Seeking Advice on Transitioning into In Vivo Training Roles
Hello colleagues,
I’m reaching out to the laboratory animal science and preclinical research community for guidance and insight as I actively pursue roles focused on In Vivo Scientific Training, such as In Vivo Training Specialist, In Vivo Training Coordinator, or Training & Development roles within vivarium or biotech settings.
With over 15 years of experience in in vivo research and technical procedures—spanning roles at Moderna, Merck, Pfizer, and Charles River—and more than a decade as an Adjunct Professor teaching rodent and rabbit techniques, I’ve found my passion lies in training, mentoring, and elevating technical excellence across teams.
I’m now looking to formally transition into a dedicated training role where I can focus on onboarding, coaching, and procedural education, while maintaining compliance and promoting best practices in animal care and research.
I’d appreciate any of the following:
Advice on how others have made this transition
If you’re trying to go from in vivo → training / L&D, this is what helped me:
I literally wrote down everything I do. Like… everything. It was a HUGE list — and honestly eye-opening.
Then I stopped focusing on tasks and started framing it as training, onboarding, coaching, documentation, and process improvement.
On LinkedIn I:
Swapped my headline to training keywords so recruiters can find me
Reframed hands-on work as teaching, competency sign-offs, and mentoring
Listed what trainers actually create: SOPs, job aids, checklists, slide decks, live trainings
Wrote my roles around impact, not just “I did X”
That giant list also made me realize I probably qualify for other roles too — like project management, ops, or process improvement — not just training.
Once I named the work, the transition finally made sense on paper.
You’re likely already doing this work — you just haven’t claimed it yet.