Bio Job Blog : Bio Jobs : Biotechnology Jobs : Biopharmaceutical Jobs : Bioscience, Biotech Jobs : Bio Job Blog : Biocareer : Bio-Business Training, Biotechnology Training : Jobs in Biology : Internships in Biology : Internships in Biotechnology

Healthcare informatics (HCI) is one of the fastest growing professions in the US. This is because the Obama administration has allocated billions of stimulus dollars to create electronic healthcare records (EHR) in an attempt to reduce healthcare costs. 

To qualify for EHR stimulus monies organizations must develop a plan and then take steps to implement it! Not surprisingly, because of the short ramp up phase for EHR, the number of available jobs far outstrips the numbers of qualified and skilled employees to fill them. The acute shortage of qualified HCI employees resulted in a cover story in the December 2009 issue of Health Informatics entitled “Got People?” It is a great read and provides insights into the types of employees that HCI companies are looking to hire.  The EHR Initiative will likely create over 500,000 new jobs in the next few years. For those of you, who may be interested in pursuing a career in HCI, check out this list of the top 100 HCI companies to work for.

Finally, a group of bioinformatics and genomics PhD students and postdoctoral fellows approached me to help them find sponsors for a Health Informatics Career Development symposium that they are trying to develop for the 2010 Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference that will be held in Boston, MA from July 9-13, 2010.  

If you are interested in sponsoring the HCI symposium please contact me.

Until next time...

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

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

I think the economy must be improving because I am beginning to receive e-mail blasts from big pharma companies like Roche and AstraZeneca that they are hiring again (Please see the e-mail message below).  This may be a good sign for R&D scientists who have been struggling to find gainful employment.

In the spirit of full disclosure I have never worked nor am I am employed by AstraZeneca and I am not being compensated for this advertisement. I am simply a nice guy trying to help out my fellow scientists (hmm, I recall hearing something about nice guys.....)  However, I must warn you that just because companies advertise that they are hiring doesn't always mean that they really are.  Please keep that in mind when you apply for positions that AZ is advertising.

New R&D career opportunities at AstraZeneca. At AstraZeneca, your research and development experience can make a world of difference. That's because you'll be a part of a leading global pharmaceutical company with one of the most influential portfolios of innovative pharmaceutical brands. We continuously challenge, discover and develop new medicines in order to improve the quality of people's lives. It's an ongoing quest that involves the talent, ideas and growth of all our professionals, as we strive to advance the future of healthcare. Today, we're seeking qualified candidates to join our passionate culture in our Research and Development area. It's your opportunity to utilize your expertise for a greater purpose, while you're supported every step of the way. We encourage knowledge, respect growth and believe that there's always more to learn. It's one of the reasons why you'll become colleagues with some of the most talented and experienced professionals in the industry. As part of the Monster research and development professionals network, we invite you to learn more and apply for one of our research and development opportunities today. Sincerely, The AstraZeneca Human Resources team Learn More & Apply If you would like to stay current on AstraZeneca, you can sign up to receive more information here: www.IWantToAdvanceMyCareer.com AstraZeneca is an equal opportunity employer.

Good Luck!!!!!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

I was sitting around minding my own business (well sort of) and I received the following e-mail message. People must be reading BioJobBlog or something!

In the middle of the worst national job market since the early 1980's, Roche Pharma Research in Nutley, New Jersey is hiring. Specifically, this world class R&D center is seeking to hire 40 scientists to strengthen its research efforts to develop drugs to combat inflammatory diseases like arthritis and asthma.

In addition to Inflammation, Nutley continues to be the headquarters for Roche's Oncology Disease Biology Area, as well as RNA Therapeutics (an emerging area in understanding how genes are turned on and off in cells).

Focusing on drug discovery and non-clinical development, the site has a long tradition of discovering innovative new medicines.

Marcie Geremakis of Roche HR is available to discuss the efforts to recruit the new scientists and why Nutley is an outstanding environment for scientists.  A number of scientists are available to discuss the following:

• Roche's cutting edge scientific approaches to drug discovery focused on meeting the demands of the emerging need for personalized healthcare.

