Job Search Strategies for the Unemployed
Many people lost their jobs during the recession for reasons that were unrelated to personal skills and performance. Nevertheless, many hiring managers cling to the wrong-headed notion that long term unemployed persons are unemployed or layed off because they were less than adequate or under performers in their previous positions. Therefore, it is important for unemployed persons to pursue strategies that ensure that they remain strong job candidates for prospective new employers.
An article by Eilene Zimmerman entitled “Out of Work but Staying a Strong Candidate” offers some good advice for the unemployed. First, unemployed persons may have to reconsider the way in which they network to look for new job opportunities. To that point, people in your old network may feel guilty that they are employed and you don’t have a job. Because of this, they may feel sorry for your or see you as injured or defeated and possibly avoid interacting with you or including you at industry events. To obviate this, it is a good idea when networking with them to offer an article or blog post that may be temporal and relevant to your industry or mentioning a professional opportunity that they may not know about. Also, it is a good idea to stay abreast of important and current things happening in your industry (or an industry that you are interested in breaking into). This shows people that you are still engaged and interested in other professional opportunities that may exist. Finally, maintain your membership in professional societies (even though you may not be flush with cash) and consider volunteering on committees in these organizations. This shows other industry professionals that you are active and engaged. Also, professional association members frequently hear about or learn of unadvertised jobs or career opportunities within an industry.
There is no question that losing your job can be devastating and emotionally distressing. However, just because you are unemployed, it doesn’t mean that your standing or stature in your industry needs to be negatively impacted. To that end, keep your certifications, professional credentials and licenses up to date and participate in other activities that make use of your professional skills. Finding part-time or contract work in your industry is also a plus as is volunteering or doing unpaid work for charitable organizations.
Another popular strategy is to start your own consulting firm. While your previous employer may have layed you off to cut costs, it does not mean that they will not considering hiring you as a consultant (they don’t have to pay benefits, bonuses or contribute to a 401K and can write off your services as 1099 work). Landing one or two small gigs may be able to tide you over until you find a new fulltime position.
Most unemployed people are rightly-concerned about the employment gap that will appear on their CV or resume. Unfortunately, there is no real way to hide it! One way to manage an employment gap is to add a Summary of Qualifications or Profile section to your resume. This section can be placed at the beginning of the resume (underneath your name and contact information) and should be crafted to extol your skills and qualifications for individual jobs. This means that every time you apply for a new position, the Summary of Qualifications section must be tailored and optimized to show prospective employers why you and not the other 1,000 applicants ought to be considered for the job. Also, as suggested in Ms Zimmerman’s article, you can change the title of the section “work experience” to “experience” and describe any contract, part-time or volunteer work (which was unpaid) using the same language; which focused on your results, strategies used to get there and your contributions to the organization during your tenure.
Finally, and perhaps most important, unemployed persons must learn to deal with and come to terms about unemployment history during job interviews. Nobody likes admitting that they were fired or layed off but, as a rule of thumb, it is best to be as honest (as possible) because most industries and networks are small and job candidates who are less than truthful almost always get caught! For example, if you were part of a large layoff at your previous employer, then it is a good idea to explain the circumstances to the interviewer and also indicate that you were not layed off for performance reasons. Further, it is not a good idea to apply for or interview for any job that may be available at a particular company or organization. If you are overqualified or not the right fit for a job, many employers will not even consider you for the job because they fear that you will leave as soon as something more appropriate comes along. That said, it is important to only apply for jobs within your industry that represent a good fit with your skill sets and experience. If that fails to yield positive results, then you may want to consider a different industry; but recognize that you may need additional training to acquire the skills or experience even to be considered for entry level positions in that industry!
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!
The US Food and Drug Administration finally released portions of the long-awaited guidance documents that will help to implement the development and approval of biosimilar molecules under the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2009 (BPCIA)
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 
The Pharmalot blog 
While I spend most of my time as a freelancer, I sometimes will do contract work because the pay is good and the hours are reasonable. As many of you know by now, using contractors rather than hiring new employees has become the new way of controlling costs and keeping the full time headcount low. After all, paying someone an hour wage without covering insurance and other employee benefits costs can be huge savings to companies trying to maintain competitiveness and cut costs.
Those of you who manufacture products approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are well aware of the importance of complying with Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) during FDA mandated inspections of your manufacturing facilities. Failure to comply with cGMP requirements during an inspections results in the issuance of 483s. And if you fail to adequately address the concerns of the agency outlined in 483s, it may ultimately result in issuance of warning letter to your company.
