I happened upon this article that expands upon some of the interview
ing ideas and tips that I presented in previous posts. The piece was written by someone from Business Week so it must relevant and might even be worth reading!
Until next time….
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!
The key to successful negotiations of any kind is realizing that you ARE NOT going to get everything that you want or expect. Likewise, this means that the person(s) sitting on the other side of the proverbial table is not going to get everything that he/she wants either. Simply put, you have to “give-to-get” during negotiations to reach an agreement that is mutually acceptable to all parties. Please note that I used the word “acceptable” rather than “satisfied” when referring to a negotiated agreement. In my experience, neither party is ever COMPLETELY satisfied with a negotiated agreement. Rather, the respective parties each received enough of what they initially wanted/expected to consider the deal ‘acceptable.”
When working as a professional recruiter, I determined, early on, that job offers are generally extended to “right-fit” candidates within several days after an interview. That said, if you haven’t heard back from a company within a week or so after your interview, it is likely that you are not their first choice for the position. Nevertheless, when you receive a job offer, the most important thing to remember is that ALL offers are negotiable. Based on my own personal and professional experiences, a company’s first offer is usually neither their best nor final offer.
Frequently, inexperienced job candidates are reluctant to negotiate an initial offer because they are afraid that the company might retract it if they appear “too greedy.” This is simply not the case. Because companies/organizations typically offer jobs to only those individuals who they want to work for them ,their primary objective is to do whatever is “reasonable” to induce the candidate to join their organization. Of course, companies sometimes have limited resources or flexibility regarding what they can offer a candidate to accomplish this! That said, job candidates are obliged to test the limits of corporate flexibility to negotiate the best compensation package they can before they are required to make a decision of whether or not to join a company/organization. Simply put, most nonprofit organizations and corporate entities expect some back and forth negotiations before a candidate makes his/her decision to accept or reject a job offer.
In my experiences, there are certain things that can and can’t be negotiated after an offer has been extended. Things that can be negotiated include:
In contrast, items that are rarely or cannot be negotiated are:
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Peggy McKee, a regular guest blogger at BioJobBlog has created a series of podcasts for her readers. The one that I posted here has to do with learning how to network—an essential skill that scientists are notoriously poor at! Because this is the first EVER podcast on BioJobBlog, please let me know whether it worked (I am a neophyte at this) and whether you thought it was useful. That said, listen and learn!!!!!!!!
Networking is critically important in the business world–and in the rest of the world, too, if you think about it. There are several keys things to consider when networking. Examples of these are:
The information in this podcast, will hopefully provide you with new insights into networking.
Click on: Peggy McKee - the medical sales recruiter… #4 - Networking - now and forever to listen to Peggy's podcast.
Until next time....
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!
Peggy McKee the author of the Medical Sales Recruiter Blog contacted me the other day about swapping posts from time to time. Like me, Peggy has a background in science and business and somehow found her way into the recruiting/career development space. After a lengthy and enjoyable conversation, we decided that a guest blog post once in a while would provide a breath of fresh air to our respective readers. It is always good to get another person's perspective on common themes, issues, problems etc that are encountered by people looking for jobs or trying to enhance their careers.
I hope that you enjoy Peggy's posts!
Until next time....
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!
During the course of my 25 years or so of participating in job interviews, I have come across a variety of questions that interviewers seem to routinely ask interviewees. While some of the questions may seem silly or ridiculous, according to interviewing etiquette and protocol (and how much you want the job) you are required to answer them. The intent of many of these questions is not to be flippant or intrusive but to determine whether a candidate can think quickly on his/her feet or field difficult questions that they may encounter as an employee.