• Roche's intent to provide its scientists with the environment necessary to push forward novel ideas while challenging old paradigms.
• The ability to use state-of-the-art technology and collaborate with Roche's world class scientists across the globe engaged in biomarker discovery, novel biologics platforms, RNAi and diagnostics.

With well over 100 projects in research and more than 60 New Molecular Entities in development, Roche’s pipeline is among the best in the pharmaceuticals industry.

Please call me at 212-468-4306 or e-mail me at jillian.chertok@mslworldwide.com if you would like any additional information, or are interested in scheduling a time to speak with Marcie or one of the scientists at Roche. 

I must disclose that I have no financial arrangement with this agency nor have I ever done business with them before.  But, I figured if there are jobs to be had in this economy I ought to pass them on to folks who are looking.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Pharmaceutical sales representatives, along with R&D scientists have been the largest casualties of recent downsizing that has been sweeping the life sciences industry. Increasing regulatory scrutiny, decreasing numbers of new drug approvals and an increasing reliance on e-based technologies to sell drugs have almost rendered the traditional pharma rep obsolete. Flavia Villela, a blogger and former pharma rep has written an interesting article about her impressions about the next generation of pharmaceutical sales representatives.

A New Era of Pharmaceutical Sales Professionals

By Flavia Villela

I have been participating and sharing my thoughts in discussions about pharmaceutical sales professionals related to performance and customer satisfaction. I am also actively participating in discussions about creation of “pharmaceutical sales certification” program. My goals are to share ideas, experiences and provide insights into improving the quality and performance of qualified pharmaceutical sales professionals who will be able to effectively establish rapport with health care providers consistent with pharmaceutical industry expectations and requirement.

While often vilified, pharmaceutical sales reps play important and often pivotal roles in the healthcare industry.  For example, pharma reps often act as drug information consultants, facilitators of customer development, sources of reliable customer information, vehicles of promotion and liaisons between drug companies and their customers. Because of this, it is vitally important that sales reps be highly qualified professionals with broad skills and extensive knowledge of the healthcare industry. Also, increasing healthcare costs coupled with downward pricing pressures suggest that today’s sale reps must be highly efficient and cost effective.

Pharmaceutical Sales Professional: “The Old versus “New Model”

It is well established, that in the past, it was not uncommon for different sales reps from the same company to repeatedly call on a doctor for the same product. This primarily resulted from an over ambitious hiring trend that increased the number of sales reps but failed to increase the number and quality of drug sales. Consequently, over the past few years, pharmaceutical companies began laying off large numbers of sales employees despite the fact that generic drug sales were rapidly increasing and beginning to steal market share from branded products.

The poor performance of many of these reps could be directly attributed to a lack of qualifications.  Nevertheless, despite the massive layoffs, there are still thousands of unqualified sales reps who continue to work in the drug industry. For some reason, many pharmaceutical companies decided to retain employees who I call “old model reps” who simply drop off samples/reprints to healthcare providers and deliver a “canned” product message that they learned during sales force training. Many of these reps don’t engage their customers in detailed product discussions, mostly because they don’t really understand the products themselves. Further, many of these reps got into the business because they were attracted to the flexible hours, high salaries and bonuses, a company car and other benefits associated with pharmaceutical sales reps. More importantly, while many of these old model reps had strong sales backgrounds, they generally were lacking in an understanding of science and medicine. In other words, they really didn’t understand the products that they were trying to sell to customers. While this might have been acceptable for small molecule drugs, it certainly won’t suffice when it comes to biotechnology products which are inherently more complex in their mode of actions and use. To that end, I believe the so-called “new model” or next generation of sales representatives should be required to have a strong medical or scientific background e.g., such as a bachelor/masters in sciences, nursing or medically-related field to  provide a firm understanding of the inner workings of the healthcare industry. However, it is important to note, that “old model employees” who are willing to learn (and have the ability to grasp new medical concepts) should be retrained and encouraged to remain in the “new model” sales force. 