Since 2001 many major pharmaceutical companies have been restructuring their sales forces and laying off reps to reduce redundancies, improve efficiencies and cut costs. This downsizing, which likely peaked about a year ago, is mainly in response to the projected loss of sales revenue as many blockbuster drugs lose patent protection over the next three years or so. For example, products like Lipitor, Plavix and Zyprexa that currently generate more than $142 billion in sales are expected to face stiff generic competition in the very near future. 
After announcing its quarterly earnings and a 24 percent increase in 2011 profits, AstraZeneca (AZ) .jpg)
I started BioJobBlog in 2007 primarily as a means for me to express myself about life science careers and issue and challenges confronting the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices industry. That said, I never thought that BioJobBlog would ever amount to much; it was simply a vehicle for me to rant and rave about things that were important to me! It is a daunting challenge to begin a blog with no readers and then realize that 5 years later over 2.0 million unique readers have visited to read my thoughts and ideas about a wide breadth of topics.
Thing have been quiet in the pharma layoff space during 2012. I guess that is not so surprising since we are only one month into 2012. However, there was a 
When I was a graduate student back in the dark ages, I took an advanced statistics course and then briefly worked in a laboratory where statistical analysis of data derived from animal models of disease (in this case the guinea pig model of tuberculosis) were essential. After leaving that lab, I developed an appreciation for the power of statistics (when appropriately designed according the laws of parametric statistics) and actually used statistical analyses of in vitro data for my PhD thesis. Unlike me, most of my contemporaries never understood statistics and thought that statistics can be used to manipulate data to confirm any hypothesis put forth by an investigator..jpg)
Chicago-based Abbott Laboratories 
Let’s start with the good news first. A 
Disposing of unused prescription and over the counter drugs including antibiotics, antidepressants, anticonvulsants and birth control pills by dumping them down the toilet has 
Cambridge, MA-based Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, one of the many companies founded on the promise of RNAi technology .jpg)
Ome Ogbru, Pharm. D, CEO and Founder of 
Sandoz, the generics division of Novartis, is currently the world leader in the biosimilar market. In fact, if it was not for Sandoz, the biosimilar industry may never have gotten started in the first place! As some of you may know, Sandoz sued FDA (and won) to gain approval of its biosimilar human growth hormone. While FDA contends that Omnitrope is not really a biosimilar (it was approved as a “drug” rather than a biologic) most analysts agree that it was the first biosimilar product ever approved and sold in the US. 
Asia’s largest drug maker, Takeda, 
The past several years I have been 
I suspect that most of us have been in the situation where a boss or an immediate supervisor asks you to take on another assignment. Given the state of the economy and the tenuous nature of most jobs, most employees believe that they have no choice but to accept the assignment despite the fact that it will likely cut into personal time or require overtime work. After all, saying no may be tantamount to a pink slip and collecting unemployment benefits. 
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Earlier this week, I suggested in a 
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By now, most people have heard that the average national unemployment rate has fallen from close to 9.0% to 8.6%—the lowest in almost three years. While this may be cause for celebration, a closer inspection of other statistical findings is necessary to get a real picture of American unemployment (notwithstanding the fact that unemployment rates for African Americans and Hispanics are in double digits)..jpg)
There were some big microbiology stories in 2011 and many of them were covered on This Week in Microbiology (TWiM) a pod cast and vcast program created by 
Much has been written about the emerging markets in China. While there are likely thousands of business article and white papers on China’s economic expansion, I was unable to find a single source that provided me with some vital economic and social statistics to explain China’s rise as an economic power; that is until I received OnWisconsin, a quarterly publication from my alma mater the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This past holiday season, as usual, was rife with massive layoffs and downsizing at various big pharma companies. Interestingly, in 2011, most biotechnology companies were able to weather the economic downturn and layoffs were not typical. Sadly, 2012 looks to be a more challenging year for many biotechnology company employees.
Vincent Racaniello, PhD podcaster extraordinaire and a 
Some of you may have been wondering why I have not been posting as much as I usually do. This is because I am experience technical difficulties with BioJobBlog. 
