| Companies are beginning to hire again. People who have been looking for work for a year are suddenly getting multiple offers and getting their lives back on track. While not everyone is employed again, the trend is pretty clear.
If the last few years have been rough for you, either because you were laid off or getting lousy raises, now is when you should be planning for the future. Just because things are getting back to normal doesn’t mean that things won’t get rocky again. That’s why they call it a cycle. The best time to plan for trouble is when things are going well. Here’s some advice, both serious and humorous.
Pharma/Medical Device
Whenever the economy gets bad, everyone wants to get into the pharma or medical device world. It’s inevitable, like the sun coming up in the East. Those industries are perceived as more stable (not true) and people see working in those industries as a type of Eden for their careers. No layoffs, great benefits, etc.
Here is what you need to know: The pharma industry is NOT engineering intensive. Many of the facilities in the region are R&D centers, not manufacturing. That means most positions are maintenance and facilities oriented and those jobs are few. How big a maintenance staff does a company really need? Those facilities that do manufacture often will contract out a significant part of the engineering effort, either through A&E firms or contract engineering companies. The A&E route is anything but secure. Just ask the people who handled pharma projects for Fluor in South Jersey or Life Sciences in Philly. Both offices were closed. The contract route is dangerous too and has it’s own instabilities. The plain fact is that there are just not that many engineering jobs in the pharma world to employ everyone.
Medical devices are a somewhat different industry. These are generally engineered products, just like traditional manufacturing firms. They are designed and manufactured just like industrial, commercial and consumer products and often use the same technology. Here is where candidates get frustrated. If you have designed HW/SW products for the telecomm industry why won’t anyone interview you for a job designing HW/SW products for the medical industry? It’s the same technology after all. There is a simple answer to that. Every company prefers to hire someone with specific industry experience, even more so in the device world because of the regulations. Sure, I’ve placed people in jobs within the medical device world from other industries but it’s very rare. In 1998, every telecomm company had a preference for hiring people from their own industry so why should a medical device firm be different in 2003? Last year I spent a half hour listening to an engineer who worked in the semiconductor industry complain that no medical device firm would interview him. He didn’t like it when I reminded him that when his company was hiring a few years earlier, one of their specs was to prefer someone from their own industry. It’s human nature.
If you want to transition to either the pharma or medical device world, here is how to do it. Don’t wait for the next downturn. Do it when the economy is hot and everyone is working. Just like other companies, firms in the pharma/device world get fewer resumes in a stronger economy and specs loosen. In a lousy economy when no one else is hiring they can be choosy. Sometimes, that’s a tough decision for a candidate to make. If you worked at Agere in 1999 and I called you about a job at a small medical device firm would you have been interested? Probably not in 1999 but definitely yes in 2003. The problem is that in 2003 you would have been competing with 100 people. In 1999 you would have been competing with 5 people.
The lesson is - when times are good plan for when times will be bad.
Resume Submissions
One of the most shocking things for candidates is what actually happens to their resume when it reaches a company. Technology has changed the document process and many people haven’t caught up to that yet. The best way to send your resume is by email. It’s easier for the recipient to scan, forward and store. Most faxed resumes aren’t even looked at anymore. If you don’t have an email account, get one. AND send it in a Word Doc without pictures or a lot of graphics in the format. At many places, when the emailed resume is first received, it’s scanned electronically before being looked at. Only after the electronic scanning process is finished does a human look at the resume. If it’s not a clean scan, the human has to go back and find the original email. If 20 resumes have scanned successfully and yours did not, they may ignore yours.
If you are submitting through a website like Monster, don’t use their format. Either link to a Word Doc or send a Word Doc. The Monster format is very disjointed and doesn’t scan or read well. Once again, make life simpler for the recipient.
Second, Don’t submit to every ad you see. Try and have some relevant skills that match the ad. Please. I’ll never forget the person who sent me 4 resumes in 5 minutes. The first was in response to an ad for a Mechanical Design Engineer, the second for an Electrical Engineer, the third for a Software Engineer doing C/C++ software and the last for a VP Engineering. He had the same cover letter for each ad saying he was perfect for the job. Believe it or not, he was a BS ChemE with 2 years experience. You lose all credibility by sending out a 1,000 emailed resumes for no reason other than the word "Engineer" was in the ad.