An appropriate response to difficult interview questions (that appear to be personal or overly intrusive) is to couch your responses in the context of the position rather than revealing your true feelings or motivations. For example, if an interviewer asks: “Why are you looking for a new job”? An appropriate answer may be: “I am seeking new opportunities and challenges and I believe that I can find them at your company”. Don’t say: “My funding is running out or I can’t stand my boss anymore or I hate what I am currently doing.” In this instance, the interviewer isn’t really asking about your personal reasons or motives for looking for a new job or leaving an old one. He/she is probing to determine what your level of interest is in the job and whether you will be able to get along with employees who are already working for the company.
In my opinion, the best way to deal with personal or difficult interview questions is to be aware that they exist and to prepare “canned” answers for them. That said, I suggest that you carefully review the list of questions below and design well-crafted responses to each of them. Further, I think it is a good idea to conduct “mock interviews” with friends or colleagues to determine whether the responses that you crafted are sufficient and convincing enough. In my experiences, friends and colleagues have always been good barometers for the answers that I came up with. Hint: If they start laughing uncontrollably or look shocked or dismayed after you have answered a question, it may be a good idea to come up with a new answer.
While you may not be asked all of the questions on the list, I am willing to bet that you will be asked at least one of them!
TOP 10 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS LIST
10. Describe how you overcame adversity in your life
9. Tell me about your most disappointing experience
8. Tell me about your greatest achievements
7. Why are you looking for a new job?
6. Are you willing to relocate?
5. May I contact your current employer?
4. Why this company and not our competitors?
3. What are your weaknesses?
2. What are your strengths?
1. Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Please feel free to send me any questions that you may have been asked if they don’t already appear on the list!
Until next time….
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!
Job interviews can be very stressful and emotionally draining. After all, how you perform on a job interview will likely determine whether or not you get an offer for a position. In this post, I provide several interviewing tips, when followed, will likely reduce your stress level and increase your chances of getting a job offer.
The hard work you that invested in your resume has finally paid off–you just received a call from the ACME Biotech’s Human Resources Department inquiring about your availability for a face-to-face interview with the company. After about 30 seconds of elation and joy, fear and anxiety begin to creep into your psyche-“OMG, an interview, this is my first one, what am I going to do?”
As you all should know by now, a job interview is typically the pivotal event in any job search. Your performance on a job interview will likely be the different between a job offer or not. That said, you must be adequately prepared for all of yourjob interviews (even the ones that you think you don’t want) if you expect to receive job offers. Unlike stand-up comedy where improvisation has its place, ad libing or “shooting from the hip” during a job interview is dangerous and can yield disastrous results. Like everything else in life–practice makes perfect! So how does one prepare for a productive and successful job interview?
Scheduling An Interview
Typically, during your initial phone call, an HR representative will offer you several dates and times for an interview. I highly recommend that you refrain from verbally accepting the first date and time that the representative offers. Instead, thank him/her for the proffered dates and times and indicate that you will get back to them shortly regarding your availability. It is wise to use this approach because, at this stage of the job search process, there is a huge imbalance in the relationship between an employer and job candidate. Put simply, at this point, the employer has the power–without an offer you cannot work at the company! By delaying your response, you are signaling to the company that you (like their employees) are a busy person with a full schedule. Further, it suggests to a hiring manager that you may have other job interviews and that you’re “not desperate” for the job. Whether your level of desperation is high or low is irrelevant. The purpose of this tactic is to attempt to tip the balance of power in your favor–something that will be important in negotiations if a job offer is extended.
After you have decided which of the proposed interview dates and times is most convenient for you, call the company back to schedule the interview. Obviously, if there are scheduling conflicts surrounding the date that you chose, you must be flexible enough to accommodate the company. If your interview requires air travel, I highly recommend that you arrive a day before your interview. Arriving the evening before is okay but if you flight is delayed or cancelled you may be out of luck! Likewise, if the interview requires that you drive more than 2 hours, I highly recommend that you arrive at the interview destination the evening before. Again, if you wait until the day of the interview to travel, heavy traffic, weather conditions, road closures or car problems may prevent you from arriving to your interview on time.
