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As much as I hate to admit it, I have been fired at least three times (usually for insubordination or rabble rousing) from jobs in my long and illustrious career. My guess is that anybody who has worked in the private sector has been fired at least once! Of course, nobody ever admits (unless asked) that they have been fired from a job. The point is that many people get fired and if you’re one of the unlucky people who get does fired; you will need to know how to deal with a “termination” on your resume. After all, once you are fired, you will likely need to look for a new job!

I came across a well- crafted post that provides ideas and insights about dealing with being fired and employment gaps when constructing a resume. Check it out—someday you may need to use some of the proffered tips.

Until next time….

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

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I am sitting in Newark Airport waiting for my flight to San Diego which, not surprisingly, has been delayed for about 2 hours.  As you might have guessed from the title of this post, I am on my way to the 2008 FASEB Career Development Symposium which is run every year at the annual FASEB meeting. 

As we have done in the past, my colleagues Eric Celidonio and Joe Tringali, and I  will be presenting seminars and resume writing workshops for graduate students and postdocs.  Our goal, as always is to offer these folks some advice and tips on how to find a job after they complete their training.  Unfortunately, the job market for PhDs has been depressed for the past 8 years or so.  There once was a time, circa 1994-2000, when finding a job for alife sciences or chemistry PhDs was a snap.  In those days, many jobs were left unfilled. Ironically, it  has been scientific advances and technological innovations that have made it more difficult for PhDs to find jobs over the past decade or so.

Anyway, if you are attending FASEB this year, please stop by.  Also, tell all your friends!  We like when it is busy.

Until next time....

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

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As some of you may know, I worked as a professional recruiter for about 3 years in the late 1990s. What surprised me the most during my recruiting sojourn was the undeserved disdain that people have for recruiters (or “headhunters” as they are known in the vernacular) and how little they understood about the inner workings of the recruiting industry. Like it or not, professional recruiting is an accepted part of corporate life!

Contrary to popular belief, recruiters don’t work for the people who are looking for jobs–they work for and are paid by the companies that engage them! Generally speaking, there are three types of recruiters. Retained recruiters are usually hired by corporate clients to fill senior level corporate positions and are paid a predetermined and agreed upon placement fee whether or not they fill a position. In other words, these recruiters are “on retainer” and work for companies on an “as needed basis.” Contingency recruiters, as the name implies, only get paid when a client company hires a job candidate that was brought to them by a recruiter. As you might imagine, contingency recruiting is a very fast paced, highly competitive and often stressful job–I was a contingency recruiter. Finally, the third type of recruiter, an exclusive contingency recruiter, is an amalgamation of executive and contingency recruiting. In this case, a recruiter receives a portion of his/her placement fee in advance and only receives the remainder when the position is filled with a candidate recommended by the recruiter.

Recruiters are expensive and they cost the companies that use them substantial sums of money. Placement fees usually range from 20% to as high as 45% of a new hires’s first year total compensation package. With this in mind, hiring managers use recruiters only when they need to find candidates for critical or difficult-to-fill positions. In general, companies rarely use recruiters to find entry level employees. However, most bioscience companies use recruiters and they typically have a stable of contingency recruiters that work with on a regular basis.

How Recruiters Work

Recruiters use a variety of tactics ranging from referrals to cold calling to get job orders from their corporate clients. Once a recruiter receives a job order, he/she develops a profile for right-fit candidates largely based on the job description, the salary range for the job, the company’s benefits, bonus and relocation packages and its corporate culture. Recruiters find prospective candidates by searching job candidate databases (compiled by the recruiter or the company the recruiter is working for), getting referrals from colleagues, industry professionals and other recruiters and by placing ads in specialty and trade magazines, or listing ads on web-based job boards (e.g. like Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Linked-In,  etc).  

