It’s been a great Summer in Life Science Towers, lots and lots of busy heads running around.

New jobs in this month are as usual, varied and quite specialised.

Richard is working hard on these role
Product Specialist (Nationwide) – Pharma. An ethical pharma company with a niche range of products in the blood transfusion market.
Key Account Manager (Europe). A role requiring previous experience in Blood Typing and Antibodies. The role can be based anywhere in Europe.

Eamonn always wants to hear from good Medical Science Liaisons. He also has a great industrial role for an experienced Medical Scientist and is seeking a Quality Manager for a Dublin hospital, amongst (many many) others!

James is seeking experienced Quality Engineers and a Balloon Engineer for a South-East based Client.

I’m working on an attractive Apps Specialist role within Life Science microscopy. PhD preferred. Other roles include CRA / Clinical Operation Specialist and QAV Engineering roles.

UCC have also posted a Professor of Life Sciences role on the site.

Connected Health
Eamonn and I will be at the Connected Health conference on Thursday in Dundalk. It will be interesting to meet the other companies up there. This coincides with an article we’ve done on the topic which will be in the issue 3 2010 Life Science Review magazine. An intensely interesting area in which lot of great work is being done. We are also just about to press the green button on our specialised Connected Health site I’ve also started a Connected Health LinkedIn group, please do join up.

If you think we can help you in any way or you just want some advice, do give us a call. We like to talk

Crossing fingers for 2 more weeks of sunshine, that’ll make up for a mixed Summer so far…..

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot it)

We have all at some stage in our life looked for work, and dealing with people every day who are looking is something we are acutely aware of, so I certainly understand why people are so keen to hear back, however it would be impossible for us to get back individually to every applicant – so what now?

Breaking news – it’s YOUR job!

Recruiters want to help you, if you are suitable for a role, make sure we know about it. In the unlikely event we are searching for a role and we don’t come across your details in a search, by you being proactive and us knowing your name in our “internal system”, we will inevitably get in touch when a suitable role comes in.

Recruiters also love to see candidates who are passionate. If a recruiter has promised to get back to you by a certain day and doesn’t, give THEM a call. At the end of the day, this is a chance for you to develop a relationship with a recruiter and remember, we are actually people too.

Passion and drive for a role makes it easier for a recruiter to sell you to the company. If the recruiter can see you have researched a company, if you are knowledgeable on their products / service etc, they are likely to go above and beyond the call of duty on order to get you an interview.

The little things make a big difference in a market like this, it’s worth bearing these points in mind.

-Richard (richard dot hayes at lifescience dot ie)
-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

I’m looking for Clinical Research professionals in many guises. From CTA to CRA and a Clinical Operations Specialist, it’s an area we seem to be seeing a lot of movement in.
I’m also seeking qualified Regulatory professional in Pharma (Dublin / Galway)

James is sekeing a number of roles on the medical device side of the business.

A Snr Ballon Engineer for a Client in the South East. A very exciting company / opportunity.
He is also seeking Quality Engineers at various levels. There’s the Complaints Coordinator role (call for more info), to a QE and a Snr QE

Richard is looking for skilled sales reps in all areas as always. A particularly urgent need he has is the Neurology Hospital Rep in Munster. Previous experience in this sphere is required.

Eamonn is always on the lookout for Medical Science Liaisons (Medical Advisors). More information can be seen on the MedicalAffairs.ie niche site. Eamonn tends to look for people with relevant PhDs / MSc / Pharmacists with commercial experience. Another area we’re seeing a lot of movement in. the majority of these roles are based in Dublin, but there is one opportunity in Cork also.

If you’d like to discuss or career or any of the above – call us at 010 6854545.

Outside of these walls, what else is new? The GAA Championship is firmly underway, with the Dubs clear favourites v. Tyrone on Saturday(!!!). Tipperary impressed v Galway last week in a stormer of a game, can they get to the final again?
AND there’s the small matter of a certain Mr. L. Cohen at Lissadell House, Sligo on Saturday.

