Archive for February, 2008

Big Opportunities in Small Companies

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

It is well known that small companies (those with less than 500 employees) now hire about 50% of all chemists. While large companies are easy to find because you’ve heard of them, small ones can be a bit more of a challenge. The good news is since fewer people take the time to seek them out, there is often less competition for these positions.

If you need to find small companies in a particular geographic area, there are several ways to do it. Some ACS local sections, including mine, keep a list of companies at which members work. This can be a great source of qualified leads – you already know they hire professional chemists. You can also talk to the members who work there, and find out what it’s really like.

If your section doesn’t keep such a list, you can use a tool like Google Maps. Go to http://maps.google.com/, and put in the address of where you’d like to live/work. A map will appear with an arrow in that location, and one of the options will be “search nearby”. Enter “chemicals” and see how many companies show up in the local area. Try other keywords (pharmaceutical, chemists…) and see what shows up. Not only will you see exactly how far away they are, but the URL of each company is displayed, so you can start your research on the company right away.

Another good resource to use is a commercial database. Reference USA is available in my local public library, and allows me to search for companies based on size, location, industry, and a host of other options. In my case, I can access the database from my home office, simply by typing in my library card number. I’ll often start by looking up a company I know about, reading their parameters, then searching for other companies with the same SIC code (standard industrial classification.)

It’s amazing what you can find in your own backyard!

Posted in Job Searching, Resources | No Comments »

What Goes Around Comes Around…..

Monday, February 25th, 2008

I always hope what I do makes a difference in people’s lives, and sometimes I find out it actually does.

In April of 2007, I traveled to Detroit to present a series of workshops on job searching, resumes, interviewing, and nontraditional careers. This was part of a day-long symposium organized to help job seekers in the area.

Yesterday, I received an email from an attendee of that event, saying that she had just started a job that she obtained based on a contact made at that event. She said, in part that “Michigan is a tough place to find employment, but it’s possible if you do not give up the search…..(I) found a great job.”

She also indicates that she hopes there will be additional events, “so other job seekers like me can get the contacts they need. I’d be happy to volunteer.”

Not only did she make all the organizers of this event feel good (knowing their efforts were successful), but by offering to help at future events she will both return the favor and continue to build her own professional network. Surely that’s a win-win-win-win situation!

Posted in Career Fulfillment, Job Searching, Networking | No Comments »

Jobs to pursue in a recession?

Monday, February 25th, 2008

My attention was recently brought to an article that lists Top 25 Careers to Pursue in a Recession. Never mind that you should choose a career because it’s what you love, not because you think there is going to be a market for it.

But it does give some ideas for directions you can look for your next job, if the outlook in your current industry is not promising. Maybe you can take the skills you learned in your current job into a new industry or field that never looked at things from your perspective.

You should always be looking to the future, and examining your options in your company, in other companies, and in other industries. You never know where the next great idea is going to come from, and you’re more likely to find it if you’re out there looking on a regular basis.

Posted in Job Searching, Networking, Nontraditional Career Options | No Comments »

SimplyHired.com – Is it Accurate?

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

A colleague who has been job searching for awhile asked the following question?

“I was looking on www.simplyhired.com. I am a bit concerned about the trendline for Ph.D. chemists that they show. Since June 2006, “Chemist PHD jobs” have decreased 46%.

I am also wondering if their salary data for chemists are really accurate.

What do ya’ll think? I could explain the downward trend could be caused by either

1. employers realizing that they are not finding chemists there and so they are not posting there any more

or

2. Instead of chemistry they are using “materials science” or “nanotech” or some such.

I’d love to hear other opinions, or better yet, facts…..

Posted in Job Searching, Resources | 2 Comments »

When Generations Collide

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

One good thing about being stuck in airports is that you get lots of time to read. One pleasant side effect of all my recent traveling is that I was able to finish reading “When Generations Collide” by Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman. This interesting volume starts by describing each of the 4 generations currently in the workforce – not just the dates of their birth, but the defining events of their formative years and how this has affected them. By interspersing anecdotes with the numbers, the authors paint a full picture of what each generation is like. They then go on to talk about how they generations differ in their interpretations of a number of things, including feedback, balance, rewards, benefits, career goals, loyalty, and much more.

