Your First Pharma Job

The Wall Street Journal explains the “job hunt black hole”, wherein you submit a resume to an online posting or corporate website and never hear about it again.

The article explains that when you send in your information,  automated “Applicant Tracking Systems” (ATS) swallow and dissect your resume.  It will only be seen by a live human being if it matches with specific keywords and skill categories determined by the software. If you’re lucky, you’ll get an automated email reply telling you that you’re in the system.

According to the article,

Until recently, it was easy for job hunters to game the system: The computer ranks you higher in the turnip pile if you tweak your résumé to include the same phrases found in the employer’s job description. But lately, spoilsport employers are ruining the fun, with sophisticated software that uses artificial intelligence. This newer technology can analyze the résumé of a top performer — say, Dennis in accounting who saved the company millions by eliminating doughnut Fridays — and find applicants whose résumés fit his “ideal candidate” profile.

Personallly, I think that this is hyperbole.  ATS software is a niche market, and the companies that sell them for thousands of dollars or more in licensing fees aren’t ashamed to exaggerate their functionality. The truth is, many of the applicant tracking systems out there are absolute garbage pieces of software, no more sophisticated than your grandmother’s recipe database.  But whether the software is good or bad, the fact remains that it’s no friend to the job hunter.  This is especially true for entry level candidates and people trying to make a career transition.

So what can you do? Is there a secret method to outsmart the software?  Well, as the article suggests, it can’t hurt to be sure you’re including relevant keywords in your resume.  But really, what you should be doing is avoiding the machine entirely.  If you’re entry-level, or a career switcher, then replying to online postings is almost always going to be a waste of your time.  Even if your resume makes it past the ATS system, it’s only going to land in the hands of an HR associate or internal recruiter who’ll reject it immediately if it doesn’t seem like an obvious match.

Instead, you should be making personal connections by building a network and engaging in a series of informational interviews.  Remember, only a tiny minority of jobs are filled through online postings — if you’re going to be successful, you need to focus your energy on what works, not what’s easy.

applicant tracking systems, HR, resume

Science has a new article on their careers site about developing skills during your education that can transfer into a career outside of academia.  Communication, leadership, and management skills are highly valued in industry and public sector jobs but tend to get minimal attention during the average graduate or post-doctoral program.

“The quality that is hardest to find in the science policy world is the ability to write clearly and quickly,” says John Marburger, Washington, D.C.-based science adviser to President George W. Bush. “Communicating technical material in technical journals does not give you the skills to communicate to nontechnical audiences,” he says.

The article suggests some resources, such as the National Postdoctoral Association, that students and postdocs can turn to for help in understanding and developing these skillsets.  Some of the suggestions in the article will be familiar to readers of this blog — joining Toastmasters or relevant campus clubs, for example.  The suggestion to take charge of a lab responsibility, like radiation safety, as a way of demonstrating leadership is also a good one.

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You may have noticed that there’s been a bit of a gap in posting lately.  I’ve actually just started a new job myself, so things might be a little uneven until I get settled.  Thanks for your patience!

career, communication, leadership, management, skills, transferable skills

The Regulatory Science program at the University of Southern California offers a variety of graduate certificates, a Masters program, and a new Doctorate geared towards regulatory affairs professionals. In the Regulatory Science program, students learn how to guide medical products and foods through the complex regulatory and reimbursement paths required to bring them to market. Regulatory Affairs is an incredibly important part of the drug development process, and in a very real sense plays the key role in determining the success or failure of a drug development program. Ultimately, it’s a company’s regulatory affairs team that must make the case to the FDA that a drug is safe, effective, and deserves to be on the market.

The program has posted a PDF scan of a great article on regulatory affairs careers from The Scientist, which is usually only available by subscription. The article, “For the Hottest Jobs - Go Regulatory”, follows a typical day in the life of a regulatory affairs associate, Joan Kwong, who started her career in the laboratory and made a career switch a few years later. The article offers some great insight on career potential and typical salary ranges.