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As some of you may know, I worked as a professional recruiter for about 3 years in the late 1990s. What surprised me the most during my recruiting sojourn was the undeserved disdain that people have for recruiters (or “headhunters” as they are known in the vernacular) and how little they understood about the inner workings of the recruiting industry. Like it or not, professional recruiting is an accepted part of corporate life!
Contrary to popular belief, recruiters don’t work for the people who are looking for jobs–they work for and are paid by the companies that engage them! Generally speaking, there are three types of recruiters. Retained recruiters are usually hired by corporate clients to fill senior level corporate positions and are paid a predetermined and agreed upon placement fee whether or not they fill a position. In other words, these recruiters are “on retainer” and work for companies on an “as needed basis.” Contingency recruiters, as the name implies, only get paid when a client company hires a job candidate that was brought to them by a recruiter. As you might imagine, contingency recruiting is a very fast paced, highly competitive and often stressful job–I was a contingency recruiter. Finally, the third type of recruiter, an exclusive contingency recruiter, is an amalgamation of executive and contingency recruiting. In this case, a recruiter receives a portion of his/her placement fee in advance and only receives the remainder when the position is filled with a candidate recommended by the recruiter.
Recruiters are expensive and they cost the companies that use them substantial sums of money. Placement fees usually range from 20% to as high as 45% of a new hires’s first year total compensation package. With this in mind, hiring managers use recruiters only when they need to find candidates for critical or difficult-to-fill positions. In general, companies rarely use recruiters to find entry level employees. However, most bioscience companies use recruiters and they typically have a stable of contingency recruiters that work with on a regular basis.
How Recruiters Work
Recruiters use a variety of tactics ranging from referrals to cold calling to get job orders from their corporate clients. Once a recruiter receives a job order, he/she develops a profile for right-fit candidates largely based on the job description, the salary range for the job, the company’s benefits, bonus and relocation packages and its corporate culture. Recruiters find prospective candidates by searching job candidate databases (compiled by the recruiter or the company the recruiter is working for), getting referrals from colleagues, industry professionals and other recruiters and by placing ads in specialty and trade magazines, or listing ads on web-based job boards (e.g. like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Linked-In, etc).
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Like it or not, writing a carefully-constructed resume or curriculum vitae (as resumes are known in scientific circles) is a vital part of any successful job search. Inexperienced job seekers tend to hastily craft resumes without paying much attention to format, style or content and then wonder why they can’t land job interviews. The best way to approach resume writing is to think of a resume as a work of art–something that requires a lot of thought, creativity and attention to detail. As one well-known professional recruiter and job search expert put it”Trying to find a job without a smart, well-crafted resume is like showing up for dinner at a fancy restaurant in a T-shirt and cutoffs. They won’t let you in.”
I think that it is important for job seekers to think of a resume as a personal marketing brochure that will either land a job candidate interviews or turn a job search into a long, arduous and frustrating process.
The primary goal of a resume is to show prospective employers how you are different than other applicants and why you and not they ought to get the job! So, what are the salient features of a winning resume?
Writing tips
Hiring managers, professional recruiters and human resource professionals tend to quickly scan resumes that they receive and make snap judgments. Therefore, your qualifications and personal attributes must “jump off the paper.” This can easily be accomplished by using bold type, headings, underlining, bulleting and varying font sizes–all of which are simple ways to visually call attention to your strengths. Avoid using paragraphs because they are dense and difficult for hiring managers to navigate.
Powerful, action-oriented, emotional words produce a strong, positive impression. Unfortunately, we scientists have been trained to write in the “passive voice.” That said; try to resist using the passive voice as much as possible when crafting your resume–think outside the box!