Obviously, these are broad generalizations and cannot be applied to any particular individual. However, in reading it I was struck by how well the changes I see in the workplace can be explained by the influx of new generations. As groups of people with different experiences, ideas and needs merge their way into the workforce, employers must adapt to the new requirements. Yes, some adapting is needed on the employees side as well. But by understanding where everyone is coming from, and respecting the differences, we can hopefully learn to celebrate and take advantage of the differences.

Personally, I was also interested to learn that I am a “cusp-er” – caught between two generations (and no, I’m not going to tell you which ones). That explains why I have always been able to relate with people both older and younger than myself, but have never fit into any of the generational stereotypes.

Posted in Book Reviews | No Comments »

Making the most of your time

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

I have been doing a lot of traveling lately – 4 trips this month, 3 of them in the last 9 days! That means I have been spending a lot of time in airports, and eating way too much bad, expensive food.

However, I have been trying to practice my networking skills, and have been talking to some very interesting people.

While waiting for a flight out of St Louis, I chatted with a woman who turned out to know about a business group that was just getting started and in which I was very interested. I had not heard about them yet. She is going to email information on their next meeting. I was able to tell her about a group that was a good fit with her industry, but of which she was unaware. By starting a conversation with an innocuous comment about the flight delay or the weather, we made a connection and each ended up coming away with a piece of information that was valuable to our careers. Of course, I still would have preferred the flight to be on time…… :-)

Upon checking into my hotel, the desk agent noticed the periodic table on my credit card. (It’s an ACS card, and I’m constantly amazed at the number of people who comment on it.) She mentioned how much she loved chemistry, and science in general, but she had a hard time with the math. I started telling her about careers outside the lab, that would let her be involved in science while not requiring too much math. I left her with a flyer and some web sites she could check out. Who knows, maybe I gave her some ideas for her next career move!

Posted in Networking | No Comments »

I’m on LinkedIn…Now What

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

Remember when only the biggest companies had web sites? And if you had one, you were on the cutting edge? Now, everyone and their brother has one and if you don’t you’re behind the times.

A similar thing is happening with LinkedIn.com. We’re now at the point where enough people have accounts for it to be truly useful, and the early adopters are making all sorts of useful connections. Soon, if we’re not there already, you’ll have to have a LinkedIn account to be taken seriously as a professional. It is not a substitute for face to face networking, but a way to keep track of your connections, and make connections through them.

If you don’t already have an account, now is the time to get one. It’s free to set up, and you can start by making connections to your current colleagues and co-workers. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your connections add up, and how many people you really do know. (And if you find you don’t know as many people as you thought you did, that should be a wake-up call to start your face to face networking in earnest).

Jason Alba published a great book called “I’m on LinkedIn Now What”. It’s only $12 or $20 (ecopy or hardcopy, respectively), and you need to read it while you’re sitting at your computer, so you can make changes to your account as you read about the options. It’s a quick read, but the tips are well worth the price. When you’re done, you can pass it along to someone else with whom you’d like to connect, and help them set up their account.

Check it out!

Posted in Book Reviews, Networking | 1 Comment »

Resume Transitions

Monday, February 18th, 2008

I spent the past weekend in Florida, attending training for ACS career volunteers. One of the talks I attended was on writing resumes. Much of the discussion was things I’ve told people over and over:

Tailor each resume to the position for which you are applying
Create an objective even if you choose not to include it on the final version
Focus on skills and specific accomplishments
Spend the most time/space on the information that will be most important to the hiring manager
Check carefully for typos
Have others read – choose people who have an excellent command of English, and who will give you honest feedback

However, when you’re trying to transition into a new field, you have to write a resume that highlights your skills in the new area, and they may not have been the major focus of your current position. The best way to do this is to include accomplishments that prove that you have already done things that are exactly what they are looking for, or at least very close. Sometimes, this means you have to include things from various points in your career, maybe some from previous jobs, or from volunteer work.

