Learn more about how we can help you:
Below are the courses, seminars, and workshops TurningScience offers to our community and clients.
We offer seminars and courses in the following categories:
Preparing scientists for industry careers
Professional development and productivity
Technology commercialization and product development
Building collaborations with industry (for postdocs and faculty)
(See below for details)
Most Popular:
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How to Be More Employable in the Private Sector (Length: 2 full days) – So, you’ve decided to head out into the private sector to ‘turn science into things people need.’ Excellent choice! While the private sector is a very exciting and dynamic environment that is full of rewarding career options for scientists, it is also very different than the career path we were trained for. You will need to develop new work habits and learn some new tools to be successful.
This workshop, taught by an instructor with more than 20 years’ experience hiring and managing scientists and engineers in the private sector, will give you a head start navigating your exciting journey into the private sector!
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This workshop is highly interactive, including a blend of lecture, group discussion, and interactive exercises designed to promote productive reflection and synthesis of a practical action plan.
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How to Get Research Funding from Industry (Length: 2 full days) – Research funding from the private sector is not pursued by many academic researchers, largely due to an uncertainty about what companies need and how to connect with them. This workshop provides practical advice on how to identify and build valuable and lasting private sector research collaborations. (Designed for postdocs considering academic careers)
This workshop provides practical advice on how to identify and build valuable private sector research collaboration from an instructor with more than 20 years’ experience in industry.
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This workshop is highly interactive, including a blend of lecture, group discussion, and interactive exercises designed to promote productive reflection and synthesis of a practical action plan.
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Have you ever thought about working for a startup?
Or maybe you’ve actually thought about starting your own company?
The world of startups is very exciting, but it requires skills and knowledge that aren’t as critical when working for an established company. In a startup there is much less structure to guide you and you may have to cover many different roles with little support.
This workshop, taught by an instructor with more than 20 years experience in early-stage companies, will give you an introduction to the world of the startup tech company. You will learn to decide if you and the start-up world are a good fit. You will also learn how a brand new product is brought to market, and which critical skills and tools you need for being successful.
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This workshop is highly interactive, including a blend of lecture, group discussion, and interactive exercises designed to promote productive reflection and synthesis of a practical action plan.
Preparing Scientists for an Industry Career:
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Seminar/Webinar: Can a Scientist Find a Rewarding Career in Industry? – Scientists planning an industry career have many questions and face some unique challenges. Learn how your unique skills as a scientist make you valuable!
This seminar gives participants the answers to the following questions:
What are the strengths of a scientist that make them uniquely valuable in industry?
What are some of the industry jobs that are a great fit for a scientist?
Can a scientist find the same opportunity for freedom and creativity in industry?
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Designing Your Own Career Path in the Private Sector (Length: 3 hours) - Planning a private sector career can seem daunting. Learn how to build an exciting career that works for you and your unique strengths and interests!
Upon completion of this short-course, the participants will be able to:
List the five important steps for designing their own rewarding career path in the private sector
Evaluate their own strengths in terms of their skills, their knowledge, and most importantly, their attributes
Describe which of their strengths are most important for an industry career
Follow three steps to defining their career target and utilize several new ways to research this target
Understand how to navigate the hidden job market to find that opportunity that fits them well
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Can a Scientist be a Successful Entrepreneur? – Can a scientist really be a good entrepreneur? Absolutely! Learn what strengths make us great entrepreneurs, and also some tips for succeeding at starting your own company.
The career path of the scientist and the entrepreneur seem very different to many people, with each requiring its own unique set of skills, knowledge, and talents. But this expectation is linked to stereotypes about entrepreneurs that are based on the exception rather than the rule. The truth is that many scientists have started their own companies and grown them into successful businesses.
Quite the opposite of the ‘adrenaline junkie risk-taker’ stereotype, these scientists-turned-entrepreneurs analyzed the business opportunity and took a calculated risk. And while starting a new company certainly has risks, taking those risks can result in a big reward. Those scientists who have been successful now enjoy the reward of providing both products and employment for many others. They have made their own significant and unique dent in the universe.
Successful entrepreneurs learn quickly that there is often no single ‘right answer’ to the questions they face when building their companies. For a scientist who has been trained in the skills and habits of looking for right answers, this is often a shift in thinking. At TurningScience, we say that being successful in any capacity in the private sector requires understanding that ‘It’s a game, not a formula.’
If you’ve ever suspected that perhaps that new technique you developed in the lab could be turned into something that would make the world a better place, you should consider this talk. And if you have ever thought about starting your own company, then this talk is definitely for you! We will review the stories of successful scientists-turned-entrepreneurs and discuss the lessons that they have learned on their journeys so you know what you need and what you need to watch out for. We will also explore the strengths that make them successful - strengths that you likely possess as well!