The article also includes a sidebar piece entitled “So you want to be a regulatory affairs professional - here’s how to get started”. The article notes that one of the hardest things to get used to at first is the abundance of industry-specific jargon and acronyms. A great resource for learning the language of clinical research and regulatory affairs is the online glossary hosted by the Applied Clinical Trials journal.  ACT also recently posted an interesting article, “eSubs and eCTD and RPS, Oh My! ” which discusses some of the changes regulatory teams are dealing with as the submission process goes electronic.

career, dayinthelife, glossary, regulatory, Regulatory affairs

Given the current financial crisis, becoming a quantitative analyst probably isn’t at the top of many “careers in demand” lists these days. But if you’ve ever been curious about how you might be able to put your scientist’s mind to work solving problems on Wall Street, check out this Science Careers podcast with finance exec Lee Maclin, director of research at Pragma Financial Systems. Or read about algorithmic trading and quantitative analysis at the Advanced Trading Quant Center… but if this is the career you’re hoping for, you might want to ‘hedge’ your bets until things get back on track!

finance, podcast, quant, quantitative analysis, scientist, trading

Posting a resume and replying to ads posted on job boards is a typical job-search strategy. Unfortunately, if you’re looking to start a new career in the pharmaceutical industry, it’s also a tremendous waste of time. Worse, it can put your privacy at risk and make you vulnerable to unscrupulous people who take advantage of the unemployed and desperate. To understand why your efforts aren’t worthwhile, you need to put yourself into the mindset of the employer — and then learn what the boards can do to help move your search forward.

Using sites like Monster, Workopolis, Biospace or Medzilla is free for job-seekers, but employers and recruiters pay a lot for access. When a hiring manager or a recruiter posts an advertisement, or searches for resumes on these sites to fill an open position, they are doing so in a particular frame of mind. In this perspective, the resumes of under-qualified people are simply chaff to be sorted through; an annoyance that delays their effort. When they’ve invested a lot of money in their search, they aren’t looking for someone with the potential to do the job, they’re looking for someone who has already done it, and your resume, no matter how well-written, attractively formatted and indicative of your enthusiasm, simply won’t make the cut if you don’t closely meet the posted qualifications. Read more…

entry-level, job boards, resumes

A tough economy has many students seeing dark clouds on the horizon as they look forward to graduating into a tight employment market. A recent Boston Globe article discussed the drop in on-campus recruiting sessions and the challenges facing new grads.

Fortunately, not all sectors of the economy have been equally hard-hit, and healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotech companies continue to offer some good prospects. The Globe points out that opportunities in this sector aren’t limited to students with a science background:

• Political science majors are finding work in healthcare policy positions at think tanks, consulting firms, and within the government.
• Economics and business students are in demand at the larger hospitals and drug companies in management and financial roles.
• Sociology and psychology degrees open doors to counseling jobs at retirement and medical facilities.
• English majors with good writing skills can find work in corporate communications at pharmaceutical firms, insurance companies, and larger healthcare providers.
• Healthcare Information Technology is a steadily growing field taking job applicants from engineering, information sciences, and web analytics backgrounds.
• Pharmaceutical sales continues to be a reliable option with great long-term opportunities for liberal arts majors with strong interpersonal skills.

careers, corporate communications, nonscientists

The Blue Sky Resumes blog has a great post, the 7 Mistakes You’re Probably Making on LinkedIn.

The pharmaceutical and biotech sectors have been enthusiastic adopters of this social networking site. If you’ve ever wondered how to find the names of people to call for informational interviews, or for personalizing your cover letters, this is your answer.

These days, LinkedIn should definitely be a part of your networking strategy but you can’t just put up a profile and forget it.   Louise Fletcher’s advice will help your profile get attention.

If you’re trying to land a clinical research job, you should apply these tips on how to write a clinical research resume to your profile as well. Be sure to sign up for some LinkedIn groups that relate to your career goals (e.g. the Good Clinical Practice group).

