At the end of the recruitment process, there is the inevitable offer. Do companies ‘lowball’ (ie offer less to see what they can get away with) candidates in a tough economy? Are all offers final? Is negotiation, or haggling, part and parcel of the process?

This is an area where working with a recruiter is a huge advantage. One of MANY, of course!! It’s great to have an intermediary to speak on your behalf and talk directly to the company about the specifics of an offer. In our experience, the majority of offers which are tabled are fair. A good recruiter will find out what your exact package is and where your expectations lie, as they are sending your CV to the company. We do this with all candidates, in order to remove any ambiguity which may exist when candidates get to this final stage of the process.

However, some companies will try to offer less in order to grab a bargain as it were. Some almost expect a haggle! They can view this as a sign of what kind of candidate they are dealing with: if a candidate can’t negotiate now then how will they perform in high-pressure situations with stakeholder / suppliers / buyers etc?

Care is needed in this process, however. Candidates can’t seem overly hungry or greedy, so balance is key. The specifics of the contract must be examined and questioned if there are any issues. This also demonstrates that the candidate is detailed-orientated and careful. Any approaches made regarding salary must be considered and well thought-out. Larger companies tend to have tight salary bands, outside of which there may be no negotiation. A bit like Arsenal FC a few years ago! Smaller companies may have more flexibility, but may also be more cost conscious.

Know what you’re worth, and if you need to haggle to get there, haggle!

- Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

As huge fans and heavy users of LinkedIn, we utilise it’s various features a lot. One of these is groups. We have, in fact, createwd a number of our own groups, in areas we felt were underserviced on the site. Here they are, feel free to join in to anything you feel is suitable of of interest:

Medical Affairs Ireland Network Specific group for Medical Advisors, Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs), Scientific Advisors and people seeking to enter this exciting area. A PhD / MSc or Medical qualification is required in most instances.

Connected Health Ireland for (Healthcare) IT professionals and IT people interested in the H.I.T. / Connected Health area. One we feel is poised for growth in coming years.

MedicalDevice.ie Network – for the thriving Medical Device Industry in Ireland

Formulation Scientists Ireland

As it happens we are seeking 2 people to join the Life Science team internally. Feel free to contact us if you are interested or know someone who might be. We offer a vibrant, exciting work environment and genuinely challenging, yet rewarding, work:

Snr IT Recruitment Consultant
Graduate Recruitment Consultant – Science / Pharma

- Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

On a side note, ca. 12% of the jobs we advertise contain detailed information on the salary range on offer.

“The need for good staff has never being more important and companies are going to greater lengths to minimise the risks in any potential new hires, longer interview processes, psychometric testing, presentations, roles plays etc are becoming more and more common in the interview processes. Likewise employees are increasingly more concerned with company stability, culture and future growth plans.
It’s an old adage that price is what you pay and value is what you get. Employers in the current market place are very aware of the need to get the right individual on board not just in terms of skills and experience but also in terms of attitude and fit. To this end a lot of companies don’t want to be boxed in by setting salary bands that will either be dismissed by people that are at a higher salary level and like wise not to prevent applications for people with the right skillet but with less experience.”
-James Cassidy, Medical Device Principal Consultant, Life Science Recruitment

My own way of looking at it is both form the client and candidate perspective:

Client (ie company) – sometimes they have very strict salary bands in place, sometimes they don’t. It can save a lot of time, if the former is the case, to advertise the salary. This is generally done at the junior level to ensure no time is wasted in the recruitment process. Where higher potential salaries exist, employers generally keep their cards closer to their chest and thus tend not to advertise salaries. It can be frustrating from a candidate point-of0view, but is something which is unlikely to change.

Candidates (ie job seeker) – this boils down to the experience the person has. If they are sought after, they are in a stronger position to negotiate. In this instance, again it can save time if they inform the company of any salary expectations that they have, so that this isn’t a big issue later on in the recruitment process. It also means both parties are on the same wavelength from the start. If a candidate has a skillset which is widely available, then they are on the backfoot in terms of ability to demand salaries, and they must act accordingly. It is an employer driven market in many (or even most) areas, but in particular niches, there a skill shortages. IT being the most obvious example, but in many areas of Life Science and Pharmaceutical too (Clinical Reseasrch, Regulatory Affairs, QA to name but a few). In these cases, salaries are generally not advertised in order to encourage as many people as possible to apply.

- Brian Christensen (brian dot c @ lifescience.ie)

As we are seeing an upturn in the requirement for excellent Quality staff, we thought it’d be interesting to collate the course that can lead to the QP or “Qualifed Person” status in Ireland.

Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) – MSc / Postgrad Diploma in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) – MSc in Industrial Pharmaceutical Technology

IT Sligo – MSc in Industrial Pharmaceutical Technology

Edit – there’s University College, Cork (UCC) also – Masters in Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Systems

To our knowledge these are the 4 currently on offer. Most are run on a 2 year part-time basis, where attendance is required a number of times per semester. They are semi-distance learning, so to speak. The requirements for these courses are generally just a scientific degree plus 2+ years of Quality experience in a regulated industry. They are a great way to kick-start your career if the support network within your current employer exists.

For relevant quality opportunities, check out our QualityAssurance.ie site.

Comments or questions? – Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

For the Irish market, however, it may be useful to point out that these CVs don’t serve their purpose well. They are too rigid, aren’t attractive and don’t serve any real importance. A well formatted, clear and concise CV will get you noticed a lot faster than a Europass CV.

We have some templates on our site here which are better starting points.

