Temporary Jobs Can Help a Career

I have heard from many jobseekers, who—despite many years of work experience— are having difficulty finding full time employment. During economic down turns many companies cannot or are reluctant to hire full time employees. However, this doesn’t mean that there is work to be done. Consequently, many firms look for part-time, temporary or contract workers to handle the work that must get done to maintain operations.

Melanie Wanzek of CTW Features wrote an excellent article on why taking a temporary job might be a great opportunity for those who can’t find full time employment. Temporary jobs provide an opportunity to learn new skills, apply old skills to solve new problems or to gain experience in your profession.

For those of you who think that this may be right for you. Here are several questions you should ask a prospective employer when considering whether or not to accept a temporary or contract job opportunity.

  1. Who will my supervisor be?
  2. What hours will I be expected to work?
  3. Is there a dress code?
  4. What is the work environment like?
  5. Do temporary workers have their own workspace or is it shared?
  6. How are my benefits different or similar to full time employees?
  7. Is there more scheduling flexibility for temporary workers?
  8. Is there a possibility that this temporary opportunity might turn into full time employment?

Scientist who may be interested in contract work please check out a previous post that I wrote on this topic.

Until next time

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!

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A "Sea Change at Pharma and Biotech": Recapping the Layoffs

For those of you who haven’t been able to keep up with the latest pharma layoffs, I came across an article in the Philadelphia Business Journal that does an excellent job of recapping all of the major life sciences layoffs that have taken place in the past year or so. The recent massive pharma layoffs prompted William Ashton, Acting Dean of the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia PA to say “I was in the pharmaceutical industry for 28 years. I’ve never seen such a sea change as is occurring right now. This is really dramatic.” Further, Dr. Ashton predicted that drug companies will increase their use of contract sales forces (CSFs) and contract research organizations (CROs) to contain expenses and that staffing firms will be the winners.

This led to me to wonder what Dean Ashton has been doing for the past 10 years or so because the life sciences industry has already increased its reliance on CROs and CSFs. A quick perusal of the pharma and biotech employees who lost their jobs over the past few years reveals that a majority of them were in sales and R&D. I don’t know whether or not I should break the news to Dean Ashton, but the future is already upon us—another example of how out of touch academia is with industry in the 21st century.

I think that it is time for industry executives and academicians to begin a serious dialog to determine the type of training that would be appropriate for individuals seeking jobs in the life sciences industry. A failure to do so will likely have a negative adverse effect on the continued growth and future success of the US life science industry.

Until next time…

 

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

 

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Contracting Has Been Very Good to Me!

For those of you who are interested, I wrote an article about contract work in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry that appeared in Science Careers about a week ago.

As many of you may know, I am a contractor so I can "walk the walk and talk the talk".  That said, for those of you looking for employment try contracting on for size.  You may like it!  Borrowing from Garrett Morris a fomer '70s Saturday Night Live alum "Contracting has been berry  berry good to me"!

Until Next Time....

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!