In many cases, people looking for 
There are differences of opinions regarding whether or not to include certain things on a resume or curriculum vitae (CV). Some career specialists contend that it is okay to include things like an objective statement, “references upon request”, telephone numbers and hobbies on a CV whereas others do not. That said, most career experts agree that the following SHOULD NOT appear on a resume or CV 
While I consider myself to be an informed microbiologist, I had never heard the assertion that chewing gum may reduce the incidence of ear infections among children. As we all know from our primary and secondary school educations, chewing gum is frowned upon and in the old days landed some of us detention! Therefore, a 
Yes, you read the title of this post correctly. A Brazilian study, published in the 
A fascinating article entitled “
Online degree programs have exploded in the past 10 years or so and are now considered to be a legitimate way to earn a second or third degree to enhance the chances of finding a job in a tough economy. Further, an article that recently appeared in the NY Times .jpg)
Conventional wisdom has it that when economic times are tough enrollment in graduate schools tends to increase. After all, there are no jobs to be had so jobseekers go back to skill to increase their knowledge or improve their skills to be more competitive on the job market. However, according to a 
By now, most of you have heard that tough economic times are forcing more students to enroll at community colleges because they can no longer afford the staggeringly-high tuition costs at most American four year public and private colleges and universities. While this may be a financial boon for community colleges, technical schools and for-profit educational institutions, flagging enrollment numbers at second and third-tier public and private colleges has induced some admissions officers at these four year institutions to lower academic standards to admit students who can pay full tuition to attend them. In other words, rather than admit deserving academically-qualified and competitive students who may need financial aid to attend their institutions, admission officers will sometimes admit less academically qualified students to offset rising financial costs.
As I scientist, I find it offensive that Republican Presidential candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are allowed to spew false claims and scientifically-wrong information to the public without a peep from the scientific community. Perhaps many scientists choose to not publicly speak out--even though they know that the information is wrong or unsubstantiated--because they don't want to attract attention to their often arcane research for fear that their funding may be cut. Or, maybe,scientists too often believe that the public won't understand what they say anyway. Whatever the reason, I applaud two bioethicists, Art Caplan at the University of Pennsylvania and Steve Miles at the University of Minnesota, for standing up to Michele Bachmann, a tea party Republican presidential hopeful, assertions that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines--that protect against cervical cancer --cause mental retardation in those girls who are vaccinated with them.
According to an
While getting a PhD degree in the life sciences (or most other disciplines) is no longer de rigueur, those of you out there who are courageous enough to make the attempt may benefit from an article entitled “
It is no secret that one of the greatest impediments to improving the public understanding of science is the inability of scientists to articulate the importance of their work and ideas to non-scientists. 
A 
Scientific advances and discoveries are often made serendipitously. However, in some cases they occur when passionate scientists are willing or crazy enough to use themselves as “guinea pigs” in experiments to unravel a mystery. This was the case for a Dutch scientist named Bart Knols who first discovered 15 years ago that mosquitoes were attracted to foot odor by standing in a dark room naked and examining where he was bitten the most. But, it was difficult for scientists to figure out a way to put this knowledge to use..jpg)
The recent E. coli 0104:H4 outbreak of gastroenteritis in Europe that sickened thousands and killed over 20 people was one of the largest foodborne disease outbreaks in the world (for the latest updates check out this
On episode #9 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Cliff, and Michael review the outbreak of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome in Germany caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O104:H4.
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A massive foodborne outbreak of 
William Hooper author of the
On episode #7 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Cliff, Elio, Margaret, and Michael discuss programmed cell death in E. coli, and the daily synthesis and degradation of enzymes needed for photosynthesis and nitrogen fixation by cyanobacteria.
For the past two decade or so, government officials, business executives and many education “thought leaders” have publicly lamented the deteriorating quality of the American educational system. While K-12 educators and administrators have unduly taken much of the heat for our educational shortcomings, the real problem may lie with the quality of undergraduate education in America. To wit, while a growing percentage of American high school students are attending college, many of today’s college graduates today are noticeable deficient in communication skills and, perhaps more importantly, in their problem solving abilities. And, unfortunately, this troubling trend is beginning to takes its toll in life sciences graduate programs where a growing number of life sciences PhDs are great technicians but fail miserably as independent science investigators. This is because colleges and university administrators and faculty members are driven more by financial considerations as compared with their obligations as teachers, educators and mentors. Put simply, despite their non-profit status, many colleges and universities act like “for profit” companies where, in many cases, financial gains are more important than the products that they produce! .jpg)
Over the past several weeks, I have participated in various online conversations and discussions about the wisdom of getting a PhD degree in the life sciences. While the conversations have been wide reaching and, at times quite emotional, a common theme is beginning to emerge and I think that the time has come for me to weigh in on it. To wit, getting a PhD degree is not the best decision a person can make if he/she wants a guarantee of employment upon completion of his/her training.
