Practicing Gratitude: A Game-Changer For Your Career

Gratitude is an incredibly powerful, positive emotion that is seldom experienced by so many of us who are caught up in the day to day demands of life. The rise of consumerism, never ending to-do lists and the ceaseless pursuit of enhanced social mobility often means that gratitude is displaced by incessant ambition and this isn’t healthy.

As Thanksgiving approaches, we hear the words thankful and grateful a little more. From #grateful social media posts to customer appreciation pies, expressing gratitude is in the air this time of year. That’s part of what makes it such a special time.  At the same rate, practicing everyday gratitude has become a more prominent cultural paradigm. Perhaps it’s because of the rise in studies on the science of gratitude, or maybe it’s just social media. Whatever the reason, with 7,000 listings on Amazon for “gratitude journal,” it’s safe to say our culture is adopting the practice of gratitude. 

Why is practicing gratitude helpful every day and not just the last 6 weeks of the year? According to The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California at Berkeley, “gratitude may be associated with many benefits for individuals, including better physical and psychological health, increased happiness and life satisfaction, decreased materialism, and more.” Gratitude helps people feel more optimistic, and it helps us slow down in this rapid-paced world of ours.

Taking time to acknowledge the things you’re grateful for can be a game-changer for your overall wellbeing and health, but it can also make a big difference in your career. Here’s how:

For the job-seeker: It’s easy to lose faith in a job search, but this is where a gratitude journal can come in helpful. Take time to write down the successes of your search. Try to view setbacks in a positive light. For example, if you went in for a second-round interview but didn’t make the next cut, remind yourself that you got farther than most candidates. Acknowledge that you are doing better than when you started the search. Here are a few more tips on staying grateful during a job search. 

For the manager: According to PayScale’s report on employee engagement and retention, feeling appreciated at work is the biggest influencer on employee satisfaction, and underappreciated employees are much more likely to leave the company. So taking a few minutes to show your staff gratitude year-round will improve company culture while also making you feel good. PayScale offers more insight into workplace gratitude here and here. 

For anyone at any point in their career: Regardless of your career status, take a few minutes to remind yourself of your accomplishments. Not only will it help you work harder, but it can also help you be better. This article from Peter Bregman at the Harvard Business Review says that “identifying the things we are grateful for mirrors the areas we are hoping to improve.” According to Bergman “your path to improvement is hidden in your pleasure, not your discontent.” The Muse provides a handy infographic of why gratitude is so important. 

Do you practice gratitude every day? If so, what do you do? Sound off below.

A Glance at Salary Data for Research Scientists in Biotechnology

Researching salary trends can give you a better understanding of the right number to shoot for when you are accepting a new job, as well as what increases you might expect as you’re advancing in your career. There are a handful of websites that can help you do your homework on your respective field. Many of these are free for job-seekers, including Salary.com, PayScale, CareerOneStop, Indeed, and Glassdoor. PayScale is a great resource for compensation information based on career field, industry and geographic location. Both hiring managers and job seekers can use it to better align their offers and expectations with others in the industry. Today, I’ve decided to dive into the salary data for research scientists in biotechnology and explore what it reveals about the current state of employment in this field. 

Basics

The data is based on a survey of 2,349 scientists working in the field. While that sample size is not huge, it is large enough to be significant and revealing.

The median salary of the respondents was $83,341, with the lowest reported salary coming in at $52,000 and the highest at $114,000. Many of these scientists also received some sort of bonus, profit sharing, or commission, however, these did not have a huge impact on total compensation.

PayScale estimates that Cambridge, MA and San Francisco, CA are the highest paying cities in the United States. They offer average salaries 18% (Cambridge) and 21% (SF) higher than the national average.

Advanced

The Payscale data also revealed some interesting and unexpected insights about the career trajectory for research scientists in the biotech industry.

For instance, the average salary for entry-level professionals with less than five years of experience was $80,000 (just slightly less than the national median) but for late career professionals with 20+ years of experience it rose to only $94,000. The number of respondents from each of the two groups also reveals a significant disparity. The data would suggest that most of these professionals move into other positions with different titles, and that companies aren’t always willing to pay a premium salary in exchange for years of experience.

That seems to also be the case when we look at salary data for related professions. Research scientists from inside and outside of biotechnology, and in both entry-level and senior-level positions, all have a similar salary range. It’s only when these professionals make the leap to director that salaries really climb to the next level.