Once a qualified candidate(s) has been identified, a recruiter will contact the candidate(s) to review and discuss the job opportunity with them. During the conversation, the recruiter will likely ask you about your background, years of experience, skill sets that you have mastered salary requirements and whether or not you are willing to relocate for the opportunity. When a recruiter determines that you may be a “right-fit candidate”i.e., you meet many, if not all, of the job specifications outlined in the job description, he/she will ask for a copy of your most recent resume/CV. Sometimes, after reviewing a resume/CV, a recruiter might ask a candidate to modify or rearrange it before he/she submits it to a client for consideration. Some recruiters will even do it for you–I can’t count the number of resumes that I modified or rewrote before I submitted them to my clients for review. For those of you who are interested in learning how to write a proper resume click here.

Typically, you will hear back from a recruiter within two or three days if a company is interested in moving forward with your candidacy. However, if you don’t hear back from a recruiter within a week, it is unlikely that you are being considered for the position. That said, it is not unreasonable to call or e-mail the recruiter if you don’t hear from him/her after several days.

Working with Recruiters

Because recruiters are expensive, most companies don’t use them to hire entry-level employees. Consequently, if you are a first-time or entry level job seeker, I wouldn’t spend a lot of time fielding calls from recruiters–it is unlikely that they will be able to help you in your job search. People who benefit the most from working with recruiters are individuals who have several years of work experience and are seeking new career opportunities.  

Based on my experiences as both a recruiter and jobseeker, I offer a few suggestions on how to work with professional recruiters.  First, you MUST tell the recruiter that he/she is NOT ALLOWED to send your resume/CV to a client without first discussing the opportunity with you and getting your permission to submit it. If left to their own devices, many contingency recruiters will submit your resume/CV to any jobs that vaguely resemble your background and skill sets. Because the life sciences industry is rather small, recruiters who blast your resume to multiple employers can jeopardize a candidate job at his/her current place of employment. Nobody wants their boss to know that they are looking for a new job! 

Second, it is a good idea to limit the number of recruiters who you worth with. There are a limited number of job orders in the bioscience recruiting universe and it is not uncommon for different recruiters to submit the same resume to multiple clients. While this does not hurt the recruiter’s reputation or business, it may signal to a prospective employer that a candidate is desperate to find a new job–something that may hinder your negotiating power if a job offer is proffered.

Third, work only with recruiters who you think are competent and have a proven track record of placing candidates into jobs. There are a lot of bonehead recruiters out there. Fourth, it is important to remember that you are probably not the only candidate whose resume he/she has submitted to a client company. Most recruiters try to submit at least three candidates per job order–it increases the likelihood and probability that he/she will make a placement (and actually get paid for their hard work). Finally, it is a good idea to stay in touch with recruiters who contact you to discuss possible job opportunities. I almost always return phones from recruiters who call me whether or not I am looking for a job. It never hurts to hear about the types of jobs that are out there especially with the current economy. Also, you may need a recruiter some day to find a new job!

Conclusions

Recruiters are a fact of life in the corporate world. That said, the next time you receive a call from a headhunter, I highly recommend that you be polite, carefully listen to the job opportunities that they are pitching, get their contact information into your e-mail/cell phone address book and don’t hesitate to contact them if you find yourself out of work!

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Like it or not, writing a carefully-constructed resume or curriculum vitae (as resumes are known in scientific circles) is a vital part of any successful job search. Inexperienced job seekers tend to hastily craft resumes without paying much attention to format, style or content and then wonder why they can’t land job interviews. The best way to approach resume writing is to think of a resume as a work of art–something that requires a lot of thought, creativity and attention to detail. As one well-known professional recruiter and job search expert put it”Trying to find a job without a smart, well-crafted resume is like showing up for dinner at a fancy restaurant in a T-shirt and cutoffs. They won’t let you in.” 

I think that it is important for job seekers to think of a resume as a personal marketing brochure that will either land a job candidate interviews or turn a job search into a long, arduous and frustrating process.

The primary goal of a resume is to show prospective employers how you are different than other applicants and why you and not they ought to get the job! So, what are the salient features of a winning resume?

