Category Archives: Recruitment & Employment

Making your CV stand out

June 28, 2011   Sinead Cullen   No comments

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

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Introducing our newest member…

May 09, 2011   Sinead Cullen   No comments

We’re delighted to introduce our old friend and new recruiter Stephen Boylan to the team. Stephen comes from various sales and recruitment positions, mostly with engineering. He will be responsible for the majority of our Engineering and Contract Recruitment within Life Science Recruitment.

“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

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Common Traits of People who Get Jobs

February 15, 2011   Sinead Cullen   No comments


A recent post from Seth Godin suggest that people should listen more to the great baseball statistician Bill James when hiring people, when he said: “past performance is a good indicator of future performance.”

Endurance Corner, a great blog aimed towards endurance athletes, wrote a great piece on “Big Jobs“. Gordo says that the only way you can really achieve anything worthwhile in your career is by working very hard and focusing on the task in hand.
That post was inspired by a great piece by James Michener, the US author. Written in 1962, it focuses on achievement / hard work and how education should never stop.

So what does all this mean in the context of recruitment?
The people we place in jobs often behave in a similar very way. Although it’s only gives a snapshot of what people are like in general, we find that people who excel at interview are the ones who prepare best, who put genuine effort into research companies and people and who convey a genuine enthusiasm at interview. They’re the ones who communicate a lot with us (sometimes over-communicate!) and call us up straight after interviews. They pressure us to work for them, and in turn we convey their urgency to the Client. If there is any way you can attend an interview when asked to then do – they’re SCARCE and shouldn’t be taken for granted!
We can allude to numerous examples of this during our day-to-day: There was a candidate who showed great enthusiasm to attend an interview on the other side of the country during the Big Freeze. The Client told him not to risk it, but he eventually he got the job when they met as the Client could see the opportunity meant so much to him. I can allude to countless other examples whereby a Client’s attitude towards a candidate has been coloured by their enthusiasm and general vibe during the whole interview process.

Be proactive and enthusiastic when speaking to us and companies, it will rub off on the people you speak to who will then associate you with positivity.
If a company wants you to do a presentation with only 24 hours notice – do it. If you do a great job the time constraints will impress them even more. On the other hand, you could easily be exposed to a situation like this in the day – to – day run of business so it’s a good test from the Client’s viewpoint.

As always we’d like to hear thoughts you have on this – Brian (brian dot c at lifescience dot ie)

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About.me – your online business card

February 08, 2011   Sinead Cullen   No comments

This is a super tool which we’ve started using in here. As you’ll know, we are huge fans of LinkedIn. For people with a slightly larger online footprint (blog, facebook, contact details etc.) there is a super new site called http://About.me. Recently launched, if you register now you should be able to get a good username. It’s a 1 page site which will allow you to write a profile of yourself, picture, and various links – in one handuy location.

On a CV it can save a lot of room, theoretically you could just provide this page instead of email / address / LinkedIn profile etc. As an added bonus to users, there is an analytics tool, so you can see page views by date.

My own page is here, and our IT-guru-in-chief Gab’s is here

What do you think of the site? Let us know if you sign up!

-Brian

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Current State of the Pharmaceutical Industry

November 23, 2010   Sinead Cullen   No comments

Eamonn’s recent contribution for the Sunday Business Post

Recruitment within the pharmaceutical sector has been quite stable over the last 12 months, with losses in certain departments, offset by gains in others. The pharmaceutical sector in Ireland seems to have been quasi-resistant to prevailing economic conditions, primarily due to the fact that product pipeline cycles within the sector can last between 12 – 20 years, so any intermittent instability in the financial markets have little, if any, effect on ongoing projects.

Areas such as quality within the manufacturing arms of the sector have suffered due to an oversupply of staff, combined with the shelving of many new initiatives, while areas such as corporate quality, medical affairs and sales and marketing have blossomed. Companies are placing greater emphasis on service, delivery and education regarding their products in the field.

Recent Job Losses
The main focus of job losses in the past 18 months within the pharmaceutical sector have been as a result of the numerous mergers and acquisitions that have occurred. Schering Plough and Merck merged their operations; the consequent consultation and restructuring process lead to the announcement of the winding down of operations at Schering Plough Bray. The Bray plant manufactures veterinary pharmaceuticals and 240 jobs are expected to be lost over a staggered two year period continuing into next year. Pfizer also merged with Wyeth in 2009 to create the single largest global pharmaceutical entity; however the impact of this merger has yet to be fully felt here in Ireland yet.

