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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 “The Masters as the New Bachelor’s” suggested that Master's Degrees were supplanting bachelor degrees as the minimum requirement for employment in the US. Unfortunately, not everyone has the time to enroll in a traditional bricks and mortar Master's Degree program. This has forced many would-be students to enroll in online programs to earn a Master's Degree.

Like it or not, the reputation of the online institution that confers the degree will make a difference for jobseekers. In other words, an online Master's Degree from Penn State University will likely impress a hiring manager more than one from the University of Phoenix. With this in mind, my colleagues over at www.onlinemasters.org recently sent me an article entitled “The 15 Most Prestigious Online Master’s Programs” Most of the programs included on the list (see below) are relevant for those jobseekers interested in broadening their knowledge in the life sciences and healthcare, engineering and information technology (IT).

Auburn University: Electronically Delivered Graduate Education (EDGE) courses are offered online at the student’s convenience. Engineering programs include: Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Science and Software Engineering, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Materials Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. Business programs include Accounting, Business Administration, and Management Information Systems. A combination MBA/MISE degree also is available.

Boston University: Boston University Distance Education offers master’s degrees in art education, criminal justice, music, computer information systems, health communication, management, manufacturing engineering, and social work. These programs provide students with an in-depth theoretical foundation as well as practical strategies for meeting demands of the marketplace. Many students have gone on to shape the future of their professions through their knowledge and leadership.

Carnegie Mellon University: Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III College offers distance learning programs for Master of Science in Computer Science & IT (ranked #1 by U.S. News and World Report), Master of Medical Management (some onsite sessions required), and Master of Public Management (part-time and full-time tracks; work experience is required rather than GRE and GMAT).

DePaul University: Developing and providing degree programs for working adults for over 100 years, DePaul has been able to expand its reach by offering fully online master’s degree programs in various disciplines within the College of Computing and Digital Media, College of Education, and School of Public Service.

Duke University: By utilizing Duke’s resources in environmental science, engineering, policy, and business, the Nicholas School of the Environment’s Environmental Leadership Master of Environmental Management program gives students insight into the many aspects of environmental issues. The faculty includes recognized experts in the field whose research and publications affect important environmental and natural resource challenges.

Georgia Institute of Technology: Online master’s degrees are offered in aerospace engineering, computational science and engineering, electrical and computer engineering, industrial engineering, information security, mechanical engineering, medical physics, and operations research, in addition to a Professional Master in Applied Systems Engineering. Students study at their convenience, accessing a wealth of technological and industry knowledge while building a network of Georgia Tech faculty and industry professionals.

Indiana University: Kelley School of Business, through Kelly Direct, offers fully online MBA program, along with Master of Science degrees in finance, global supply chain management, and strategic management. There are also MBA dual-degree programs (mostly, but not fully, online) with Thunderbird (Master’s in Global Management) and Purdue (MSE and MS in Food and Agribusiness Management).

Johns Hopkins University: Here you’ll find master’s degree programs in bioinformatics, computer science, environmental engineering and science, environmental planning and management, and systems engineering — all can be completed fully online.

Michigan State University: In the online Master of Science in Criminal Justice program, students may choose to follow the general requirements for the Master’s in Criminal Justice, specialize in security management, or follow an international focus. Courses are offered entirely online, and are taught by the same faculty members that are involved in the on-campus program.

Pennsylvania State University: Over 100 years ago, Penn State founded one of the nation’s first correspondence courses. Now through their World Campus, they offer online master’s degrees in a wide range of areas including (to name a few) education, business administration, homeland security, nuclear engineering, and supply chain management. The online courses are flexible, yet the same academically challenging courses as on campus.

Stanford University: Students whose employers are members of the Stanford Center for Professional Development can earn Master of Science degrees while attending classes online on a part-time basis. Courses of study include aeronautics and astronautics, biomedical informatics, chemical engineering, civil and environmental engineering, computational and mathematical engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, management science and engineering, materials science and engineering, mechanical engineering, and statistics.

University of Florida: Most distance degrees may be taken on a part-time basis through this university. However, all degree programs require formal admission to the school. Master’s degrees are offered in various disciplines within the Colleges of Agriculture & Life Sciences; Business Administration; Design, Construction, and Planning; Education; Engineering; Fine Arts; Liberal Arts & Sciences; Nursing; Pharmacy; Public Health and Health Professions; and Veterinary Medicine.

University of Illinois: The Department of Computer Science offers a fully online Master’s in Computer Science program, which is restricted to off-campus professionals and is not intended for those who have access to on-campus courses and programs; although, all students receive the same lectures, class assignments, exams, and projects as on-campus students. The degree can be completed in as little as three years (at one course per semester), but must be completed within five years.

University of Southern California: USC Viterbi School of Engineering’s Distance Education Network (DEN) students view online the same lecture as on-campus students either live or at their convenience. Students interact by calling a toll-free phone number to ask the professor questions. Lectures are archived for the entire semester and can be downloaded.

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing: Vanderbilt’s School of Nursing offers a Master of Science in Nursing Health System Management. A Health Systems Manager is a registered nurse whose focus is on the management of health care delivery in various organizations. Graduates have the breadth of management knowledge and skills needed to perform effectively and assume leadership positions in health care delivery organizations.

Until next time....

Good Luck and Good Studying!!!!!!

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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!

According to new research by Bit.ly, the URL shortening service, most links shared online don’t live very long. The longevity of different links was determined by calculating the “half-life” (the point at which a link received half of its total online clicks) of links posted on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, e-mail or chat clients.  

After analyzing 1,000 popular links on Bit.ly, it was determined that the average half-life of a link on Twitter was 2.8 hours. Links posted to Facebook lasted slightly longer at 3.2 whereas the longevity for e-mail and chat links was 3.4 hours. Interestingly, the average half-life of YouTube links was 7.4 hours and that of news-related links was a mealy five minutes! 

The conclusion—people spend way too much time watching videos on YouTube and pay little attention to current events. Duh, like I didn’t already know that!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Link Following.....

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The job market is rough, and many in the field of science, whether they are a chemist or a biologist, are having difficulty obtaining a position. Unless you want a low-paying tech or lab position there isn't much currently available, especially if you don't have an advanced degree. However, many recent college graduates are beginning to find that taking a few online courses can greatly increase their odds of being hired.

For years, online colleges carried poor reputations, but that stigma is rapidly fading. As current professionals are having to obtain additional education on limited schedules, and the internet as a source of knowledge is becoming more trusted, a degree obtained from an accredited online college is now viewed by much of the population as being just as viable as one received from a traditional university.

Employers no longer scowl at online degrees either. In fact, many are beginning to believe that those who obtain degrees online, or those who simply add to their education by taking a few courses, may actually be more valuable than traditionally educated individuals. Seeking additional education online may actually make you more enticing as a job applicant because managing your own education says multiple things about your character.

The Educational Benefit

The main reason why anyone seeks out additional education is to obtain the skill set they need to succeed. By taking online courses you will gain more knowledge of your industry which will make you a more appealing candidate for employers. You will have a more well-rounded understanding of your field, and by taking the classes may secure the additional education needed to look better than another deserving candidate.

The Personal Benefit

Struggling to find a job is no easy task, and at times it can be really rough on your self esteem. By pursuing additional education, you are able to achieve personal goals, and gain greater confidence in your knowledge and abilities. Having both of these attributes will make employers more likely to hire you. Plus, taking the additional courses will keep your mind fresh and will also keep your occupied and focus during your down time.