Following the most common career path is also revealing. We already pointed out that few professionals remain in this role for more than a decade. A significant majority move into some kind of project management position, essentially trading in research for leadership responsibilities.

Observations

Based on this data, it would appear that research scientists in the biotech industry face a similar dilemma as many scientists in the broader field of science: Turning the skills that brought you into the field into the skills that will earn you more money and responsibility as your career progresses.

To make that difficult evolution takes careful and proactive career planning. If you are looking for your first job, a new job, or a promotion, there are resources that can help you accomplish your goals faster. Contact our team at Sci.bio Recruiting and learn how to take control of your future.

Additional Resources

• https://radford.aon.com/surveys
• BioSpace U.S. Life Sciences Salary Report
• https://www.payscale.com/
• CareerOneStop Salary Finder Tool – Sponsored by the US Department of Labor

Ghosting: Why We Do It & What We Can Do About It

We’ve all heard variations of Thumper’s Rule, courtesy of Disney’s Bambi, from family, friends, coworkers, and even strangers: “If you can’t say something nice, then don’t say nothing at all.”

Meant to caution against unsolicited incivility, the ‘moral’ principle has been accepted as a societal norm for not just personal relationships but professional ones, as well. We’ve even given the act a catchy name: ghosting. Rather than being direct, one party opts to just not say anything at all via any form of communication to the other person.

The transition from ambiguity to radio silence is meant to serve as a formal rejection. Therefore, the burden of discontinuing the personal or professional relationship falls not on the person who is providing the rejection, but rather on the person receiving it.

Why We Ghost

In 2013, CareerBuilder released the results of a nationwide survey concluding that 75 percent of job applicants did not receive responses regarding their candidacies from employers. Ironically, Randstad US released a 2019 report stating that 66 percent of managers have had workers either accept an offer and fail to show up or disappear without notice before their start date. Simply put, ghosting occurs because someone in the process feels that the other party is not a good technical and/or culture fit.

If an employer wants you as their final candidate, you have a lot more leniency: you do not need to send a thank you note, follow up regularly, or worry about being lost in a pile of resumes. It does, however, serve well to ask the Human Resources or Hiring Manager for a timeline. If they tell you to hang tight and wait two weeks, set a reminder to follow-up in three weeks with a courteous email. Even though it may not be common, a poor application (including small typos on  your resume), passive or overzealous behavior, disengagement with follow-ups, and red flag responses to interview questions can streamline you into the “ghosted” category.

That’s not to say that ghosting is predetermined by application weakness, though this is a strong contributor. Candidates and hiring managers alike can exacerbate relationships and situations, turning a potential ‘yes’ into a certain ‘no.’

Employers’ reasons for ghosting hover around the following fears: telling someone that they are underqualified, getting sued for providing honest feedback, or losing a possible back-up candidate while moving their top candidate through the hiring process. Sometimes, employers accidentally ghost when their hiring process is littered with process or information gaps (for example, when they do not have an organized applicant tracking system, ATS).

On the other hand, candidates ghost mainly due to a poor pre-onboarding process (no communication between date of hire and start date) or fear of missing out when more enticing opportunities arise. Candidates not only have the power to choose due to the record low unemployment rate, but they can also take advantage of their plentiful opportunities, given the job market’s crucial emphasis on previous relevant experience.

What We Can Do About It

With that being said, it seems inevitable that ghosting is the new norm. But just because applicants and employers both engage in this practice does not mean that it’s acceptable. Ghosting deteriorates reputations.

Candidates develop opinions on a company from the minute they view a job posting, and they can share those perspectives with other potential hires.

Employers hold a network of other managers who value their take on a potential hire – sometimes more so than what the interview process reveals about that person.

In an age where branding strongly impacts candidate flow, social media strength, candidate or company competitiveness, and perception of culture or personality, it is ever so more pertinent to not derail a well-built personal or corporate persona.

As Bambi’s Owl wisely pointed out, “It could happen to anybody. So you’d better be careful. It can happen to you.” Today’s applicant can be tomorrow’s manager and today’s manager may be tomorrow’s applicant. If you would rather hear direct, honest feedback – as most polls indicate people would, personally and professionally – then, also consider being that change you want to see. At the end of the day, ghosting may be the easiest choice, but it’s not the one we want for ourselves.