonna be known is when you have like, a good conversation with someone. So, it's just casual talk. And if one is introvert, they could just ask more questions and then spend more time listening. So, it will be even easier, especially if you're talking to somebody who is extrovert or who is passionate about what they do or about some particular topic, they're gonna talk more. So, you could always spend time by listening and that's how, you know, you could get going with networking. The important thing is to be genuine, you know, in your talks. You don't have to come up with things to network. As I said, it's just normal, you know, talk, how you talk with your friends and family. That's how you could do it.
Couple of people have asked me that. They are scared that, you know, they're worried that they're gonna make a fool out of themselves because they want to know something in their field if they are trying to network with someone who has many years of experience, that is not true. You know, we all know different things and nobody is gonna judge each other because every field is vast, you're not gonna know everything in any field. Doesn't matter you have one year experience or 10 or 20 years of experience. So, do not worry about that at all. And you don't even need to like, go to networking events to start building your network. You can start on LinkedIn, which is a professional networking site where you could follow people who are in your field or who have similar interests like you. You will slowly approach them. For example, start following them and like their post if it is interesting to you, ask questions and slowly you can, you know, reach out even on messages and start communicating. One thing that helps me is I always try to help people. I always try to connect people who could benefit from each other. So that is always a good thing. You know, when you try to help people, then it makes things easier. That's how you also network. Then, somebody's looking for a job, always be ready to offer help. You know, that's how you will again build your network, and it's important to do that, building your network not when you need it, you know, start doing it today. Another important thing is like, when I reach out to people or when I'm looking for people, I'm not very good in remembering. But if I see your face that helps me, so I'll say put your photo on LinkedIn and also start building your brand. Another very important thing is, start getting involved in relevant conferences, not just attending the conference. Like, definitely you network when you participate in the conferences, but also have some active role like, volunteer with something at a conference or do the presentation, lead a round table. You could start from something small where you don't need to spend time to prepare, for example, like leading a round table as I said, or having a fireside chat or chairing a part of the event. So there are many ways that you could get involved in the conferences which are in your field.
Hannah Rosen:
Yeah, I think that's really helpful advice because I think what it comes down to it sounds like, is a lot of just building up that name recognition and that it doesn't necessarily matter, I mean obviously you want it to be a positive association with your name, but kind of how you get to that positive association. There's a lot of different ways and it doesn't have to be necessarily one path forward, which is really great.
Rishi Mahajan:
Yep. Another important thing I want people to know in general is like, you do not have to have a linear path in your career. You know, for example, in my case, I turned from scientist to engineer. I met a lot of people who have transitioned. And when you have network, it gives you an opportunity to talk people in different fields, or relatively different field where, you know, you could still use your experience. But if you don't know anyone, or if you don’t know those opportunities exist, then you're not gonna even, like, find out that you like those things. For example, in my case, I had no idea about lab automation when I started working for like, 2 years, you know? And if I never would have come across, I might not have even switched to that ever. You know? So, that is another thing. Even for my wife, she was a stay-at-home mom for 10 years, which is a great career. But then when kids grow up, you need to, you know, change. So, she started doing pharmacy like, she worked in a pharmacy as pharmacy tech for a year so that she gained some experience, as she wanted to work at Regeneron. And then that helped her to get an interview and she became sample management associate. She did that for a year, and she used that experience to get an interview for an associate scientist role in automated biobanking CORE, And now she's maintaining this huge biobank, which sold 5 million samples, you know. So this is the transition in three years. And I did like, push her, motivated her, and guided her. However, it's not possible if you want to just sit in your comfort zone, she had to push her boundaries. She had to go out of her comfort zone. But you see like, in three years, the transition that she has made. Anyone could do that, it's just like, you need to take that step.
Hannah Rosen:
That's very impressive and it kind of leads to, one thing I was wondering, you know, when you're talking about making that career pivot. And I think that sometimes it can be difficult to pivot your career because you need to convince somebody to give you a chance, right, in this area that you don't have a lot of experience on paper to prove or demonstrate that you can do the job. And so, I was wondering if, you know, having major career pivot within Regeneron, if that helped because people already knew you and knew that you had the skills, but then it sounds like your wife was able to make this career pivot without having that history.