The Professional Benefit

From an employer's perspective, those who are willing to manage their education on their own are self-starters. They are motivated individuals who now how to set goals and obtain them. Online classes aren't like typical on-campus classes, and require students to remain focused on the tasks at hand. There is no one there to remind them of due dates and constant assignments. Employers know this, and know that anyone capable of getting good grades or a degree from an online university is a driven and organized person, which is what many employers are looking for.

The job market it tough, but your college degree isn't to blame for your lack of employment. Thousands of people have lost their jobs or are struggling to find position all over the United States, and the poor economy isn't helping. The fact of the matter is that the lacking economy has made it hard for anyone to find a job whether they are a biologist like you or a math teacher.

However, all hope is not lost. There are still plenty of well paying positions in the biological field, and you can still find one in one of the various public and private firms that are still hiring. Just keep in mind that there are hundreds of others seeking the same position you are. To get ahead you simply have to be more competitive and make yourself more enticing to employers, and increasing your knowledge by taking online college courses may be the first step in the right direction. 

Until next time...

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

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By now, many of you have received an invitation by e-mail to join someone’s LinkedIn network. While some of you may have heard of LinkedIn, you may not exactly be sure what it is and whether or not you ought to accept the invitation to join your colleague’s network. To that end, watching the video below (sponsored by LinkedIn) may help to answer some questions about the network and whether or not it may be right for you.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that participation at online social networking at sites like LinkedIn, BioCrowd, Twitter and others are necessary to land jobs in today’s competitive job market. Unfortunately, many scientists are still reluctant to join these networks to help to find jobs or advance their careers. Hopefully, this will change in the future as scientists begin to recognize the career benefits of online networking sites.

BTW, LinkedIn, which has 100 million users* and a presence in over 140 countries, is going public. It latest IPO price was today announced at $45 per share; the top of its expected price range! Other social media companies like GroupOn and Facebook are expected to issue IPOs later this year.

* In a previous iteration of this post, I mistakenly published that LinkedIn had over 200 million members. The actual number is about 100 million....Mea Culpa!

Until next time...

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

Addendum: LinkedIN successfully completed its IPO on Thursday. After opening at at $83 — up from its I.P.O. price of $45 — and rose as high as $122.70. The shares closed at $94.25, giving the company a market value of roughly $9 billion

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I recently wrote a professional development article that appeared in the May edition of the American Society of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) monthly publication entitled “Why Online Networking Can Make a Difference in Your Job Search.” The reason I wrote the piece was because an increasing number of social medial-savvy, younger scientists have been successfully generating job leads by belonging to online social networking sites. Some of the more useful online networking sites for bioscience jobseekers include BioCrowd, LinkedIn (join groups), Twitter (follow scientists and other life sciences professionals) and others. 

Unfortunately, many scientists do not see any value in belonging to online social networks and a few have even derided them! I suspect that those are the folks who are having trouble getting responses or interview offers from prospective employers. In any event, for those of you who are intrepid enough to give online networking a try, there are five tips that I can offer before you take the plunge.

1. Choose the online networking sites that are appropriate for you (hint:  Facebook doesn't count)
2. Create a professional user profile devoid of personal information but replete with scientific accomplishments
3. Connect with others on the site who share your interests and may be helpful to you in a job search
4. Expand your network by inviting colleagues and professional friend to join (remember, it is the quality not the size of your network that matters)
5. Google yourself occasionally to manage (edit, delete, retract, add) the information on the web that is available to prospective employers.

For those of you who may be interested in reading the entire article please click here.

Until next time...

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

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I previously posted a piece about the growing need to manage the personal information about oneself on the Web. The amount of information that persons willingly (in many cases) provide about themselves without thinking is enormous. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that marketers, prospective employers, suitors and even criminals and stalkers can find information and use it whether or not the information correct or not. Unfortunately, the bad news is that once digital information makes it way onto the web, it is likely to remain there into perpetuity and in some cases can never be removed! According to an article in today’s NY Times:

“Snoops who take the time to troll further online may also find in blog posts or Facebook comments evidence of your political views, health challenges, office tribulations and party indiscretions, any of which could hurt your chances of admission to school, getting or keeping a job or landing a date. Many privacy experts worry that companies will use this data against users, perhaps to deny insurance coverage or assign a higher interest rate on a loan.”

Unfortunately, many web users are beginning to realize—the hard way—that providing personal information while building a Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter profile may not have been such a great idea after all. To that end, reputation management or the ability to remove incorrect or unflattering information from the web has been transformed into a business opportunity for a number of new companies. In the past, the best way to determine the amount of personal information about a person on the web was to key a person’s name into a search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing.

For those of you who regularly “search yourselves” (it is a very smart thing to do), you know that it takes an inordinate amount of  time to follow each and every one of the links that come up on search results pages. Because of this, many people simply search the first two or three pages of each search. The bad news is that some of the most “juicy tidbits” about a person often do not appear on the first few search pages (mainly because they are not optimized for search) Not to worry, Spokeo.com—a personal information aggregation site that bills itself as “Not your grandma’s white pages”—can quickly find a person’s vital information including age, home value, marital status, phone number, photos and even a home address. 

After entering my name into the Spokeo’s search box (located on the company’s homepage) I pressed enter and viola the location of four persons who shared my name were retrieved. I selected the appropriate person (the one who lives in New Jersey), and as billed, the search results included my name, my address, home phone, the estimated value of my home and even my wife’s first name (she has a different last name)!  The dat were presented in a convenient Web 2.0-lkie profile box. The search that I conducted on me was free. However, for an additional fee I can get a full report from Spokeo that includes additional information about my age, e-mail address, income, hobbies, photos, videos, and even my lifestyle (?). 

While this is pretty shocking and creepy (especially if you don’t want people to find you), the unfortunate thing is that most of the information that the Spokeo search found was likely willingly provided by me while registering or signing up for things at various shopping and social media websites. To wit, there is a lot of information out there on the web about many unsuspecting persons and finding it can be easily accomplished using tools like Spokeo.

In my previous post, I mentioned Reputation.com, a start-up that offers a paid service to clients who want to expunge inaccurate or damaging information about them from the web. Like Reputation .com Abine offers a personal service  called Delete Me but takes the personal data search and privacy paradigm a step further. Abine charges $99 a year for quarterly reports detailing the information available about you online. Further, the company has developed a suite of  personal privacy software designed to “allow regular people to regain control over their personal information while continuing to browse, interact and shop online.”

Its main software product is a web browser add-on called Privacy Suite that according to a blurb on the Abine website “combines disparate privacy tools into a comprehensive privacy system. By putting all the controls in one place, the Abine plug-in makes it easier to control the amount of personal information being collected and stored about you online. Some features include:

• Stopping tracking by hundreds of advertising networks and websites
• Manage all cookies (regular & Flash) and trackers in one place.
• Easily create distinct online accounts for different uses
• Pre-fill registration forms with limited subsets of information
• Shield your real info with disposable emails and phone numbers

So, if you don’t have the time or cannot afford the $400 per year to use Abine’s Delete Me service or its Privacy Suite, you can always try to manage your online reputation by yourself by routinely Googling yourself and manually removing all inappropriate or compromising information about you. Sometimes, you may have to negotiate (or pay) bloggers or data brokers—companies that buys data from other companies and then sells it to companies that collect it— to remove a post or a name from people database sites like 123people.com, MyLife.com, Spokeo, US Search, WhitePages and Peoplefinder.com. If a blogger or data broker refuses to comply with a removal request, one privacy consultant suggests “creating more good content about yourself, like starting a LinkedIn profile and a personal blog, to push down the bad to the third or fourth search results screen where few people bother to look. If the content is defamatory — both false and damaging — or otherwise illegal, hire a lawyer.”

