Our series about careers in pharma and biotechnology has over the years identified specific career tracks and discussed the experiences of many who have succeeded in those disciplines. Despite the specific niche, however, all science careers—in both large and small companies—are affected by trends that run through the Human Resources (HR) process.

HR has a great deal to do with our success because they are the gatekeepers of our upward momentum. While there’s nothing worse than a bad HR department, it’s more likely that you’ll find a great HR colleague who can help you understand your marketable skills and suggest how you might make it up the corporate ladder. Plus, if you’re in a job search, you’ll find out quickly that all candidates for jobs, regardless of raw talent, must pass through this HR screening process.

In our discussion this month, we’ll move away from specific career choices and instead discuss the global trends and changes taking place in the hiring process itself. It is by learning to work with these changing elements that you can certainly find yourself in a fast-track science career!

Understanding the HR screening process
Let’s talk first about the process that anyone behind the desk in Human Resources must go through when they are considering applicants for a posted job. No matter how they receive these resumes and CVs, whether they come over the transom from a web posting, or via recruiters or even in-house employee referrals, they still have to be screened by HR.

Although it won’t surprise readers that HR staff receive a great number of resumes, those numbers are probably far larger than you think. It’s not unusual for even a no-name startup company to run an advertisement and get at least a couple of hundred documents back for review. The result is an HR process that has simply become a filter through which large numbers of resumes flow, with a dramatically smaller number of interviews that come out the other side.

We asked a Human Resources Manager with a larger life sciences employer to describe the process that she uses to sort through candidates:

“I have an assistant first go through the stack of morning applicants from the previous day or two, and put them into a working folder for my review,” she said. “I will typically sit down to review this large group over a cup of coffee, knowing that my team member has already filtered out the really inappropriate applications.

“Of course, 99% of what I look at are files received via our website or other sites where we’ve advertised, and my software brings them up for review and makes it easy for me to start separating them into three categories. A quick glance at a resume or CV can usually tell me whether to put it into the ‘no way’ pile, the ‘maybe’ pile, or the ‘talk to’ stack. On some open positions, I’m working with a headhunting firm and those vendors are generally working with the hiring managers directly, although I’m getting copied on those and keeping the vendor on track for the promised resolution to that need.”

She continued, “The ‘no way’s’ are resumes where there is no possibility of a fit, or where attitude problems, communications difficulty, or spelling errors and typos knock them out of consideration. The ‘maybe’s’ get a brief second look because there was something that caught my eye. Some of these fall into the electronic shredder and a number of them get filed for possible future needs into our corporate database. Of course, those CVs which fit a current opening go into the ‘talk to’ pile. After a second look, however, we can trim those numbers back because the hiring managers don’t have time to do a lot of screening. The managers scan our submittals for the technical fit, and it is at this point that we emerge with a limited number of phone interview prospects.”

Today, with an economy that has revved up quite a bit, companies receive a lot of applications. But when you study the process further, the discouraging thing is that the emphasis lies in the elimination of applications. It starts to look like a numbers game—one in which you are simply one piece of paper out of hundreds. Luckily, however, every game has rules, and this one is no different. There is a way to beat this game.

The key is to pay attention to the development of your network and to the headhunter network you tap. Resumes that come with a referral from an existing employee or a respected outside vendor always get preference. Here’s how our HR contact describes it:

“Of course, any resume which is referred to HR from an existing company employee is given a serious look. Generally, I allow these to go relatively unfiltered to the department manager after being logged in here in at our department.”

Think about this for a moment and keep up the pressure to find people who can be your sponsor inside companies in which you’d like to work. And remember that many companies (most!) offer their internal employees a hiring bonus if they refer you and you are later hired. That can be a significant chunk of change and something that makes a good networking contact want to learn more about you.

Other HR trends affecting you in the job market
In the past we have surveyed a variety of biopharma and life sciences employers, large and small, to find out if they reply back to everyone who has applied. Perhaps the typical response received is indicative of one of the most important trends in hiring today: “Too busy to respond.” HR departments and recruiters are exceptionally busy. In many cases, these organizations are having a hard time keeping up. This year, employers see their personal time as a premium.

“Our company has had two major discovery programs gear up in the first part of the year, and I am still trying to get out from under that call to make 10-12 new hires,” one HR Manager confided. The company has had several very successful deals this year with large partners, leading to a need for more discovery scientists.

“My problem has been that our hiring managers insist on experienced people from a very specific niche in their field, instead of considering talent who might be available more easily but who might need a bit of time to come up to speed. This means that we’ve got a costly and time-consuming process of using headhunters.” This company is located in a region where there are plenty of experienced people, but where most are entrenched in other biotech companies or at the University. This trend reinforces the use of external recruiting firms, a part of the hiring process that isn’t always supported by HR.

“We’ve had to target a handful of companies who hire the same kind of scientists that we do. I’m using a recruiting firm to do this right now. Our managers don’t have a lot of time to train new hires, however, which keeps up our focus on people with experience,” describes this manager. “We’ve found that the tremendous increase in open positions in our region in big data and genomics has created local shortages.”
This is frustrating for those still in academia because it puts the bar a little higher for entry into the biotechnology industry.

Developing multiple skill areas
Another H/R trend which is worth considering is the need for people with multiple skill areas. The head of Human Resources at a large international R&D institute described it to us in this way:

“People who can demonstrate a cross pollination among seemingly unrelated disciplines, both from the academic and real-world perspective, are those who have the most value to add to organizations like ours,” he said. “At one time being a biologist, a programmer, or a pharmacist was in and of itself all that was needed to establish a fast track career. Although careers can still be found with a single focus approach towards work, people who have learned how to combine one study area with another have the extra edge. A person with a degree in IT, along with a biology or chemistry degree and perhaps a concentrated study in math or statistics has a huge advantage in the labor market. It is just plain value add for that new hire.”

Developing multiple skill areas takes time and the proper planning. One trend that hasn’t changed is that those who are successful in their science careers must take the time to do career planning and analysis on regular occasions. In our next column for Contract Pharma, Ryan Raver will pick up the baton from Dave and continue to provide you with career advice and reflection on regular occasion in Managing Your Career.