Here’s hoping for more sunshine – Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

Some points that occurred to me recently that are very important:

-NEVER address an email to Sir / Madam or “To Whom it Concerns”. This is lazy. Go onto LinkedIn, find the name of the person you need. If you can’t find it here, contact the company directly and simply ask for the contacts name / email. This will make your application stand out.
-When composing your CV, put yourself in the mind of a HR Manager. They often from Arts / Business backgrounds and sometimes don’t have a lot of technical knowledge (no offence!). You therefore need to explain everything in your CV. If you have worked with local regulatory authorities, write “the IMB” or “FDA”, as a HR person could have been told (”I only want CVs with IMB / FDA experience”). If you have worked with ERP systems, highlight which ones in the experience section, NOT ONLY in the skills section. Your CV could easily get overlooked otherwise.
-Expanding this point, make sure all acronyms are explained. Sometimes even technical people will not know what something means, so put yourself in their shoes and write it from their perspective.

As always, get in touch if you have any particular topics you’d like us to cover, or if you have any thoughts on the above

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

As James says:

“I’m delighted to join the team in Life Science as principal medical device consultant. Having worked for the last 2 ½ in the life science area I am delighted to join the rest of the crew here in Life Science towers. I have a degree in chemistry and HDip in Business Studies and I have worked in pharmaceutical industry in Ireland and in Australia
So June is over first month in the door and things are really busy here. Getting up to speed with old web 2 technology. I’ll be a web expert in no time!
I’m mad looking for Quality Engineers for Dublin, West of Ireland and midland. Some exciting things happening in start-up companies nationwide. Definitely seems to be a change in sentiment out there long may it continue
Definite highlight of the month is Longford beating the men of Mayo definitely one of the biggest shocks in GAA history.”

James can be reached on LinkedIn here and his active jobs are on MedicalDevice.ie. Email: james.cassidy at lifescience.ie

Another fast month, some holidays and sunshine have been and gone, hopefully there’s some sun left though!

Things are busy in Life Science, we’re looking for a number of varied roles across many areas.

Eamonn is constantly seeking MSLs and people looking to move into the Medical Science Liaison (MSL) arena. Must be PhD qualified with commercial and / or technical Life Science experience, possible Sales or related. His site dedicated to this area has just been launched – MedicalAffairs.ie

I’m (LinkedIn) currently seeking LIMS professionals at all levels. This is for a large project based in Wales, but people can be based in Ireland, once they are flexible and willing to commute. A thoroughly superb company and accompanying package is on offer. Job Spec here. Other new roles include a Clinical Account Manager and a Quality Specialist (Cork)

Outside of these walls, the World Cup is in full flow. My beloved Danes never got out of their starting blocks (never a good sign when you have to bring on Gronkjaer), and the whole thing has been a bit of a damp squib so far. Let’s hope the Quarter finals bring some spice, my money is on the Brazilians, like Eamonn Dunphy (check out this great clip from the RTE studios)!

-Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

It’s been a good month in Life Science Towers on various fronts, here’s a run down of the roles were working hard on currently:

Health Quality professionals. We’re working exclusively with this Client to provide them with a number of people who have previous experience in the Healthcare and Clinical Quality / Compliance field. If you have any type of Quality experience within a Clinical setting we want to hear fom you. 3 roels available at various levels. The Project Manager role is seeking a Medical Doctor (2 actually).

Medical Science Liaisons – these are very interesting roles, a mixture of commercial and scientific, suitable to anyone with the correct therapeutic background. Call Eamonn for more information on these (01 6854545)

Production Support / Process engineers. We are seeking Production Support Engineers for one of our precision engineering Clinets, and a process Engineer with Medical Device slant.

Supply chain (Pharma) – this is an area we have noted a marked increase in activity in recently. Specifically we are looking to hear from candidates who have 3+ years experience in Pharmaceutical or related industries.

