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.
Genentech is one of the world’s most successful biotechnology companies, and has been named to Fortune magazines “100 best companies to work for” for 10 years running. their human resources department has put together a series of videos about working at the firm.
This video, targeted primarily at students and other entry-level candidates, offers career advice for biotech job-seekers from a handful of Genentech employees.
Of course, right now, Genentech is flirting with acquisition offers from Roche, which may have human resources implications for both companies. But the advice in this video is sound regardless of what companies you target.
When you’re looking to get your foot in the door and find your first job in the pharma industry, sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly what a particular job entails.
If you’ve ever wondered what a typical day is like for a clinical research associate, then you might be interested by the story of Ann, a lead CRA for the UK-based firm CDSS. When it’s time for a site visit, Ann begins her day at 5am and works through to 8 o’clock.
I created this site while I was working as a headhunter for the pharmaceutical industry because I knew lots of people were looking for advice and information to help them find their first pharma job. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to put the time into the site that I had hoped — and I was a little worried that my employer would think it was a conflict of interest.
Well, things have changed. I’m now a former headhunter, so I now don’t have any conflicts, real or imagined, to stop me from posting. I will try to post regularly to make this site a useful resource.
Yourfirstpharmajob.com was created to fill a need. As a headhunter who specializes in recruiting experienced professionals for rewarding positions in all aspects of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, my job requires me to understand what companies are looking for when they hire employees.
Often, I get calls, emails and resumes from people who are eager to be a part of this industry. They have heard that working for a pharmaceutical company can be very rewarding. Many are from recent graduates with an educational background in the life sciences, who want to put what they’ve learned to work in a relevant career.
Unfortunately, I can rarely help these people directly. When companies engage the services of a headhunter, they are usually looking for us to provide them with candidates who have direct, relevant experience in the position being filled.
So, what is a person without experience to do? I won’t pretend it will be easy for you to get your foot in the door, but there are things that you can do to meet people in the industry and convince them to give you a chance. This site is all about giving you the tools and information you need to set yourself up for success. Good luck!
