4 steps to your next bioscience job
DESCRIPTION
Using your skills, expertise and network to find the job you love.TRANSCRIPT
4 Steps to Your Next Job
Using your skills, expertise, and network to
find the job you love
Your Network Polish Kit
Connie Hampton
Hampton & Associates
Scientific and Executive Search Services
www.networkpolishkit.com
December 2013
Hard truths
Companies only hire when they have a problem their current employees can’t solve.
Even Mom can’t hire you just because you need a job
And don’t wait for the Job Fairy!
Your job won’t just fall out of the sky
Companies won’t plan your career path
Only you know what you want and what you want next
Job Search has Changed
Once upon a time, to get a job you looked in the newspaper, went to the company, filled out an application and worked there for 30 years, retiring with a pension and a gold watch.
Not anymore.
How are jobs filled?
Who do we know? Job Postings Recruiters
Job Search Is Rarely Taught
Most jobs last from 3-5 years
You will be looking for a new job at least 6 times in your career
In some industries the companies may not last five years
The Dilemma
Companies only hire because they have a problem they cannot solve with the people they already pay
You need a way to get your foot in the door of the company you want to work for and prove that you are the one to solve it
4 Steps to Your Ideal Job for Scientists
Step 1:
All about you: your skills, your expertise, your profiles, your criteria for a good job and good company
4 Steps to Your Ideal Job for Scientists
Step 1:
All about you: your skills, your expertise, your profile, your criteria for a good job and good company
Step 2:
All about them: industry, location, companies, who works there, who knows you
4 Steps to Your Ideal Job for Scientists
Step 1:
All about you: your skills, your expertise, your profile, your criteria for a good job and good company
Step 2:
All about them: industry, location, companies, who works there, who knows you
Step 3:
How to network: what it is and is not, how to do it and how to follow up
4 Steps to Your Ideal Job for Scientists
Step 1:
All about you: your skills, your expertise, your profile, your criteria for a good job and good company
Step 2:
All about them: industry, location, companies, who works there, who knows you
Step 3:
How to network: what it is and is not, how to do it and how to follow up
Step 4:
The resume and interviews: a resume is not all about you and the interview goes both ways
Step 1: All about You
What do you have and what do you want?
Know Yourself
You need to know which industry you want most:
biopharma
medical device
Diagnostics
life science
You need to know what skills and expertise you bring to the table and what that group of skills is typically titled.
You need to know what the people who have those skills
do,
learn,
produce,
invent, etc.
What Skills do You have?
Put together a list or spreadsheet of your skills, expertise and keywords
Decide which ones you want to use in your next job
Decide which ones you want to develop
Decide which ones you need to add
Decide what you want to learn
(and decide which ones you never want to exercise again!)
Your Skills
What tasks do you want to do?
What do you want to do, learn, produce, invent, etc.?
What skills do you own that you want to use?
Do you want to do these daily? Continuously? Rarely?
What job do you want?
What title do you want next?
Pull these out of your spreadsheet and think about what you would call the person who can do these things.
Use that for a working title
It might be
Scientist
Manager of QA
CEO of a 15 person company
Your Ideal Job
Write out a job description for your next job.
And keep notes for the one after that.
Do these jobs lead you to where you want your career to go?
See what “they” need
Go look for that title on LinkedIn or Indeed.com or Biospace.com
Compare the skills you have with the jobs that are posted
Are you missing any skills? In any is almost ready room. We did put rupiah bronze arcs and she reached herI like the unit I as of
Should you step the title down a notch?
Do you have more?
What would be the next step up?
You must “own” at least 85% of the requirements of a job to be considered a “fit”.
Step 2: All about Them
Which companies in which industry in which locations and who works there
Which Companies?
Geography/location
Commute
Therapeutic Area or Product type
Size/financial stability/risk
Women on the BOD
What other things matter to you?
Develop your criteria for the right company
How to find them
BioSpace.com
Hoovers.com
Beaker.com
LabRoots.com
Local or state biotech hotbeds, incubators and economic development sites
Google and Google Maps
Yahoo Directories
Develop more detail
What problems do you want to solve?
“A job, any job” will not usually take you toward your goal, even as it puts food on the table.
And remember that companies don’t hire for your sparkling personality (or your desperation) but because they have a problem they need someone to solve.
What problem do your companies have?