Typically deleted information should drop out of search engine sites with a few weeks. If it doesn’t, you can request for it to be removed. For example, Google offers instructions to accomplish this, but Goggle rarely removed items or content that is not illegal unless the owner of the website where the material is published allows it. Also, despite your best efforts, it may not be possible, in some cases to completely expunge all offensive or damaging online information from the web; you will just have to learn to live with it! Having said that, it may be a good idea to think twice before your provide too much personal information while entering a contest to win a free iPad or free service, joining multiple online shopping site or creating a profile on a social networking site unless the company’s privacy policy is easy to read and understand. 

While most smaller online networking sites like BioCrowd will not sell or share a members personal information to online data brokers or marketing companies, some of the larger ones will allow third parties to access their databases for the right price!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (be careful out there)

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Believe it or not, I was interviewed by Karl Schmieder of Bridge 6, a digital healthcare marketing firm about the genesis of BioCrowd and why online networking is important for bioprofessionals and healthcare providers. This is a first for me and it signals that online networking for life scientists and other bioprofessionals may actually be starting to catch on. You can read the entire interview by clicking here.

While most other sites like Benchfly, Epernicus, Labspaces, ResearchGate and others cater almost exclusively to scientists, BioCrowd was created as an online networking and career development site for ALL bioprofessionals including those involved with marketing, manufacturing, publishing, writing, fun raising etc. We want prospective BioCrowd members to think of the community as a “one-stop-shopping” site for life sciences professionals who want to network, advance a career or even start  up a biotechnology company! Check us out!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (I hope to see you at BioCrowd!)

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Believe it or not, employment opportunities are looking better in the life sciences industry. While this may be good news for some, the need for R&D scientists and sales representatives in the US is dwindling. The high cost and low ROI for R&D at most major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies has forced life sciences executives to outsource many R&D functions that previously had been performed in house. Likewise, the inability of companies to bring novel, new medicines to market has reduced the need for pharmaceutical companies to maintain large sales forces. Put simply, there aren’t enough drugs to be sold to warrant large numbers of sales people trying to sell them! Given this backdrop, now may be a good time for bioprofessionals in these areas to consider new job opportunities and possibly new career paths. To that end, this post contains information about several biocareer developments sites (created by me) that may be helpful to bioprofessionals looking for work or new careers. 

BioCrowd

BioCrowd, created two years ago by Clifford Mintz and Vincent Racaniello, is an online networking site for scientists and other life sciences professionals. Built on a flexible and highly interactive social networking platform, BioCrowd was designed to foster scientific and business relationships between its members. While science is the main driver of our community, it takes a host of other bioprofessionals in addition to scientists to create successful life sciences ventures. To that end, BioCrowd provides its members with immediate access to world class academic researchers, industrial scientists, consultants, recruiters, venture capitalists and other life sciences professionals. 

Our goal is to provide a socially-interactive “one-stop-shopping” solution for bioprofessionals who are interested in advancing their careers or seeking new business opportunities in the life sciences industry.

BioJobBlog

BioJobBlog was created four years ago and focuses on training and career development issues that are facing scientists and other bioprofessionals. The blog offers career development ideas and advice for bioprofessionals and also provides insights into hot topics and debates taking place in the life sciences industry.

Its founder, Clifford Mintz, started the blog because of the career difficulties he faced while making the transition from an academic scientist to freelance science writer. Cliff hopes that by sharing his experiences with others they may be able to more easily navigate their own career paths which can be difficult, frustrating and emotionally- draining!

The BioJobCenter

The BioJob Center offers both job seekers and employers ‘real time,’ current job listings, job application tracking, and e-mail job alerts. Job seekers can join for free and search for jobs (based on job title and/or location) and directly apply for them from the job center.
Employers, for a fee, can list job openings; advertise jobs; call out ‘hot jobs’ or search candidate resume databases. Jobs posted to the BioJob Center are also simultaneously listed on other job sites including www.JobJobHealth.com and Twitter Jobs.

While this is not close to being a comprehensive list of biocareer development sites out there, I can safely say that the advice and content on these sites is relevant and sound.

Until next time...

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

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Over the past few months, a number of celebrities have agreed to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies pitch their products in direct-to-consumer advertising campaigns. Perhaps this is related to the economic downturn and these actors are having trouble finding high paying gigs to support their lifestyles. Alternatively, their motives may be altruistic or they or one of their loved ones may suffer from a life-altering or threatening illness.

The latest addition to the celebrity pitchperson parade is the soap opera diva Susan Lucci. After her husband Helmut Huber was unexpectedly diagnosed a decade ago with atrial fibrillation—a type of irregular heartbeat that increase the risk of stroke five-fold, Lucci yesterday announced that she and her husband would partner with Boehringer Ingelheim the National Stroke Association and StopAfib.org to launch a new education campaign to raise awareness of atrial fibrillation. Financial terms of the relationship were not disclosed.

In other news, Amgen and Pfizer yesterday announced the joint launch of "Psophisticated Style:  A Guide to Everyday Style and Psoriasis™," an online resource, providing a wealth of style advice specifically for people with psoriasis.

The new online presence will be hosted by B-list celebrity Tim Gunn, mentor to the designers on TV's "Project Runway" and chief creative officer of Liz Claiborne, Inc. and dermatologist Susan C. Taylor, M.D., the style guide includes five videos, which illustrate various style issues for individuals with psoriasis. Practical and insightful highlights from each video are also available and can be printed.  The new website is well designed and has a decidedly web 2.0 look and feel to it. And, you can even follow Psophisticated Style on Facebook and share the site with your friends!

According to a press release Addressing Psoriasis™ was developed to inspire people with plaque psoriasis to actively manage their condition, be more confident and not allow the condition to inhibit their everyday style. 

Despite the slow uptake, Pharma’s attitude on the use of social media is beginning to shift. Last week, Eli Lilly &Co announced the launch of Lilly Pad a blog and twitter feed designed to provide information and helpful tips to patients with diabetes. Yesterday at the Business Development Institute’s HealthCare Social Communications Leadership Forum in Manhattan, Todd Siesky , Public Relations Manager, Roche Diabetes Care described an innovative and creative initiative (started two years ago) to establish a network of influential bloggers in the diabetes space. The bloggers are not paid and do not benefit financially from their interactions with the company. Roche interacts with the blogging network on a quarterly basis and has held two summits to bring the bloggers together to brainstorm and interact with one another (Roche covers airfare and hotel accommodations).

Also, Ted Phelan, Senior Regional Scientific Manager Medical Affairs at Astra Zeneca gave an illuminating talk about his company’s efforts to build a physician community in the gastrointestinal therapeutic space. Ted’s take away from his impromptu presentation (the originally scheduled Astra Zeneca representative couldn’t attend) was you won’t be successful unless you understand the needs of community members (he is married to a physician).

For those of you who may not closely follow the pharmaceutical social media space, building Facebook fan pages and creating a Twitter feed are no longer de rigueur. Instead, the next big thing is building company-sponsored, unbranded, online patient and physician communities around different therapeutic indications! Move over Patients Like Me, there may be some new kids on the block in the very near future!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Tweeting!!!!!

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A recent report published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that in the last year, social networking services have nearly doubled in popularity in Americans over the age of 50. Interesting, there were virtually no inroads among those aged 18 to 29. The spike in popularity also includes those over 65 years old who are twice as likely this year as compared with last to say that they belonged to social networking sites.

The authors of the report suggest a few reasons for the increasing popularity of social networking among seniors (aside from the observation that older people are slower overall to adopt technological innovations). 

