This is truly impressive. After 10 million in venture capital and 7 years of research, Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin have produced ‘Hövding,’ the invisible bike helmet. I won’t ruin the video by explaining how it works, all i’ll say is that this helmet looks like nothing short of a game-changing, victorious piece of design.
Tag Archives: science jobs
New ‘Invisible’ Bike Helmet.
Novartis to Create 100 Jobs in Clonskeagh, Dublin.
The World’s second largest pharmaceutical company Novartis is set to increase it’s already sizable Irish presence with a regional business services centre in Dublin, creating about 100 jobs for the area.
Common Traits of People who Get Jobs
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)
Current State of the Pharmaceutical Industry
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.
The importance of RSS feeds to today’s job seeker
Recently, we have been working in conjunction with Clients on some more junior roles.
The majority of our roles are quite senior and we may not have more than 3-4 very suitable candidates for each, possibly even only 1 depending on the specificity of the requirements. However, for these recent Lab Tech roles, we have a large database of candidates who could potentially fill the role. So how do we choose? We ring as many as we can, and those whom we contact or those who call back, are inevitably the ones who get presented as profiles to our Client.
In a market like this, in which there are not many junior roles, there is a high level of competition for the ones that do arise. This is where RSS feeds come in. If someone subscribes to our feed, they will be alerted IMMEDIATELY as soon as we post a new vacancy (which is the initial step in the recruitment process). So if you are a candidate who is recently out of college or with a couple of years experience in a lab – you would be alerted as soon as the role is up. You could then contact us before we get a chance to get to you, by phone as this is the most immediate and effective. This would put you ahead of the queue, and gives you the best chance be out forward and to be itnerviewed. For roles where we are the exclusive provider for, we are not going to submit more than 4 closely matched CVs. As our Client will not have the time or inclination to see more than 4 people. Therefore as soon as those 4 interviews are arranged, we closed off the application process. This could literally happen throughout one working day. If your CV is 100% matched to our Client’s requirements but you were a few hours too late, then you could have potentially missed out on an excellent opportunity.
This market is tough, candidates need to be predatory and utillise all of the tools at hand. So if you’re on the lookout for a role, be it junior or senior (Junior Senior, whatever happened to them?!), the subscribe to the links below now. When something of potential interest does pass our way, give us a call – we’ll can update you on the role in the blink of an eye.
RSS. For information on using RSS feeds – see here
Facebook Fan Page (417 and growing!) – we post off of our recent jobs on our FB and Twitter page
Brian – bhc at lifescience dot com
“The Future of the Life Sciences Industry” article
Below is our article as featured on pgs 46-47 of the “Life Science Industry” Reference/Yearbook 2009/2010.
Brian Christensen from Life Science Recruitment examines how the recent economic difficulties have affected the Life Sciences industry in Ireland.
The Life Science industry in Ireland has weathered the economic storm relatively unscathed. A sweeping statement perhaps? But one we believe to be true. There are a number of points to be noted when assessing the current situation.
The Brain Drain
With 1,000 PhD’s scheduled to graduate this year, are there job for these candidates? Currently, it seems, the answer is no. Reliable PhD employers like Wyeth/Pfizer have frozen recruitment due to the current merger. Recruitment has also slowed down in relation to PhD recruitment with Abbott. The overwhelming result is that more PhDs are staying in academia, and are not contributing ideas to industry. Many are seeking work in more buoyant markets and also outside mainstream science – in areas such as sales and marketing and business consultancy. However, on the commercialization of research, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.
A 7.5% increase in capital committed to start ups in 2008 was noted, which was also 26% up on 2006. Many of these start-ups are based around special incubation centres on university campuses like the Nova Centre in UCD and the Ignite Centre in Galway. The take-home message seems to be there are still attractive and viable options out there for ambitious researchers who have pioneering technology to bring to market. Recent success stories include Cappella Medical Devices in Galway and Merrion Pharma in Dublin.
Governmental Plans
For those that suggest preparation is key, our governmental organisations would tend to agree, certainly judging by recent actions. The IDA and Enterprise Ireland (EI) in recent times have sourced planning application approvals for 2 “plug and play†Biopharma campuses, one based in Galway and the other in Dundalk. This makes it easier for these bodies to attract potential Clients, although the argument could be made for the apparent lack of potential new blockbuster drugs in the current global pipeline which would warrant such sites. However, having these options ready to go means we are gearing up for the market to shift in the right direction, and positioning correctly for when new investments need to be made. Another issue on the horizon is how long can we keep hold of our magical 12.5% corporate tax rate? Obama has made it clear that it is something he is not happy about, and the EU has sent signals to similar effect. This could have a hugely detrimental effect on all sectors of our economy were it to ultimately materialise.
Recent Industry Movements
There have been a number of new investments in the country this year, including the further development of the Athlone Medical Device hub, encompassing companies like Teleflex, Utah Medical, Abiomed, KCI Medical, Georgia Tech, as well as the clinical research organisation PPD. Other investments and expansions include worldwide manufacturers like Millipore in Cork and Merck-Sharpe & Dohme in Carlow. This is encouraging when considering Ireland within the scheme of global markets; we are still an attractive place to invest. However, a number of questions still linger. The most pertinent of these would seem to be the fallout from Pfizer’s purchase of Wyeth. As Wyeth has a number of high profile plants here in Ireland, it will be interesting how Pfizer judges them in the global context of their operations. The Grange Castle site would seem to be in good hands due to its modernity, but the Newbridge site is 38 years old, so may not have a future quite so bright.
Job Areas to Focus On
On a more micro level, we have noticed a number of areas where job shortages seem to be present, at least from our viewpoint. As there has been a historical lack of biotech in this country, experience up- and downstream process engineers, as well as micro professionals with biotech experience, are strongly in demand. Regulatory affairs have been tightened up in recent times, resulting in a constant need to regulatory professionals in various areas. We are also noticed a lot of outsourcing in this area. There has been a lot of expansion in the Clinical Affairs / Clinical Research area. Larger companies like ICON and Quintiles are going strong, with numerous smaller companies making market gains with pioneering new technologies like electronic data capture (EDC). As EDC is something relatively new to the CRO marketplace, companies are still coming to terms with the regulatory adjustments necessary to accommodate it, resulting in a number of positions here. In Clinical Affairs, niche specialist roles like medical advisory and medical science liaison roles seems to be in constant demand.
Job Seeking
We have also examined how the web-savvy jobseeker who is on the lookout has adapted to these difficulties and market needs. According to our research, almost 70% of people have started to use multiple resourcing techniques, such as direct searches on search engines as opposed to just job boards. There is also a trend toward a more niche targeted jobseeker, with many opting for niche industry job sites and industry specialist portals, such as lifescience.ie. People are using social networks to connect and talk, which inevitably results in people finding jobs here too. LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter (to a lesser extent) are being embraced by the informed jobseeker. Google searches are becoming more popular as internet penetration continues to rise. In a market as tough as this, it pays to have a number of people who are taking a keen interest in any potential opportunities available, which these sites do perfectly. We see this market as continuing to adapt as new and better technologies become available. We would describe the forecast for next year as being cautious but quietly optimistic, although it will very much be governed by decisions by the global players who have made the aforementioned market shifting moves.
Attention Science graduates (updated)!
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)