Job Objective or Summary Statement
I am sure that somebody has told you at one time or another to include an “objective” on your resume. Objectives tend to be boring, vague and passively delivered. Instead, I highly recommend that you craft a vibrant, action-oriented, can-do “Summary of Qualifications” that accurately reflects and highlights why you are a “right fit” candidate for the job. To that end, it may be necessary to craft more than one summary of qualifications if you are applying for several different types of jobs. For example, your summary statement for an R&D job should be markedly different than the one that you would use to land a business development job.
Which of the following examples do you think better positions the job candidate?
Objective: To obtain a research scientist position at a pharmaceutical company
Or
Summary of Qualifications: Experienced scientist with expertise in protein purification and microarray technology. Exceptional leadership abilities and outstanding oral and written communication skills. Able to work independently or as part of a multidisciplinary team.
Professional Experience
Resumes can be constructed either chronologically or functionally. Chronological resumes, which are most common, list content in temporal order and should be used for either lateral job moves or when seeking a promotion or looking for a new job to advance your career. When crafting a chronological resume, jobs or work experience must be listed from most recent to past. In contrast, functional resumes offer content based on skills and are most effective for individuals who are seeking career changes. Functional resumes should present your skills in the order of importance for the new career that you are pursuing.
It is important to stress that only information relevant to the position should be included in a resume. Unrelated job titles or skills can sometimes confuse hiring managers and may cause them to pass on a qualified candidate. As mentioned above, most hiring managers and employers are simply too busy to read all of the resumes that they receive. Resumes that are chosen for further considerations are typically the ones that contain pertinent, job-specific information that is presented in a straightforward and unambiguous manner.
If you switch jobs frequently or have gaps in your experience put the dates of employment in the far right hand column of the resume (we read from left to right so sometimes dates of employment are overlooked) or hide the job-changing by combining or grouping several jobs together to appear as one. Also, employment dates ought to be listed as years; not the exact start and stop dates of employment, e.g., dates should appear as 2001-2002 not July 10, 2001-January 15, 2002.
Tailoring Your Resume
A resume is not just a list of what you have done and where you have been. It is your opportunity to present and highlight the skills that you possess and how those skills translate into making you the right-fit candidate for a particular job. Quantifying or embellishing achievements and using strong, definitive statements elevate and add authenticity to you as a job candidate.
Which of these examples sounds better?
Designed and directed experiments to study Alzheimer’s disease
Or
Designed and carried out experiments that identified a key protein in amyloid plaque formation
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I wanted to follow up my post last week–Part 2: Ask the Recruiter--Job Searching –with a short post about writing cover letters. As I mentioned in my post last week, the purpose of a cover letter is to summarize your background and skill sets so that a hiring manager (who reads the letter) can quickly determine whether you are qualified for the job for which you applied. In addition to mentioning your background and skill sets, it is vital that cover letters be customized to include buzz words and job qualifications found in the ad that induced you to apply for the job. By showing the hiring manager that you meet all the job requirements and possess the requisite skills listed in the job ad, it makes its easier to determine whether you are qualified for the job. Writing a strong, customized cover letter rather then sending out a form cover letter can make the difference between getting a job interview or not.
Rather then try and describe how to craft a strong cover letter, I highly recommend that you take a look at the following cover letter example that came to me by way of the Monster Career Newsletter. Although most of the articles in the newsletter are geared for Monster users, this is that provided insight into crafting a winning cover letter.
Please let me know whether you found the article useful or helpful!
Overview
Once a job search has been organized and you have identified: 1) what you are qualified to do; 2) where you want to live and 3) how much money you want to make, it is time to begin looking for that dream job. However, as many of you know, looking for a job is very time consuming; requires a great deal of attention and can be extremely stressful and frustrating at times. Don’t expect it to be easy and certainly do not wait until the less minute to start your search. Finding a new job in today’s economy can take as long as 6 months to a year or more.