First, social networking sites provide a rare opportunity to bridge the generational divide; for example grandparents and grandchildren can keep track of each other or share family photos on a single network like Facebook. Second, many older Americans use Facebook and even Twitter to reconnect with people from their past. Finally, social networking sites have been around for almost a decade and there are growing signs that younger folks are moving beyond social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to the next big thing (whatever that may be).

While online networking sites may have begun to outlive their usefulness for social activities, there is trend toward the use of these sites for professional purposes including job searches and access to information. LinkedIn and BioCrowd are two good examples of this type of online professional networking sites.

FYI, I rarely visit Facebook and occasionally have time for Twitter (I turned 57 this past July). Most of my online time is spent on LinkedIn and BioCrowd looking for new contacts and access to interesting information about the life sciences industry. 

Just sayin’

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Surfing!!!!!!!!!

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It is well established that many scientist are not particularly adept at social interactions and are notoriously poor at networking. Contrary to popular belief these deficiencies are not genetic and likely result from the erroneous notion that scientists don’t need career network to advance their work or careers.

There is no question that face-to-face networking is an acquired skill and that practice is necessary to master it. However, the advent of Google search and social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter permits even the novice jobseeker to establish an online network—in the absence of a real life one—that may be useful in a job search or future career development. To that end, I came across a 2008 post written by Trent Ham that offers insights and tactics on how to incorporate online networking into a successful job search.

Ten Fundamental Steps for Successful Online Career Networking                                       By Trent Hamm

Let’s start with the big question.

Why?

What is the point of doing online networking for your career? How is it any better than simply keeping in touch with people you know via email or at meetings? Isn’t stuff like LinkedIn or Facebook a waste of time, or at least not worth the time you invest in it?

Online networking tools serve two purposes, really.

First, they make it easy for people to find you – or at least find the information about you that you want to be found. Once you set up a proper profile at a social networking site, it’s often the first thing that shows up about you on search engines. Thus, when people go searching for information about you, you can have a lot of control over the information that they find.

Second, they allow you to keep tabs on other people – and allow other people to keep tabs on you. Let’s say, for example, that you’re starting a new project that might interest a lot of people in your field – and you might want input from some of them. Is it easier to collect all their email addresses then send a blanket email to all of them or to just simply update your online networking tool?

Similarly, if you’ve set up such tools properly, you can effortlessly and automatically follow such news and updates about others in your field, which can automatically alert you to any interesting changes without having to hope that that person remembered to send it to you.

Together, these things add up to tons and tons of opportunities to connect with people without having to invest a ton of time continually tracking people down.

Tactic #1: Just Use Google
One problem that many people have with doing this is that there seems to be a giant pile of services available for people to connect to others. Should I use Twitter? Should I use Facebook? Should I use LinkedIn?

Really, though, there’s only one you need to worry about. And that’s Google.

When people want to find other people online, they turn to Google. They type in that name, click on the first few links, and see what they can find out.

That means your focus shouldn’t be so much on which of these services to use. It should be to make sure you’re controlling that top search result on Google.

How can you do that? You need to have a page that’s (a) fully open to the public and (b) linked to by a lot of other people.

Based on what I’ve observed, for professional purposes, the best tool for that is LinkedIn, so if I were just getting started with things, I’d use LinkedIn. Facebook has more users, but it’s a “walled garden,” meaning the general public cannot read your profile. If you’re focusing solely on professional material, that’s actually a pretty big disadvantage.

Tactic #2: Detail Your Profile
When you sign up for such a service, the first step is to add appropriate detail to your profile. The key word here is appropriate.

The purpose for doing this is to attract professional connections, so keep it professional. Describe your career. Enter all of the relevant information and include as much detail as you can, including past places of employment, organizations you’re involved with (that you’d want to share professionally), where you went to school, and so on. Make especially sure to describe your current work (again, in as much detail as you can). Be sure to share it all publicly, too, so that you can easily be found on Google searches.

The more information you provide – particularly interesting information – the more likely it is that people will take an interest in you, follow you, and contact you for further connection, which is exactly what you want.

Tactic #3: Find People You Know (Or Want To Know)
Once you’re in place, start searching the site for people you know and establish connections with them. You may not know anyone – that’s fine – but if you can at least establish a few connections, you’re off on the right foot.

You might want to search whole companies, like your own, just to get a list of people, so you can quickly identify people that you may want to link up with. Don’t be afraid to connect with people above you in rank – or even below you – but focus on connecting to those that might actually have value in that connection. Don’t just connect for the sake of connecting or else you’ll suffer from needless overload.

Tactic #4: Invite Your Friends To Join
So, you signed up at LinkedIn (or whatever site you’ve chosen to use), filled in your profile, and located a few people you know. Now what?

These tools work better if you know lots of people using the tools, so email a bunch of your work contacts. Send them the URL of your LinkedIn page, along with perhaps the URLs of some other people most of them might be interested in, and encourage them to sign up. If people already know that they have at least a few connections in the bag, they’re much more likely to sign up for such a service.

Tactic #5: Keep People Reminded Through Other Means
Once you’re established there, make an effort to remind people through other mediums about your profile page, so they can follow you, too. I’d encourage you to stick a link to your profile in the signature of your emails as well as into the profile of any other online services you might use (like Facebook, for example).

What this does is it gives people many opportunities to visit your page and keep you in their mind – and that’s a pure benefit for you.

Tactic #6: Keep An Eye Out
Once you’ve established a profile and a lot of connections, it’s worth setting your basic page on the site as a bookmark so you can keep up with what’s happening with the people you’re connected to. I tend to look at what’s happening with my connections on various sites every other day or so, just to keep tabs with them.

For the most part, I don’t do anything with the updates – I just try to keep track of them. I usually send congratulations in response to big news and occasional follow-up questions, but I usually try to avoid too much follow-up (see #8 for why).

Tactic #7: Update Regularly
I also make an effort to update my own profile whenever there’s something significant to note. Whenever something happens that’s significant enough for me to wish to contact people professionally, I make sure to update any relevant social networking pages with a global update (so that everyone can see it and anyone who follows me or is connected is alerted to it).

Of course, there’s a fine line here – too much stuff can overburden the people connected to you. To mitigate that, I keep the update count down to the serious stuff – things that I would actually bother to contact others about, such as major project changes, changing jobs, the birth of a child, or another major event.

Tactic #8: Don’t Get Bogged Down
Ideally, you find yourself in a situation with a lot of connections, which means a lot of people are keeping tabs with what you’re doing. The danger in that is that it’s tempting to get involved in a lot of conversations – and that turns the social networking tool into an unproductive time suck.

My suggestion: avoid long conversations on the site. If you see something truly compelling, contact that person directly off the site. If it’s not compelling enough move on and don’t waste your time!

Tactic #9: Add Value
There is one other reason I add updates to such social sites, and that’s when they add direct value to the people following me. If I find a truly great resource or piece of information that many others in my field will find valuable, I add an update letting others know about it.

Why do this? Why share something of value so easily? If you share truly valuable things, people will come to ascribe value to you – and that will stick in their minds. Do it regularly enough with stuff that’s truly valuable and people will share valuable things with you – information, important news, and so on.

Tactic #10: Follow Up
Most of these tactics don’t require much time, and so it can be easy to just put up the profile, check in every once in a while, and not think about it.

If you just do that, however, you may miss out on opportunity. Thus, I’d suggest two methods for regular follow-up on your profile.

First, set the site as a default page in your browser. This way, checking the page becomes part of your normal routine. You can often integrate a number of pages into a single iGoogle start page – that’s the tactic I use.

