What I Told Future Biostatistics Leaders at UC San Diego

Happy New Year!

Can you believe January is more than half over? I still haven’t finished doomscrolling yet:

• Wildfires and earthquakes and plane crashes and severe storms and bird flu.
• Regime change in Canada, Korea, and Syria. Upcoming transition of power in US too.
• More layoffs from Microsoft and Meta and Amazon and Zillow.
• Swarming of US Tiktokkers into Chinese RedNote ahead of the ban.
• Price hikes from both Microsoft and Google as Copilot AI gets bundled into Microsoft Office and Gemini AI gets bundled into Google Workplace and Gmail.

Among my friends and relatives, two unexpectedly passed away this week too. It feels like we’re back at the beginning of the pandemic again when everyone is checking in with each other.

We often crave newness and change, but not too much change all at once, and certainly not unexpected changes out of our control. Let’s cherish each day and focus on helping the people and situations that we can.

Within my scope this week, the day for me to teach a class at UC San Diego finally arrived.

A few months ago, one of my mentors asked me to teach in his new biostatistics leadership class at UC San Diego. I said yes. This week, I taught “Leadership Topics: Grow Your Career Through Adaptability & Personal Branding” at UCSD.

Here’s what some of the folks from the class told me afterwards:

• “That was amazing! You really nailed it.”
• “I want to thank you for giving us such an inspiring and informative talk!”
• “I want to emphasize how important your presentation was today… It made me more confident and I realized that I am on the right track… I truly appreciate that you allocated time to present to us such an important topic.”
• I also wanted to say that I find your journey from an engineer to a data scientist incredibly impressive.”

Want to know what I taught in this data leadership class? I’ll share the an excerpt of the introduction adapted for you:

Leadership Topics: Grow Your Career Through Adaptability & Personal Branding

• The average job growth in the US to the year 2033 will be 4%, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• However, the job growth will be 11% for statisticians. Most of the job growth are in Research and Development, Government, and Academia.
• Guess what? The job growth for biostatisticians will be 32%, according to CareerExplorer.

All that job growth for biostatisticians comes from the growth of the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. As the US population gets older, the population will want more medicines and therapies to treat health issues. Your hybrid skills in both statistics and health care will be much needed.

That’s the Good News.

But there’s potential Bad News…

In 2024, there were 192 mass layoffs announced by biopharma companies, according to the layoff tracker from Fierce Biotech.

Layoffs included big companies and small companies.

Some companies like Takeda closed their entire San Diego office. Others like Bayer and Bristol Myers Squibb laid off 1000s of workers worldwide. One of my friends said her biotech company laid off 73% of its employees last week. 73% is huge!

• On one hand, the biotech industry is growing rapidly, and the job outlook for biostatisticians is way above average.
• On the other hand, the biotech industry and most other industries, go through these huge cycles of reduction in force.

What can you do, to future-proof your career in biostatistics?

It’s not just the biotech and pharmaceutical industry. I come from the internet and technology industry. Heavy layoffs there too. Microsoft and Meta and Amazon announced more layoffs this week.

These layoffs are not always due to financial crises within the companies. Companies cite additional reasons nowadays for layoffs. Layoffs and restructuring are just part of the modern work environment.

I’ll go over what you can do to future-proof and grow your career, regardless of circumstances. That’s the benefit for you to be here today in this class.

My recommendation is for you to:

1. Become a Pi-Shaped Professional with leadership skills
2. Build your personal brand and reputation

I’ve seen these work. And I’ll share about these techniques with you today (to be continued in a future email)...

Leadership Development for You

For leadership development at UC San Diego, I taught these learners valuable lessons about the value of becoming a Pi-Shaped Professional and also actionable tips to build their personal brand and reputation. The students had paid thousands of dollars to enroll in the university for courses to build their careers. I’m grateful that I was able to spend two hours with them to make an impact in their career trajectories.

If you too are interested in leadership development from me, I offer these options for you:

• Data Leaders Community of Practice. This program offers a unique opportunity to connect with other data leaders in the industry, engage in valuable discussions, and strengthen your leadership abilities. Contact me to learn more and I’ll let you know how to get a 10% discount on membership in the next 6-month cohort starting February. (Learn more)
• Personal Branding for Data Professionals and Leaders. Get the same lessons on building your personal brand and reputation as what I gave to the biostatistics leadership class, plus more. This short online course is normally $49. I gave the UCSD students 50% off. I’m extending the same discount to you too, my dear readers, if you enroll by January 20th 12 pm PT (no promo code needed). For only $24.50, get my best tips on how to build your reputation as a data professional in under one hour. (Learn more with free preview)
• Private Coaching and Team Training. Contact me if you want private coaching or leadership development for your team. (Learn more)

In any case, I would love to hear how you’re doing and explore ways to partner in your success in 2025. Please reply back to this email or schedule a brief 15-minute call even if you just want to say hi:

Jimmy Wong

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Jimmy Wong Coach, speaker, and entrepreneur enabling people to thrive in the age of AI. Data science leader with 12 years experience at the LinkedIn company and 27 years in the industry. Visit aijimmy.com​ ​​​​​​

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