Statisticians and "Big Data" Analysts in High Demand
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.
Imagine my surprise when I read in today’s NY Times that statistics are one of the hottest new career opportunities in technology and related industries. This is because billions of bytes of data (aka "big data sets")are generated daily and someone (usually a statistician or a person with knowledge of some arcane statistical analyses) is regarded to tease out trends and interpret the data. Companies like Google, Facebook, as wells as marketers, risk analysts, spies and companies that engage in competitive intelligence are desperately seeking new employees who understand applied statistic, analytics and trend analysis.
According to a recent LinkedIn survey, from 2009 to 2011 the number of new jobs with titles related to analytics grew 53%. Unfortunately, there are not enough trained or qualified persons available to fill these positions at most of these companies. Because of workforce shortages, universities like Stanford, Harvard and North Carolina State (NC State) have created graduate programs to train students in statistics and advanced analytics.
Ninety per cent of NC State advanced analytic students (a 10 month program created in 2006) annually found jobs. The average graduate’s starting salary for an entry-level job is $73,000. Stanford and Harvard statistics department graduates head to Google, Wall Street and in many instances bioscience companies and start with salaries of over $100,000.
Not surprisingly, competition for entry to these programs is getting fierce. NC State takes only 40 new students per year in its program (185 applicants last year). Moreover, this year, Stanford received over 800 applications for 60 openings in next’ years class; nearly twice the number of applications that it received three years ago.
Like it or not “big data” and analytics are de rigueur and persons with advanced analytics training may be the new rock stars. That said if you like statistics or love to look for trends in large data sets then a career in analytics may be right for you. Now, you have to figure out where to get the training.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!.
The incomparable Mark Senak, author of the EyeonFDA blog and social media enthusiast, offers a gift this holiday season to those of you track social media use by life sciences companies. Mark has assiduously compiled a list of the life sciences companies that use social media and their platforms of choice.
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Over two years ago at the beginning of the social media/pharma debate, I 
As a blogger and an occasional Twitter user (believe me I would tweet more if I didn’t have to work for a living), I have often wondered how much of an impact that the links I post have on readers and followers. While there is little doubt that the posted links persist into perpetuity, it was not clear how long people continued to click or follow the links after they were posted. That is; until now!
For the past few years, I along with many others have advocated the use of social media platforms (mainly Facebook, Twitter and YouTube) by life sciences companies. Despite a very positive beginning by companies like Novo Nordisk, Johnson and Johnson and others, the implementation of social media in the life sciences industry has been stymied by a lack of regulatory guidance by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and legal and commercialization concerns. While many believe that FDA guidance on the topic will be the panacea that they were waiting for, I personally don’t believe that it will make one bit of difference. That said, .jpg)
As social media popularity continues to increase, more and more hiring managers and employers are using it to vet prospective job candidates. A little over a year ago, it was estimated that roughly 30% of recruiters and hiring managers use social media to screen job applicants. Anecdotal evidence suggests that today, this percentage may have swelled to as much as 70 percent! .jpg)
Science and medical conference season is in full swing and tens of thousands of persons are attending scientific and medical meeting all over the US. While social media is no longer a new “thing” only a few scientific and medical societies understand its power and ways in which it may be harnessed to improve the experiences of their members who attend their national meetings. 
For the past few years, I have been 
The Pharmalot Blog 
ComScore, a company that tracks Internet traffic 
Facebook has over 500 million users and Twitter has close to 175 million who write 95 million tweets daily. Conventionally wisdom suggests that using either of the platforms to advertise or brand a product or service would be a no brainer. However, my experience with paid ads on Facebook (I haven’t tried Twitter yet) suggests that the ROI on using social media to advertise may not be that substantial. There is no question that using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, GroupOn to build brand awareness or create a buzz about a product or service or to share coupons is extremely useful. But for straight up advertising and click through rates—not so much!!!
Twitter, for all intents and purposes, is arguably the hottest new tool to hit the social media scene since well.....errrrrrr....Facebook (are there really any others?). That said, everyone who is anybody has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon whether or not using Twitter has any positive or negative effects for its users. Nevertheless, insightful social media analysts like Mark Senak, author of the fabulous .jpg)
3 per cent of adults aged 55 to 64 who have Internet access regularly use social networking sites. This is compared with only 9 per cent of persons in this age group, who used social networking sites in December, 2008. 
