<p>After a thread I posted about late LORs, I began thinking about finding an entry-level bio lab job post college. If any of you have or are pursuing an entry-level job in the life sciences field, how are you or those you know doing in your search? I think there are a lot of people thinking of taking a gap year and are concerned with job placement in today's rough economy.</p>
<p>I can’t speak to today’s job market, I’m sure it’s pretty tough right now. But a few years ago I was in your position, so I’d just like to mention some things that I learned from my job search (this concerns academic jobs, I don’t know anything about industry jobs). </p>
<p>Although you may find a pretty good number of job postings online for tech jobs in academic lab, some of these are not available positions. I don’t mean that they don’t hire someone: they do. But very frequently they already have someone in mind by the time they post the position, so you have no chance of getting it. </p>
<p>This happens for a couple reasons. First, many of these positions are filled by people who are recommended directly to the PI by a colleague, or someone who worked in the PI’s lab part time. Most universities have rules about open job searches, so they have to post the position on-line for certain amount of time before they can officially fill the position, but they won’t actually consider any outside applicants. </p>
<p>Second, some of these positions will first be posted on message boards around campus, and the PI may start interviews before there is ever an official job posting on the university web page. PI’s sometimes do this because HR can be painfully slow to get things done.</p>
<p>So if I were to be looking for jobs at the moment, I would:</p>
<p>1) Network through past research advisors. Ask if they have or know of any positions
2) Be proactive and contact labs to see if they have any availability
3) Walk around campuses and look for job postings
4) Apply to as many jobs online as possible
5) Don’t be afraid to apply for things that seem beyond you, the worst they can do is say no</p>
<p>Ditto about not knowing today’s job market. But a few years ago, what I did was apply to tons of positions online(lost count!), and was able to land multiple interviews at academic labs (hospital setting). Ultimately, I ended up joining a small biotech company as a research associate through a contract placement agency. I got in contact with the recruiter at the contract placement agency after uploading a resume online (Monster.com, careerbuilder.com). In no time at all, I got interviews and ended up with a job I loved, with great science of course, a pre-clinical research setting which is very much academic type research. The quality of science is very high with industry jobs, at least the ones I have worked in, so don’t rule them out. If you are worried about future graduate school, myself and two past co-workers moved on to great graduate programs after leaving the company.</p>