What is this Fellowship?

As the name suggests, this fellowship is a combination of science and business. The program consists of a two-year trajectory in which you work in two different departments within Janssen Vaccines. The first project will be a department be based on your experience. For the second project, you can choose the department yourself. In addition, there is also time for a so-called ‘side project’ on which you can spend ±10% of your time. This is intended to take a look inside a non-scientific department. For example, a department such as Human Resources. Various training courses are also organized by Formorrow. Some are mandatory, others optional. In addition, there is an individual meeting with a career coach every month to discuss your personal development – ​​and other matters. All and all, a nice challenge for after your PhD!

How do I get here?

After my PhD, I did not want to fall into a daily routine or the structured lines of research of a company. When I came across this Fellowship – no idea where actually, probably just a vacancy website – it immediately seemed to be an interesting project. A challenge in which I could use my creativity and investigative ability. Because of the many different departments in which you will work and the training courses regarding personal development. Continuous learning is very important to me. The company also seemed very interesting to me. Finally, I can have a view on the effect of my project on society – a step closer to society.

The program starts with an extensive selection procedure at Formorrow, including the assessment. This was a huge learning curve for me. And there’s nothing else to lose. It’s just you and that in itself is good enough. And otherwise, this was not the place for me and I had better look for something else. Then there were job interviews at Janssen Vaccines with several people from various departments. It got even more exciting here because one of them could become my manager. Apparently, I did it all well enough and I was so happy when I heard that I had been selected for the program!

Get to work

I can still remember my first days at Janssen Vaccines like they were yesterday. The size of the company, all their specialist departments, each with a different – ​​meaning nothing to me – abbreviation. The advantage for me was that we started with five people, so we could help each other to get a picture of the entire company. Each of us was in a different place within the company. The coaching helps with your personal development and makes all situations at work negotiable. This changed me from a quiet force to a more confident person who contributes to all decisions.

The training sessions from Formorrow

Of all the training sessions, the intervision training has stayed with me the most. This training starts with a theoretical background on communication followed by a theoretical framework and concluded with two practice sessions. Because of our interest in this subject, it has led to additional training focused on communication. We are now about a year later and we still have intervision evenings together. During the process, many opportunities come along that it is important that you also tackle yourself. For example, I took on the challenge of choosing a project in my second year that was in most ways the complete opposite of my first year. In everything; in terms of subject, tasks, departments that I have to work with, more overarching, you name it! In short, a place where I would not otherwise has ended up based on my knowledge and experience.

Ultimately, I am very satisfied with my choice to participate in this fellowship. I’ve had the opportunity to work on my personal development, look at completely different departments and I’ve gained a close group of friends from the Science & Business Fellowship!