Sales and marketing as teaching and storytelling
Written by Marlene Schülein, PhD student at Karolinska Institutet and participant of the course “Career Skills for Scientists” during the autumn term 2025.
For Jens Gertow, his career was not something he approached with a goal in mind. After a PhD and a postdoc at Karolinska Institutet, he left academia to work at Mabtech where he combines his knowledge of immunology with his interest in communication in his role as Chief Marketing Officer.
Jens’ journey started with a biology degree in Linköping, after which his wish to move back to Stockholm drove him to continue his studies at Karolinska Institutet. “I had no real interest in staying in academia after that, I was looking for jobs and even considered switching to journalism. But a PhD position was offered to me, and I accepted it mainly because I was flattered.”
While this initial PhD position did not work out due to issues with the supervisor, Jens soon found another PI with whom he clicked much better and ended up doing a PhD in immunology. When his PhD was almost finished he still had no ambitions to stay in academia long-term, but worries about funding led him to secure a postdoc position instead. However, this decision was something he was ultimately quite unhappy with.
“I was expecting to have more independence as a postdoc, but I felt very controlled. The independence I had enjoyed while doing a PhD was missing, I hated it.”
Looking for alternatives
During his paternity leave, he came to the conclusion that he could not continue working like this and started looking for alternatives that would allow him to follow his interest in communication. At the same time, he started the fast-track to become a teacher, as another option to leave academic research, and was well into that when he came across a position in sales and marketing at Mabtech, a company focused on developing immunoassays for life science research.
“I hadn’t considered sales and marketing before, but when you think about it, it’s all about teaching and storytelling. It’s about figuring out what researchers need and offering solutions to their problems, and framing products in a way that is useful to them.”
When Jens joined Mabtech, he expected a big shift in working culture compared to his previous experiences in academia. Instead, he describes his early days at the company as feeling similar to working at a big academic lab. He started out at Mabtech as manager of distributors, and over time advanced to head of marketing. As of September 2025, he has dropped his responsibilities in sales and focuses solely on marketing.
Brainstorming and communication
His role includes a lot of different tasks, and there is no average day. A day usually involves attending meetings, but could also include writing white papers or scripts, doing voice overs, brainstorming or attending conferences. Jens’ favourite activity is brainstorming copy and taglines, either by himself or together with his team.
His least favourite activity used to be doing sales forecasts, a responsibility he recently got to drop thanks to his change in position. In his new role, he least enjoys doing salary revision talks. “I’m not a salesperson, I’m a communicator. I don’t like pushing things on people, but I’m happy to help and educate. And I don’t like having to be a boss for my team.”
Jens’ academic background has been a useful asset in marketing towards scientists, as it is important to understand their viewpoints and struggles. Having experienced the day-to-day life of a researcher, he is more familiar with their needs than with those of their customers in the pharma industry.
Be more than your PhD
He recommends PhD students to check what skills and interests they have, and to be more than just their PhD. He also emphasizes the importance of networking “The wider the network the better. Keep in mind that your network will increase with time, and your PhD colleagues will end up in different places. You never know where a connection might lead!”
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