In a future post, we’ll talk about how to use LinkedIn to actively build relationships, and discuss the value of other niche social networking sites.

LinkedIn, networking, resume, social networking

Following my post the other day on preparing for an MSL career, Jane Chin of the MSL Institute drew my attention to a cautionary note that she has for PhDs tempted by this career path:

I’m writing this in 2009, but I’ve been seeing MSL programs eliminated and entire teams laid off ever since late 2006. There are many MSLs who have experience and don’t have jobs right now. There are many more who are worried about their jobs. The reality is that at most companies, the MSL function is seen as a cost-center, and a heavy one at that. It can be easy to justify cutting heads from the MSL team to save the company money, or when the company’s drugs go generic, or when an investigational drug approval process gets interrupted.

Any PhD who enters the MSL career should consider the “what if’s”, especially in today’s times. What if I lose my job as a MSL? What are my alternatives? If an academic track has been this difficult for postdocs, what additional difficulties will this route present now that I’ve been out of the academic scene for a few years?

From my perspective, I suspect most of the PhDs who are interested in MSL jobs and other careers in pharma have already made the decision that a life in the laboratory isn’t right for them, so while the difficulty in returning to research is a real consideration, it probably isn’t one that weighs very heavily. And an MSL’s role, positioned as it is at the interface between clinical development, medical affairs and marketing, offers a number of possible exit strategies for continued career development in the event of layoffs. Nonetheless, Jane’s note is sobering and everyone, PhD or not, pursuing any career in pharma should go in with eyes wide open to the risks inherent in this sometimes chaotic industry.

You can read the entirety of Jane’s note, and find out more about her thoughts on MSL careers at the Medical Science Liaison Institute website.

Medical Science Liaison

Clinical Research Associate jobs are in high demand. CRA jobs pay well, are often home-based, and offer a relatively high degree of personal autonomy. It’s a job that offers a good mix of solo time as well as working with others, and it’s a job where you can really feel like your work matters, because you’re contributing to the safe development of new drugs that can improve lives. The CRA role hasn’t changed a great deal over the years, with the exception of the increasing adoption of electronic methods for collecting case reports. But the nature of CRA employment has changed and is continuing to shift as companies change the way they do business. This article will discuss the four most common CRA employment arrangements and make some predictions for the future. Read more…

career, clinical, clinical research associate, clinicalresearch, contract research organization, CRA, CRO, independent, outsourcing

Medical Science Liaison jobs are often seen as the “Golden Ticket” for advanced degree holders looking at career options in the pharmaceutical industry. The thought of receiving a six-figure salary to travel from place to place discussing the latest scientific research is incredibly alluring, and many PhDs and postdocs see the skill sets required as a “perfect match” for their own experiences carrying out research and making presentations. But for most, MSL jobs remain out of reach, because they don’t think carefully about what the industry is looking for in applicants.

Approximately 80% of Medical Science Liaisons hold advanced degrees (PhD, PharmD or MD). Companies prefer to hire people with these degrees because they are seen as more credible when discussing scientific research, and because their advanced training gives them a kind of parity with the doctors they work with. If you don’t have an advanced degree, your chances of landing an MSL job are very limited, and if you do, it almost certainly won’t be your first pharma job. In your position, I would recommend approaching these MSL jobs laterally, by succeeding as a medical sales representative and switching over to the more consultative MSL role after proving yourself.

If you hold a  PharmD or MD, you don’t have the same hurdles to jump as PhDs, who may be perceived as too narrowly focused and insufficiently patient-centred. Instead, you simply need to continue developing your presentation skills and knowledge of the clinical trials process. Communication skills are the #1 challenge that limits the success of internationally-trained MDs in applying for MSL roles. If you think this might be the case for you, consider investing in an accent-reduction training program.

The remainder of this article will be most useful to those who are at the beginning or midway through a postgraduate program (PhD or possibly postdoc) in the life sciences.

Read more…

Medical Affairs, Medical Science Liaison, MSL, networking, Phase IIIB, Phase IV, PhD, Scientific Development Associate