Writing tips

Hiring managers, professional recruiters and human resource professionals tend to quickly scan resumes that they receive and make snap judgments. Therefore, your qualifications and personal attributes must “jump off the paper.” This can easily be accomplished by using bold type, headings, underlining, bulleting and varying font sizes–all of which are simple ways to visually call attention to your strengths. Avoid using paragraphs because they are dense and difficult for hiring managers to navigate.

Powerful, action-oriented, emotional words produce a strong, positive impression. Unfortunately, we scientists have been trained to write in the “passive voice.” That said; try to resist using the passive voice as much as possible when crafting your resume–think outside the box!

Job Objective or Summary Statement

I am sure that somebody has told you at one time or another to include an “objective” on your resume. Objectives tend to be boring, vague and passively delivered. Instead, I highly recommend that you craft a vibrant, action-oriented, can-do “Summary of Qualifications” that accurately reflects and highlights why you are a “right fit” candidate for the job. To that end, it may be necessary to craft more than one summary of qualifications if you are applying for several different types of jobs. For example, your summary statement for an R&D job should be markedly different than the one that you would use to land a business development job.

Which of the following examples do you think better positions the job candidate?

Objective: To obtain a research scientist position at a pharmaceutical company

Or

Summary of Qualifications: Experienced scientist with expertise in protein purification and microarray technology. Exceptional leadership abilities and outstanding oral and written communication skills. Able to work independently or as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Professional Experience

Resumes can be constructed either chronologically or functionally. Chronological resumes, which are most common, list content in temporal order and should be used for either lateral job moves or when seeking a promotion or looking for a new job to advance your career. When crafting a chronological resume, jobs or work experience must be listed from most recent to past. In contrast, functional resumes offer content based on skills and are most effective for individuals who are seeking career changes. Functional resumes should present your skills in the order of importance for the new career that you are pursuing. 

It is important to stress that only information relevant to the position should be included in a resume. Unrelated job titles or skills can sometimes confuse hiring managers and may cause them to pass on a qualified candidate. As mentioned above, most hiring managers and employers are simply too busy to read all of the resumes that they receive. Resumes that are chosen for further considerations are typically the ones that contain pertinent, job-specific information that is presented in a straightforward and unambiguous manner.

If you switch jobs frequently or have gaps in your experience put the dates of employment in the far right hand column of the resume (we read from left to right so sometimes dates of employment are overlooked) or hide the job-changing by combining or grouping several jobs together to appear as one. Also, employment dates ought to be listed as years; not the exact start and stop dates of employment, e.g., dates should appear as 2001-2002 not July 10, 2001-January 15, 2002.

Tailoring Your Resume

A resume is not just a list of what you have done and where you have been. It is your opportunity to present and highlight the skills that you possess and how those skills translate into making you the right-fit candidate for a particular job. Quantifying or embellishing achievements and using strong, definitive statements elevate and add authenticity to you as a job candidate.

Which of these examples sounds better?

Designed and directed experiments to study Alzheimer’s disease

                                                            Or

Designed and carried out experiments that identified a key protein in amyloid plaque formation

For each position that you apply, it is critically important to list all relevant experience in the order of perceived importance to the hiring manager or employer. Carefully reviewing job descriptions will allow you to quickly and easily identify those things that are most important to the employer. What is seen first means the most! 

When necessary resumes should be tailored so that as many of your skill sets and accomplishments match what was stated in the job description. This means, that it is highly unlikely that you will be able to use the same resume/CV for all of the jobs that you are interested in. To insure success, I highly recommend that you take the time to customize or tailor each resume/CV that you submit to prospective employers.  When I was looking for a new job several years ago, I crafted no fewer than 20 different resumes!

Odds n Ends

Many of you may have heard that resumes should be no longer than one or two pages in length. While this may be the convention for other fields, it is certainly not applicable to CVs or scientific resumes. That said, it is a good idea to limit the length of your CV/resume because, outside of academic circles, nobody has the time nor the inclination to read a CV that is half an inch thick! When I was working as a professional recruiter, it typically took me a minute or less after scanning a resume/CV to determine whether I had identified a “right-fit” candidate. Candidates whose CVs are too long, overly verbose or difficult to decipher rarely make it to the interview stage. I subscribe to the notion that less is more and simple is elegant!

