{"id":6,"date":"1991-11-02T12:26:00","date_gmt":"1991-11-02T19:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/?p=6"},"modified":"2022-12-16T10:26:15","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T17:26:15","slug":"biotech-hiring-trends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/","title":{"rendered":"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

First appearing in \u201cTooling Up\u201d column from SCIENCE<\/u> careers, circa 1990<\/em><\/strong>-91.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By Dave Jensen<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recently attended the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) meeting in Houston for a career seminar series, along with fellow speakers Dr. Mark Dibner (President, Institute for Biotechnology Information) and Judy Heyboer (Sr. VP of Human Resources, Genentech Inc.). Our presentation was entitled \u201cOur Future in Biotech — Where the Jobs Are.\u201d In this column, I would like to describe for you how the presentations unfolded and a few of our group\u2019s projections for the future of biotech hiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seminar series was brought together to put three different slants on hiring trends in today\u2019s biotechnology industry. Dr. Dibner, whose company provides specialized information for market studies, presented the \u201cmacro\u201d view of biotech employment. He chose to discuss where individual industry sectors have been going, and how these niches will affect global hiring trends. Judy Heyboer took the opportunity to discuss various disciplines and to detail \u201cwhat\u2019s hot\u201d from the Genentech perspective — (If there are any new trends developing in biotech employment, they will generally show up at this major firm first).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, it was my job to add some of the \u201csofter\u201d issues to our seminar session — the components of successful career management. Because many of those issues are written about regularly in my \u201cTooling Up\u201d series for AAAS, this section will not be duplicated here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark\u2019s Numbers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an information specialist, Mark Dibner was the one who came prepared with hard data. Here are some of the major points he made during his presentation. His numbers are for the U.S. biotechnology industry:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • 55% of our biotechnology firms are healthcare related. This sector of the industry currently has 65% of the total employees and is composed of companies in the therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics categories.<\/li>
  • Only about 20 of the companies in the therapeutics sector have a drug on the market. The others are split 50\/50 between firms which have a candidate in the clinic and those which are still in early-stage R & D.<\/li>
  • The average number of employees is 115 employees but is skewed by firms like Amgen and Genentech (Amgen has almost 5000 employees). The median number of 29 is a better number.<\/li>
  • Approximations of total staffing numbers include 125,000 in the biotech firms, 56,000 employees doing biotechnology related work in the larger corporations, and 25,000 researchers in academia who are working cooperatively on industrial biotechnology projects.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Mark\u2019s comments about the future trends he has identified: \u201cThere will be continued consolidation among these firms and half of today\u2019s companies will not exist in their present form in five years. But there will be constant formation of new companies. For the next few years, therapeutics companies will continue to be the top area for biotech. However, as the agricultural and food biotech companies hit their stride in the next decade, that niche will skyrocket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Judy\u2019s Views of Current Trends<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As the Senior VP of Human Resources in a biotech company which employs thousands of people, Judy Heyboer\u2019s comments about the changes her firm has seen in employment trends were certainly appropriate for our audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One trend she identified, confirmed by both Dibner and I, is the demand for \u201cmulti-specialty\u201d employees. These are people who not only have completed their own rigorous training in some specific discipline, but who have added another separate area of interest. Many recruiters and human resources professionals have found that the toughest scientist to find is the person who has both the Ph.D. along with an MBA, JD or — often preferably — significant business experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe whole concept of hiring a person with multiple areas of specialty is rather new. It is a definite trend here at Genentech. Three of them we find to be constant are Biology with Chemistry, Science with Business, and Everything with Computers.\u201d This last one is a trend in itself. She spoke not only about the increased demand for bioinformatics, evidenced by any issue of Science, but also about the general need for computer skills in just about any type of biotech position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cThe use of computers is no longer a \u2018plus\u2019 to have in your background. It is a requirement. You are expected to have a hands-on expertise with somewhat more than just the basics.\u201d She advised the audience that they would be rudely awakened someday if they didn\u2019t have the skills to sit down and do some lightweight programming, or set up an Excel spreadsheet. \u201cIt\u2019s too late at that point to pick up a copy of \u201cExcel for Dummies\u201d once you\u2019ve landed your new job,\u201d Judy warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Judy\u2019s comments about some of the other trends at Genentech included:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • A kind of teamwork has emerged, due to multi-company partnerships in many areas, and the effect of working globally on product development. She feels that with the need to work across multi-disciplined teams, there is no longer any room for those who wish to build their own turf. \u201cThere are no independent bench research positions any longer, they just don\u2019t exist,\u201d Judy commented.<\/li>
    • The hardest kind of employee to find? \u201cTechnicians . . . we continue to hire them as fast as the University of California system can churn them out.\u201d One trend: Genentech and other major employers are attempting to make the technician job into a separate career track instead of the first notch on the research ladder. The company is building a manufacturing site and is considering hiring other types of technical people, perhaps from the wine or high-tech industries, due to the shortage of technical staff in certain areas.<\/li>
