Job Seeking over Christmas

December 10, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

A couple of notes about your Christmas job hunt.

-Don’t send CVs out over the Christmas period. It’s a sure-fire way to make sure your CV gets lost in an inbox. A much better tactic is to use the Christmas vacation as a research break, and find the names and contact people of who you want to approach. LinkedIn LinkedIn LinkedIn! Do not send your CV between 19th Dec and the 3rd January.

-Try to keep in good shape over the Christmas break. It’s tough and will be a challenge, but don’t over-indulge (too much) over Christmas. There’s nothing worse than starting the New Year with too little energy and feeling run down. This will affect all areas of your life.

-A final note – keep things simple. A recent CV arrived in the inbox which contained a mini-interview at the end. Although you have to admire the effort and originality, it doesn’t work. Focus rather on the content on your CV. Tailor it to the specific position, incorporate key words mentioned in the Job Spec. It’s a laboured point but it works.

AND HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

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Study (for free) in Sweden

December 04, 2009   Jamie Savage   1 Comment

While reading a recent issue of New Scientist which got delivered to us (thanks New Scientist!) yesterday, I fell upon an add which brought me back to my college days. They weren’t that long ago….

Having graduated from Medicinal Chemistry, I only knew 1 thing, I didn’t want to work in a lab. I was uninterested in the daily lab work during my research project in Madrid, and wanted to try something different. So if it wasn’t a PhD and it wasn’t a job in an industrial lab, what was it?

Then I came across these guys. As I’m originally from Denmark just across the water from Goteborg, Technology peaked my interest. And what’s more all of the Master’s programmes offered in Sweden are funded 100% by the Swedish government.

I was interviewed by the them but in the end I chose to stay in Ireland (to the benefit of the recruitment industry!), but it’s an excellent option for someone on a budget who is looking to further their education. You will automatically distinguish yourself from the crowd with a Master’s degree from a different country. Many companies will view the experience gained in a foreign country as producing more rounded individuals who can better deal with a large variety of people and situations. There are some great options to choose from, very modern and current topics can be studied in depth. I am aware of one of the very senior candidates we are currently dealing with who has a qualification similar to this, and he has achieved a lot for his age – so if you are struggling to find work and keen to experience new horizons, Sweden is certainly worth a second thought.

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

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More CV tips

November 17, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

An interesting CV arrived in last week, something I had not seen before. At the bottom was a whole paragraph of tags, which the candidate was obviously hoping would be picked up by our database as it scanned the CV for key word skills. He CV would then show up in more searches which he then hoped would result in his CV being more visible to us and us calling him more often in relation to available opportunities. This is similar to “black-hat” webpage search optimisation which has since been discovered by Google. People would hide a multitude of keywords in the background text on their website, often in the same colour as the background itself (say white words on a white background which would be picked up by the search bot). Needless to say, this did not look very good on the CV and didn’t strike me as being hugely professional, for someone  that had a lot of experience.

In a market like this for the informed job-seeker, the process is very much 2-way. A consultant who receives a lot of CVs and traffic may not have time to call you immediately in relation to any new jobs. A great way to stay on top of things is to be proactive, and technology can help here. I would advise all people actively searching for jobs to join us on Facebook, Twitter and especially subscribe to our RSS jobs feed. In this way you are notified as soon as a new job is posted, and the candidate can therefore call in to the consultant, something which is far more time-efficient.

1 final tip while we’re on the subject – do NOT apply to more than 2 positions with any particular company / recruitment agency. It looks unprofessional and will only damage any application you make more than enhance it. It’s better to compose a personal email to the consultant listing the positions you believe you are suited to. Better still is calling the consultant after you have made an application to get more detail on the various other roles available, in this way you can quickly figure out how many companies you would like your CV to go to. In a company setting, most companies have talented in-house recruiters who will know if your background is suited to a different role they have on offer, and will present these to you if they wish to speak to you. Making more than once application simply presents more admin work for all parties involved and this reflects badly.

-Brian (brian dot c at lifescience dot ie)

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Attention Science graduates (updated)!

November 10, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

I was informed by a good friend who works in the Environmental Protection Agency that they are on the lookout for CVs to fill a number of graduate jobs that are on offer currently. A quick search suggests they are amongst the positions listed here (click text search and type in “EPA” – then “Show Vacancies”. EDIT: MUST BE 6 MONTHS UNEMPLOYED TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR APPLICATION

Many graduates wouldn’t necessarily look on the FAS site when searching for jobs, so if you have stumbled uponn this then you may have an advantage.

In the same search I noticed another interesting role with IT Tallaght.