Despite the massive layoffs, many companies continue to hire “old model” employees. One candidate recently contacted me and shared with me his experiences with a medium-sized Japanese pharmaceutical company. The candidate is a medical professional, has a nursing degree and previous experience in the therapeutic area advertised with the sales position. His background and training enabled him to garner a face-to-face interview with a district manager of the company. Although the interview was seemingly going well, at one point during the meeting, the district manager told the candidate that he was overqualified for the position. In other words, he was either “too smart”, “too old” or too set in his ways to be hired.  Not surprisingly he didn’t get the job.

Shortly after being rejected, the candidate read about a new initiative being undertaken by the company to improve the quality of its sales force by focusing on scientific/medical backgrounds rather than prior sales experience or credential. While it isn’t clear why the candidate described above didn’t get a job with this particular company, his recent pharmaceutical sales job hunting experience isn’t unique—it is being repeated over and over again throughout the industry. This begs the question: why are so many drug manufacturers electing to retain “old model” sales reps—despite their apparent lack of scientific/medical qualifications—and willing to pass on seemingly well qualified candidates who apparently represent the “new model” sales rep that pharma says it wants?

What do you think?

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (4)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

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!

There is no question that applying for jobs online is quick, easy and most importantly emotionally gratifying. Paradoxically, these are the very qualities that have almost rendered the practice useless when it comes to finding a new job. Before applying for jobs online became de rigueur, large numbers of qualified, prospective employees were hired into new jobs. Unfortunately, these days’ most corporate websites and job boards are swamped by unqualified applicants who submit their resumes when ever and where ever they can! This has prompted many companies and job board site to automate their applicant screening processes—which, in many cases, fail to discriminate between qualified and unqualified job applicants. Frequently, because of the sheer volume of applicants, many companies no longer acknowledge receipt of job applications. While this practice is unprofessional in my opinion, it sends a subliminal—if not obvious message—to applicants that the likelihood of winning the job is remote. It is not uncommon for job applicants to never hear from a company after they have hit the send button to submit a job application.

So, if applying for jobs online isn’t the answer, what should jobseekers do to find gainful employment? Like it or not, the best way to find a new job is through networking. The advent of social networking sites like Facebook, Linked In and BioCrowd makes networking less daunting than it used to be. However, it is important to note, that online networking alone won’t be sufficient! Unfortunately, (for some of you anyway), interacting with people in real life will be required! The best way to begin networking is to use Google (or your favorite search engine) to identify companies or institutions that are looking for applicants with your skills and qualifications. Next, work hard to find a contact at a company who is willing to support your application or at least, forward it to an appropriate hiring manager. If you don’t know anybody at the company ask friends or relatives if they do. If this doesn’t work, post a notice on Facebook or Linked In asking if anybody in your network can provide a contact name or phone number of a hiring manager at the company you are interested in. If this also proves to be unsuccessful, you can run at Internet search on a particular advertised position or go to a company website to find the name of a hiring manager. However, to avert an avalanche of inquiries about online job postings, many companies no longer list the names of hiring managers on their websites. If all else fails, you can always put in a call into human resources and ask for more information about a job with the hope of getting the hiring manager’s name.

Once you obtain the name of a hiring manager, send an e-mail message indicating your interesting the position along with an attached resume/curriculum vitae. One note of caution; managers are usually inundated with e-mail messages (many which remain unanswered) and often have their spam filters set on high. Consequently, it may be prudent to also send a hiring manager an old fashioned cover letter and curriculum vitae authority using traditional or overnight mail delivery.

While networking to get an employee referral for a job remains the best way to get your “foot-in-the-door” at most companies, the referral channels, like almost all others, are also extremely clogged. This may require a direct phone call to a hiring manager to inquire about whether or not to apply for a job or to check on the progress of an application. That said, use this approach wisely—some managers may think that this shows initiative (and will pull your resume from the resume heap) while others may be offended or annoyed by your boldness. Nevertheless, once you make the call, DO NOT call back unless you are advised to do so. If the company is interested in you as a job candidate, they will contact you after they have had sufficient time to review your application.

