CMB After Graduation

What Happens After I Finish?

Our CMB undergraduates have been highly successful after graduation in obtaining jobs in the filed and applying (and being accepted to) many graduate programs. Your degree has made you highly qualified for a wide range of careers.

A recent graduate provided this advice for new graduates. By June after graduation he had two job offers in hand and then chose to go with a startup biotech company in Ann Arbor. He is some of what he said in a email to his advisor:

“Regarding how I found the positions, my current position was found through Craigslist.com, believe it or not. I just checked the job postings for Metro-Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids areas every day. The other potential position, the research assistant position at Wayne State, was found through Monster.com if I recall correctly. It was either that or I found a position on monster.com that referred me to the Wayne State job listings where I found the one I got offered. I am also still getting offers for interviews based on companies and hiring companies finding my resume online. Just a month ago I was offered an interview to fill a contract research position for some "globally known" biotech company on the east coast. Some other places I applied were careerbuilder.com and even university websites, like U of M.

If I could give any sort of advice to the graduating students it would be to be confident in the skills you learn at school and don’t be modest when it comes to any kind of experience. Try and take away the critical thinking aspects of science because any monkey can read a cookbook and do PCRs all day. Also, don't omit any kind of odd skills you have. I put on my resume that I had mechanical skills from fixing small engines and lawn mowers from a past landscaping job and my boss saw that as a huge benefit over other candidates because I had the know-how to help him fix and build some of the homemade robotics we use. I also put down that I enjoyed working on computers and had knowledge of linux and even some graphic design which works great in a startup because making presentation graphics can be done without having to hire someone else. It makes you an indispensible employee.” 

 

Job Locating Ideas

The information below is based on information from previous graduates and their experiences looking for positions. You already know of a lot of these sites – past experience indicates they actually are effective. If you run across other useful sites, etc., please pass the information along to us.

Many companies do their initial hiring through agencies. This way they get to see how well the person fits the company, etc. before making a long-term commitment. Often the positions extend into permanent positions. This can work to your advantage as well as you can see if you like the position/company before you commit.

On Assignment is an agency that specializes in science positions and lots of healthcare positions. It’s based in California, but works nationwide: www.onassignment.com or 1-800-995-7378

Aerotek Science is a nationwide recruiting company. It places entry level pharmaceutical, consumer products, R&D positions, etc. Several of our students have gotten their initial positions through Aerotek:  www.aerotek.com or Grand Rapids (W MI) branch – Kelly Erskine 974-3530.

Otterbase is a small, personal agency; they call with potential jobs. They got the resume of one of our graduates off Monster.com and then called her with possibilities. It might be worth contacting them directly: www.otterbase.com.

Craig’s List: www.Craigslist.com

Monster.com: www.Monster.com. A couple of our students have been contacted by potential employers because the students posted on monster.com.

Indeed.com: www.indeed.com. This site searches other job sites. This is how one of our graduates got a position at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He applied and they called to ask if he’d come for interview.

Local.com: www.local.com. One of our graduates got a position at Orchid CellMark (paternity testing) near Lansing via this site.

Careerbuilder.com: www.careerbuilder.com. A couple of our students thought this site was useful.

Universities will post all jobs (like research technician positions) somewhere on the website of the University. For example check out http://www.hr.msu.edu/HRsite/HiringPostings/Faculty/Postings/ for MSU http://www.umich.edu/~jobs/ for UM. For Wayne State try https://jobs.wayne.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1238952538242. It looks like you would want the ‘View Faculty & Academic Staff Vacancies’ option.

Some local possibilities are:

Van Andel Research Institute: http://www.vai.org/vari/employmentdetail.asp?PostingId=547

Perrigo Pharmaceuticals in Allegan

Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine (SCMM) in Grand Rapids: http://www.sequenom.com/Corporate/Careers

Emergent BioSolutions (near Lansing). We have a couple graduates there; at least one of them got the initial position through Aerotek.

For research position salary rates and other information check out : http://www.fastcompany.com/services/salary.html

 

Interviews, Resumes and Letters of Reccomendation

Career Services at GVSU will help with resumes: http://www.gvsu.edu/careers

Examples of resumes for different positions/situations, letters of application, etc. can be found at: /careers/index.cfm?id=3F66E9A3-9685-4FE6-8417F8E146FA892C

What to do when requesting a letter from a faculty member.

You want to give us (writers) a copy of your resume, something indicating what interests you about the program /position for which we are writing the letters, and then all the specific info we need - what program/school/position/company, address to send it or the online info if submission is via the web. Sometimes the programs have forms we need to fill in addition to writing a letter - if so, make sure you give all your letter-writers a copy of it. Also, be sure to let us know the due date (well ahead of time!). The key is you want to make this as easy as possible for us - some of us write a lot of these, so please make it easy!!! The best way if at all possible (& I know this is not always the case) – give us a list of all the info we need at one time; piecemeal can make it more difficult for us to track. For jobs in particular, however, we recognize you may not be able to give us a lot of lead time.