Prepare your personal elevator pitch ("about you" statement - your personal 20-30 second about you and your goals). Short, concise, and easy enough for anyone to understand. 2. Attend events relevant to your industry. People want to help. To avoid being awkward, be polite, introduce yourself, smile, explain your goals and ask about their goals – you might be able to help them too.

Florida's population is growing faster than almost every state in the nation, certainly including Illinois, and Florida is one of the most desirable climates and tax climates in the nation. While I am very supportive of people moving to wherever they find the best opportunity that meets their personal goals, including Chicago, your friend has been misinformed about Florida and our significant positive net migration. A simple Google search would show that many people are moving to Florida, now the nation's 3rd largest state. A nice article on this, “Illinois loses population for 6th straight year — and it lost more residents than any state this decade,” Chicago Tribune, Dec 30, 2019.

“Academics” are willing to take a chance on new hires: GRE scores, grades, and reference letters (your objective background) is what is important. This is because diversity of thought provides the greatest chance for success in academia – creativity comes from seeing a problem from multiple sides. In academia, true success is seeing the world in new ways to unlock new understanding of our world. In “industry” experience is extremely important because employees whom have overcome obstacles in the past can overcome (or prevent) similar obstacles when they arise again. Success is industry is overcoming obstacles to meet your goals, which are often important for colleagues to reach their goals.

Also, in industry, everyone who introduces, interviews, or hires a new candidate bears some risk that candidate will be a bad hire (for whatever reason) which can affect their career. It is less risk in the hierarchy system of industry to hire someone with experience, even if they turn out to be bad, than to hire an unknown candidate with no experience (how many NFL coaches failed at their last job only to get hired to a new team into one of the most sought jobs in the world?). Demonstrate that you aren't a risk by displaying you recognize what will be expected of you in the role and that you are ready to work hard to make the hiring team look good for having brought you into the organization.

I don't know what a patent scientist is, but there is a patent agent so I will answer on that. In the US, one does not need to be an attorney to file patents. Anyone meeting the USPTO requirements (usually a BS in science is enough) can sit for the patent bar exam to become a patent agent. A patent attorney is a patent agent who is also an attorney. The patent attorney can additionally practice law. Many patent-focused law firms are willing to hire patent agents who are willing to take law courses in the evening, at the firm's expense while the agent works, to support them to become a patent attorney. This is great because the agent graduates with no debt, 4 years of experience, and a job at graduation. Many patent agents are very happy practicing patent prosecution (filing) without becoming attorneys. Make sure you actually want to practice law before making the investment in law school if your goal is to focus on filing patents. If you want both, then it makes sense to work as an agent while getting a JD. Alternatively, if you can, USPTO hires patent examiners and provides excellent training, plus education support to become a patent attorney on the government's dime (and with great credentials and experience when done).

If you are working on a subunit of a specific enzyme to better understand some nuanced place within an important pathway of some sort, unless the company is also focused on that pathway, you need not explain that. You are a biochemist with extensive proteomics expertise in characterization and analysis of proteins. You may think your protein is important, and maybe it is, but likely the company has other proteins of interest to the company and they want to know that you will think their protein is the most important in the world when they hire you to study it. Alternatively, if your background is so complicated that you can’t explain it to lay people, then you may not actually understand your background as well as you think you do. FAU’s President is a leader, a politician, an educator, an economic developer, etc. – a very complex job. He would likely describe his position as working for the FAU community with the title of President to provide the best academic education possible for the students. The latter description is goal-based, understandable, memorable, and collegial. If he listed responsibilities, he’d speak for several hours about uninteresting nuances of his job. Describe your work in the same way. E.g. “I am part of a team promoting economic growth in Palm Beach County.” If someone has enough sophistication the your field to understand your background, they will ask for more information.

Many students don't treat being a student like a real job. Did you really spend 40 hours last week working? (50?) For this reason, sometimes the first industry job is the first "real" job a new grad’s lives (it was mine). Students and post-docs are often not able to follow directions well - how many times did you buy a kit from a vendor and modify the protocol the first time you used it? (Almost every time is likely the answer if you are honest.) In industry, people are expected to produce, be self-directed, and to follow instructions. These are very difficult in the transition. Knowing the language, the process, and the regulatory requirements helps the new employee understand why certain procedures are in place, which helps them to meet expectations.