If you are making a significant change, you probably want to use a functional resume, instead of a chronological format. In this format, you list your accomplishments in categories, instead under the job at which you did them. Here’s an example of a chronological format:

Company A, 2005 – present
wrote 14 papers
synthesized 8 compounds

Company B, 2002-2005
ran 300 NMRs
prepared 5 patents

Company C, 1997-2002
- built 1,000 member combinatorial library
- presented 4 talks at international conferences

This same information can be presented in a functional format as follows:

Technical Communication
- wrote 14 papers
prepared 5 patents
presented 4 talks at international conferences

Synthetic Organic Chemistry
synthesized 8 compounds
ran 300 NMRs
built 1,000 member combinatorial library

If you were looking for a position as a technical writer, which version do you think would get the hiring manager’s attention?

Just by organizing the information in a different way, you make it abundantly clear that you have significant experience as a technical communicator and synthetic organic chemist, even if some of your accomplishments come from jobs you had a long time ago. This is a great way to bring out all the experience you’ve had that’s related to a particular field, no matter where you got it. If you do choose to list your accomplishments in a functional format, you will need to include an employment history – a list of company names, job titles, and the dates you worked there – but this can go on the second page.

Posted in Nontraditional Career Options, Resumes/CVs | 1 Comment »

Too Much Practice?

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

A colleague of mine is teaching a career management class at his local university. After presenting a mock interview, two of his students told him that “they did not need to practice interviewing. They knew their material and do not feel that preparation would allow them to feel natural. It would feel and appear too rehearsed.”

I certainly agree that you don’t want to have scripted, canned answers to the interview questions that you know you’re going to get. You should know what you’re going to talk about, but not have word-for-word memorized script. Similar to when you give a scientific presentation – you want to have the opening and closing down pat, but in the middle you just need to have confidence in your subject matter, know the story you’re going to tell, and know what segue you’re going to use to get to the next slide.

However, different interviewers will ask different questions, and the conversation will go down different paths. Maybe they’ll ask a question you never thought about, or make you think about something you did in a different way. An interview is not where you want to say “Gee, I never thought of that before!” Even if you don’t want to practice formal job interviews, you should spend time talking to colleagues and others about your possible career paths, your personal values, motivators and skills, and so on. Yes, you are the primary expert on yourself. But sometimes, it’s hard to put things into words – especially non-concrete things like feelings, wants and aspirations. The more you think about these things, and actually articulate them out loud, the better you will become at it.

And the better you become at articulating your own career goals, the better you will be able to not only understand, but also explain to a potential employer how your goals and theirs match. And isn’t that the point of the interview?

Posted in Interviewing, Job Searching | 3 Comments »

After the Interview

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

During a job interview is one of the few times that everyone agrees you need to put your best professional foot forward, and be on your very best behavior. But too many people think they’re done when they leave the interview, and they just sit back and wait for the offer.

A recent article entitled Notes to Interviewers Should Go Beyond A Simple Thank You talks about the notes all candidates should send to everyone who interviews them. I can’t count the number of employers who have told me that they weren’t sure about a candidate, and it was the thank you notes that got them the job. Even when the candidate did not get that job, a well-written thank you note often makes such a positive impression that the candidate is remembered, and called first when something else opens up. Remember too that the people with whom you interview will compare the thank you notes with each other, so don’t write “You were my favorite person” to each of them.

I personally prefer hand-written thank you notes – even though my own handwriting is awful. Handwritten notes, on high-quality paper (no kittens or flowers) are much more personal and longer-lasting than an email. I actually save notes that people send me, and file them away. When I’m looking for a referral later, that file is one of the places I look to jog my memory for potential candidates.

In my professional life, I keep a stack of blank notes in my desk drawer to send to others when the mood strikes – notes of congratulations if I hear they’ve done something good, or sympathy and support if they’ve suffered a loss. While email is an easy and immediate way to acknowledge such events, there is something more personal about a nice, handwritten note.

Posted in Job Searching, Networking | 1 Comment »