    • Employers and local colleges will be working closely together in the future to help the schools provide future employees with skills of specific interest to industry. Some companies are working with community colleges to develop training programs for prospective technicians.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      In Closure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Although the numbers that Mark presented showed an increase in total research personnel, the actual percentage of research as a component of total biotech hiring was down. There was a consensus at this meeting that many other types of positions have eclipsed the basic science area for current biotech hiring (although Judy\u2019s company still has a strong demand for molecular biology). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

      This slowdown in basic science hiring is the result of a changing biotechnology landscape in which the emphasis has shifted to development. This means that jobs in manufacturing, clinical research, and in quality\/regulatory will outpace the growth that research sees for some time yet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      This article initially appeared in Science’s NextWave which was the predecessor website to ScienceCareers.org. While the numbers are certainly off by today’s standards,, the forecasts made by these experts was inline with what proved to be the future of biotechnology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,9],"tags":[10,12,13,11],"yoast_head":"\nBiotech Hiring Trends 1991 - Street Savvy Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991 - Street Savvy Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article initially appeared in Science's NextWave which was the predecessor website to ScienceCareers.org. While the numbers are certainly off by today's standards,, the forecasts made by these experts was inline with what proved to be the future of biotechnology.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Street Savvy Science\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1991-11-02T19:26:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-16T17:26:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f\"},\"headline\":\"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991\",\"datePublished\":\"1991-11-02T19:26:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-16T17:26:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/\"},\"wordCount\":1086,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f\"},\"keywords\":[\"Biotechnology\",\"Human Resources\",\"Research Careers\",\"Statistics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"For the Jobseeker\",\"Where the jobs are\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/\",\"name\":\"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991 - Street Savvy Science\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"1991-11-02T19:26:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-16T17:26:15+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/\",\"name\":\"Street Savvy Science\",\"description\":\"Career and Job Hunt Advice for Scientists and Engineeers\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jensen-Pic-PR.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jensen-Pic-PR.jpg\",\"width\":498,\"height\":640,\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Dave Jensen is a writer and public speaker on topics related to the worldwide biotechnology industry, including sub-sectors of human therapeutics, agricultural biotech, industrial products biotech, and more. He has written about science and engineering careers for industries such as these for more than 35 years, and is presently Contributing Editor to Contract Pharma and a columnist for HAPPI, the trade industry journal for the household and personal products industry.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/davidgjensen\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991 - Street Savvy Science","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991 - Street Savvy Science","og_description":"This article initially appeared in Science's NextWave which was the predecessor website to ScienceCareers.org. While the numbers are certainly off by today's standards,, the forecasts made by these experts was inline with what proved to be the future of biotechnology.","og_url":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/","og_site_name":"Street Savvy Science","article_published_time":"1991-11-02T19:26:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-16T17:26:15+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f"},"headline":"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991","datePublished":"1991-11-02T19:26:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-16T17:26:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/"},"wordCount":1086,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f"},"keywords":["Biotechnology","Human Resources","Research Careers","Statistics"],"articleSection":["For the Jobseeker","Where the jobs are"],"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/","url":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/","name":"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991 - Street Savvy Science","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#website"},"datePublished":"1991-11-02T19:26:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-16T17:26:15+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/biotech-hiring-trends\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Biotech Hiring Trends 1991"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/","name":"Street Savvy Science","description":"Career and Job Hunt Advice for Scientists and Engineeers","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/a9ed5cb7d3583e83db29e0dd0fd9837f","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jensen-Pic-PR.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Jensen-Pic-PR.jpg","width":498,"height":640,"caption":"admin"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Dave Jensen is a writer and public speaker on topics related to the worldwide biotechnology industry, including sub-sectors of human therapeutics, agricultural biotech, industrial products biotech, and more. He has written about science and engineering careers for industries such as these for more than 35 years, and is presently Contributing Editor to Contract Pharma and a columnist for HAPPI, the trade industry journal for the household and personal products industry.","sameAs":["http:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/davidgjensen\/"],"url":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10,"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6\/revisions\/10"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dav2335045.cisatscc.com\/cis136-fa22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}