Remember
You are not a generic employee
You don’t want a generic job
How to look for a job
From a job seeker’s point of view, networking will give you the most “bang for your buck”
Do spend time preparing to network
Then spend 80% of your time networking
Gather your power partners
Bring all of your contacts, LinkedIn contacts, email lists, family holiday card lists, etc. together in one document.
Tag them by category: in my industry, not in my industry, close friend, distant acquaintance, etc. Gmail contacts is a good way to do this and exports easily or use a spreadsheet.
Pull out the ones that will be your career network for the length of your career
My Network
Match the people you know to the companies you want
Do any of the people you already have in your network currently work at any of the companies you have identified as desirable?
If you don’t know anyone at that company, use LinkedIn to see if you are a 2nd degree connection with anyone there and put the person who knows you both on your network sheet.
What is Networking?
Networking is when you have
a goal,
a strategy
and a step by step plan
to give things (ideas, appreciation, time, connections)
to the people in your network most likely to give you the information, ideas, things that you need.
How to network into the company
Develop a plan to meet with each person you know who works at a company you think is interesting.
This should NOT be the hiring manager, and probably not even someone from your ideal department.
This should be someone who will give you the inside scoop so you can decide if the company should stay on your top ten companies list.
Getting closer to the right people
If, and only if, the company sounds good to you, then ask to be introduced to someone in the department you are interested in.
Network with that person.
Buy the coffee
Give more than you ask for
Give at least four times more than what you ask for
This is networking, not interviewing.
Don’t take a resume
Don’t be Oliver Twist. Don’t beg.
Networking is not interviewing
Position yourself as the expert in their particular problem by listening very carefully, asking good, geeky questions and offering more information about solving the problem, something like “In the XYZ lab last year, we had a similar issue. We tried this and that, but that did not work. I suggested this other thing, and it did.”
At the end of the meeting, say something like, “This is such an interesting problem! You must be having such a good time solving it.”
Target Your Networking
Remember that you can’t network with everyone
And you don’t want to work for every company
Just because a certain place of business is well-known, it doesn’t mean they use your particular skills
1st Follow-up
After the 2nd networking meeting (the one with the person in your desired department), go sit in the lobby and write a handwritten thank you note. Either put it in the mail right then or ask the receptionist to put it in the mailbox of the person you just saw.
In that note say, “Thank you so much for your time! I really enjoyed talking with you about (the problem). Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you”
Write down all the jargon and particular language your networking partner used to describe the problem, issue, company, department, etc. You will need this later.
Follow-up after that
In a few days, email another thank you note.
Then an invitation to LinkIn (if they are not already Linked directly to you.)
Then a “saw this and thought of you” email
Then a “Here is an interesting link about our conversation”
And so on.
Make friends!
Coming Attractions Jumpstart your job search with an online workshop All
About You Saturday January 11th with weekly teleseminars after that about:
Find your ideal companies with a teleseminar on How to find your companies
Plan your reach out and networking campaign with a teleseminar
Write your tailored resumes and plan your interviews
More information at: http://networkpolishkit.com/jumpstart-job-search-2014-2/
Step 4:Resumes and
InterviewsWhere your homework proves that you are the best person
to solve their problem
What not to do
Do not post a generic resume all over the internet
Do not send a generic resume to everyone you can think of
A resume is not all about you
A resume is not your LinkedIn Profile
It is a piece of marketing collateral that shows how you can solve that particular company’s particular problem
You only get 6 seconds to show that
Recommended Resume Format
Name and contact information in the body of the document
3-5 bullet points about the things that company needs to have done, that you know you can do and that you like to do
Use the language and jargon that your networking partner used in your meeting
Reverse chronological proof that you can do them. Use PAR statements – company or department’s Problem, Action you took, Results (use numbers if you can)
Education at the bottom unless you just graduated
Resume for Recent Grads
Name and contact info
3-5 bullets about what they need to have done that you know you can do
Education
PAR Statements showing that you can do them.
Use the language that your networking partner used.
Interviews
Once you have done everything we have discussed, you are in much better shape for the interview.
You can be calm and confident that this job is one you want and can do.
Be prepared with questions for the interviewer and with answers to the “standard” questions.
Because you know what their problem is, you can ask very relevant questions and not be just another job seeker.
Networking for the rest of your Career
The people you network with now will be in your network for the rest of your career
Keep it shiny
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