Another point of note, there are 4 FAS jobs listed – DO NOT send your CV to all 4. Pick the 1 (or at most, 2) that suit your skills and send your CV in with a strong cover letter. There is nothing worse than getting 4 identical CVs in for different roles, if you are more suited to different roles the HR person in charge will be aware of this. I’ll post more of CV Do’s and Don’ts later in the week….

Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

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Graduate Do’s and Don’ts

October 30, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

As a recruitment company we receive a huge amount of traffic and applications from graduates. We give each one a non-automated response, and return all emails requesting advice / tips, but it would be nicer to equip each one with a bit more information about how to approach the job seeking process. So here goes:

DO

Build a great CV. I remember my own CV as a grad – it was pretty horrendous. Here are some tips on writing a good CV:

-Leave out primary and secondary schooling info (save your Leaving Cert results possible – these are really optional).

-University info: as this is your main scientific selling point, you need to elaborate of the key courses and your research project. Convey interest and passion for what you studied, this need to come across in the well-presented CV.

-Put effort into your CV in terms of formatting. The monotone, poorly constructed CV will be overlooked in favour of a similar CV which has been created, structured and is easy to read. Some sample scientific CV templates can be found on our site here.

Network. Yes it’s an over-used cliched term but the value in a market like this is paramount. Find contacts, speak to people in industry. Most people will be more than happy to tell you about their role, and many will know someone who knows someone who might be recruiting. ~70% of all jobs are filled without being advertised! Included in this is http://lifescience.ie/. Although not many are advetising roles for companies in this market, recruiters can be an invaluable resource for inside industry information.

Search cleverly. Use Web 2.0 technologies. Add Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter (to a lesser extent) to your job searching tool. RSS feeds are key – set up a number of these so that the most relevant roles to you are flagged in real-time.

DON’T

Have your CV more than 2 pages long

References are optional

Ramble on about previous summer jobs. If they are relevant give them the requisite space, but for non relevant role, a line will suffice.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES GET YOUR MOTHER TO CALL ON YOUR BEHALF (yes it does happen)!!!!!!!!! No explanation needed I hope!

Get in touch with any comment, or feel free to add additional points underneath.

Brian (brian dot c at lifescience dot ie)

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Lessons learned from Jack White

October 19, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

jack_whiteLast night I had the pleasure of attending an interview with Jack White, guitarist form the White Stripes in Trinity College. A rock star in every sense of the word, he arrived exactly as one might expect him to, all black clothes, white rockstar boots and top hat. Some (I think!) white make up and Dylan-esque pencil moustache topped off the look.

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)

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Managing your web footprint

September 02, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

Now the following is mostly applicable to jobseekers, but most if not all of us will be jobseekers in the future, this applies to us all. With people spending more and more time on the internet, footprints are left. Most of these are deliberate, what’s important is that your footprint represents who you are, or at least for the purpose of the interview, who you want to be portrayed as!

LinkedIn: can be a hugely powerful tool, I have heard of numerous people who have secured roles wither directly or indorectly here. So fill it in like your CV, with almost the same amount of detail and using the same degree of care here. Use the settings to subtley suggest that you might be on the look out for a role (if you are). You can do this by saying you’re interested in “Career Opportunities” and “Job Inquiries”.

Faceoook: OK we know we all like to view drunken pictures of our friends, but if you are on the job hunt, your safest bet is to assume any potential employers will be looking here. Because more and more are! To do this you hjave 2 options: Lock your account to your friends only or make sure any pics tagged of you are “PG”! That’s it. As Facebook is becoming more and more searchable, instances of people being refused roles due to the impression they give on Facebook will only rise, guaranteed. Don’t let this happen to you.

Bebo: Many people in the 25-35 bracket seem to be straying away from Bebo, I would recommend that same.

Blogs / Twitter: These can be extremely useful tools to enhance your CV. If you are an expert on a subject, or merely have an interest and you have the time / inclinati0on to write about it, then do. Then reference the blog in your CV, and if potential employers see that you’re a knoewledgable and professional person, this can only enhance your application and distinguish you from your peers. The same applies to Twitter, keep things consistent, interesting and relevant.

Google: Google yourself and make sure any hits related to you are the ones you would like other to see.

While we’re on the subject, we have presences on all of the above, so add / link / keep in touch with us!

Facebook Also our colleagues at Sales and Marketing.ie

My LinkedIn profile. And our Life Science Recruitment company profile

Life Science Recruitment on Twitter, or search for @sciencejobs

And our popular Science Blog

-Brian (brian dot c at lifescience dot ie)

Note: this post was brought about by one posted by our friend Ivan, here.