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Short-Course: Essential Skills for a Career in Industry (Length: 6 hours) – This short-course expands on the popular “How to be more Employable in the Private Sector” seminar by digging into some critical industry topics such as corporate finance and project management.
We start with an overview of the five most important ways that working in industry is different than the academic research environment STEM graduate students are trained in, and then outline five habits that scientists and engineers who are successful in industry learn quickly. Then we dig into some important topics that are rarely covered in a STEM program such as company finance and how projects are managed in industry.
Upon completion of the course, participants will be able to:
Describe five ways that working in industry is different than academic research.
List the five habits that successful scientists and engineers in industry learn quickly.
Explain basic corporate finance terminology and describe revenue and expense reporting.
List the key elements of a typical industry development project.
If you are considering a career in the private sector, this course gives you the industry primer you need to hit the ground running!
Professional Development & Productivity:
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How Do Successful People Accomplish So Much? (Length: 1 hour) - We all know people who accomplish more than we feel we ever could. These are usually people who have demanding jobs, side investment projects, multiple volunteer activities, and on top of all that, active and exciting hobbies as well. In this webinar we will discuss the most important principle for achieving your productivity goals, and we’ll review some effective systems you can use to improve your productivity without sacrificing your work-life balance.
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How to Network When You Hate Networking (Length: 3 hours) – Many people hate networking, but if it feels cheap and sleazy, there’s something you need to learn. This short-course will help you see a much more positive view of connecting with people for the purpose of advancing your career and will teach you some techniques for building your professional network that even shy introverts can do well.
Many scientists and engineers hate the idea of networking. They hate it because they don’t enjoy making small talk just to get someone’s business card or a LinkedIn connection. They hate it because it seems cheap and transactional. They hate it because they tried going to a couple of 'networking events' and they just seemed like a waste of time.
If you can relate to any of these comments, I don't blame you for hating it. But it turns out that effective networking isn’t nearly as bad as many of us have come to expect. The bad perceptions come from common perceptions of networking that are just wrong.
This workshop will help you see a much more positive view of connecting with people for the purpose of advancing your career and will give you some techniques for building your professional network that even introverts can do well.
Upon completion of the course, the participants will be able to:
Recognize that many of the common stereotypes about networking are not a good representation of effective networking after all
Describe why networking is so important for getting a good job and building a career
List six steps to developing a network based on genuine connections, not superficial contacts
Introduce themselves in a manner that is sure to get an interesting conversation started.
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Telling Better Stories with the Same Facts (Length: 3 hours) – You may have done excellent research in academia, but a manager in industry will be looking for what you can do to help them grow their business. How do you do that? Tell stories!
Participants in this workshop will learn the following:
Why stories are so much better than listing skills and credentials
When they can tell stories for the most impact
Five important elements to put in your stories if you want to impress an industry manager
What makes a good story?
How to get started with their most important story
If you want to make sure that you make a good impression on your next interview, or even in an important networking setting, this workshop will help you learn to do it well!
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Managing and Leading a Project Team (Length: 1 hour) - As we scientists and engineers advance in our careers, many of us move on to roles where we manage a project, a team, or even an entire business unit. To be effective, we find we must learn many new skills that were not part of our technical training. If you are a manager, or if you aspire to become one, this webinar will give you insight that will help you be more effective.
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Workshop: Building Your Own Scientific Consultancy Side Gig (Length: 2 full days) - Have you wondered if your science skills and knowledge can be used to earn some extra income on the side? Well, they can! Learn how to do it!
Technology Commercialization & Product Development:
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The Stage-Gate Product Development Process - Learn the most popular approach to bringing some consistency to bringing new products to market.
What is the Stage-Gate Product Development Process all about? Developing successful technology products is so much easier with the right systems in place. The most important development system is a solid Product Development Process (PDP), which if done correctly, will improve both continuity and good communication in the development team while retaining the flexibility and innovation that are required for a competitive industry. We will review the widely used Stage-Gate Process, and provide a template that will enable you to implement it quickly at your company.
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How to Develop Profitable Technology Products (Length: Full day) – Many factors impact whether a product is ultimately successful or not. This short-course teaches the fundamentals for developing products that will make money for your company.
Developing profitable technology products is the exciting application of scientific knowledge to engineer a solution to a problem. It’s the activity where knowledge is transferred from books and journal articles into real solutions, and it is where science finds its true value. But strong technical skills are only part of what’s needed to develop a profitable technology product.