- Brian (brian dot c@lifescience.ie)

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We’re still waiting for the Summer to kick into full swing in Dublin. While we do, here’s what’s going on in our office this month.

Eamonn’s urgent roles are with a CRO client in Dublin:
Group Director of Marketing
Senior Clinical Research Associate
Senior Clinical Project Manager
Product Manager – Oncology. This is with a blue chip pharma client.

Stephen is looking for Engineers of all shapes and sizes:

EHS Engineer (Dublin)
Process Engineer (Sligo) – experience in pharma is favourable for this role.

He is always interested in speaking to experienced Pharma / Med Device Engineers who are seeking contract and permanent opportunities.

James is managing the Hollister microsite, which is is constantly resourcing candidates for: Hollister Jobs
He also has a 4 month Validation Engineer for a company in the Midlands.

The roles I’m working hard on:
Pharmacologist (Limerick). We’re seeking JUST a PhD in Medicinal Chemistry / Pharmacology or someone similar who understands mechanism of drug action in the body. No other experience required.
BD Specialist (Dublin) – Pharma / Clinical knowledge combined with commercial experience is needed here.
A Food R&D Scientist – Cork-based, this role needs someone with 4+ years of research experience in Food (not meat) ingredients. A superb opportunity exists here.

Outside of the office, Google+ has just launched. We think this is a lot more than Wave or Buzz, it’s a beautiful product and they are putting a lot of resources behind it. We’ll be surprised if it flops. +1 our homepage here

-Brian

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There are a number of tools which can make your CV stand out in an ever-crowded job seeker marketplace:

QR Codes
A QR (quick response) code is a 2d barcode which can be read by smartphones (e.g with Neoreader App) that automatically brigs the user to an intended site. It can be easier than manually inputting urls into Safari on an iPhone, for example. The link should be to at least a Linkedin page, or an about.me page to make it more interesting. Something which summarises your experience and gives some off-CV information, showing that you are more than just 2 pages of paper.

Here is a handy link for generating a QR code.

Pictures
Hmmm, we’re not so sure on this one. For commercial or sales roles they can be useful. We don’t want to be drawn into a discussion on “does attractiveness help you get an interview” here, so we’ll leave this up to the users discretion. They seem to be more the norm in the States, but we are seeing them more and more on Irish CVs.
If you are using a pic on your, make it very professional (and recent).

Graphic Heavy CVs
Some design-savvy individuals like to produce CVs which draw heavy on graphics and designs. Some summerise experience like a graphic timeline, some generate skills idea-bubbles or anything in-between. Generally these are a No, unless the hiring managers responsible for the role for would appreciate it. Examples of this include website desgn, programming and IT engineering.

Looking forward to your comments or if there are any other CV tidbits you’d like us to give our thoughts on, let us know

- Brian

This month there seems to be a huge focus on the Commercial side of things according to recent jobs.

Sales Agent – previous experience selling instrumentation essential

Territory Sales Specialist – seeking a histologist / histopathologist for this one.

I’m also seeking an IT Engineer with CCNA, MCP certification with web and Linux experience – Product Support and Implementation Engineer

Stephen is looking for an EHS-Engineer for his Pharmaceutical client in Dublin

And also a  Production Support Engineer for an electronics company in Dublin

James has some very specific Medical Device roles as usual. There is also a B2B Sales Manager position in the pipeline for an American company. B2B experience in Medical Devices is key.

Production supervisor for a multinational in Galway

Quality Engineer for a start up in Athlone

Operations Engineer in a start up in Galway

Outside of the office we’re looking forward to the heat wave which is due to hit at the end of the week. 24 degrees – YE S PLEASE! It’s also the start of festival season, some good events planned around Dublin city so get out there and enjoy them. Although there’s no more football of much significance for the Summer, that performance by Barcelona on Saturday will live long in the memory. A great report from the Guardian is here

- Brian

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“I am happy and excited to join the team at Lifescience principally as a managing consultant in the Engineering and Contract engineering arena. I have 15 years experience working in the engineering field in Europe and the US. I have also 4 years experience recruiting for the engineering sector in Ireland. My educational background is in Business Administration qualified through the Dublin Institute of Technology.  My feet are under the desk here in Lifescience and will be throwing myself headlong into the business and wilol be looking for good, solid and experienced engineers.”

You can link up with Stephen on LinkedIn here

Unfortunately our proposed office move won’t happen due to external circumstances. It’s OK, we always loved you – Dublin 8. In matters more technical-natured:

James is working on a a raft of medical device jobs as usual, including:

Product Development Engineer for a start up medical company in Galway

Quality Engineer for Dublin  - must have injection moulding experience

Medical device company in Galway seeks a Purchasing Analyst for its expanding operation

Eamonn is seeking a Snr. MSL and Clinical Sales Specialists – see here for more

I’m seeking a number of people across different sectors:

Medical Product Specialist – Munster. Experience with devices and knowledge of the territory is essential.

Business Development Manager. Must have experience selling into Pharma labs at a high level.

Reg Affairs Officer. For this role we need someone who has knowledge of toxicology and ideally another European language, combined with Reg experience. Not asking for too much!

Outside of these walls we’re looking forward the Summer and better weather. I finished the Barcelona Marathon but subsequently managed to break my collarbone. Training will be on hold for another few weeks but there are some long cycles planned when the weather heats up. If you’d like to sponsor me on my Cork – Galway cycle, this link is here.

- Brian brian.c[at]lifescience.ie