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Life Science launches its Web 2.0 Periodic Table

August 31, 2009   Sinead Cullen   No comments

Life Science Recruitment launches its Web 2.0 Periodic Table

Life Science Recruitment is a specialist scientific and healthcare recruitment company based in Dublin and is the first Irish recruitment company to develop a portfolio of industry-specific recruitment websites. Presented in an innovative periodic table format (Life Science Periodic Table), the aim is to make job-seeking in specific vertical markets more relevant, targeted and efficient for candidates.

The company’s market research into recruitment trends in Ireland began in late 2007 and results from a recent online survey conducted on the lifescience.ie website indicated that 67% of respondents said they wanted to see less duplicated jobs online, while 73% of respondents said they wanted to see more niche websites dealing in their specific professional fields. The culmination of this research has been the development of the “strategic online presence” comprising 15 industry-specific websites and a Web 2.0 footprint made up of a number of blogs, combined with a presence on Facebook, twitter and other social media resources.

Each industry-specific website is tailored to the jobseeker; pharmaceutical.ie for jobseekers in the pharmaceutical sector, medicaldevice.ie for the jobseekers in the medical device sector and so on. Each website contains latest jobs from Life Science Recruitment, academic institutes and featured industry partners only, as well as industry sector overviews and career advice targeted to the specific end-user. These websites have an unrivalled presence in the search engines, compared to competitors.

According to Seth Godin, author of numerous best-selling marketing books and internet marketing guru, “Big companies, non-profits and even candidates will discover hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant… this is where we are going, and it turns out that this time, the media is way ahead of the marketers.” Life Science Recruitment’s strategic online presence aims to encapsulate these three maxims as it moves forward with the changing face of the recruitment industry in Ireland.

The management team at Life Science Recruitment brings over 20 years of recruitment experience to the table, combined with an academic grounding in life science and technology.

Contact Information:
For further information please contact:
Eamonn O’Raghallaigh, Life Science Recruitment Ltd, 4th Floor, Newmarket House, Newmarket, Dublin 8. Tel: 01 6854545 / Fax: 01 443 0524

Websites:lifescience.ie/pharmaceutical.ie/medicaldevice.ie/alliedhealth.ie/clinicalresearch.ie/biopharmaceutical.ie/diagnostics.ie/scientificjobs.ie/salesandmarketing.ie/qualityassurance.ie/regulatoryaffairs.ie/qualitycontrol.ie/microbiology.ie/chemistryjobs.ie

Social Media:ScienceBlog.ie/Life Science Company Blog/Sales and Marketing Blog/Life Science FaceBook Page/Life Science Twitter Page

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The Leaving Cert results don’t lie

August 12, 2009   Jamie Savage   No comments

Data out summising the Lc results supports the drop out rate we just blogged on. Some of the most stand out figures:

-only 16% do higher level maths (many Science / Tech courses require this for entry)

-4,600 do higher level physics / 6,ooo take higher level Chemistry (out of 57,000 students)

-7,000 apply to do Science courses (vs. 17,000 doing Arts). This actuyally represents a 21% increase in Science applications ove rlast year, but when average points down for courses across the board, the standard of student seems to be waning (70 less A1’s than 2008). It will be interesting to see the trend in drop out figures over the next number of years….

Brian – brian dot c at lifescience dot ie

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Crisis as University Science Drop-Out Rates hit 40%

August 11, 2009   Sinead Cullen   No comments

Recent reports have indicated that a very high percentage of university students are dropping out of science and technology courses after their first year in college. In DCU, heralded as the cutting-edge technology campus, drop-out rates of 39% have been reported, while in UCD a drop-out rate of 26% was reported and countrywide, the seven universities averaged 20%.

SO what has brought on this rise in the drop-out rates in science…?

One camp says the increase in due to the “dumbing-down” of the leaving cert exam combined with significant drop in points for science subjects especially. The points for science in UCD in 2008 were 300, compared to 440 the year I started my science degree there… Quite a drop.

Reading in the Irish Times, Tom Boland, chief executive of the Higher Education Authority, recently voiced fears of declining standards, with what he called “spoon-fed” second-level students struggling to cope at third level.

The other side of the argument is that maybe student life is too easy, too much of a party and that those who perform badly in first year, due to the excitement of genuine party-time, do not have the funds to go back and repeat the year.

The reality is that there is a massive over supply of science graduates on the market – I think the govt have forgot that “quality” is better than quantity… Raise the points for university to what they were 10 years ago and make the leaving cert harder, then we will get a real marker of how smart of economy is.

-       Eamonn

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