Advancing to the Next Stage in Your Career

Openings within the pharmaceutical industry are generally announced/communicated via advertisements, word-of-mouth, direct contact from the company, and recruiters. Each of these channels has its advantages and disadvantages.

Companies run advertisements for positions to accomplish several goals in addition to locating candidates. First, the ad serves as marketing for the company; it shows the community that the company is dynamic and growing. Second, an open ad assists the company in complying with EEOC guidelines.

The pharmaceutical industry has a fairly uniform approach to advertising positions and processing the responses that result. The process starts when the hiring supervisor defines the requirements for the position and sends these to the Human Resources (HR) group. HR will assign a position code and work-up the ad so that it includes a description of the company, the position, and other standard contact information. Once the ad has run, the HR group will collect resumes, log them into their personnel system, and forward them to the supervisor for review. The supervisor will examine the resumes and select the candidates who appear to offer the best fit for the opening. Since the average response within the industry is 200 to 500 resumes for each opening, more companies respond only to candidates of interest. Most research positions within the pharmaceutical industry are advertised in "Chemical & Engineering News"/ACS Job Bank, "Nature", "Science", and the Computational Chemistry listserver and other electronic bulletin boards.

An effective channel for turning-up opportunities is word-of-mouth (aka "networking"). This is frequently an excellent backup to responding to ads since the chances of being selected from several hundred resumes are enhanced if you have a personal contact. If you hear that a company is expanding, contact colleagues within the company to determine the appropriate person to supply with a copy of your resume.

In a few instances, companies will call academic groups with a reputation for supplying qualified employees to the industry. Research advisors who keep track of their students will provide names and contact information so that the company can locate these people to assess their interest in the position. There are companies which use this as their preferred means of recruiting.

The final method used to locate personnel relies on the services of recruiting firms. In general, pharmaceutical companies will use search agencies in one of the following approaches

  • Retain one agency to fill positions in all disciplines
  • Retain firms to search for highly specialized positions
  • First use ads or word-of-mouth, then contact search firms

Search firms are paid by the company to locate candidates for their openings. Headhunters use a combination of personal databases accumulated over the years and networking to locate prospective employees. Companies that use recruiting firms will accept resumes only from firms with whom they have contracts. In addition, companies will accept resumes from a recruiter only if they have not been previously received by the company. In general, companies will only use search firms for positions which have a degree requirement of Ph.D. or M.D. or a number of years of industry experience.

Recruiting firms conduct two types of searches. In a retained search, the company pays the fee for search services during the course of the search. The recruiter thus has a one-to-one relationship with the company and should be the only firm contacting candidates. In a contingency search, the company pays a fee based on hiring an employee. Since there is no money paid until the employee arrives for work, there are frequently numerous firms involved in the search. In this case, the firm that submits the resume first is considered to represent the candidate. If you are interested in a position, work with only one recruiter when submitting resumes.

As a placement firm, Molecular Solutions believes that candidates should be provided with the following information when they are contacted by a search agency:

  • The name of the hiring company and its location
  • A description of the position and the organization
  • The potential salary range
  • The assurance that your resume will be submitted only for positions which the recruiter has discussed with you and in which you have expressed interest

A recruiter who understands both the industry and your qualifications can be an effective asset in managing your career. In addition to acting as the interface with the company during your job search, they can keep you apprised of future openings. As you become more senior in your career, they also can assist you in efficiently locating qualified employees. If you find a recruiter you enjoy working with, stay in touch with them.





   



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