When listing your educational background, I recommend that present your lowest degree first (associate or bachelor) and end with your most advanced degree or educational experience, e.g. postdoctoral fellowships or professional school. The name and location of the institution that awarded the degree and your major or area of expertise should be listed with each. It is perfectly reasonable to list the names of your graduate or postdoctoral advisor in this section (if you think that a mention will help your candidacy). You may also want to include your thesis title if you wrote a masters or PhD thesis. It is not necessary to list the dates that the degree was awarded. By listing the dates that you received your undergraduate and graduate degrees, an employer may be able to deduce your age. While this may not be a bad thing for entry level employees, it may hinder more experienced job seekers from securing new positions.

Membership in professional societies, organizations or clubs should be listed in a section that is separate from your educational background. Any invited lectures or presentations may also be listed under a separate heading. Also, it is important to list any extracurricular activities or specialized skill sets that you think may be relevant to the positions that for which you are applying. For example, letting prospective employers know that you were an Olympic swimmer or president of the debate team may be what differentiates you from other equally-qualified job candidates.

All of your publications should be listed on the last page of your CV in a section entitled Publications.  If you are just starting your career, it is permissible to list along with your peer reviewed publications all of your abstracts, poster presentations, etc. However, if you are mid-career professional, I strongly recommend that you list only peer-reviewed publications, review articles, books and book chapters and eschew the abstracts. Any manuscripts that are “in press” should be listed. That said,  I don’t think that it is appropriate to include “submitted” manuscripts –this signals to prospective employers that you may not think that your publication list is long enough to warrant consideration.

Never send your references to prospective employers unless they specifically ask for them. Simply indicate somewhere on your resume/CV that references are available upon request. For most academic jobs, it is customary to ask for references at the beginning of the application process. For industrial jobs, references are not requested unless an employer is interested in moving forward with specific job candidates.

Finally, it is vital that you understand that your resume is a required first step in the job search process. A carefully crafted resume/CV that indicates to prospective employers that you are the right woman/man for the job will likely get you to the interview stage. After that…it is all up to you.   Look for the next installment of the series on interviewing skills and tips.

Click here to see the wrong way to write a resume and here for an example of one that resulted in a job offer.

Until next time….

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

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Overview

Once a job search has been organized and you have identified: 1) what you are qualified to do; 2) where you want to live and 3) how much money you want to make, it is time to begin looking for that dream job. However, as many of you know, looking for a job is very time consuming; requires a great deal of attention and can be extremely stressful and frustrating at times. Don’t expect it to be easy and certainly do not wait until the less minute to start your search. Finding a new job in today’s economy can take as long as 6 months to a year or more.

Unfortunately, many inexperienced jobseekers tend to conduct job searches employing a method that I call the “shotgun” approach. Much like a shotgun blast, which is imprecise but hits many targets, these jobseekers mindlessly apply to any and all jobs that they find appealing–usually oblivious to job qualifications or requirements. More often than not, shotgun jobseekers are disappointed and, often, downcast because they rarely find jobs. Based on a lack of employer responsiveness, shotgun jobseekers usually conclude that they are “simply unemployable”. While this may be a possibility, it is more likely that they lacked the qualifications to win the jobs that they applied for. To avoid the pitfalls, anxiety and emotional anguish of the shotgun approach, I heartily recommend that jobseekers utilize a job search strategy that I call the “cruise missile” approach. Like cruise missiles, these job searches are well crafted, very targeted and executed with pinpoint accuracy. This approach requires the jobseeker to be highly organized, extremely disciplined and to insure that he/she is qualified for a job before submitting a job application. While this approach will result in fewer actual job applications as compared with the shotgun method, the success rate will be much higher.

