I’m sure you’ve heard the expression used to describe people who can work a room: they have “the gift of gab.” The people we describe that way seem to have been born with the ability to converse. They move comfortably through crowds at social events, going from conversation to conversation with what appears to be the greatest of ease.

Luckily for most of us, that kind of outgoing nature is not necessary for job search success. Yes, communication is crucial. But, unlike the innate gift of gab, you can develop the career communication skills you need. With attention, practice, and some self-awareness, you’ll be in good shape to make communication work for you at various steps throughout your job search and career development path. 

Reach out and listen
You were trained in academia, and jobs there are entirely different than industry. You can succeed simply on a stellar set of technical skills. But jobs in industry are like a parallel universe. Sure, it looks much the same. There’s the lab bench right there, and people are doing science. But, just as in those science fiction movies, all the rules have subtle but important differences. In academia, you may not need to develop good communication skills. But in your universe, doing a great job requires you to talk to people—and, even more importantly, that you listen. This is one of those so-called “soft skills” that universities are so woefully inadequate at teaching their graduates.

Most conversations are 50/50. If you and I sit down to talk sports over a beer, we’re going to each spend about half the time talking up our own team. But when you open up a conversation with someone who you may need to rely on for job search help, you’re in the listening zone. This isn’t the time for some kind of sales pitch about how great you are. Instead, focus on the fact that you want to learn what their company is like or how they are growing, how and why they hire, what your contact’s recommendations are for you and your approach to their organization, and so on.

Being a good listener doesn’t mean that you don’t talk about yourself at all. You still want to communicate that you would be a good potential hire or network contact. But the latest thinking is that the frequently referenced “elevator pitch” is too one-sided and doesn’t offer enough space for conversation to develop. We should probably take that word “pitch” and erase it from our job search lexicon, leaving it completely to vendors and insurance salespeople. Today, you might instead add to the conversation by interjecting short nuggets of language you are comfortable with about your key skills and abilities, as well as other personal information.

Networking and informational interviewing are situations that seem to call out for scripted responses to questions. Instead, focus on being yourself—it’s much more powerful. There’s only one “question” that deserves some preparation in advance. That is, everyone needs a short answer to that age-old request of, “Tell me about yourself.”

Make yourself a candidate
To those of us in industry, the words “applicant” and “candidate” are often thrown around interchangeably. But there’s a difference. In hiring manager parlance, an employer can have hundreds of applicants for a job, but there are probably only a handful of them who are actually candidates. And one of the ways to elevate yourself from applicant to candidate status is—you guessed it—communication.

Applicants are often treated as if they are a dime a dozen. They come in swarms off the Internet via online job applications. A job is posted on Thursday afternoon and, wham—300 applicants by Monday morning. Sadly, employers can mistreat applicants because there are so many. Job ads can list ten requirements—which may not actually be crucial for performing the role—in an attempt to thin the herd. Or applicants can be required to fill out stupid questions on an online application. “What is your expected salary here at ABC Biotech?” But with candidates—that short list of people who are actually a good fit for the role and will move forward in the interview process—companies make an effort to ensure that they don’t lose even one of them along the way.

A few applicants may turn into candidates. But a better way to set yourself up as a candidate instead of an applicant is by getting an internal referral. To the HR executive tasked with sorting through the pool of job seekers, it’s a relief to have some that come pre-approved, ready to be interviewed by a hiring manager.

Wouldn’t you rather be positioned as a candidate, as opposed to being a part of the swarm? If that’s the case, get out there and talk to people in the organizations you’re interested in. Even if you’re not in job search mode yet, working this process into your life will help you build your network and, when the time is right, have job opportunities come to you.

Two big opportunities on interview day
Once you’ve made it to interview day, you know you’re a bona fide candidate. But that doesn’t mean that communication ceases to be important—quite the contrary. How you present yourself during your interview is a crucial part of how employers decide whether you’ll move on to the next round, or whether you’ll get the offer. It’s important throughout the day, which is usually filled with meetings featuring back-and-forth exchanges aimed at uncovering the working style and fit between company and prospect. But there are two moments that are particularly important: your first impression, and when you close each of those meetings with your last impression.

If you’re a scientist, a job talk is often put at the front end of the day, so you will be making a first impression on a lot of people all at once. Sure, you need to present well and be prepared for tough technical questions. But much of the first impression will depend on factors other than your science. Keys to a good first impression include the sound of your voice, your confidence, and the demeanor you project—which will ideally convey the warmth and friendliness of a potentially great teammate. In the front of their minds, your audience at the job talk will be reviewing the science you present—but they wouldn’t have invited anyone into an interview who doesn’t do good science.

Therefore, it becomes the subconscious where much of the decision about you is made. Think about all aspects of the message you are sending. Did you reinforce the “I’m a problem solver” nature of your experience in that talk? This is subtle stuff, it’s not bragging. It’s completely ethical self-promotion and you’ll use it sparingly but at critical moments.
For example, make sure that you separate the “We’s” from the “I’s” as you go through your work: “In our group, we do strain development and process development in shake flasks and fermenters of up to 20 liters. In this particular experiment, I identified the nutritional issue behind a sudden drop in throughput for our company’s major product, which I brought back to shake flasks for this work.”

Finally, the last impression you make as you walk out the door of each office is important too. The things that will make you memorable will be your smile, your eye contact, the positive and engaging way you kept the conversation going, and other aspects of your meeting that have nothing whatsoever to do with CRISPR-Cas9 or the size of your bioreactors.

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David G. Jensen
Contributing Editor

Dave Jensen, President of CTI
Executive search, is an executive recruiter with 30 years of experience in
biopharma recruitment, and he can be reached at davejensen@careertrax.com. See his website at www.careertrax.com for hundreds of open positions across the industry.