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)

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)

He gave a superb insight into his apprenticeship as an upholsterer in Detroit, lessons learned and how he always believed his calling was in art / music (stitching poetry and putting vinyl discs inside couches, writing receipts in crayon!). Current muses and thoughts on his marriage / family were also interesting. Jack fielding some questions from the audience about finding the “lost” America and comparing Britney Spears to Dylan, Bowie and himself – apparantly in some ways he feels she is being truer to herself than they are!

When asked what advice he would give to up and coming musicians, he tied the interview together nicely with the theme of night – authenticity. New musicians need to love what they’re doing, if they don’t love their work then how can anyone else? I think this is a concept that can be applied different areas in life. He advised to stay away from sites like myspace to promote themselves, instead to focus on creativity and getting out to the fans.

As a company focussed on Web 2.0, of course we will not take his advice literally! However, I think the substance is relevant – love what you do, be authentic, differentiate and people will naturally be attracted to you. Stretching this out somewhat and applying it to canddiates on the job hunt, I would suggest it means getting “out there” more, don’t just send out 10s of CVs out to various recruiters and potential employers, focus on quality. Pick up the phone, get to the right people and project your value and personality upon them.

Note: this postwould like to doff its cap to a couple of other business / ideas blogs: Robin @ Bytesurgery, the guys @ Contrast and to a lesser extent, the 37signals signal v. noise blog, all of which are superb.

-Brian (brian dot c at lifescience dot ie)

Pharma / Medical Device Sales. My colleague Richard is always on the lookout for superb candidates who have extensive experience in these areas. All of the roles on Sales and Marketing.ie are live and he is always easy to reach at the end of the phone.

In Science / Healthcare, there are a couple of areas attracting interest:

Drug Safety / Pharmacovigilance / Medical Science Liaison: This is an area we are seeing a high level of demand in. We have a number of roles available in different therapeutic areas, some requiring a Medical training, some looking for a nurse and others needing someone with a higher level qualification in the spoecific area.

Microbiology: We currently have 2 Micro lab manager position available, together with some lower level roles for less experienced Microbiologists.

Healthcare: in healthcare currently we have a couple of interesting roles in audiology / hearing aids, together with a Nurse Manager vacancy, both permanent roles with private organisations.

As always, we’re on the end of the phone to give advice, whether it’s help with a CAO form (you’d be surprised!), a graduate looking to assitance with job searching, right up to consuilting with executives looking to take the next step, so get in touch.

NOT in Science: well for me, it’s running. There seems to be a huge amount of people taking to the streets to get fit, which is great. Good luck to everyone training for the Dublin City Marathon on the 26th, for me it’s all about not overexerting myself and staying injury / sickness free until then. I’m looking to quality for Boston in under 3 hr 11 min, pressure is on!

Oh, and of course Google Wave and Dublinbikes, both of which are soooo hot right now!

Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

Bettering yourself is KEY, you always need to think “how can I distinguish myself from the next person when it comes down to the interview?” “What are my personal USPs (Unique Selling Points)?” “Why should somebody hire me over that guy?”

There are a number of things you can do to while seeking out new position:

Stay fit – running (see me in the pic!), yoga, Tae Kwon Do, whatever it is that interests you, now is a PERFECT time to take it to the next level. Set yourself goals, work out a training plan, try to train with others if possible. An ‘virtual’ running club such as Boards AC is also great for people who want to be active outside of core club training hours.

Improve yourself academically. Obviously this depends on your personal financial situation, but if possible does a course to make yourself more “buyable”. It’s always a good idea to diversify. Possibly an IT / Business course if you have a Science degree. Even something as abstract as an investing course or wine tasting / cookery, there really are no limits. It will make a difference in the interview if you can speak about your recent times in a positive light, showing the interviewee how you have kept your busy, relevant and current. Online courses are also mushrooming right now.

Network – Personally I hate the word and it’s a Cliche, but with the advent of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other Web 2.0 tools, there really is no excuse to stay in touch with the people that interest you. Broadening this circle is a natural progression and valuable contacts can be garnered. Ireland is a very small country and you can get the information that matters immediately. Stay in touch with recruiters, having 1 or 2 people to be your eyes and ears instantly widen your net in the hope of catching that next role. As Sen. Shane Ross once said to me, “Recruitment is a great weathervane of the economy.” A good recruiter will be able to tell you how the market is moving, companies with potential new roles so you hear about them before anyone else.

Voluntary Work – again it has to interest you. If it does, however, voluntary work can be extremely rewarding and fulfilling. This will be a major plus in many potential employers’ eyes.

Travel – more and more employers are looking at CVs to see if someone has gotten the “travel thing” out of their system. It seems like virtually every new graduate will inevitably spend a year backpacking, be it around Oz on a 1-year visa (which many believe has a limited lifespan…) or South America. To see that someone has travelled will make the potential employee seem like a good long-term prospect for an organisation.

The above is simply a taster, your only limit is your imagination.