Unfortunately, many inexperienced jobseekers tend to conduct job searches employing a method that I call the “shotgun” approach. Much like a shotgun blast, which is imprecise but hits many targets, these jobseekers mindlessly apply to any and all jobs that they find appealing–usually oblivious to job qualifications or requirements. More often than not, shotgun jobseekers are disappointed and, often, downcast because they rarely find jobs. Based on a lack of employer responsiveness, shotgun jobseekers usually conclude that they are “simply unemployable”. While this may be a possibility, it is more likely that they lacked the qualifications to win the jobs that they applied for. To avoid the pitfalls, anxiety and emotional anguish of the shotgun approach, I heartily recommend that jobseekers utilize a job search strategy that I call the “cruise missile” approach. Like cruise missiles, these job searches are well crafted, very targeted and executed with pinpoint accuracy. This approach requires the jobseeker to be highly organized, extremely disciplined and to insure that he/she is qualified for a job before submitting a job application. While this approach will result in fewer actual job applications as compared with the shotgun method, the success rate will be much higher.
The Job Search Process
The first step in a job search is to find out who is hiring. These days, the best places to look for job ads are:
After identifying possible jobs that interest you, the next step is to determine whether you are QUALIFIED for them. This means that you must carefully read the job description and determine whether:
You may have to compromise on some of these items but if you meet most of the job specifications and requirements, the next step is to apply for the job(s). However, before you do this, it is imperative that have previously prepared 2 important documents:
One note of caution–it is not prudent to add the name of a reference to your list until you have talked with them to insure that they will write a “good letter” on your behalf. A bad letter of reference is the “kiss of death” for any job that you may apply for! Finally, never send the names of your references to prospective employers unless they have specifically asked for them–it is a small world and you never know who is saying what about whom!
Applying for a Job
I highly recommend that you include a cover letter when apply for a job in response to Continue Reading...
Many people think that organizing a job search requires little more than quickly throwing together a resume, applying for online jobs or answering print ads and then kicking back to wait for responses from prospective employers. While this scenario may have been accurate 10 years ago– when jobs were abundant and the economy was humming– it is no longer the case. In fact, the current science job market may be one of the most challenging in the past 20 years or so. This is likely due to shrinking government research spending, contraction of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and the possibility that the American economy is slipping into recession. Nevertheless, there are still available jobs out there. But, in contrast with the past few years, getting them will require a carefully planned and well orchestrated job search.
The initial steps of any job search require answers to several key questions. These include:
Although answers to these questions may, on the surface appear easy, I can assure you that they are NOT and require a great deal of thought! First, not everyone knows what they truly want to do after completing 6 or more years of graduate and postdoctoral training. More importantly, many people are convinced that they know what they want to do (largely based on discussions with mentors and advisors) but are ill- informed or have little idea about the actual day-to-day responsibilities and specific duties of certain types of jobs. Therefore, before you apply for a particular job, you must critically assess whether you possess the requisite skill sets or experience to successfully compete for the job. For example, if you are protein biochemist and have no industry experience, it wouldn’t be prudent to apply for business development jobs that require a year or more of industrial experience. No matter what lab you trained in or how many publications you have, I guarantee that you will not get the job. Therefore, it is vitally important that you understand the requirements, qualifications and types of jobs that you will be able to compete for. If you don’t understand these parameters, you are in for a long, frustrating and unsuccessful job search.
Continue Reading... I think by now that Americans realize that the economy is taking a sharp.jpg)
downward turn. Even the recession-proof pharmaceutical industry has taken a huge beating over the past year or so– and things seem to be getting worse! The biotechnology industry, which is highly dependent upon venture capital and private equity to remain healthy, is also trending downward and will be hit hard if the economy slides into recession. To make matters worse, the US Department of Labor recently released figures which showed projected growth (for 2006 to 2016) for the fastest-growing occupations in America (see below). Not surprisingly, scientists–industrial or academic– did not make the top 20 list.
