As a part of Career Services’ Career Insights Series for Penn graduate students and postdocs, we hosted a recruiter from Calico Labs to learn more about the ins and outs of recruiting. Below is a snapshot of the advice offered to graduate students and postdocs thinking about pursuing opportunities in the life sciences industry. As always, students interested in postdocs can schedule an appointment with a career advisor to discuss their approach and strategies. Schedule an appointment via Handshake (https://upenn.joinhandshake.com/edu) today!
For context, Calico Labs is a small private company that is 11 years old. Their focus is on the science of aging, and they have approximately 300 employees. Their organization is structured somewhat like an academia, in that each lab at Calico has a primary investigator (PI).
How opportunities get posted
- HR meets with the hiring manager to get the specifics of what they need
- Hiring managers decide what specific skills they need – As a private company, certain details of their roles may be proprietary and so not all details may be listed in a job description
- Once approved internally, it is posted in the application tracking system, as well as on their website, and depending on need, on external sites such as job boards or LinkedIn
How to make yourself stand out as a candidate
- They use an applicant tracking system called Greenhouse, but do not use artificial intelligence to identify candidates; they do go through resumes for each role
- Please use PDF format for resumes so your formatting stays the same when the document is opened – and use a standard and easy to read font
- They like to see applicants apply for jobs they can do – hiring managers do not generally want to spend 6 months training new team members
- When writing your bullet points, focus on what you did and what you accomplished – keep the focus on you, and not on your team
- Do you not need to list everything you did in a role; focus on what you are most skilled at, and especially what you are most skilled at which you believe the reader will value
- Length of 1-2 pages is good for life sciences candidates with advanced degrees – hot tip – do not use the NIH biosketch format!
- Red flags are resumes that just point to a website – links to publications are OK, but your information needs to be on the resume
- For PhDs in the life sciences, having a publications section is very important for them, as they are research focused. But where you published is not nearly as important as having published something (first author preferred)
- Direct referrals are always helpful – but these only help you if you are already qualified for the position! Leverage your alumni networks to make connections which can lead to referrals (learn more: Informational Interviewing Guide for Graduate Students & Postdocs)
- If you see multiple positions for the same employer that you are interested in – rather than applying to all of them, try to identify the one that best aligns with your skills OR find someone within the organization to assist you in sorting out which to apply for
- If you are rejected for one role, and you see another one within the same organization, it is fine to go ahead and apply – no need to wait (or to assume that they will find you)
- Some recruiters are OK with offering feedback after you are rejected from a role that you interviewed for – worthwhile to reach out over LinkedIn – but many employers are not able to provide feedback to rejected candidates
- Cover letters can be very important – take your time with them and make them specific to the role to which you are applying
What their evaluation and interviewing process looks like
- 4-6 months out from graduation is a good time for life sciences roles – exception is at very large employers who may be able to plan further out in advance what their needs are
- No preference with Calico whether you apply through LinkedIn or through their website – all applicants end up in the same internal system
- HR works very closely with hiring manager to identify candidates to interview – hiring managers are very involved
- 1st round interview (virtual) – with recruiter to go over the role and their interviewing process/next steps
- 2nd round interview (virtual) – with hiring manager – more in-depth interview, and depending on the role, could involve a technical interview
- Site visit (in person) – several 1 on 1 interviews as well as a presentation by the candidate
- Reference check, then final step is the offer
- When it comes to negotiating, these conversations should be with HR and not the hiring manager as HR has the most complete information about the offer details
- Be honest and transparent with HR when negotiating – they appreciate it, it is professional, and honesty moves things along more quickly!
General tips
- Have a specific focus that you are offering – as a PhD, you have very in depth skills and expertise – be prepared to think (and talk) about what that expertise is and why it is helpful
- Internships for PhDs are great – and they are not just in the summer. At Calico, these get posted early in the new year and most start in the summer