What do you say when you're out of work?

Priscilla Claman, President of Career Strategies, Inc., a Boston-based firm offering career coaching services offered advice for how to "Tell your story" when you are unemployed in a blog for the Harvard Business Review this month. It is a quick read with some useful tips and links to topics such as how to stay positive and leverage social media for your career search as well as suggestions for navigating those tough interview questions related to your current "out of work" status.

If you have more time to delve deeper, she also contributed to the book, the HBR Guide to Getting the Right Job. It is full of suggestions for how to define your career path, compete in a fiercely competitive job market and land the right job for you. A sound career investment for only $19.95.

 

 

Assembling Your Start-Up Team: Balance is Everything.

You've come up with a great idea, drafted a business plan, researched the market, obtained the IP, and courted investors to close on financing. You’re exhilarated. I know this, because I’ve seen it so often with start-up clients at the Sonder Group, and before that at NewcoGen (a Flagship Ventures fund). You’re exhausted, too. And you’re just in time for one of the most demanding, delicate, and make-or-break balancing acts you’ll ever face: hiring your team.

When money is tight, always to use your own network first. That’s common advice, and it’s good. Hire people you’ve already have had success with, people you enjoy working with, and who know your market. Tap into your own network of colleagues, board members, advisory board members, and future customers to help you find candidates. At the same time, as Marshall Loeb of MarketWatch reminds us, “Don't hire someone just because you know them." I have seen early stage biotech companies regret hiring people with experience that’s not quite market-relevant, but whom they know, and whom they believe plausibly to be able to learn the job. Why the regret? Because there is no time to train employees — even talented ones. Everyone hired at the beginning should bring key knowledge that can help to propel the company forward and not hold it back, even temporarily.

There’s another balance to be struck between bringing in specialists and bringing in generalists. On one hand, early employees in start-ups inevitably end up wearing multiple hats. On the other hand, generalists with no initial experience in the start-up’s particular market can be a drag on progress. In this day and age, markets and technologies advance at lightning speed. The solution is to hire specialists from a competitor or who have already had success in the same job elsewhere.

Beware, however, of getting lured into hiring someone with a big name who is accustomed to working in a large organization with lots of support: that often leads to frustrations on both ends. When you court candidates, don’t, as I’ve often see start-ups do, fail to be transparent about the true challenges of the job. Try to be as open as possible. That way, when problems occur, as they will, your new employee is ready to meet them with resolve rather than surprise or disappointment. Once you've finally found the final candidate, what do you offer them? If you haven’t already, do some initial research regarding salary guidelines. This calculator can help you review the fully loaded cost of a head count. If you have a friend in the business, you might also want to sneak a peek at the Radford surveys. 

 

Communicate well with your board and plan the amount of equity you will offer. Start with a very open conversation with the candidate about their past and current compensation. Do a full accounting, including salary, commission, bonuses, equity, medical, dental, life insurance, retirement, car allowances, phone/office supplies, education reimbursement, and any other relevant components. Try not to expect that they will get so excited about the job they will take a big cut in pay. When the going gets tough, you don't want them questioning their decision to join. 

 

Finally, don't try to do it all. Outsourcing marketing, manufacturing, accounting, human resources, and other such jobs can help conserve capital and allow you to focus on the prize — successfully launching your venture. Research as much as possible: this Wall Street Journal how-to is a great place to start.

 

And of course, consider partnering with search experts for at least some of the top executive positions to minimize risk and maximize success.

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Practical About The Crystal Ball: 3 Actionable Lessons Job-Seekers Should Take From Industry Predictions

Let’s face it. New Year’s predictions are as plentiful — and perishable — as New Year’s resolutions. If you’re a life-science job seeker, however, keep in mind that this year will almost certainly ring in no increases in NIH grants and a continuation of challenges in Big-pharma  due  regulatory and legislative pressures.  That’s pretty decent incentive, if you ask me, to stick to your resolution to keep a practical eye on industry trends. Of course, as with any resolution, it’s all about actionability.

 

To get you started, let’s take three trends identified by Steve Burrill, as well-respected an oracle for our trade as there is, and look at how to apply those predictions.

 

Prediction #1: To mangle James Carville, it’s the sequencing, stupid. As Burrill says,"The focus this year will shift from the $1,000 genome to the $100 genome. It’s real. It’s happening. It’s the diagnostic of tomorrow."

 

Life Technologies and Illumina, two companies that have always primarily been tool suppliers, have clearly seen the advantage of applying their tools to diagnostics. Each is taking steps to morph into Roche- and GE Health-like entities. In 2012, Life Technologies acquired Navigenics and  Pinpoint Genomics. Expression Analysis began offering access to cutting-edge genomic tools such as NGS. They coupled this with a quality system environment and the CLIA-certified laboratory guidelines required by their customers working in clinical studies, and positioned themselves for greater activity in clinical diagnostics. Talk about understanding how to cross the tool/Dx chasm! They were highly successful and were bought this past year by Quintiles.  

Lesson: For candidates in the tools industry, if you have not been thinking Dx – start. Educate yourself about the personalized medicine and diagnostic fields. Opportunities abound for people who understand both the tool and Dx markets and how to bridge them.

Prediction #2. The synthetics are coming! Synthetic biology, which is even more powerful than genetic engineering, allows us to design biological systems in a rational and systematic way — in some cases to create that which has never been made. Burrill tells us that “Advances in synthetic biology will begin to transform manufacturing of everything from fragrances to fabrics as engineered organisms produce materials traditionally derived from plants and petroleum.”

Lesson: As industrial biology advances this year, employment opportunities expand. The need for microbiologists, molecular biologists, computational experts, educators, and journalists will increase in this area, as will the number of companies such as Sample 6 (food safety testing), Gen 9 (gene synthesis), and Joule (renewables), that need those people. New life science graduates should widen their thinking to contemplate this field instead of focusing solely on pharma.

Prediction #3: What the world needs now is food, clean food. Burrill says, “In 2013, there will be expanded use of biopesticides to combat insects and microoganisms that damage crops. Plant breeders will harness emerging technologies, such as RNAi, to produce a new generation of products that allow for greater crop yields without the stigma of producing foods that are considered genetically modified.”

Lesson: 2013 is truly the year to look at applied markets such as agriculture. The global food crisis and climate change will generate an increasing need for crops with greater productivity, greater ability to ward off pests, and greater ability to survive challenging weather conditions. Examples include companies such as Synthetic Genetics and partnerships like Monsanto and Alnylam applying genomics for pest control. This means expanded demand for new genomic technologies — and the people trained to develop them.  

All in all, the future will belong to the people future-oriented and flexible enough to plan for what’s next, rather than what was. Get out of your comfort zone and spend some time reading or attending seminars about these applied fields. Have a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year, and hey — weren’t you going to drink less coffee?

 

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