Rishi Mahajan:
Actually I didn't mention something how I got into automation engineering role. So, when I first tried for that role it was within the department and again within my manager, but I didn't had that much experience. We were looking for somebody who had more experience. So we hired somebody from outside who worked for two years. And then after that, when that person left, that is when again the opportunity came and that is when I was ready, I had more experience that I could take that job. So what changed in two years? I learned at that time when I wasn't given the opportunity, which even I agreed that I shouldn't have, was the power of no. Because I was never saying no, and I would do a lot of, you know, things which will delay me in, say, learning programming or improving my programming skills, because I'll just in general, I'm doing my projects, I'm doing side projects to keep it interesting and then on top of that, anything extra that is needed, I'll just jump on and do those things too. So that I realized that I have to start saying no.
That was first thing, and the second thing was at Regeneron we also, two years back, I don't know how many years ago, but we started 30/30, which is optional. So, you are spending 30 minutes with your manager every 30 days, which is for your career development. So those 30/30s really help me because I'll set a goal for next 30 days that I'm gonna learn this programming, or I'm gonna, you know, learn this new skill in automation. And that is what prepared me to be able to be eligible for that role when it came around. What I have experienced is continuous learning is very helpful, but I tell people is you don't need more than 15 minutes a day, and everyone could take out 15 minutes. You know, for example, if I'm like, browsing social media, I could instead hold on to 15 minutes and do something on LinkedIn Learning. This year I have learned SQL, making Python executables, Tableau software, data IQ, which is like for machine learning, and I learn machine learning concepts. All this without devoting a significant time, you know, and also it's important to utilize the available resources. I use LinkedIn learning because it's paid by my company. I would sometimes buy courses here and there in other sites, but it's not necessary. And a lot of companies also pay a significant amount for employee education. One could do some short courses to gain or enhance skills, you know, and there are also free resources if money is tight. But I would say investing in one's learning is always a good.
And so to pivot I would say like, for example, if anyone is in any particular role, they could always learn a little bit extra on the side or they reach out to the network to see how to, you know, do the next step or get a mentor who could guide you. A mentor could be like, skill-based growth which could guide you, who has done similar stuff for years. And anything that you are doing at job, you could always add on like, something; a side project where you could improve what you are doing and go into a different way. For example, I also learned the concepts of machine learning so I brought it to work. I learned it in my personal time but I wanted to see how to predict data in certain situations, you know, so I'm already doing proof of concept after finding the resources at work.
Hannah Rosen:
Yeah, I like what you're saying about, and this came back to, you know, but when you were talking about the importance of saying no, but also with bringing kind of what you're interested into your work is, I think, that a lot of times people feel like they are at the mercy of their employer where like, you gotta have to be a team player, just kind of go along with whatever your employer asks and then kind of hope that eventually you'll get to work on the projects that are interesting to you. And it sounds like what you're saying is really emphasizing taking control of your own career path and telling your employer like, no, here are the projects that I'm interested in working on, here's what I want to do, and feeling a little bit of freedom to say no to the stuff that doesn't really interest you.
Rishi Mahajan:
Yeah, that is true. Like, there is always a basic work that you have to do like, you know, that is your job responsibility. But there could always be time where you could explore and do, you know, slightly different or better way of doing things. One thing I have realized is, you are the one who is responsible for your career. Even if your manager is the best manager and they have good interest for your career growth, career path, but, you know, in everyday life, especially in like, living in New York, I feel like we are always running. There are always like, you know, a lot of work or a lot of things that are going on in life, so a person may procrastinate those things. So, at the end of the day it's your career, you know, you need to take active participation in your career growth. You have to come up with some plans or you have to come up with, this is the conference I want to attend, you know, or this is the short course I want to do. You will definitely find resources, but you have to take the active participation in your career and not just rely on your manager, as I said. And even if they have good intentions, that time will just fly by and you will be like, five years later, you're like, ohh, I'm still doing the same thing, I wish I could have done this differently.
Hannah Rosen:
I wonder, in terms of, kind of your career path, have you found any really significant advantages, or even disadvantages, to having worked at the same company for as long as you have?
Rishi Mahajan:
As you know, I have no experience working anywhere else. There are definitely both advantages and disadvantages, which I have like, realized. For advantages, I would definitely say there is of stability because when you are working at a good company for that many years, you know what their culture is, what their products are, what their science is, the mission of the company is, you know, it aligns with how my ethics are, of course, the company is doing good, there is a stability, there is a sense of belonging, you know, I could be myself. I could be working, I could be, you know, taking my time off, I could be participating in hundreds of different events at the company. And I could be myself, you know, whatever I do there, it just feels part of me now. And as long as there is a growth, if you are stuck, if you're not growing, I would say the first step will be not to leave the company, but to explore what is holding you from growing. You know, as we talked about, you could pivot careers, you don't have to be doing the same things. And when you are in a company, it makes it even easier to switch a job for a different role or a different department, which is even encourage at my company because instead of losing the good talent, they would prefer that people move around within the company.