Does that mean you should not send a resume to an agency like Right Recruiting or a company unless you match the ad they are running? No, but do it right. I always respond to people who send me a resume with a note acknowledging that they aren’t perfect for the advertised job but are wondering if there might be something else in that industry related to their skills. Sometimes, by automating the process too much we eliminate courtesy from the equation. That’s bad for all concerned.
Third, don’t have an email address that’s too personal. "Younghotstud" and "sexyfemale" are two that comes to mind. ‘Nuff said on that subject.
Fourth, put your address and phone number on the resume and, dare I say, put your name on the resume. Yes, I get resumes with no names on them and get lots with no address. Having an email address doesn’t mean your home address is useless. For one thing, it tells the recipient how far the commute to their location will be. At it most basic level, it shows you don’t live in a tent. That adds a small sense of permanence to your background. Have a landline as well as a cell phone. A phone interview via cell can be a harrowing experience for a company. Bad reception, poor location relative to mobile phone cell towers, etc can make for a bad interview. My favorite was when I called a candidate who sent me a resume the day before. All I had was his cell phone number. When he got my call he wanted me to call him back the next day when he would get his new batch of monthly minutes and it would be cheaper. Great first impression.
Phone Contact
We are particularly sensitive to this because we try and call everyone who sends us a resume, whether they are right for the job or not. Of course, the fellow from Peru sending the resume for the job at Bensalem that says "Local Candidates Only" may not get a call from us. But, if you are local and have a good background we always try and get to you.
Try and remember where you sent the resume. I know it’s tough and you send out lots of resumes but if your career is important you should be able to keep track of it. It hurts your credibility to send a resume with a note that you are absolutely perfect for the advertised job and then, when called by the recipient the next day, having no idea who they are or what firm they are with. It becomes too obvious that the cover letter is meaningless and that you are blasting the resume out indiscriminately.
If you send a resume to someone and they call you back and leave a message, return the call. In the last year, I’ve gotten resumes from over a dozen people who I called to interview and have never called me back and then, a week later, THEY SENT ME ANOTHER RESUME. I’ve checked with recruiters on the corporate side to see if that happens to them too. One fellow who works at a local pharma firm told me they actually have a name for those people. They are called "Serial Posters". I guess it’s easy to forget that the idea of sending a resume is to get a call back from the person to whom it was sent. There was one guy who sent me a resume and never called me back. He sent me a resume a month later and I emailed him letting him know about the first resume. He never called or responded to the email yet sent another resume a week later. I still don’t understand that.
Take bad news well. Please. If I get a resume and it’s not right for the job, I always try and call people to tell them why. I do this for two reasons. First, I may be reading their resume incorrectly and be drawing the wrong conclusions. Second, it’s a courtesy to the candidate. Basically, if someone sends me a resume with the best intentions I should tell them if they are good or bad for the job. They have the right to know. I have found that most people appreciate this but some do not. There is a difference between discussion and argument. I’ve had candidates who I have called and explained why I can’t send the resume to my client get angry and call me every name in the book. Idiot and moron are two that come to mind immediately. If it becomes obvious in the discussion that you are not right for the job, don’t blame me. I know it’s frustrating looking for work in a lousy market but don’t take it out on me because I was decent enough to call you to explain why I didn’t think it was a match. Geeze.
Finally, get to know people. Often, when a company gives me a job to fill I get 4 interviewing slots. I need to send them my 4 best people, sometimes chosen from 20 or more resumes. When in doubt I will always choose someone I know over someone I don’t. So would you. Earlier this year I had a VP job to fill. The company gave me 5 interview slots. Honestly, I had 30+ candidates. I needed to have a sense of comfort that the people I sent did more than just met the specs. That doesn’t mean that everyone else gets penalized but, once again, it’s human nature.
Now, I am sure that every candidate has stories from their side of the phone/desk/email. The unpredictable nature of the employment process creates an inevitable friction among people. Please share with me any funny, rude or amusing stories for our next issue. I’ll distribute them anonymously.
See you next quarter. Go Phillies.
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