Steffen Schulz was completing his PhD in medical neuroscience at the Charité university hospital in Berlin when he realized he wanted more job security than academia could offer. He is now a drug-safety manager at a pharmaceutical company in Germany.

Where do you work?

I'm based in Berlin. I grew up, studied for my diploma and did my PhD here, and I'm still in the same area.

How did you get your job?

I actually got it before I finished my PhD. My wife was pregnant with twins and I didn't want another fixed-term contract or to be forced to move anywhere. I considered a postdoc, but that felt like a stopgap. So I applied for work at a large pharmaceutical company, and started a trainee position there before I submitted my thesis. Since then I've been made permanent, and then promoted.

What do you do there?

In the drug-safety department, we take messages from physicians, pharmacists and patients about side effects from our company's drugs. I record and analyse that feedback, evaluate the benefit-to-risk ratio and see if any changes should be made to the patient-information leaflet or if we need to do something more dramatic.

Such as?

The serious side effects are reported directly to health agencies — Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices and the European Medical Agency. They can withdraw a drug from the market.

What would you tell people who want to move out of academia?

You can't apply early enough — it's worth trying even before you submit your thesis. Be aware of the different options. I hadn't heard of drug safety before I saw this job. And know your skills — most PhD students don't realize that they already have a lot of experience. Even managing experiments is a form of project management. That's valuable.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For more, see go.nature.com/2fv6p2s