Before the advent of social media, the only way job candidates could communicate to a hiring manager why they—rather than other applicants—were the right fit for a job was through a face-to-face interview. Conventional wisdom suggests that a skilled candidate who can also demonstrate a legitimate enthusiasm for a position is generally the applicant who wins out. However, the online world, specifically the social web, has changed all that..jpg)
At present, 74 percent of adult Americans use the Internet according at a recent Pew survey. While Twitter continues to be one of the hottest new social media tools and Facebook still dominates the social web, do both really live up to the media hype? Let’s start with Twitter.
There is no question that Facebook is the de facto social network that almost everyone uses. It has become an important source of personal information and is routinely used by professional recruiters and corporate hiring managers to identify right-fit job candidates.
“Unpleasant personality traits are almost required of young entrepreneurs trying to build something lasting. It requires tremendous arrogance to believe that their idea is better than anyone else’s. They need to be immensely selfish, putting their fragile creation ahead of everything else including important relationships. And, they have to be ruthless, tossing overboard friends who were once useful and no longer are.”.jpg)
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Whether you like President Obama or not, the changes he made in the leadership at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is beginning to yield results. After just two years, the agency is well on its way to modernization and overcoming its descent into the dark ages during the failed Bush Administration.
A recent .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. .png)
Over 70 percent of hiring managers and HR professionals routinely use Google to find out more about prospective job candidates. While many jobseekers know this and do everything possible to expunge deleterious and compromising information from a Google search on their names, some don’t know that Facebook profiles are a routine target of all Google searches. Consequently, hiring managers may have access to some personal information (including photos) that may jeopardize a job candidate’s prospects. 
Mark Senak, a pharmaceutical social media advocate and the author of the .jpg)
An article in today’s New York Times business section loudly proclaimed that the number of people using (2).jpg)
The advent of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter Linked-In and MySpace (does anyone still use it?) have taken the concept of "networking" to new levels. However, is sitting in front of computer thanking people for adding them to their friend's list really what networking is suppose to be about? I think not!.jpg)
I want to state at the onset of this post that I am an ardent supporter of online patient communities because I believe that the exchange of information between people who suffer from the same or similar medical conditions is vital to their health and well being. Further, I believe that social media will force physicians, the medical community and the US healthcare system to become more transparent, open and interactive. That being said, in this past Sunday’s New York Times, Natasha Singer wrote an 
Earlier this week, I attended Advanced Learning Institute’s (ALI) conference .jpg)
There is ample anecdotal evidence to suggest that using social media tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook may help to improve your chances of landing a new job. For example, a recent 
Despite claims of its imminent demise, it appears that social media and all of its trappings are being embraced by the masses. According to a report issued last week by CTIA, the wireless industry association, the amount of data, in text, music e-mail and other activities surpassed voice calls on mobile devices in 2009 (this explains why you cannot purchase 95 per cent of Verizon Wireless phones without a mandatory $9.99 per month data plan)..jpg)
During the past year,
Mark Senak, social media enthusiast and author of the (1).jpg)
Despite 
I have previously written several 
Back in the late 1990s, applying for jobs online was all the rage! The technology was new and fresh and applying for jobs online was fast and easy. Companies raced to build corporate websites for prospective job applicants, major job boards like Monster and Careerbuilder were launched and human resources professionals though they were ushering in a “new era of employee recruitment and retention.” While applying for jobs online once seemed like a panacea for both job seekers and corporate employers, it never has lived up to all the fanfare and hype!
