If you’re a candidate looking for a career in the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and Life Sciences industries, recruiters can help you locate and land the position you’re looking for. They can match you with employers and roles that are perfect for your skills, interests, and values. They also have access to open positions that you won’t find on job boards and can help prepare you for the interview process.
But did you know there are many types of recruiters – and recruitment firms – out there? Knowing the right one to engage with can be confusing, and understanding their roles can go a long way toward ensuring a successful and timely job search. One thing to keep in mind: you should work with a recruiter that understands and is experienced in the type of position you’re looking for.
Here are four types of recruiters to consider depending upon your specific need:
Contingency Recruiter
When a job candidate gets hired, the recruiter gets paid. That’s how it works for contingency recruiters. Their fee is “contingent” upon one of their candidates being successfully hired. So if a contingency recruiter finds you a job, he or she is paid either a flat fee or a percentage of your first year’s salary by the company that hired you. Normally, you don’t have to pay a fee.
Remember, recruiters are NOT working for you – they work for the client with the job opening. However, if you’re the right fit for the position, they’ll work hard to get you in the door.
Retained Recruiter
A retained recruiter has an exclusive relationship with an employer. They are hired for a specific period of time to find a candidate for a job, generally for senior-level positions in a company or for positions that are difficult to fill. They are paid expenses, plus a percentage of the employee’s salary, regardless of whether the candidate is hired. As a job seeker, you don’t have to pay a fee. Retained recruiters work very closely with the client to find the best person for the job with exactly the right skillset and experience.
Corporate Recruiter
Corporate Recruiters work in-house for a company’s HR department and are paid a salary and benefits just like any other employee. They often have titles such as HR Manager or Hiring Manager. Their job is to find new employees for the company they work for – usually large companies with many hiring needs.
Temporary / Contract Staffing Agency
Temporary (temp) agencies find employees to fill temporary jobs for their clients. Temps are often hired when companies have a rush, short-term projects, or to cover vacations or illnesses. When a temp agency places you in a position, they pay your wages, taxes, insurance, and benefits and charge the employer an hourly rate for your time. Many temp agencies are set up so that if an employer wants to ultimately hire a temporary worker full-time, the agency can handle that as well.
Summing it Up
Working with the right recruiter, who’s experienced working with job seekers in pharma/biotech, can help take the stress out of your job search. By understanding your skills and experience – while also having a firm grasp of the job market, industry, and open positions – a skilled recruiter could be exactly what you need to further your career.
A career in Biotech can be very rewarding. It’s an industry that develops cleaner energy sources, furthers medicine and cures, and develops higher-yielding crops to feed the world’s growing population.
Whether you’ve spent the past few years working on a Ph.D. or are about to finish your first degree, entering the biotech industry is an alternative to the more conventional life-science paths that lead through medical school or end in academia.
But it can be tough to know where to begin. And with the uncertainties caused by COVID-19, it can be hard to identify current job opportunities. Here are some tips to keep in mind as you begin your new career:
Do your Research
With any job, it’s important that candidates do proper research – not just about the job they’re applying for, but about the company they’re hoping to work for. Target companies you’re interested in reaching out to and check out their websites. See if you know anyone who may work at the companies and reach out. Get an understanding of what the organization does, their corporate culture, the leadership group, etc.
Find a Mentor
Whether it’s a professor or an established professional in the field, a mentor can go a long way toward helping new grads get their feet in the industry door. Identify one or two potential mentors that you feel you can build and nurture long-term relationships with. Mentors can be advantageous in advancing your career, providing sage advice and guidance based on their experience and expertise.
Build your Network
Just like doing good science takes collaboration, so does building your career. Build a strong network for both career growth and increased learning. A network of peers can be a valuable group to brainstorm with, glean best practices from and learn about new technologies.
Be Aggressive but Be Patient
It may be difficult for new grads to do, but not jumping at the first job offer can be the key to finding a great job. Students with STEM degrees are in the driver’s seat in the current economy and don’t need to settle for an immediate job offer. Pharma/biotech companies aren’t always the first on campus, so be patient and use due diligence to find the right role. When you arrive at the interview, ask questions about the job expectations and responsibilities to get a good feel for the position.