On episode #6 of the podcast This Week in Microbiology, Vincent, Cliff, Michael and Elio review the use of bacteriophages to manage infections, and the presence of antibiotic resistance genes in bacteriophages from urban sewage and river water.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, GA estimates that there are about 48 million illnesses caused by food borne bacteria each year. As many of you know, the 
Last week’s special issue of Nature Magazine.jpg)
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This Week in Microbiology (TMiV)—created by BioCrowd founder Vincent Racaniello and sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM)—launched today, with episode #1 posted at 
BioCrowd co-founders
Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809. Many societies and institutions annually celebrate the anniversary of his birth by hosting a Darwin Day to celebrate his theory (dare I say it) of evolution. Typically, these celebrations are held at universities, museums and schools in parts of the US where evolution is embraced and taught. While laudable, these celebrations are akin to “preaching to the choir”—everybody involved already believes in evolution!
In his State of the Union Address last week, President Obama acknowledged that US global competitiveness in science, technology engineering and math is at an all time low and that now may be America’s “sputnik moment” to turn this trend around. While I was pleased to hear the President say that we have a problem, neither political rhetoric nor turning the lack of science literacy into a challenge that resembles an arms race is going to solve the problem. What is needed are better trained science teachers who can engage science-minded students and a repeal of the No Child Left Behind Act that forces schools to focus limited financial resources on bolstering math and reading scores to maintain public funding. Sadly, neither of these things is going to happen any time soon. But I digress....jpg)
This was a very disturbing article in this past Wednesday’s New York Times entitled 
In 2005, The National Academy of Sciences issued a worrisome report entitled 
Twitter was largely ignored by college-age students after it was introduced over three years ago. At that time, Facebook was on the rise and texting appeared to be sufficient to meet the needs of much college students. Nevertheless, over the past year or so, university researchers have begun to assess Twitter as an education tool in addition to the role it has played in shaping today’s social media usage. 
The economic downturn has taken its toll on a number of industries including retail, manufacturing, real estate and others. Many veteran workers from these industries are unemployed and face the prospect of long term unemployment unless they develop or acquire new skills that qualify them for jobs in other areas.
Sunday marks the beginning of “American Education Week”, the observance which was started back in 1921. It was created by the National Education Association (NEA) and other groups because 25% of World War I draftees were illiterate.
Vincent Racaniello, 
While I believe that tenure ought to be abolished and the cost of a college education is way too high these days, I cannot fault non-profit post secondary educational institutions for the job that they do educating students and preparing them for life. Most do a pretty good job despite the outrageous price tag.
The fourth 
Several weeks ago I posted an 
A study financed by the US Department of Education which compared the effectiveness of online vs. classroom-based teaching for the past 12 years found that online learning on average beat face-to-face instruction by a modest but statistically significant margin. Not surprisingly, Bill Gates (a Harvard drop out) believes that online learning will ultimately replace much college classroom teaching because he thinks “college needs to be place-based.” In other words, teaching needs to be directly delivered to the students who may be a difference places at different times. 
Despite a court ruling last week that .jpg)
Those of you who may be old enough to recognize the slogan “We’ve come a long way baby” ought to consider reading the list below about the things that the majority of today’s 18 year olds (college freshman) have never done. The reason why I think that the list is important is because we educators (most of whom are baby boomers and increasingly Gen Xers) grew up in a different world than the Millennials aka Gen Y. 
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In case you haven’t heard by now, biotechnology is no longer one of the best kept secrets of the pharmaceutical industry. Because small molecule blockbuster drugs are few and far between, every major pharmaceutical company in the world has announced plans to increase the percentage of protein-based drugs in their development pipeline. 
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Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed important biological, genetic or other life sciences information quickly? Sure, you can Google the topic but it takes time to wade through all of the search results until you find the right one!.jpg)
Politicians, educators and business leaders love to complain about the America’s dwindling competitiveness in math and science and the growing lack of innovation that seems to be pervasive among many American high school and college-aged students. This is the same mantra that I have been hearing for the past 20 years. Unfortunately, while the powers at be like to complain about these things, no government agencies, educational groups or private sector businesses seem to be able to come up with approaches or solutions to these problems (talk about lack of innovation!). (2).jpg)
Alan Alda, a well known actor and science enthusiast, is doing his share to improve the science literacy of Americans. His was the host of the Science Frontiers (which ran for 15 seasons on PBS until it was cancelled in 2005) and more recently the host of Wired Science which failed to catch on and was also canceled. Alda’s approach to science education is asking questions that nonscientists could understand while throwing in a bit of humor as well. In a
Professor Vincent Racaniello, a 