The Job Search Process

The first step in a job search is to find out who is hiring. These days, the best places to look for job ads are:

• Company websites (Amgen, Genentech, Genzyme, Merck, BMS)
• Specialty life sciences websites and job board (Onescience.com, Biospace.com)
• Professional societies and science organization websites (Science Careers, American Society of Microbiology, FASEB Careers, MDBio)
• Commercial job boards (Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Craig’s List)
• Print ads in science journals (Science, Nature)

After identifying possible jobs that interest you, the next step is to determine whether you are QUALIFIED for them. This means that you must carefully read the job description and determine whether:

• You meet the job requirements (area of expertise, years of experience, etc)
• Are willing to live in the community where the job is located
• The salary range is commensurate with your lifestyle and personal needs
• The job is consistent with your career goals and objectives

You may have to compromise on some of these items but if you meet most of the job specifications and requirements, the next step is to apply for the job(s). However, before you do this, it is imperative that have previously prepared 2 important documents:

• A properly constructed and up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV)/resume (look for Part 3 of Ask the Recruiter series) and
• A list of references (who have previously agreed to provide letters on your behalf).

One note of caution–it is not prudent to add the name of a reference to your list until you have talked with them to insure that they will write a “good letter” on your behalf. A bad letter of reference is the “kiss of death” for any job that you may apply for!  Finally, never send the names of your references to prospective employers unless they have specifically asked for them–it is a small world and you never know who is saying what about whom! 

Applying for a Job

either a print or online job ad. The cover letter should clearly express your interest in the position, provide a brief description of your academic credentials and scientific background and MUST emphasize that you possess the qualifications that the employer spelled out in the ad.  For example, if the job requires a PhD and one or more years of industrial experience you MUST point that out to the employer in your cover letter. A reason why this is important is because cover letters and resumes are initially reviewed by individuals who don’t necessarily have scientific backgrounds–they have been trained or instructed to look for keywords and phrases in job applications/CVs to identify qualified job candidates.

After constructing a cover letter, and carefully reviewing your CV for the 100^th time (to insure that it is the most up-to-date version and devoid of any typos or spelling errors), your application is ready to be submitted.  If you are responding to a print ad, and must mail your application, I strongly recommend that you print the cover letter and CV on good quality, white bond paper and to not fold them so that they can fit in a standard-sized (4 x 9 in) white envelopes. This is one of those times when it is worth spending extra money on 9 x 12 envelopes (and paying the extra postage) to insure that your job application materials are in pristine condition when they are evaluated.

 In the old days, job applicants typically received a postcard from prospective employers after they had received a candidate’s job application. Unfortunately, times have changed and this is no longer standard practice. In fact, most companies and organizations no longer interact with or contact job applicants unless they are interested in them as prospective employees. Therefore, it is a good idea to keep a log or list of the names and dates of the placed where you submitted job applications. If you don’t hear from prospective employers within 2 weeks, it is perfectly reasonable to contact the employer by phone or e-mail to inquire about the progress of your job application. Also, it may provide some insight into the employer’s level of interest in you as a job candidate and to determine exactly where the employer may be in the job search process.

If you are applying for a job online, you do several things before you hit the “SEND” button. These include: 1) insuring that all of the required fields on the application form are filled out correctly, 2) making sure that your resume and cover letter have been attached to the document (or pasted in the appropriate boxes) and 3) carefully reviewing the application for accuracy, spelling errors and typos. Remember once you hit the send button the document is in the ether and irretrievable.  Once you have submitted the online application, you will likely receive a message thanking you for applying for the job. You may also receive an identification number or tracking number to check on the progress of you application. I highly recommend that you print all of these “thank you messages” and keep them in a file in a safe and secure place. This should help to keep your online job search organized and allow you to easily keep track the various jobs that you applied for.

Conclusions

I cannot guarantee that if you follow my recommendations that you will be able to land yourself that dream job. On the other hand, I think that my advice may help to reduce your stress and possibly make yourself more successful!

Until next time….

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

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