Second, check your own profile regularly and make sure it’s updated. Don’t let it slag with out-of-date information. Check it once a month or so and make sure that correct, current, and relevant information is easily found by people searching for you.

Follow these ten tactics and you’ll be using online networking to great career advantage.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Networking (try it, you may like it)

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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. 

But, recent research published by David Figlio an economist at Northwestern University (in association with the National Bureau of Economics) found that live, classroom instruction was superior to Internet-based lecture videos for an introductory economics students.

The results were obtained in a head-to-head experiment that compared the grades achieved by 312 online students and those taught in a traditional classroom setting in an introductory economics course taught at a major unnamed state university. Interestingly, Hispanic online students’ grades fell nearly a full grade lower than Hispanic taught in a traditional classroom. Moreover, male students performed almost a half a grade worse than their classroom-based counterparts and low achievers, who had college grade point averages below the university mean also performed more poorly. Finally, online female students outperformed online male students.

The researchers assert that the differences that they observed could not be attributed to computer replacing the traditional tutorial-style human teaching environment because the lecture hall used in the experiment was a very large one that seated hundreds of students at one time. Initially, Figlio thought that the flexibility of online courses—the ability to go back and revisit course materials when time permitted—would give online learning an edge over traditional learning environments. However, based on the results of the study he contends that “the time-shifting convenience of the Web made it easier for students to put off viewing lectures and cram just before the test; a tactic that likely may not produce the best results! 

That may partly explain some of the discrepancies uncovered in the study, but why do online male students perform worse than their online female counterparts? The answer likely lies in the commonly-held belief (fact?) that female students are superior to male students in time management, organizational skills and commitment. Whether or not this is true, there is emerging evidence which suggests that online learning may not be an appropriate learning style for some students despite it obvious advantage of convenience. That said, it is important to note that the traditional didactic methods of instruction commonly employed by most secondary and postsecondary educators is also lacking and needs to be modified to create better learning environments.

While online training is gaining in popularity—and in my opinion, a great adjunctive tool—it will never replace those “magical teaching moments” that often spontaneously arise in a face-to-face classroom setting from student-instructor interactions and student-student repartee.

Until next time,

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

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Like most scientists, the questions that I enjoy the most have simple answers. Black or white is much easier to deal with than shades of gray (although shades of gray can be titillating from a research perspective). With this in mind, the answer to my question about online job searches is a shade of gray rather than black or white. It goes without saying, that applying for jobs online is simple, facile, and extremely gratifying. On a given day, you can apply for thousands of jobs and feel like you have done something positive for your future.

However, after you come out of your computer-induced blissful state,I want you to remember that tens of thousands of people have also done the same thing that you just did! Just think of those billions of bytes of information being transmitted to all of those websites. It is a wonder that the job boards never crash from traffic overload. Do you ever wonder why you rarely hear back from employer regarding the positions that you applied for? Have you ever thought about who reviews all of the resumes and cover letters that you and your colleagues send to job board and corporate websites? Unfortunately, the answer to that question is straightforward and obvious data management/recruiting software.In other words, humans rarely look at any of the stuff that you send to their sites.

Typically, resumes are reviewed by computers and if your resume does not contain the appropriate "key words" your chances for that job are remote. Consequently, I do not recommend that you use the internet exclusively to look for that new job. Nothing beats the tried and true method of networking and hitting the pavement to meet as many people as you can who you think can help you find a job. However, there is a light at the end of the job tunnel...at least for the more mature and experienced job seekers out there.

As I like to remind my younger colleagues, "What we old guys lack in stamina we make up for with expertise"! All kidding aside, many of the jobs posted on the major job boards are placed there by professional recruiters. These recruiters are "trolling" for individuals with prior job experience (and a few gray hairs) because today's employers want job candidates with "previous industrial experience". Also, the longer you have been around, the more skills that you acquire which gives you more flexibility with regard to the different types of jobs that you can apply for.

So, in a nutshell, if you have a few years of "real life" job experience under your belt, I highly recommend that you take advantage of any online job opportunities that are consistent with your skills and areas of expertise. If you do not have any prior job experience, I recommend that you spend more time on Facebook or Twitter rather than wasting your time on Monster!

Until next time...

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

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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 extremely revealing article about some possible, unforeseen “side effects” associated with membership in online patient communities.

The reason why these online communities exist is for patients to commiserate with one another and exchange personal stories and medical information. While personal stories may be emotionally satisfying for patients, it is their medical information and demographic data that is extremely valuable to drug makers. To that end, many online patient communities inform their members that they reserve the right to share information and data for research purposes. And many of them do!

To be clear, I am not suggesting that the people who create or manage online patient communities have avaricious, nefarious or otherwise unsavory ulterior motives for the medical and patient demographic data that they collect. However, these communities need to generate revenue in order to stay in business and drug makers are willing to pay for access to it.

According to Singer, the popular PatientsLikeMe community admits that it sells health and medical data gathered from member profiles (but with certain identifying information removed) to pharmaceutical companies and others for scientific and marketing research purposes. Further, a large number of unbranded “disease awareness” pages have recently begun to appear on Facebook and YouTube. In her article, Singer contends that “drug companies may pay people to moderate patient forums [in the community] or give testimonials but might not prominently display that fact to participants. Other sites collect consumer health data to help drug makers’ aim at specific kinds of consumers, using psychological cues.” At a medical communications meeting that I attended several years ago, a MySpace sales rep freely admitted to me that it allow pharmaceutical companies to mine profile data in order to develop targeted marketing campaigns. Is Facebook next?

Finally, while the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) restricts the way health care providers use and disseminate patients’ information, consumer health websites and online patient communities aren’t subject to its privacy provisions. In other words, there are no regulations guiding the privacy and use of medical information and data collected using social media tools! Essentially, this means that the persons who run online patient communities can do pretty much whatever they like with the medical and personal information that they collect!

As I stated at the beginning of the post, I am a social media enthusiast who subscribes to the notion that if used correctly, social media can help to better inform and improve the lives of people suffering from various disease. That said, I also believe that people who choose to participate in online communities MUST be fully informed about the potential uses of the personal information and data that they contribute. Until the Food and Drug Administration provides some regulatory guidance on the use social media to collect and disseminate medical information patients will be at the mercy of the entities that run online patient communities. Let’s hope that they see fit to “do the right thing.”

Until next time...

Good Luck and Be Careful What You Say Out There!!!!!!!!!

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By now, most of you have heard at some point or another that networking is critical when it come to trying to land a job. Unfortunately, networking is not an inherited genetic trait and it takes a fair amount of skill (some say art) to develop and excel at it! To make matters worse, most scientists are told and frequently reminded that networking for career advancement is equivalent to shameless self promotion and that “good scientists” generally refrain from doing it. Consequently, most scientists are not good at networking and in some cases shamefully inept.

The advent of social networking sites like BioCrowd, Facebook and others provides an opportunity for scientists to overcome their fear or guilt about networking. More importantly it provides a “safe haven” for scientists who want to avoid the anxiety and pressures of face-to-face networking at live events. While online networking may be a surrogate or substitute for the real thing, if leveraged correctly, it can be used to find and land a job or advance a career. 

Surprisingly, the use of social networking by life scientists lags behind that of the general public. After all, many life scientists pride themselves as being on the cutting edge or part of the vanguard pushing new technologies that can be used to “push back the frontiers of science.” Nevertheless, social media and online networking sites have become routine parts of most job searches and both are used by employers and prospective employees alike. To that end, I crafted a Powerpoint presentations that describes the “dos and don’ts” of social media for job searches and career advancement. 