Accept an Internship
As a newly minted grad, what you’ve done (work experience) is often more important than what you know (degrees, awards, etc.). An internship that allows you to work in your chosen field will enable you to gain a practical understanding of what it’s like in the real world. It can also provide opportunities to build relationships and show potential employers that you have work experience – giving you a head start vs. the competition. Lastly, some companies hire interns once their term has been completed.
A Final Thought
If you know a biotech career is right for you but aren’t sure what type of position would be best, it’s important to reach out to the industry professionals. Creating a network of working professionals can help you decide on your career path. Also, working with an experienced biotechnology recruiter will remove a lot of the time and stress in finding your firstjob – and the right one.
As important as hiring the right candidate can be, many employers or hiring managers don’t consider the ramifications of being ill-prepared for the interview process.
While inviting team members to interview the job seeker should be encouraged, the fact is, everyone may not be prepared for the process. The interview team can be distracted by their jobs and not have time to get ready to meet the potential new hire.
Just like candidates spend time researching the company, interviewers should be ready to evaluate candidates properly to avoid making costly hiring mistakes. Good preparation pays off: Here are some tips to ensure you and your team are properly prepared to meet your candidates.
1. Know your Candidates
Sitting across from a job seeker without having reviewed their resume or background can mean that important questions won’t be asked. And also shows the candidate that you’re not taking the interview seriously. By knowing the person’s background, you’ll avoid asking for information they’ve already provided. Be prepared beforehand by reading the resume and making notes of key points concerning their skills and experience. You can then use interview time to elaborate on these points or ask for the new information you need to help with your evaluation.
2. Plan your Interview Questions
Before the interview, you and your team should prepare a series of questions built on behavioral question models. Examples of how to phrase these include:
• “Tell me about a time…” • “Give me an example of when…” • “Walk me through…” • “Describe for me…”
Questions constructed around these examples offer the potential for answers that say a lot about a candidate’s personality and interpersonal style. They can also spark a meaningful discussion that leads to the interviewer’s deeper understanding of past situations, tasks, and results the applicant has experienced.
3. Give Everyone on the Hiring Team a Role
Giving each member of the interviewing team a role helps them focus and enables them to have a specific goal for the upcoming interview. Providing a direction will also ensure your interviewers will be prepared with questions that will meet the goals set out for them. For example, each member could focus on a key piece of experience criteria or on the desired behavior.
4. Use the Same Criteria for Each Candidate
Be sure you and your team apply the same process and ask the same questions during each job interview. This approach enables you to gather information uniformly and make the next step — evaluating how well each person does — that much easier. It can also help minimize unintended or unconscious bias and other negative factors that may creep into the interview process.
A Last Word
The interview process is crucial in helping you find the right candidate. You need to assess their strengths and weaknesses quickly, but even more importantly, you need to evaluate whether they’ll be a good cultural and professional fit. A well-prepared interview team can give you a complete view of the candidate – helping to ensure the right hire!
Sci.Bio is a leading recruitment and search firm based in Boston. We specialize in finding and hiring the best talent to fill temporary openings, long-term positions, and executive roles in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries. To learn more, visit our website today!
When looking to hire senior executives in the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences fields, it’s important to remember that most of the great candidates aren’t hanging out in a database or waiting to be contacted on LinkedIn.
While using your organization’s in-house resources (HR department, hiring managers) may work for less specialized job placements, neither likely have the combination of research skills and the extensive network of professional resources needed to identify and hire top executive talent on time.
Instead of spending a lot of in-house time on an executive hiring search and hoping for the best, many science-based companies are reaching out to executive search firms to optimize the process. Here are some reasons why you may want to consider this strategy for your next high-level hire:
1. A Search is Incredibly Important at the Executive Level
Searches for senior management positions that report to the C-suite are too important not to go out to a retained search firm. Executives at that level can make or break a company. A retained search firm can help mitigate the risk.