| Occupation | Median Wage (May, 2006) | % Expected Growth |
| Registered nurses | $57,280 | 587 |
| Retail salespeople | $19,760 | 557 |
| Customer service representatives | $28,330 | 545 |
| Food preparation & serving (including fast food ) | $15,050 | 452 |
| Office and general clerical workers | $23,710 | 404 |
| Personal and home-care aides | $17,770 | 389 |
| Home health aides | $19,420 | 384 |
| Post-secondary school teachers | $56,120 | 382 |
| Janitors and cleaners (not maids and housekeeping) | $19,930 | 345 |
| Hospital nursing aides, orderlies and attendants | $22,180 | 264 |
| Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks | $30,560 | 264 |
| Waiters and waitresses | $14,850 | 255 |
| Child care workers | $17,630 | 248 |
| Executive secretaries and administrative assistants | $37,240 | 239 |
| Computer software and application engineers | $79,780 | 226 |
| Accountants and auditors (4 year college degrees) | $54,630 | 226 |
| Landscaping and lawn workers | $21,260 | 221 |
| Elementary school teachers (not special education) | $45,750 | 209 |
| Receptionist and information clerks | $22,900 | 202 |
| Truck drivers, heavy equipment and tractor trailer | $35,040 | 193 |
Together, this suggests that finding jobs in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology or related industries will be tougher in the next few years than it has been in the past. I suspect that this is not welcome news for those of you who have tried but were unable to find jobs in the past few years. With this in mind, I decided to launch a series of weekly blog posts that will last for 6 to 7 weeks entitled: “Everything That You Ever Wanted to Know about Finding a Job in the Bioscience industry …and Then Some”
I will post these weekly installments on my blog in the “Ask the Recruiter” category. I hope that the folks who read my blog will leave comments or ask me questions that may arise after you have perused the posts. Topics will include:
Because this undertaking is going to require a bit of thought and a lot of work, I decide to invite my colleagues Eric Celidonio and Joe Tringali to help me out. Eric and Joe are professional recruiters and bioscience career development specialists who work with me at local and national science meetings where we present bioscience career development seminars and provide resume critiquing services to graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and industrial scientists. Eric, Joe and I have worked together for the past 4 years or so and we are affectionately known as “The Three Bioscience Amigos”. It is our goal to offer you some insights and tips to enable you to find gainful employment in the bioscience industry.
Until next time…
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I am frequently asked by graduate students and postdoctoral fellows whether it would be worthwhile for them to get an MBA to compete more successfully for industry jobs. Typically, the first question that I ask them in a response to their question goes something like: “Oh, are you really THAT interested in business’? or “Well, if you are THAT interested in business, why did you waste your time getting a Ph.D. degree? My question is typically followed by a long, uncomfortable silence.
The bottom line is– that newly-minted Ph.D.s who are thinking about going back to school for an MBA degree are frequently individuals who cannot find jobs. I think that getting an MBA degree, in addition to a Ph.D., may not offer the competitive edge that many folks think when it comes to industry jobs. In my experience, the only way that an MBA degree may help a Ph.D. scientist is when the scientist deletes “Ph.D.” after his/her name in favor of “MBA”. Don’t laugh…this is true!
The assumption made by many non-scientists (who typically run pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies) is that ALL Ph.D.s (regardless of their background) are “lab geeks” who cannot comprehend the complexity of the business world. Whether you have an MBA or not, once you are identified as a Ph.D., you will forever be considered “one of the laboratory guys” who has nothing to offer when it comes to business discussions. Sad but true!!!!!!!!
As many of you know, I spend a considerable amount of my spare time attending job and career fairs. At these events, I typically present career development seminars and group discussion sessions. However, the lion's share of the time that I spend at these events, is spent on individualized resume critiquing and review. The good news is that a majority of you recognize that a well crafted resume is an essential tool to conduct job searches. That said, many of you have an unrealistic view of what resumes can accomplish for job candidates. Resumes ought to be designed to enable a job candidate to get his/her proverbial "foot in the door" by procuring a job interview after an application and resume are sent to prospective employers. With this in mind, I offer a few resume tips.
