Q: I am going to graduate with a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology in May 2013, and my plan is to work for a pharmaceutical company. I would like to know what would be the best approach to try to get my foot in the door?

—Ilona Tala, Ph.D. candidate at UMDNJ

A: Approximately  80% of roles in pharma are in development with the remaining 20% in research. Research roles have a higher percentage in smaller biopharma companies. Research roles will focus on the techniques and skills to support the company’s specific therapeutic programs — hence, look to identify the companies in your line of research.

If you are not focused on a research role, then development offers a wider range of opportunities.

A starting step in clinical trial research is to get experience (even short-term contract) as a Clinical Research Associate (CRA) or project assistant. Both roles will provide excellent basic and on-the-job training.

Working for a Contract Research Organization (CRO) is one route to get this clinical trial experience. From the CRO role, the career path leads to clinical project management, director, etc. Clinical project managers usually have higher degrees such as Ph.D. or M.D.

—Christine Milligan, Fisher Clinical Services

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A: The best option would be to utilize your own network in the industry, through LinkedIn and other such options. Also it may sometimes help if your thesis advisor calls or writes to his/her direct industry contacts and recommends you for a specific opening.

It also helps to have a poster or a podium session talk at AAPS meetings, where most of the senior industry colleagues are seeking exceptional candidates to recruit.

If you are completing your Ph.D. in cancer biology, it may help if you looked at some company web-sites with oncology as the focus therapeutic Area; you may get lucky to get a chance for a face to face interview and eventually a job offer.

Certainly, industry is cutting work force, however, there is still some room to get an entry level research scientist/bench job at a company where they may be shedding mid-level and senior management positions.

—Makarand Jawadekar, Pfizer (ret’d.)

 

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That’s a good question. Job search today has changed dramatically since I left college myself (all too long ago). Today, getting your name out there through social media is really the way to go if you are trying to get the attention of hiring managers in Human Resources Departments. Here are the seven keys to helping your job search:

• Create a detailed LinkedIn profile for yourself. Include information from your CV, including an appropriate Headline, Specialties, Expertise and Experience. You may want to spend some time doing some keyword research on Google to optimize your profile, so that when hiring managers are scouting for potential candidates, your name will come up.
• Connect with other people you know on LinkedIn, especially those in your field to extend your network including professors, other students, past employers and co-workers.
• Ask people you know to endorse your skills or past work on LinkedIn. Also, if there are people you want to connect to that you don’t know already, ask people in your network that may already be connected to them for an introduction.
• Join LinkedIn groups in your field of interest and follow companies of interest on LinkedIn. A lot of these companies will likely post open positions on their company pages or on groups you may belong to, so you may find out about openings.
• Create a Twitter account and follow those companies and influential subject matter experts on Twitter. Follow their posts and blogs and ask questions about past research work in your field.
• Create a blog and talk about your past research. This is a great way to get found on-line by potential hiring managers. In the Pipeline is a great example of a science blog that you can look at for ideas:
• Join social networks focused specifically on the scientific community such as LabSpaces and Research Gate.

Job hunting has changed in the last 10 years and continues to evolve. The statistics bear this out. Hiring managers are turning more and more to on-line sources to find good candidates for open positions. Did you know that 93% of business buyers start with a Google search?

If you want to find out more about how you can improve dialogue and engagement on social media, here is an interesting article you might want to read.

—Sam Ricchezza, Diteba Laboratories