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting

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 It's official; BioCrowd was one year old on Monday. During the past year,Vincent and I have been surveying the bioscience social media space to come up with ideas to keep BioCrowd fresh and relevant. To that end, we redesigned the BioCrunch section of our home page to include a bulletin board feature, a weekly video pick and RSS-driven news, video and podcast feeds. Also, we created a feature called the Career Corner that will showcase the interests, careers and lives of featured BioCrowd members. The inaugural career vignette is about me. So, those of you who want to learn more or can’t get enough of me, check it out!

Next week, we hope to launch a new user-generated, multimedia file upload capability. The new functionality will allow members to up load any type of multimedia file (videos, podcasts, PowerPoint presentations, poster etc) to website. Uploaded files can be read, viewed or listened to at the website and members can rate the content (like vs. dislike). Finally, multimedia files will be aggregated according to type and linked to the profiles of members who generated and uploaded the content.

We hope that BioCrowd members enjoy the new features and continue to visit the site. Also, please tell your friends, colleagues, mentors or other bioprofessionals about the site.  

Both Vincent and I look forward to seeing and chatting with you at the BioCrowd.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Networking!!!!!!!!!!

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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. 

As strange as this may sound, most people working at pharmaceutical companies have little or no understanding of the science behind the biotechnology industry, its products and the skill sets required to compete in the industry. I learned this while working as a contract writer at a pharmaceutical company that was trying to transition from an emphasis on small molecules to biotechnology drugs. Shortly after management publicly announced its intention, signs began appearing in the building where I worked with messages like “Are you biotech to the core” or “Got biotech.” Not surprisingly, I found myself explaining the different between small molecules and biotechnology products to large numbers of colleagues during group lunches. Their lack of understanding about biotechnology was both surprising and troubling. I mean where have these people been for the past 35 years? 

While I thought that this phenomenon was unique to the company where I was working, it turns out —based on many conversations with employees at other companies—that it is pervasive in the pharmaceutical industry! Put simply, there are large numbers of pharmaceutical employees (and aspiring students for that matter) who know little about biotechnology and must quickly learn about an industry that they are being forced to work in so that they can keep their jobs! This presents time and logistical issues for many full time pharmaceutical employees—they simply don’t have the time or where-with-all to learn about biotechnology via traditional bricks and mortar training opportunities, e.g. undergraduate, graduate or certificate programs.

Recognizing a growing need, several academic institutions now offer online biotechnology courses and degree programs for undergraduate and graduate students. While these programs may not enable participants to work as bench scientists at life sciences companies (this requires hands-on wet laboratory training), they certainly provide students with the fundamental scientific and business underpinnings of the biotechnology industry.

Below you will find descriptions of a couple of online degree biotechnology programs and links to online undergraduate and graduate level biotechnology courses.

Online Biotechnology Degree Programs

The Johns Hopkins University – a prestigious brick-and-mortar research university – offers three online degree programs in advanced biotechnology: the M.S. in Bioinformatics, the M.S. in Bioscience Regulatory Affairs, and the M.S. in Biotechnology. (The M.S. in Biotech may involve a limited amount of on-campus instruction in Baltimore.) Students have up to five years to complete their degrees, but those who enroll for full-time study typically finish in two years.

The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is among America’s largest providers of distance education. UMUC's Biotechnology Studies Program has been designated a “Professional Science Master’s Degree Program” by the Council of Graduate Schools. The program’s three specialization areas include: bioinformatics, biotechnology management, and biosecurity/biodefense. A dual online degree option is also available: students can earn an MBA in addition to the Master’s in Biotechnology by completing just a few additional courses.

Online Biotechnology Courses

Purdue University’s Department of Continuing Education frequently features online courses in horticulture and related fields that can help students prepare for careers in biotechnology. New choices are offered every semester.

MiraCosta College, a community college in Southern California, offers a number of online courses in biotechnology. The school’s website includes a five-year projection of course offerings.

While the current list of online biotechnology offerings is short, expect the number of online courses and degree programs to continue to grow in the future. If you are aware of or participate in other online biotechnology courses and degree programs, please feel free contact me about them.

Hat tip and thanks to Chesca and her colleagues at OnlineDegreeReviews.org for research and writing of this post!

Until next time,

Good luck and Good learning!

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Mary Canady author of the Comprendia Blog recently analyzed the popularity (or lack thereof) of a number of social networking sites that were created for life scientists. It would seem that online social networking sites would be ideal for scientists because we are not known for our networking or social communication skills in real life. However, only a few of the more than 15 life sciences social networking sites started in the past two years are doing well based on the traffic and usage statistics cited by Mary in her post. 

While Mary’s analysis included most of the well known life science social networking sites, she failed to include BioCrowd, the networking site started by Vincent Racaniello and me. While BioCrowd does cater to life scientists, we intentionally expanded our network to include other bioprofessionals including medical writers, marketers, consultants, venture capitalists and even CEOs! After all, it takes a village to take an idea from concept to commercialization.

Hat tip to Mary for the insightful post!

Until next time...

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

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Yesterday, after giving a talk on social media to a great NYC-based PR firm called Ricochet,I decided to take an uptown trip to visit Professor Vincent Racaniello at Columbia University Medical School to talk about the new applications that we plan to introduce to BioCrowd.

When I arrived at Professor Racaniello’s office, which has an outstanding view of the Hudson River and George Washington Bridge, he was in the middle of taping this week’s This Week in Virology (TWiV) podcast with co-hosts Dick Despommier and Alan Dove. Much to my surprise, Vincent invited me to join the conversation although I am a bacteriologist not a virologist. The podcast was devoted mainly to answering questions that listeners had submitted to the show. One listener alerted us to a post at Newsweek Online entitled “Fight Flu and Falsehoods” while we didn’t agree with the author’s assertion that “that hand washing doesn’t affect the transmissibility of influenza”—it does reduce infections rates of other viruses, bacteria and parasites, so it is a good idea to continue to wash your hands—accompanying the article was an outstanding online quiz that assesses how much you really know about influenza and other viruses. 

I think it would be fun for BioJobBlog readers to take the quiz, report scores and then tabulate the results.

To take the quiz, click here and to report your score click here!  I will tabulate the results and share them in a later post if enough BioJobBlog readers and their friends take!

Until next time

Good Luck and More Luck On the Quiz!!!

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e-Patients Connections 2009 (#epatcon) was held this past Monday and Tuesday at the Park Hyatt hotel in Philadelphia, PA. BioCrowd was one of several co-sponsors of the event. The theme of the conference, organized by Kevin Kruse a veteran medical communication and training expert, who now runs Kru Research, was to “reach, engage and educate empowered digital health consumers.” And, boy, did it deliver! While this was Kru Research’s first official conference, it was well organized, extremely interactive and the quality of the speakers was second to none! Topics that were featured included social media and the life sciences industry, technological advances in e-based healthcare delivery, the relationship between the news media and healthcare information and the continuing evolution of online and e-based healthcare communities.

Conference attendees included representatives from the life sciences industry, medical communications experts, advertising and marketing professionals and a multitude of social media enthusiasts and consultants who kept the Twitter screen humming throughout the meeting (a big shout out to the “troublemaking table”). And, surprisingly, there was a representative from the Division of Drug Marketing and Advertising and Communications (DDMAC) at the US Food and Drug Administration, who I believe, was one of the most sought after individuals at the meeting. CNN reporter Elizabeth Cohen who writes the Empowered Patient and racecar driver Charles Kimball, a type I diabetic and company spokesperson for Novo Nordisk also gave talks.