So, the first time that I switched my role in my department, it was not just me who switched the role. We were like, five of us out of, I think, 30 something people who switched role within the same department, not even within the company, you know, and we all did different things, switching our role. So that definitely adds that flavor of growth by switching the role by, by doing something different that enhances your, you know, experience. But staying in the same company, I would say I call it as loyalty tax because I feel like if you go to different companies, you definitely gain that different experiences, especially if you haven't switched your job, you are doing the same thing for pretty long. I've seen people getting to higher titles by, you know, switching companies or even with higher titles come with, you know, higher salary, iIt may or may not be significant. But there is a potential to lose your peace of mind, the stability, or, you know, even like, not having a good manager, because a lot of people they leave their jobs because of the manager, not because of the work, right? And I know a lot of people who actually want to come back after leaving, even if they left for significant higher amount of money, they're not happy. You know, that tells me like, money is not gonna make a difference at that point if you're not happy. So, it's more about the journey than destination. You know, if you're not happy every day it's not worth it to lose your mental health.
Hannah Rosen:
Yeah, I think that's some great advice. You talked a lot so far today about some mentors, and how important do you think that mentor mentee relationship is? Have you at any point in your career journey had a mentor who kind of significantly impacted your career path?
Rishi Mahajan:
In the past, I never had mentors, and I didn't even know the concept of mentorship that I came to know. After that I have been thinking like, you know, I read about it. It's like, yeah, mentors are not your manager. Mentor is somebody outside, you know, or somebody who's not your manager. I have procrastinated it for many years because, you know, many times it's like, you don't sit and try to like, find mentors, or how it was like, concept which wasn't well known to me. However, last year I come across with two platforms at similar time and actually I had two mentors last year for the first time. One was through mentor match through SLAS, Society of Lab Automation and Screening, and the second one was like, there was a new program started at Regeneron, which was again like a mentorship program. So I participated in both. And one of my mentor was more of like, you know, our professional development and the other one was more like, skill based that I learned a new skill, you know, from that. And this year I'm paying it back by being a mentor to a mentee at Regeneron. And I feel like it's going really well.
Mentorship is not just about helping a mentee. I have realized that I learned more by being a mentor than being a mentee, you know. So it's both ways, both mentor and mentee learn a lot. It's a great experience for me both ways, you know, and one doesn't need to have a lot of experience to become a mentor. As I said, it's also like, skill based, which is like professional development. It could be skill based, it could be helping with setting goals, achieving things or it could be or career advancement, you know, guidance on career or networking, how to crack interviews, or it could be for personal growth to helping like, soft skills for that or staying motivated. So, there are different kind of mentors and I am relatively new, but I have seen it's really important to have that in your life like, either having a mentor and also to mentor someone. I unofficially has been mentoring couple of other peoples too.
Hannah Rosen:
That's great, and so interesting that even so far advanced in your career, you still were able to find a lot of value in being a mentee.
Rishi Mahajan:
Yep, one of my mentor was actually a CEO of one of the companies and I got really, you know, good bird’s eye view for a lot of things. And they help me to try new tools for project management and other things. And one of the mentor was, as I said like, a skill based. I learned how to add structure to the things that I'm doing at work. You know, now I have like, a team for automation support and I wanted to add structure to that. So, I learned like, how to make JIRA ticketing system for us. So, I learned that over the period of time, ad I actually released it to our department this year.
Hannah Rosen:
One thing I always like to ask people because I find that it's so variable, how do you define success for yourself and your career?
Rishi Mahajan:
For me, the success is little bit different. It has nothing to do with money or titles or anything. I would feel that I'm successful if I'm doing my best. I have like, good thoughts to help others. I'm like, being ethical and I'm at peace with myself, you know, nothing else matters. I don't care if I'm making money or not money, I could be jobless and I could still be successful. You know, it's all about how I feel. You know, I'm being good like, my intentions are good, that means I'm successful as a human being. So, nothing else matters to me.
Hannah Rosen:
That's so fantastic. I love that perspective. Well, Rishi, thank you so much for joining us today. It's been a really interesting conversation and so great to have you as a returned guest and I can't wait to to talk to you again. I'm sure that we will have you back on the podcast real soon.
Rishi Mahajan:
Thank you.
