Scientists who want to pursue a career outside academia need a 'PhD plus', panellists told a career seminar last week at the European Biotech Crossroads conference in Lille, France. The 'plus' is any skill beyond the scientific, from project management to writing. But where do you get that plus?

The panellists' own experiences illustrated different avenues — although all of them involved little or no formal training in these off-the-bench skills.

Manuel Gea, chief executive of Bio-Modeling Systems in Paris, learned about biotech and information technology by interacting with colleagues at other jobs. Tristan Rousselle, president of Protein'eXpert, a biotech company in Grenoble, France, had scientific skills but no management training when he launched his company, so he learned along the way. And Terry Vrijenhoek, a PhD student at Radboud University's medical centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, learned organizational skills, writing and graphic design when he helped to set up the Genomics Network for Young Scientists.

But nowadays you don't have to take the do-it-yourself route. There are a lot of formal courses, programmes and additional degrees that will teach you off-the-bench skills — many of which we have covered in our Postdocs & Students features (www.nature.com/naturejobs/archive/). But scientists at every stage of their career would do well to think about the additional skills they use to get their science done. Excelling in these can help you to climb the tenure track, but they also transfer well to other sectors.

Although formal training is great, it isn't essential. People looking to hire scientists outside academia want someone who can take on responsibilities, said Rousselle, and they don't necessarily care how the person got the skills needed to do the job. They will also respect people who have taken the initiative to gain those additional skills by whatever means.