Plans for Expansion within the Industry
A recent announcement in the press intonated the plans by Pharmadel, in conjunction with the IDA to create a global pharmaceutical centre of excellence in Tralee, with the potential creation of over 4000 jobs. Plans are underway to make this a reality and if they come to fruition, this feat will secure Ireland’s place in the international league tables as a leader in the provision of both manufacturing and professional services for the pharmaceutical sector globally.

Recent Trends
Many companies have adapted their recruitment processes over the last year to refocus efforts on improving their direct recruitment strategy for entry-level and high volume staff. Traditionally, recruitment of specialist and senior level staff within the pharmaceutical sector has been quite difficult and recent trends observed here at lifescience.ie indicate that employers will continue to use niche and specialist agencies to source and engage these elusive high-level staff, whilst adopting new direct strategies including social media and web 2.0 technologies to improve direct resourcing strategies for high volume and easier to find staff.

Salary Variance
Salaries within the sector are quite variable at the moment, with manufacturing and quality stabilising or deflating slightly, while salaries within the corporate, medical affairs, regulatory, sales and marketing areas staying stable or inflating very slightly.

Skills in Demand
The main skill-sets in demand at the moment are within commercial and medical affairs. These departments form part of the corporate function of the pharmaceutical company and deal with sales and marketing (commercial) and regulatory, medical information, medical liaison, pharmacovigilance and clinical research (medical). There has been a definite move to strengthen these departments over the last two years by the major players in the industry, to consolidate market share in the face of increased competition and to increase the level of education of key opinion leaders in the field, enhancing reputation and brand awareness.

Recruitment Expectations
In general, I expect recent trends of increased activity to continue well into next year with companies consolidating and streamlining manufacturing operations, strengthening their sales and marketing force, while further developing their medical affairs departments. Salaries will stabilise within manufacturing operations where there is an oversupply and may inflate slightly in medical and commercial where the specific skills-sets and experiential requirements are more in demand.

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LinkedIn and Recruiter Behaviour

November 09, 2010   Sinead Cullen   No comments

As regular readers of this blog will know we are huge fans of LinkedIn. As early adopters on the site we have seen things develop from the early days. We are all paid up Business account users. It is a superb resource to use, it gives unique access to high level contacts within organisations and visibility to candidates who might be on the lookout for suitable vacancies.

One slightly worrying development we are seeing, however, is recruiters who seem to have a slightly looser sense of ethics when it comes to using the site. In conversation with a friend who works in Medical Sales, she informs me that she is contacted almost on a daily basis by people via the site. When these approaches are genuine, researched, personalized and targeted, she will respond politely that she’s not on the lookout currently. However, some of what she receives is clearly just copy and pasted; clearly a form of spam. The more of this which occurs, the more
complaints LinkedIn will receive and the ultimate result is that functionality will be restricted. Another negative is that people will start to hide their profiles more, or even, stop using the site completely. This is of benefit to no one in the equation.

Of course we realise that there is a learning curve involved and mistakes will be made. We’ve all crossed someone on the wrong day and been met with a frosty response – that’s business. However once we all conduct ourselves in a professional manner and approach people in a balanced and honest way, there shouldn’t be any issues.

We would therefore urge all of our friends in recruitment to act in a hyper-targeted, ethical fashion when using the site. Please don’t proactively target people who have “Interested In – Career Opportunities” unticked – don’t spoil it for the rest of us!

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

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It’s YOUR job, Go get it!

August 24, 2010   Sinead Cullen   No comments


While talking with a friend who is also a recruitment consultant and some others who are on the lookout last night, an interesting point was raised about job hunting in the current market. Many recruiters and companies have a developed a reputation for not getting back to you, never calling you about jobs etc.

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)

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Explain Yourself!

July 14, 2010   Sinead Cullen   No comments


We see a LOT of CVs on a daily basis (I even see CVs in my sleep on weekends – OK maybe not!).

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)

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We’re growing!

July 01, 2010   Sinead Cullen   No comments


We’re delighted to welcome James Cassidy onto the Life Science team. Coming from a strong Scientific / Business and Recruitment background, James fits into the Life Science mould perfectly.

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

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Using Social Media to Recruit

March 16, 2010   Jamie Savage   No comments

OK, this isn’t quite the magician sharing his secrets, but below are our views and what we believe are the advantages of using social media to recruit.

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)

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