Brian (brian.c at lifescience.ie)

Web 2.0 is simply the catchy term for the next generation of internet technologies. In the same way mobile phones evolved from Analogue (088) to GSM (087) to GPRS the to 3G and HSPDA; from just making a standard call to making a video call, the internet is in a state of flux. A tidal wave of new rich applications are now available, enhancing the internet for the end-user. This has been made possible by the widespread peretration of broadband to the masses, combined with a reduction in the cost of computer hardware.

So how does it increase my chances of getting a job???

Web 2.0 gives you instant access to information; information and knowledge are essential resources in the job search. Twitter is a good case study to use here; instant updates on twitter, affectionately termed “tweets” in the cybersky, allow you to recieve information immediately. Imagine the scenario: Recruitment company A gets a call from Employer B who requests to see a shortlist of candidates for Job C. The job is tweeted immediately and simultaenously sent to the administration dept. for dissemination to the job boards. 5 suitable candidates reply to the Recruitment Company via Twitter before the job is even advertised. The employer recieves these applicants and is happy with the response and asks to see no more applicants. The job doesnt even go up on the job boards, hence you have lost your chance. Some analyst say that 70% of open positions are not advertised on the major job boards.

Web 2.0 facilitates networking. Facebook and LinkedIn are good case studies in this example. Imagine you became a fan of the Life Science Recruitment page on FaceBook. Consultant A sees that you became a fan and checks out your profile and sees that in your professional info (which you obviously have filled out!!!) you work as a QC Analyst. Ten minutes later Consultant A gets a call from Employer B regarding a new QC Analyst vacancy – guess who is fresh in the consultants mind??? Furthermore, finding a good recruitment consultant on LinkedIn and adding the personal touch by sending a message via this medium, makes you stand out…

Web 2.0 increases your exposure in the online world, increased exposure correlates with increased opportunity. One of the most difficult tasks these days is getting recognised. Why ride a bicycle on the information superhighway when you can drive a tank??? The more you put yourself out there, the greater your chances of finding a job. However, a note of caution, be careful with sensitive information such as addresses and date of birth. Don’t put these on your Web 2.0 profiles. A handy tip to avoid spam is to put your email in this format: myname [at] myisp {dot} com, as oppossed to myname@myisp.com - spam email scrapers don’t recognise the former, and many people are savvy to this format.

Blogs can often give you access to ‘off the cuff’ or insider information – this information can often give you an edge over your competitors, as this blog post will probably do!

The secret is not to be afraid of Web 2.0; people in the past were hesitant of DVD’s, Electric Cars and Online Banking – now they are here to stay, and guess what, so is Web 2.0.

- Eamonn (Email: eor [at] lifescience [dot] ie ) jg7baqve9t

Your Curriculum Vitae

Your CV is a representation of yourself and as such you should put significant work into it to ensure that it represents you in the best light possible. Not wanting to state the obvious, make sure it has no spelling mistakes (spell check!), that your career is in chronological order with most recent first, and that it starts with a 5 or 6 line summary of yourself (summary, objective etc…). Make sure it is formatted correctly (same font throughout – Arial, Verdana), Headings in Bold 12pt, Subheadings in Bold+Italic 11pt and body text 10pt. Avoid multiple colours (Monochrome Dark grey/Black OK) and don’t put your picture on it. People like conformity and are resistant to change unless it is very beneficial. View and download some templates on the lifescience.ie site here.

FAS

It is definitely worth your while registering with FAS while pursuing your search. You could be doing short courses to upskill yourself while waiting for the right opportunity.

Applying for Jobs if your a Graduate

If you are a graduate then you need to do plenty of research on companies to see who is recruiting graduates. Go to graduate recruitment fairs. Try not to apply more than once for the same position, if you dont recieve a response straight away its because the company is pooling all applications first before actually shortlisting. Multiple applications for the same position will reflect negatively on you. Register your CV with a niche / specialised agency so that you are ‘in the hat’ when a company approaches them for graduate recruitment. If you would like to register with us here at Life Science you can do so here.

Jobs Boards

At last count there were over 500 recruitment agencies in Ireland (the number rapidly falling) and 4 main Job Boards. Hence when you see a job on one of the boards it is generally one of many replicas (sometimes 20 agencies can be working on the same job – hence 20 advertisements). Keep an eye for new jobs which appear, check daily and when you see something interesting then apply.

Recruitment Agencies

There are many urban myths on recruitment agencies. Lets demysticise a few… a) you dont have to pay – under irish law the maximum an agency can charge you is 1 euro, hence no charge. b) under data protection they are not allowed to share your information without your consent – applying for a job through an agency is not in the practical sense consent – best practice dictates they should contact you first before forwarding your CV. Choose a couple of specialist niche agencies and try to develop a personal relationship with them. In this market there are few jobs and most of the agencies have the same jobs. Avoid being represented by multiple agencies – would you go to court represented by 7 different solicitors working independently??? Check their website regularly and keep an eye for new positions and if you see one either apply through the site or drop a quick email registering your interest to your consultant. Here at Life Science we are open to contact for advice on your job search and can also refer to you career mentors who we recommend.

- Eamonn