While companies continue to advertise positions, the best way to land a new job is through word of mouth. This is because many companies don’t advertise all open positions and some companies run ads even though they are not hiring. Nevertheless, building a solid network of contacts and friends (both online and in real life) is critical for successful job searches.

In today’s difficult economy it may be prudent to employ a multifaceted job search strategy that includes a mix of networking, job boards and online applications. Also, it is important to cast as wide a job net as possible and not limit your search to a specific job type—especially if you have skills  and qualifications that cut across disciplines. Finally, I always tell prospective job candidates that looking for a new job must be a “full time endeavor.” Devoting less than a full time effort to your job search will likely yield disappointing results!

Until next time….

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

• Email This
• Print
• Comments (1)
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The US economy has lost about 7.1 million jobs since December 2007 and nationwide unemployment is hovering around 8.5 percent. Despite the lost of  about 80,000 pharmaceutical jobs over the past three years and unprecedented consolidation taking place in the life sciences sector—Merck-Schering Plough, Pfizer-Wyeth and Roche-Genentech—the job prospects for scientists at biotech companies, medical devices and diagnostics, and government appear to be stronger than anticipated. While drug discovery and sales jobs may be scare, there are rapidly emerging opportunities in the fields of medical communications, regulatory affairs, biomanufacturing, clinical trials management , bioengineering, medical devices/diagnostics and website development and management.

President Obama’s promise to restore science to its rightful place, his reversal of the ban on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research and an unwavering commitment to alternate energy technologies suggest that the future may be very bright for bioscientists. For example, there are massive hiring initiatives at federal agencies like the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Unites States Department of Agriculture (UDSA) — as the Obama administration attempts to overall these agencies— and funding levels at the National Institutes of Health are on the rise (aided in part by a $200 million Challenge Grant stimulus program).

While the road to economic recovery may be a long one, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are currently engaged in life sciences research should “stay the course and not jump ship just yet.” The life sciences industry is more recession proof than others and it will be one of the first to experience an economic turn around. And, when it does it is best to prepared to find a job!

Until next time…

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

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today that it wants to hire 1,300 biologists, chemists, medical officers and others over the next several months. The agency currently employs more than 10,000 people and wants to add 600 new employees and backfill more than 700 that have been vacant by October. The new hires will triple the number hired from 2005 to 2007. Roughly 30% of all regular FDA staffers and approximately half of FDA managers are already eligible to retire.

An FDA spokesperson said that 400 of the new jobs will be related to drug application review and another 150 will be hired as inspectors to inspect drugs, foods and other related items. The agency will rely on user fees from drug companies to pay for all drug review jobs and about 100 other positions. The rest will come from the funds that were recently appropriated by Congress.

In addition to drug reviewers and inspectors, FDA is seeking consumer safety officers, nurse consultants, statisticians, epidemiologists, pharmacologists, pharmacists and veterinarians. Most of the positions are in the Washington D.C area but some are overseas and in other parts of the US.

This is one of the largest hiring initiatives in FDA’s history. It’s about time that Congress realized that the agency has been seriously under funded and understaffed ever since Bush was elected in 2001. I suspect that the impetus for the additional funding and hiring initiative has a lot to do with the beating that the agency has taken over the past few years. As we all know, FDA has been blasted by consumer advocates and lawmakers for lax oversight and inefficiency.

I can’t recall whether I said this before, but FDA is a great place “to be from”. Many of my colleagues who worked at FDA for three or more years are now highly paid regulatory consultants charging the companies that hire them about $3,000 to $5,000 per day. That said, as a bit of career advice; opportunity is knocking—don’t dither and wait too long before you apply.

Until next time….

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (at FDA)!!!!!!!!!!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link