What if, instead of climbing the corporate ladder, you could find hidden career opportunities aligned to your specialized skills, strengths, and life goals? Melissa Lawrence did that, and now she helps other women in pharma and biotech do the same. Her method helps women in science find new fulfilling roles, earn promotions outside of standard cycles, and get recognition as leaders, sometimes by creating opportunities that don’t yet exist on the org chart.
Lawrence focuses on pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, where she worked for more than 12 years. She developed her method specifically for the realities of working in industry, but the underlying principles—getting clear on what you want, positioning yourself effectively, and recognizing where real decisions get made— translate for all women in science.
Lawrence worked within Covance, Human Genome Sciences (now GSK), and Emergent BioSolutions before landing at AstraZeneca, where she eventually built her own role leading talent and development within Biologics Operations. She pioneered the “hidden door” strategy that she now teaches by putting it into practice for herself. Guided by her master’s degree work in organizational psychology, she followed a path that gave her a clear view of how organizations actually operate and, more specifically, how they make advancement decisions (hint: usually in rooms you’re not in).
Today, as the founder of Your Worthy Career®, Lawrence helps women in pharma and biotech move strategically, using insider knowledge and methods grounded in organizational psychology and human behavior, rather than relying on outdated, generic career advice that fails to account for the realities of this field. She has published Your Worthy Career: A Science-Backed Method to Build a Meaningful Career in Pharma & Biotech, and she also hosts the podcast Your Worthy Career. Her book is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can learn more about her approach at https://yourworthycareer.com.
I recently interviewed Lawrence about her expertise, work, and insights. Throughout our conversation, she offered a number of reframes that stayed with me: “Your best role may not exist on the company org chart”; “Seek promotions outside of the current promotion cycle”; “The linear career path is made for the company, not for the individual”; and my favorite, “Your Worthy Career means having a career worthy of you, and a career you feel worthy of.”
Ultimately, Lawrence’s approach may motivate you to ask the following questions: Where are the hidden doors in my organization? What unique skills and strengths could become the foundation of a role designed around me? Who might advocate for me in rooms where decisions are made? And what would a career worthy of me look like if I started creating it today?
Let’s hear directly from Lawrence.
The theme of this month’s magazine is Women in STEM Breaking New Ground. What can you tell our readers about how to break new ground in their careers?
The biggest shift is recognizing that there are far more opportunities available than what’s made visible. Women in STEM are taught to climb ladders, to look at the org chart, find the next logical opportunity, and wait for the right opening. But the most meaningful career moves I see, both in my own career and with my clients, don’t happen that way. They happen when a woman gets clear on the unique contribution she wants to make, independent of what she’s been told is possible or what looks like the obvious next step. That clarity changes everything. You start seeing opportunities you couldn’t see before. You make different career decisions. And sometimes that leads to becoming the obvious candidate for a role you wanted, a role being created for you, a promotion happening outside of cycle, or your current role being redesigned around your zone of genius.
I call these hidden doors. They aren’t always new roles, and they aren’t always on the org chart, which is why most women never see them. But they exist in every organization, and they’re usually the path to the work that actually feels worthy of you. Breaking new ground starts with letting go of the assumption that the visible path is the only path.
I often hear women wondering if they should stay or if they should leave their careers. How did you make the decision to pivot from working in biopharma to helping other women in that field? How did you know it was time? How can other women know when it’s time to make the next move?
For years I had what looked like a great career on paper. Good performance reviews, increasing responsibility, a role I’d built for myself. But I kept feeling like there was a bigger impact I could be making, and I couldn’t quite name it. I knew something was missing and that I had more to give. That desire pushed me to answer the question I’d been avoiding: What is my ideal role?
The decision to stay or go isn’t really the right question. The right question is: What do I actually want my career to look like, independent of what I think is possible right now? When you answer that honestly, without filtering through your current employer, your résumé, or what other people would approve of, the next move usually becomes obvious.
For me, the answer was that I wanted to help women in this industry avoid the years of trial and error I’d gone through. I’d developed a process for identifying exactly what role is right for someone, along with a method to actually get it, and it worked both for myself and for the women I was coaching within the organization. Once I tested it enough times to know the method was repeatable, the next move was clear.
Because this work is about helping women find their authentic, meaningful career, it’s best done independent of the employer. That keeps the process unbiased and fully in service of the woman I’m working with, without her employer needing to be involved in the outcome, especially when that outcome is a new company or a new boss.
Can you give us an example of a hidden door for career advancement?
One of my clients worked in facilities and engineering and knew exactly what she wanted: a change in responsibilities that better aligned with her passion for strategy deployment and people development. She built her case, asked for the change, and was told no.
That’s where most women stop. She didn’t. Together we got more granular with her strategy. We rewrote her job description, identified the specific value the change would create for the business, and built a communication plan to influence her leadership. The key was showing how her idea wasn’t just good for her: It was good for the company. Within three months, she was leading in a new role she had designed.
I learned this lesson myself early in my industry career. After earning my master’s in organizational psychology, I assumed the credential would lead to a promotion. It didn’t. I was told my role didn’t require a master’s, so the work I was doing on top of my role didn’t change anything. Instead of getting discouraged, I built relationships beyond my immediate leadership, connecting with global leaders and mentors who had influence in the rooms I wasn’t in. I learned to make a business case for my ideas rather than to just ask for recognition. That combination of relationships and strategy is what eventually expanded my role and led to the position I helped create for myself at AstraZeneca.
These aren’t ladders. They’re hidden doors. And the best part is, you don’t have to wait for someone to leave or for a job to be posted to move forward. When you know how to identify and open hidden doors, you can create the role that’s right for you, right where you are.
Is there anything else you want our AWIS readers to know?
Yes. The advice most women in STEM are given about their careers [does not relate to] the realities of pharma and biotech: the constant reorgs, the layoffs, the regulatory and political pressures, the male-dominated leadership rooms where decisions about us get made without us. It also tends to reinforce the very dynamics that hold us back: go back for another degree, get another certification, work harder, wait your turn.
In six years of coaching women in this industry, I have never had a client need another degree or certification to land a new role or promotion. What they needed was a different approach—one that combined organizational psychology with industry-specific strategy and one that addressed both the external ceilings imposed on us and the internal ceilings we put on ourselves.
That’s why I wrote Your Worthy Career, to make my method accessible to every woman in this industry, whether or not she ever works with me directly. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Is this it?” or “Why does this feel harder than it should?” the answer isn’t that something is wrong with you. It’s your internal compass telling you that it’s time for a change.
Meleah Ashford is a retired water resources engineer with a BS from Oregon State University and an MS from the University of California, Berkeley. She worked in industry for 30 years, mostly as an engineering consultant. Ashford now works as a certified Life Coach and owns Find Solid Ground Coaching, where she helps people meet goals related to financial well-being, starting a business, and living the life they desire. She has also owned an engineering firm. After growing up in rural eastern Oregon, she now lives in the Willamette Valley. She is currently writing a book about women in STEM.
This article was originally published in AWIS Magazine. Join AWIS to access the full issue of AWIS Magazine and more member benefits.