From left: Robert Starbuck, Sastry Pantula, and Ji Zhang during the Joint Statistical Meetings in 2007

Two years later, I saw Bruce Schneider at a meeting at the FDA and he mentioned a job opening in his department at Wyeth. He asked me to come to Wyeth to interview, which I did, and I was offered and accepted the job. I spent the next 21 years there and headed a variety of departments, including biostatistics, clinical data management, clinical programming, and the US-based field monitors.

Throughout my professional career, I have been active in professional societies, but the ASA has been the society to which I have devoted most of my attention. Some of the roles I have played include chairing the Biopharmaceutical Section, the Corporate Member Representatives, SPAIG, the Deming Lectureship Committee, and the Special Interest Group on Volunteerism; serving on several ASA president’s task forces and the Committee on Fellows; and, because I want students to see an industrial statistician and hear about the positive effect statisticians have in industry, giving career-oriented talks at statistics departments throughout the United States.

Some of the important points I have learned over the course of my education and career include the following:

It is much easier to focus on and complete your education if you are not simultaneously working for a living.

Education is valued in the workplace, and the delayed income resulting from pursuing a higher degree is more than offset by the increase in income resulting from the higher degree.

Statistics offers multiple employment opportunities.

If you are not satisfied with your current job, you may be able to find a more rewarding one.

Work colleagues (both management and employees) and work product are keys to job satisfaction.

It is important to retain and demonstrate a sense of humor. Appropriate humor helps establish and maintain relationships with others, increases your likeability, and can help calm tense situations.

Maintaining your integrity is important to your self-esteem and to how you are viewed by others.

Oral and written skills are important. The ability to speak to small and large groups, use good grammar, convey technical topics in terms understood by nonstatisticians, convey an understanding of what is possible, and articulate the relevance of statistical methods to business strategy increases your value to an organization.

Gaining a speaking knowledge of other disciplines increases your relevance and ability to communicate.

Continue learning throughout your career. You may need to reinvent yourself several times.

You need to deliver value that far exceeds your cost of employment.

Follow up on all requests for collaboration, even if the answer is “no.”

Volunteer willingly and keep commitments. Nothing turns people off more than you agreeing to do something and then not delivering.

Be a critical thinker who asks hard questions but helps define the path to success and is data-driven and willing and able to see the big picture.

Make yourself invaluable to a few good influential people.

Ask for feedback from colleagues.

Ask for help from people inside and outside your circle or comfort zone.

What you know is important, but who you know can also be important.

Professional societies provide an excellent venue in which to contribute and to become known in your profession.