Pathways in Spectroscopy: What Scientists Can Offer Clients as a Consultant

One of the biggest professional risks an employee can make is going into business for him- or herself. Although there are several drawbacks to being an employee working for a corporation, there are also benefits that would be unfair to ignore. For one, there is much less risk involved. An employee can switch jobs relatively easily if he or she chooses, provided that it is an at-will employment situation. For two, the paycheck is consistent. An employee is hired to perform a job at a certain salary; as a result, employees do not have to worry about their pay fluctuating as long as they’re employed.

But are these two reasons the biggest risks of leaving a corporate job?

In the below “Pathways in Spectroscopy” video, Kantha Shelke, Principal of Corvus Blue LLC and Senior Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, addresses this question. She talks about that instead of the loss of income and security, which are the usual two important factors people are concerned about when leaving the corporate world, it was the loss of credentials that was the biggest risk. The below episode highlights how valuable expertise and judgment is in the consulting space, especially for scientists who are trying to market themselves to clients.

Kantha Shelke: Expertise is the table stakes. People actually pay you for the judgment that you know they're looking for things that they can't verify, but what they know is that if you can come back with something that they can rely on, they will trust you. And that is what scientists have going for them because they come with a an education and a training, and a given that they have the table stakes, the expertise, the knowledge to be able to do what needs to be done. And that is the biggest thing when you're starting a consulting firm, or any kind of a business for that matter, if you're a scientist.

This “Pathways in Spectroscopy” episode was part of a larger interview with Shelke. You can watch the full interview clip here: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/risk-taking-in-building-the-career-you-want