I applied to an internship at Auris Health and did not get rejected. I went and did that, and it went really well and it was a good fit. They said they would hire me without the full masters which seemed like a pretty good deal to me. So, I moved. Now I live in San Francisco, right downtown, it’s really expensive but it’s really fun like I can go to the beach whenever I want to and have dinner on the beach and surf.
[The transition from grad school to industry] was a difficult transition for sure but the internship really helped because I was able to be an intern, and then just kind of overnight switch to full time. [Grad school] was very similar to the industry in the sense that it’s all self-directed learning and you want to direct the quality of your own work and hold yourself to very high standards.
My advice to those transitioning to the industry is to fake it until you make it. Fake it until you know for real. It’s having the confidence to try things and make an educated decision.