My favorite talks were those presented by online patient community organizers including Tricia Geoghegan of Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals who created the Facebook ADHD Allies community, Lisa Tate of WomenHeart and Robert Schumm of Bayer Consumer Care who created Facebook Strong@ Heart and Rachel Lewinson of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Organization and Susan Harrow Rago of Novo Nordisk who created Juvenation.org a website dedicated to those with Type I diabetes. These communities are outstanding examples of how partnerships between pharmaceutical companies and advocacy groups can help to better educate the public and heighten awareness about potentially life-altering diseases. Another example of a great online community and healthcare portal is Insomnia 123.com. This website was conceived and constructed by Christine Macadams and her partners’ one of whom is a practicing physician. Unlike the other online communities, which are sponsored and mainly supported by consumer healthcare division of large pharmaceutical companies, Insomnia 123.com was exclusively created by a group of concerned individuals who wanted to better educate and improve the lives of people with insomnia—a largely unreported and self-medicated condition.

On the technical side, the talks presented by Lee Segal of Klick, Kevin Durr of Avantera , Ian Kelly of Red Nucleus and Scott Ballenger of ListenLogic were illuminating and extremely informative. Some of the innovations taking place in digital media are exciting and almost overwhelming at times (even for a social media enthusiast like me). I think the company to watch is ListenLogic which uses semantic search engines to collect real time data and “chatter” on the web. This technology may provide a cost-effective solution to assuage the concerns of many life sciences companies that claim that collecting and analyzing overwhelming amounts of data is one of the main reasons why they are reluctant to entry the social media space.

Marc Monseau of Johnson and Johnson gave an illuminating talk on his experiences as a corporate blogger and Twitter user and described some of the challenges that had to be overcome before his company was able to break the “social media barrier.” Janice McCallum, an economist by training and a healthcare communications and media expert gave an informative talk about the growing role and impact of patient-generated healthcare content on patient awareness and education.

Finally, the novel and innovative Pecha Kucha sessions were outstanding and extremely well done! While all were expertly crafted, Dr. Val’s and Jonathan Richman’s Pecha Kucha were memorable. Dr. Val’s, which was extremely powerful and moving, was performed entirely in verse and Jonathan’s was—well, one of Jonathan’s always entertaining and informative presentations.

In summary, the “e-Patient Connections 2009” was a resounding success and in my opinion reached its goal to “reach engage and educate empowered digital health consumers.” That said, I can’t wait for “e-Patient Connections 2010” meeting!!!

Hat tip to @ellenhoenig and @eileenobrien for inviting me to my first tweetup (great fun) and finally meeting @janice McCallum, @christianeTrue, @stevewoodruff and Silja aka @whydotpharma! 

Until next time...

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

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There has been a growing reliance on the use of online tools to teach science to primary, secondary and college students. This makes sense because anybody who has pursued a science career will tell you that using web-based programs, applications and searches is absolutely essential when conducting scientific research. To that end, Amber Johnson at onlinecourses.org sent me an article that details some really cool educational add-on tools that are available for the Firefox browser.

I highly recommend that science educators at all levels check out the post and evaluate some of these interesting tools!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Teaching!!!!!!!!

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Amber Johnson of Accredited College Online thought that BioJobBlog readers might be interested in an article that she authored entitled “10 Big Ways that the Recession is Hitting Higher Ed.”  It is an informative piece that might be of interest to high school and undergraduate students and parents who have kids in college.

10 Big Ways the Recession is Hitting Higher Ed

From elementary to college, schools around the nation have felt the recession in many different ways. As the economy sinks, the educational demands rise. Teachers are holding on to dear life for their jobs, students are struggling to pay for college and the states are running out of school funding. But even with all of these economic woes, there are still people eager to teach and happy to learn.

1. Budget Cuts. Since the beginning of the fiscal year, the U.S. has suffered a 5 percent drop (about $4 billion) from the amount of money state governments apportioned for higher education, according to a U.S. News & World Report article. This is directly affecting universities across the country, who’ve seen larger class sizes, less professors and counselors, as well as canceled courses, which experts say could "threaten the quality of education."
2. Spike in Tuition. College tuition has been an inevitable hurdle for many students and families for years, but in this recession, it stings that much more. Since 1982, college tuition and fees have increased 439 percent, which is about three times higher than the increase in family incomes, according to an ABC news report. In some cases, tuition increases are the school’s response to more financial aid requests, but these scholarships may not be enough to cover soaring prices.
3. Decline in Aid. Many states are cutting college financial aid programs when students need it most. An increase in unemployment and financial losses has caused 620,000 more students to apply for federal aid in the first quarter compared to last year. An Associated Press article reports that without financial assistance, students may be forced to drop out, transfer or be laden with debt.
4. Decline in Endowments. A major factor in these educational downturns is the decline in college endowments. Big and small donors simply aren’t giving back right now, which has caused hiring freezes, cutbacks on financial aid and halted construction projects, according to a Wall Street Journal article.
5. Graduate in Three Years.Graduating in three years is a surefire way to slash college costs. American colleges are now starting to offer three-year college degrees, which is the normal time frame for many British and Canadian students. It’s an upcoming trend, according to CBS MoneyWatch, that could make "elite education" more affordable.
6. More Kids Are Going Public. According to a CBS News report, private school enrollments have declined as many students make the switch from private to public schools. While some continue to pay top dollar for private school tuition payments, others have had to transfer to less prestigious schools to save money.
7. Arts Programs Suffer. With devastating budget cuts on the agenda, college art departments are the first area to be altered. According to a New York Times article, students can expect to see fewer teachers, programs and courses in the arts when they return to campus in the fall. While some colleges are phasing out programs altogether, others, like Louisiana State University, are holding off on new computers, production technology and traveling for conferences to lessen their demand for funding.
8. Growth and Decline of Majors. For college students, choosing the right major during the recession may secure a stable career in the future. Certain industries, such as journalism, entertainment and finance should be avoided, according to a report by College Finance 101, because they have seen the most turmoil during the recession.
9. Higher Community College Enrollment. With the recession at its peak, many college students have opted for the more affordable institutions — community colleges, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. However, this influx of students has caused some community colleges to turn them away, claiming there’s not enough room, teachers and accommodations at these campuses.
10. Distance Learning is More Desirable. A big thing hitting the economy is online education. Whether people have lost a job, are fearful of losing one or want a degree, online colleges have open seats. A CNN report, titled "Riding out the recession in a virtual classroom," touches on the idea of investing in education during troubled times to have a back-up plan and find the right career path for you.

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The appearance of the Swine Flu aka H1N1 last spring not only created a worldwide panic, it demonstrated to Albert Osterhaus, head of virology at the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands how uninformed the lay public was about viral outbreaks, epidemiology and public health. This prompted Dr. Osterhaus and his colleagues to create a free, online video game called the “The Great Flu” which challenges players to control a new viral pandemic.

As the virus has spread worldwide, countries have tried different methods to slow it down and pharmaceutical companies are now racing to produce a swine flu vaccine (sound familiar?). To fight the emerging outbreak, players use public health measures including setting up surveillance systems, stockpiling antivirals and vaccines, and closing schools and airports. Players also have a limited budget and are warned that "your actions to control the virus cost money, so keep an eye on it." In other words, while the goal is to control the pandemic, there may not be sufficient funds and resources to accomplish those goals!

A running tally of the numbers of people infected and those who have died are displayed above the budget. Newspaper stories about the deadly virus and the global response to it — like riots breaking out worldwide — pop up to help players monitor the outbreak and plan their next moves. Messages from governments mirror the difficulties faced by international agencies like WHO that are responsible for containing worldwide epidemics. For example, when players set up costly surveillance systems, sometimes participating governments will send a message "we will comply with your directions...but we must inform you that the political support for this action is low in this region. Therefore, the effectiveness of the system to control the outbreak may differ from your expectations."