Successful products need to be scalable, reliable, and most of all, profitable. How do product development teams come together and turn science into things people need in an efficient and effective way? In this class you will learn some useful and proven systems and how to apply them at your own company.
Upon completion of the course, the participants will be able to:
Describe the 5 critical elements of a product (Definable, Scalable, Reliable, Viable, and Profitable) and be able to answer the question: “Do we have a product?” for their own company.
Explain the purpose and key elements of the Stage-Gate Product Development Process (PDP), and diagram a PDP for their own company
Outline the purpose and agenda of a design review and list the four primary types and when they are used
Describe the Product Manger role and why it is especially important in early-stage companies
Explain how a Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) helps to identifying, prioritize, and mitigate product risks, and conduct an FMEA at their own company.
Outline the 8-Discipline (8D) approach to problem resolution and describe how this approach can be used to turn a customer issue into an opportunity.
At TurningScience, we emphasize that most of what is done in the private sector doesn’t have a single ‘right way’ to do it. The slogan we use is It’s a game, not a formula,’ and product development certainly follows this principle. But while there may not be a single ‘right way’, there are definitely good practices and bad practices. In this talk, we’ll tell you about both. Think of us as your coach, giving you the benefit of our experience, and telling you what we think matters most if you want to play a winning game!
If you are currently a product developer, or if you aspire to become involved in product development, this talk will give you some proven systems and tools and teach you how to apply them at your own company. If you haven’t started your industry career yet, the information that you learn in this talk will be excellent preparation for your first interviews. You will possess insights about product development that most other scientists competing for the same job will not!
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Tactical Technical Problem Resolution - All companies have things go wrong. How the team handles these problems can make a big difference in customer relationships and future business.
When developing technical products and services, problems are an inevitable part of the adventure. Good planning and preparation are essential to success, but many complex projects run into issues that simply could not have been predicted or avoided. These problems can range from something like a small issue that causes a 2-week schedule delay to a serious problem that results in a large-scale product recall.
How a company handles these issues can make a significant difference in their customer relationships, the morale of their development team, and ultimately their future business. No customer expects you to be perfect, but they do expect to be able to trust that when things do go wrong, they can expect you to handle problems in a competent and professional manner. The right approach to dealing with a big problem can actually result in more trust and more business!
In this talk we’ll review some important principles for handling problems in a professional and constructive manner. But we go beyond principles to give you practical systems and tools that you can use the next time you encounter a problem in your business. We will review the Eight Discipline (8D) problem resolution process and how to use it in the most efficient and effective way, and we will review how to communicate your plans and solutions most effectively
Project leaders who are competent at dealing with the inevitable problems that occur often find that there is often no single right answer or ‘correct way.’ At TurningScience, we say that being successful in business requires understanding that ‘It’s a game, not a formula.’ This webinar will give you a primer in the game of dealing with technical problems well. The principles, systems, and tools you learn will empower you and your team to turn the next technical problem you face into a business opportunity!
Training for Faculty & Postdocs:
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How to Get Research Funding from Industry (Length: 2 full days) – Research funding from the private sector is not pursued by many academic researchers, largely due to an uncertainty about what companies need and how to connect with them. This workshop provides practical advice on how to identify and build valuable and lasting private sector research collaborations. (Designed for postdocs considering academic careers)
This workshop provides practical advice on how to identify and build valuable private sector research collaboration from an instructor with more than 20 years’ experience in industry.
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This workshop is highly interactive, including a blend of lecture, group discussion, and interactive exercises designed to promote productive reflection and synthesis of a practical action plan.
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How to Prepare your PhDs for their Private Sector Careers - Scientists and engineers provide valuable skills to the private sector, and as we know well, most of them end up there. But industry managers are frustrated by good skills but counterproductive working and thinking habits. We need to think about doing better. We'll show you some awesome ideas for helping them learn what they need in your research group!
From our Clients:
"David delivered an engaging and thought-provoking keynote that brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to our event. It was a delight to see the doctoral students in attendance with big smiles on their faces, clearly indicating their satisfaction.
There are many people who give career development guidance, but David has the first-hand experience required to give a genuine view of what a private sector career is really like!"
Dr. Robert Radu, Advisor Supporting Early-career Researchers, University of Bonn, Germany
“I had the pleasure to attend to the lecture ‘How to be More Employable in the Private Sector’ with David Giltner. I felt so inspired by someone who worked his entire life in industry and now is teaching people how to be more employable. I just confirmed that industry is what I want for my career!”
Maria Carolina Sequeira, Chemical Engineering PhD student at Instituto Superior Técnico, Lisbon, Portugal