LOTS of other roles, do give us a call if you think you’re suitable for any and would like to discuss (Brian for Science / Pharma, Richard for Sales / Marketing, Eamonn for Clinical / Healthcare).

Outside of these walls, we’ve been enjoying the scorching weather recently. The World Cup is also beckoning, I (Brian) will be supporting my fatherland (Denmark), here’s a great clip with some of the goals from the Qualifying campaign. If Bendtner does the business, Holland won’t know what hit them on June 14th!

- Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

On the Technical side, we have some interesting QA roles. Mostly on the non-manufacturing side, distribution and commercial. Pharmacists and other people with experience dealing with the IMB are particularly of interest.

There is also a junior-level Regulatory Affairs role available in Sth Dublin (8 month contract intially). Previously experience in a documentation-based environment is an advantage. Get in touch if you’re interested, Spec provided on request.

On the medical / clincial affairs side, Eamonn is constantly seeking Medical Science Liaison professionals. He would also like to speak to CRAs and Clinical Project Managers.

Outside of Science, I’m watching Brian May’s Save Me campaign develop with interest (his latest vid is particularly notable). It will be interesting to see if it has any effect on the election.

Also, it seems you can now rent and download movies on iTunes Ireland. There goes my weekend of study!

- Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

Facebook. Having 500+ fans, we can get our message to a large, active and interested audience immediately. From feedback to blog posts to actually getting candidates to respond through the medium, it’s an excellent resource for recruiting. In fact, we have made 2 active placements through Facebook, with both candidates seeing the job on their News Feed and getting in touch. As it’s a Client driven market, candidates appreciate the fact that they are alerted immediately, especially for roles where there are potentially a number of possible suitable people in our network.

LinkedIn. An essential bow in every recruiter’s arrow as far as we’re concerned. It’s important to build a strong network of like minded individuals, stay in touch with discussion in groups of professional (and sometimes personal) interest.

Twitter: we have 560+ followers on Twitter, which is another excellent medium to broadcast our message. This is probably the toughest medium to master (as suggested by Simply Zesty) as it’s the newest, requires constant management and sometimes it can be difficult to toe the line between getting too personal and broadcasting your corporate message. However, as Ben Dunne said in his recent Newstalk / NCI Interview: “Business is about to get dirty, politeness is dead (not a direct quote).” OK, it mightn’t be that radical in our industry, but we certainly see Twitter as being an essential tool for the future, especially as more and more people are attracted to it.

A blog is also essential to convey your message. It strengthens your brand, makes people feel connected and lets them know there’s real people behind the company.

Do you have any more suggestions? Let us know!

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

Science Spin is both a podcast, mag and site dedicated to Science in Ireland. It’s aimed more towards environmental and discovery issues, but that’s science too isn’t it?! (apologies, I’m a medicinal chemist with tunnel vision!).

Twitter: I hate sounding like a broken record, but Science seems to be one of the major topics on here, along with tech, given that’s it’s bulging at the seams with geeks and nerds of all descriptions (along with some super cool people too!). Some humorous and / or interesting  scientists are here, here and here. By following these people and checking out who they follow, you’ll be in the loop in no time.

There are numerous video channels dedicated to science. TED (Tech, Entertainment, Design) brings together people from different walks of life who each give keynote speeches. Some very interesting scientific speeches can be found here. They are all remarkable in their own little way.

For more industry focussed information, B&F’s Life Science Review is excellent. It will give you a rundown of a number of companies operating in the Scientific space in Ireland, as well as some interesting articles. What a coincidence, we just had one published ourselves last month! But seriously, I would suggest its essential reading for anyone looking to pursue a career in science / medical devices in Ireland.

Podcasts are also a great way to keep in touch on the go. Stanford has a great series of “Entrepreneur Thought Leaders” talks which feature a number a high profile scientists.

Any more resources appreciated! Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)