The goal of the game is make the lay public aware of the difficulties that public health officials encounter during pandemics and the tight rope they sometimes must walk to insure that the virus is contained and doesn’t continue to spread. To test your skill level at controlling pandemics, you can choose different viruses (which range from easy to difficult to manage) at the beginning of the game.

I think “The Great Flu” is a great way to educate the public about infectious diseases and epidemiology and have fun at the same time. If you are interested in more sinister online swine flu games check this out.  Who said learning science has to be tedious and dull?

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Virus Hunting!!!!!

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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!!!!!!!!

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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.

Based on my experiences as an industrial scientist and more recently as a social media manager, a person with a PhD degree with at least one course in regulatory affairs, good oral and written communication skills and an interest in social media ought to be an ideal candidate for these positions. To that end, those of you who may be interested in this newly, emerging career path option ought to begin training as soon as possible—these jobs will be in high demand at life sciences companies, medical communications agencies and conference organizers in the next year or so!

Until next time....

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

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There is a perception out there that cover letters are old school and that they are no longer necessary when applying for a job. I suspect that this is largely a result of the notion held by many online job applicants that software programs rather than humans evaluate the suitability of prospective job candidates. While this may be true, it never hurts to differentiate yourself from the thousands of others who applied for the same position and didn’t include a cover letter. Further, adding a cover letters allows you to pepper your job application with key words that you may not have been able to squeeze into your resume and may give you a leg up on the competition!

Writing in this Sunday’s New York Times, Phyllis Korkki offers insights and tips on writing cover letters that could mean the difference between employment and not. The take home message—cover letters are not expendable.

Until next time…

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

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Online career sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Yahoo Hot Jobs have gotten so big and over subscribed that they are no longer useful to most jobseekers. Many career development experts have discovered that the large career sites tend to overwhelm jobseekers because of the enormity of job possibilities that appear on them.  Unfortunately, this seemingly endless supply of job opportunities frequently induces jobseekers to spend too much time applying for online jobs and not enough time exploring non-internet based job possibilities. While applying for online jobs is facile and may be emotionally-gratifying, it usually doesn’t culminate in many face-to-face interviews or job offers for that matter. This is because most online job applications are screened by software programs looking for key words or phrases and, if your resume doesn’t contain them it will not be reviewed by a human. Further, many of the openings posted on job boards are actually placed there by recruiters and contract employment agencies—not actual companies seeking to fill positions. Often times, recruiters post expired or fictitious job descriptions on the boards to “pad” their candidate databases with qualified applicants who can be used for future job orders. Finally, sometimes unscrupulous people/companies place false or misleading ads on the big job boards. Unfortunately, these people have no qualms about taking financial advantage of job seekers who may be desperate or “down on their luck

The declining usefulness of the big online job boards has given rise to smaller career sites like Indeed.com and Simply Hired.com which are driven by powerful search engines and permit jobseekers to customize job searches based on industry, geography, salary and job availability. Other companies like BioInsights.com and OneScience.com have built niche job boards that specialize in industry-specific job listings (in this case pharma and biotech). While these new careers site are more focused, easier to navigate and frequently yield better results than the large job boards, they too can be exploited by recruiters and unscrupulous would-be employers. 

The growing popularity of social networking sites represents an important paradigm shift for jobseekers and employers. Belonging to popular social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook or Plaxo allows job seekers to cast a wider net by taking advantage of the contacts or connections that their “friends” may have at various companies and organizations. Further, it is not uncommon for people within a network to pass on resumes or put in a good word to hiring managers on behalf of friends or contacts from their network who are seeking employment.  However, it is important to also point out that recruiters and contract employment agencies have also recognized the potential and power of social networks. Recruiters and HR specialists now routinely troll social networks (particularly Linked In and Facebook) for qualified candidates and don’t hesitate to contact “qualified candidates” whether or not they are actively looking for a job. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, hiring managers and recruiters are becoming increasingly reliant on social networks to screen and gather personal information about job candidates to assess their suitability for certain jobs. According to a 2006 study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management, recruiters use social networking sites 23 per cent more than they did in 2006 to verify resumes, screen applicants and fill vacancies. Also, the study found that possible negative information posted on social network profiles—personal views, alcohol or drug use, sexually-oriented pictures or social commentaries— have a greater impact on hiring decisions than any positive information that may also appear on job seeker profiles.

The growing use of social networks by job seekers to find employment and employers and recruiters to screen job applicants has profound implications for people who belong to these networks. With this in mind, if you currently have profiles associated with your legal name on social networks like Face Book, MySpace or Linked In, I strongly recommend that are completely devoid of the following: 1) sexually suggestive or explicit photographs, 2) posts or photos depicting excessive alcohol or drug use, 3) any rants that you may have posted about your boss or a current place of employment and 4) personal information about your age, marital status, children or sexual orientation. Also, if you are actively involved in a job search, it is a good idea to upload a short bio or resume to your profile and to post any bonafide recommendations or career award and honors that you may have received. However, if you find the prospect of having to sanitize your MySpace and Facebook profiles unpalatable, then I suggest that you remove your name from your current profile(s) and replace it with an alias (your friends will still  know who you are) and build another profile with your real name for professional use only.   

We live in a highly competitive, constantly-changing world where even slightly negative perceptions about a person may mean the different between employment or not. Ironically, while the Internet allows greater freedom of expression, it also permits people with decision-making powers to more easily scrutinize our daily activities and gain greater insights into our personal lives. Consequently, the onus is on jobseekers to regulate or control what prospective employers may learn about them online. Put simply, the success or failure of your career may literally be in your own hands. That said, the next time that you update your Facebook or MySpace profiles take a moment (before you hit the “send button”) and ask yourself whether or not the new information “is going to help or hurt my career?”

Until next time…

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

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Peggy McKee wrote an interesting piece on her Medical Sales Recruiter blog about personal branding and developing an online presence to find a job. For those of you who haven’t heard about personal branding, it is de rigueur and the hottest thing on the net these days. Put simply, you, the jobseeker, are the brand and to be successful (get a job), the brand must be vigorously promoted! Personal branding can be easily achieved by creating profiles on social networks like MySpace, Facebook or Linked In or creating your own promotional website using your name as the domain name.  However, there are a few things that you ought to consider before you embark on your personal branding campaign. Peggy offers a few pointers and recommendations when it comes to both personal branding and your online persona.

Employers and recruiters research prospective candidates online to get more information about them before an interview is scheduled or an offer is extended.  This can work against you if your MySpace page is filled with “party” pics (or worse), but it can work for you if you have an effective online persona. 

Web Worker Daily rounds up several tips for developing an effective online presence:

• Check your Google profile.  What comes up when your name gets typed in?  Know what’s out there so you don’t get suprised.

• Own your domain name.  Even if you don’t want to do something with it now, you might later.

• Develop your personal brand.  Set up a LinkedIn profile.  Write a blog.  Be a guest writer on blogs specific to your industry (maybe you could write a post for me - describing your job, etc).   If you’re not sure what personal branding is or how to do it, there’s a lot available out there.  Here’s 3 articles to get you started:

The 6 P’s of Personal Branding (Persona, Positioning, Packaging, Presentation, Promotion, and Passion)

Three Keys to Building a Strong Personal Brand.  “A good brand has 3 main features:  clarity, consistency, and constancy.”

Dan Schwabel’s podcast, Top Social Media Tools for Turning Your E-Brand into a Powerhouse.  Let Dan show you how to choose what to use.

 Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting (personal branding can’t hurt)!!!!!!!

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