Cody Sorrell graduated from UNC in 2022 with a M.S. in Biology. He was interviewed by Eden Y. Zewdie in November 2022 when he was an Innovation Analyst at RTI Innovation Advisors.
What does your day-to-day look like? Hhow does the workload compare to graduate school?
As an innovation analyst, my day usually consists of about 3-4 meetings per day but mostly independent research. This could be primary or secondary research across many projects. About once a week, we have internal meetings and client meetings every 2 weeks. Typically, there are about 3-4 people per project.
I started as an intern at RTI in graduate school and continued on afterwards. Being part of the Innovation Advisors’ group, I would say there are fewer crazy hours compared to my personal graduate school experience. I personally appreciate the flexibility of working hours, because as long as you make your client/team meeting calls, hours are generally flexible.
What excites you most about your work? What would you change if you could?
The thing that excites me most would be the variety of the work we do. We work with different clients and different research spanning different fields, which means highly variable client type and research. Our group tends to focus more on subject matter areas than services and so I would also say that I also enjoy subject matter research as it enables me to use my scientific skills.
One change that I have had to become accustomed to since graduate school is working on the computer all the time. With covid, remote working has been augmented which leaves less chances for face-to-face meetings and in-person interactions with our clients and teams.
How did you choose this career path? What role did GBCC play?
My personal experience was that I cold applied to RTI for an internship and worked remotely while I was in graduate school. I then decided to move full-time. However, I would say that there are some things that helped me at UNC. One of which was being part of the Career Well team internship course, which was a two-and-a-half-month course through with career well. And essentially, we worked as a team on projects with different companies. In addition, I was part of Cases&Cases and a CG2 team member. I believe these experiences helped my resume stand out.
What advice would you give for someone seeking a position in this field?
One advise would be to be involved in the field you are seeking, for example being part of GBCC can help show interest in the field. The other advises are to practice informational interviews, attend beyond the bench seminars and be diligent to form with speakers. LinkedIn connection could also be helpful but make sure you have a hook to stand out when seeking new networks.
In addition, I think it is a good attribute to be adaptable. I specifically work with 4-5 clients; therefore, the ability to manage multiple projects at a time, and the ability to pick up very different topics very quickly is crucial.
Lastly, the range of student resources available at UNC including professional development workshops is a good and free resource to take advantage of as a student.
Thanks to Cody for spending time with us to learn more about his experiences! If you’re interested in following his footsteps, you can visit the website of the GBCC or reach out to him on LinkedIn.