First, as mentioned above, resumes ought to be considered as a "necessary first step" to get your “foot in the door” with prospective employers. With this in mind, a resume must quickly convey to a reader :
1). Who you are
2). What you do
3). What skill sets and talents you bring to the table
To that end, important and job specific information should be placed at the top of first page of the resume immediately below your name and contact information in a section entitled “Summary of Qualifications”. This section should be carefully crafted to reflect who you are and why you are the right person for the job. The purpose of this section is to attempt to quickly ”sell” yourself to a hiring authority. Since hiring managers typically spend only 30 to 60 sec. reviewing individual resumes to determine whether a candidate may be an appropriate “fit” for a job, it is imperative that this section be carefully considered and clearly presented.
Second, resumes are “living” documents. They are constantly changing and should be updated regularly to reflect career progress or acquisition of new skills. Stale resumes to do not win jobs!
Continue Reading...As some of you may know, I was a professional recruiter during the course of my rather eclectic career. I am certain that many of you, at one time or another, have had "job questions" that you wanted answered but were unable to find the right person to ask! To that end, I am willing to offer my sage advice to all of those still burning questions. If you post them, I promise to answer (if I can, of course!)--------
I am frequently asked "What qualifications will enable me to get a job at a biotechnology company?" I usually take a deep breath and say "That is a difficult question". However, as much as I hate to admit it, the answer to the question is quite simple.......EXPERIENCE! If you have previous industrial biotechnology experience finding a new job (or your first real job) is literally just a matter of time.So, how does an individual with no experience find a job when previous experience is an absolute requirement? Although somewhat of a conundrum, there are several things that you can do to get industry experience without ever being a biotech employee. First, you can find a summer internship at a local biotechnology company. Internships are becoming increasingly popular because they represent a way for a company to get to know prospective employees without paying them a "real" salary (you may get paid a nominal amount). Internships can lead to employment at the company where you are an intern. Further, they permit you to network with individuals who may be able to help you find jobs at other biotechnology companies.Another approach that many innovative folks employ is working as an unpaid volunteer at a company. Although this is a more unorthodox approach, it serves much the same purpose as a formal internship. Working as an unpaid volunteer at a company demonstrates that you are motivated to do whatever it takes to gain employment in the biotechnology industry. Finally, you can attempt to secure an industrial postdoctoral fellowship. However, it is important to point out that these positions are relatively rare. They were much more available in the '80s and '90s but have largely disappeared today.If none of these approaches is viable, the only thing that I can recommend is to take as many industry-focused courses that you can! These courses (which are available at many community colleges and regulatory training companies) have titles like "Good Laboratory Practices"(GLP), "Good Clinical Practices" (GCP) and "Good Manufacturing Practices" (GMP). Having these courses on your resume may convince prospective employers that you understand the rules and regulations that guide the biotechnology industry. Moreover, throwing in a few buzz words like GLP, GCP and GMP during a job interview never hurts. However, you better know what these terms entail before you use them! Sometimes a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.--------
Have you ever received a phone call from a recruiter that goes like "Dr. Smith speaks very highly of you. I am working on this job opportunity...... Immediately, you begin to curse Dr Smith in your head for giving this headhunter your name. Did Smitty give the headhunter your name just to bug you or did you mention to him at the last meeting that you are bored and looking for new challenges?Is this a bad thing (that a headhunter has your name) or is the characterization of professional recruiters as blood sucking leeches apt? I guess the answer to this question depends on the recruiter. Some are good and others are not. As a former professional recruiter myself, I like to think that I helped all of my candidates. However, most recruiters do not have a Ph.D. degree nor have they ever worked in the biotechnology industry. That said, I guess my candidates were lucky!Please post your experiences with recruiters good or bad so that we can arrive at a consensus on the topic--------
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