While life sciences companies are still reluctant to take the “social media plunge,” many other companies (with active social media programs) frequently hire employees known as social media managers who oversee and run their social networks. This is because successful social media websites require daily attention and are extremely time consuming and labor intensive. In general, employees who are hired for these jobs have strong backgrounds in social media and technology but frequently possess little expertise in the industry that they are working in. Because social media is so new, many hiring managers believe that the social media and technology skills of these managers are more important than an understanding of the industry that they work in. However, while this practice may be acceptable in other industries, it won’t be the case for the social media managers who oversee pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices and diagnostics social media websites. These managers will likely be required to have a firm understanding of current rules and regulations guiding drug development and marketing and advertising of approved life sciences products. This will be necessary if the drug makers who hire these managers want to steer clear of regulatory scrutiny by the US Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies..jpg)
I just learned from Diego Pineda who runs the (1).jpg)
The debate, if you can call it that, over whether or not interactive social media platforms like 
The New York Times reported today that for the first time, Internet users are spending more time on social networking and video sites than on e-mail. According to a report by Nielsen, there was a 1,905 percentage change in the time that users spent viewing online video and an 883 percentage increase in social networking use from February 2003 to 2009.(1).jpg)
There has been no shortage of conversation lately about current problems facing the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. These industries are faced with the effects of the global recession because of a dangerous combination of falling revenues and spiraling costs. Life sciences company executives are looking for ways to cut production costs and cope with the current decline in drug sales.
As we all know, the H1NI pandemic has been raging on for close too 10 ten days now. Curiously, “Fear & The Flu: The New Age of Pandemics” is the title this week’s cover story in Newsweek magazine. From an informational standpoint point, “this may be too little, too late”—as the old saying goes. While the Internet has been around for over twenty years now, government agencies, most notably the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) continue to rely almost exclusively on old media to communicate with the American public during infectious disease outbreaks. Apparently, the administrators who run these government agencies haven’t been listening closely enough to President Obama’s assertion that “we live in the digital age.”
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When Rupert Murdoch, the owner of New Corporation (Fox News), bought MySpace for $580 million in 2005 it was viewed by many as one of his savviest acquisitions ever. At that time, MySpace was arguably the most successful social networking site on the Web and its financial future was extremely bright. Shortly after the acquisition, a young, upstart college social networking site called Facebook began operations without much fanfare. Back in 2005, MySpace had 14 million monthly users and Facebook was still raising capital. Now, MySpace has 126 million users whereas Facebook’s user base has grown to over 200 million. Facebook continues to expand while MySpace’s growth appears to be stagnant. This led to the dismissal last week of one of MySpace’s co-founders and the appointment of a former Facebook executive as CEO..jpg)
While I was at the Experimental Biology meeting in New Orleans, LA this past week I presented a seminar entitled “Using Social Media For Career Development in the Life Sciences.” This was the first time that I presented this talk, and was expecting a large turn out given the popularity of Facebook and more recently Twitter, a microblogging platform. Much to my surprise only 15 students showed up for the talk—many of whom hadn’t heard of Twitter and were only vaguely familiar with Facebook. Luckily, a few attendees had Facebook profiles and one or two were on Twitter so the talk wasn't a complete bust. Nevertheless, the lack of interest in this talk was extremely puzzling to me—my other seminars, “Interviewing Tips” and “Alternate Careers for PhDs” were very well attended and I was booked solid for one-on-one resume critiquing sessions during the five days I was in New Orleans..jpg)
Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent 
Using Facebook and Twitter to find jobs is becoming routine in many industries including healthcare. However, the life sciences industry is lagging behind most others when it comes to social media and recruitment. Nevertheless, many companies and academic institutions are beginning to realize that Facebook (FB), Twitter and other science social networks are good source of qualified candidates for those difficult-to fill job openings. .jpg)
Facebook contends that it has over 175 million members, making it the largest social network in the world! Interestingly, according to an 
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Twitter, the microblogging platform, is the current rage in social media. According to .gif)
About a year ago, I was eating lunch and bunch of pharma executives were at the table next to me. I inadvertently overhead bits of their conversation and I heard the words, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube mentioned. This suggested to me that pharma was more aware of social media (and its business implications) than pharma publicly cared to admit. Pharma has been reluctant to embrace social media because of possible legal and regulatory ramifications. Nevertheless, a few companies have decided to boldly go where no pharma company has gone before—to YouTube.
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I want to let my readers know that a beta-version of 
Online career sites like 