2. The Position Requires an Executive with Unique Skills
If you’re seeking someone with very specific knowledge and skills, a search firm can help. The best executive search firms will deliver candidates with the right mix of knowledge, skills, and abilities, along with the requisite cultural fit you need.
3. Your Senior Leadership Team Lacks Diversity
Because women, Black, and Latinx candidates are not well-represented at the senior executive levels – especially at science-based organizations – search firms can help level the playing field by conducting searches that ensure equal opportunity for all candidates.
4. You’ve Just Created the Position
When an organization has a new executive-level role to fill, there can often be a lack of knowledge re: the kind of candidate you need. Search firms that specialize in the functions and sectors that are new to the organization can help fill that knowledge gap and identify the right talent.
5. You Have to Replace an Underperforming Executive While Still in the Role
Lining up a replacement while a senior executive is still on board, can be highly complicated. The last thing you want is for the individual to find out. Search firms offer a much-needed cloak of confidentiality. They can manage a confidential search and recruit candidates without even mentioning the name of the client company.
6. You’ve Exhausted your Personal and Company Networks
If you’ve burned through your network of connections for possible referrals, it’s time to access another network. Executive search consultants are among the most well-networked people in the business and can find the right candidates while you’re working on running your department or business.
Summing it Up
Executive recruiters who understand the biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and life sciences fields can identify, contact, and engage executive talent beyond the reach of employers who go it alone. Before contracting with a hiring firm, be sure they understand your business, have access to the right talent, and provide communication throughout the process to ensure you’re meeting the best candidates.
Sci.Bio is a leading recruitment and search firm based in Boston. We specialize in finding and hiring the best talent to fill temporary openings, long-term positions, and executive roles in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries. We can also help you understand and improve your cost per hire numbers – so visit our website today!
A career in the Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals, and the Life Sciences industries can be very rewarding and fulfilling. But it often means working long, stressful hours.
Professionals in these industries are often mission-oriented, and aware that what they’re working to create, or manufacture can change lives. But what happens when there’s a significant amount of work that consumes everything else you do with no end in sight?
When your Job Becomes your Life
While it’s admirable and sometimes necessary to work whatever hours it takes to complete a project, it can be increasingly easy to forget to take time for yourself. As a life science professional, doing anything but work can seem like laziness or self-indulgence.
However, burnout is real, and if you’re not operating at full capacity because you’re exhausted, your work and personal life will suffer.
Try Keeping One Day Meeting-Free Often, meetings take time from being productive. Try establishing one day a week (or two afternoons) as “meeting-free.” Setting aside a day to get work done will do wonders for your productivity. You’ll get more accomplished during the day and take home less work (and stress) at night.
Don’t Always Be the First Person in or the Last Person Out Punctuality and a good work ethic are important. But professionals who spend ridiculously long hours at work may only be demonstrating poor time management. Make an effort to prioritize tasks and leave on time at least three nights a week. One tactic is to put an appointment on your calendar for the end of the day, so you have a reason to leave.
Learn to Say “No” Every time you say “yes” to another task, you’re increasing your work time, and decreasing your “me” time. Set a list of priorities and make decisions accordingly. Obviously, there will be times when “no” is not the right answer, but in those cases, ask which project is more important and set your priorities.
Protect your Time Away from Work If you have to take work home, make sure you set time limits for yourself, so it doesn’t eat up all of your personal time. Triage the important stuff. Respond only to the most critical emails, then leave the rest for when you’re back at your desk.
Make Family a Priority The people you love and who love you aren’t expendable – and your job should be built around that. If family emergencies happen, show up. Consistently make time to be there for the people that you love and count on you.
Take a Vacation (or Staycation) Remember: Vacation and personal time exist for a reason. Take the day’s you’ve accrued. You’re supposed to use these days, and you (and your manager) will ultimately be glad you did. Let your coworkers know you’ll be offline until you return. Your work and attitude will improve after taking a break.
Conclusion As a life science professional, your work is important. But it’s also important to recognize that you can operate much more effectively if you regularly take some time for yourself. No one can survive for long – or perform at their best – by running at 100 miles an hour all the time!
