Career Development and Networking

So now you’ve had your job interview – how well do you think you did? Here are 5 tell-tale signs that should give you a clue. 1. The interview lasted longer than you expected. This isn’t 100% true in all cases, and I definitely know people who got jobs they didn’t expect due to the…

Looking for a new direction in your career? This is the latest in our new series of articles that focus on careers for scientists.  When we started this series, we thought you’d be interested in finding out about who does what behind the scenes at Bitesize Bio, and how we got here.  I interviewed our…

For this week’s interview I’ve been speaking to Peter Kirsop from the University of Edinburgh, UK. Peter has been taking part in our webinar series “Chemistry for Biologists” which has proved really popular, so I thought it would be interesting to hear about what he does every day….. Hi Peter, You describe yourself as an…

We’ve had some great feedback about this column lately.  I hope you enjoy today’s interview as much as you seem to have liked the first couple we’ve covered.  There’s more coming soon, looking at scientists who made the move into areas like Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, University Teaching and lots more in the pipeline.  Today, we’ve…

Recently I had the opportunity to help a job seeker prepare to interview for their dream job. They successfully navigated through rigorous phone interviews and secured the make-it or break-it face-to-face interview. The candidate and I discussed all of the preparation, research and pre-work necessary to ensure a successful interview. Dress to impress When I recommended…

Looking for a new direction in your career? Well you’ve come to the right place. This is the first in our new series of articles that focus on careers for scientists.  We’ll be looking at jobs that are off-the-beaten-track (and sometimes on no track at all) and ones that are certainly not on the standard…

Suddenly it’s time up, write up, and make room for the next batch of PhD students in the lab – so how do you find that first job? OK – so now you’re finishing your PhD or graduated already, and it’s time to look for that first job.  Maybe you’ve already started endless hours of…

The decision to make the switch from an academic lab and career to a biotech company doesn’t come easy. Many scientists are wary of the lack of independence and doing science for profit.  But there are advantages too. Working in a biotech lab allows you to work on many varied and interesting projects that actually come to…

When I was in graduate school, it seemed that almost no one aspired to work in industry or be part of a company. But times are changing. Now, when I go to conferences and talk to scientists in training, I am asked, “how do I get a job in a company?” and “How did you get…

You applied to a position and have run the interview gamut – you’ve had an initial phone screen, a follow-up phone screen, an initial in-person interview, a follow-up in-person interview, and a final interview – Phew! You’ve talked about your career, your ambitions, your salary requirements and your future. You love them and they love…

We all suffer from different types of fears, self-doubts and insecurities. Especially when we are about to do something new. And commonly these negative thoughts center around wondering whether you are good enough. Whether you are applying for a postdoc or PI position, considering starting a PhD, or thinking about leaving science for pastures new,…

It’s funny (or maybe sad) how we spend a lot of time planning experiments, thinking about our next paper or preparing for a lab meeting, yet we don’t take time our to plan our lives, to think about what we really want. Most of us think that what we really want is to be successful.…

No matter where you work there will always be certain moments in your life when your feel you are going nowhere, you don’t have time for yourself, you miss your family etc etc. In short, you wonder if you are wasting your time, and whether you should quit. Or maybe you’re sure you want to…

We recently attended a meeting for job seekers in the biotech industry during which a panel of senior Human Resources professionals answered questions and provided insight for people looking to find work within biotech. The points that they shared were not all that different from what we have discussed in previous blogs, but I think…

We all know how important image is to a job search. It’s crucial. This is why we wear a nice suit and print our resumes on thick paper. It’s all about image. And yet, sometimes job seekers fail to remember the image that they are presenting on the internet. Be careful about what you Tweet!…

Being in the recruiting business, we make a lot of calls to candidates each day. And you would be surprised how many job seekers have put a lot of thought into their resume, but fail to follow through by ensuring a professional phone experience. Remember that when a hiring manager calls you, it is your…

If you mastered my ‘Nailing Your Phone Interview” tips, you will, of course, now be preparing for your face-to-face interview. So you will be glad to know that I have some killer tips for that too! Often, it’s the subtle nuances and attention to detail will make the choice clear for a hiring manager. So…

The past five years has seen the “phone screen”, where employers interview a large number of candidates over the phone then choose who they’d like to invite for a face-to-face, become an often-used tool. This is unfortunate because it only allows the candidate a short period of time to convey their skills and strengths and,…

When you are searching for a job, sitting at home mailing out resume after resume might work. But if you get everyone in your village out on the hunt for you your chances of success are greatly increased. Your village is everyone you are connected to in your industry. People love to help others in…

So you finally got your PhD (or your masters or batchelor’s) and you are making the big switch to a small biotech company. You will probably have been hired for the specific skill set that you have built during your training, but now you have to learn to apply those skills to solve real world,…

Q: Is there a place for a recruiter in your job search strategy? A: A huge, underscored, emphatic YES Recruiters should have a prominent place in anyone’s career decisions. They are, after all, professional networkers whose job it is to make the “match” between company and candidate. They know the lay of the land and…

Now that you know who you are trying to impress with your resume, it’s time to focus on how it looks and reads. Remember,.this is NOT the venue to display your creativity. They key is to keep it simple and clear. Follow a simple format that is easy to read – remember that your audience…

Going to conferences normally involves a significant investment of time and money. So it’s important to get as much as you can out of them. One of the most valuable things you can get from a conference is contacts. These can build into a network of people that will be valuable to you throughout your…

No scientist is an island, not even a great scientist like you. A good network of professional contacts is as essential to your career as hard work at the bench. This is because your network can open many doors that no amount of good bench work could. Access to unpublished information, collaborations and job opportunities…

This may be a familiar story for some of you. I started my PhD program in Neuroscience full of hope and excited about where my future would take me. Like many of you, I assumed I would follow the traditional path – grad student postdoc, then tenure track faculty at a research university. Well, I…

In my current position, I had the opportunity to hire a new R&D scientist to join the team. I was excited at being able to build my team and take my time to find the perfect fit for our company. My experience in the process of hiring gave me a new perspective on all the…

After all that hard work, you finally have your PhD. Now what? If your career choice is academic research, your first post-doc position beckons. The choice of where, and with whom, to take up a post-doc position is a very important one as it is at the post-doc stage where publications are required to move…