BioFlorida Career Forum Gives Postdocs a Look Ahead

By Eric Sauter and Mika Ono

The BioFlorida Career Forum—the kick-off event of the state’s bioscience industry association’s 14^th annual conference held this month in Tampa—drew both potential employers and employees from across the state. Of the 65 postdoctoral fellows in attendance, almost a quarter were from Scripps Florida.

The career forum started with a pair of interactive training sessions. For the postdocs and other job-seekers, the session provided helpful advice. “The career forum was aimed at postdocs and students who were looking for help on crafting CVs, interviewing, and hearing from people in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries on what it takes to get a job in today’s environment,” said Vanessa Paulman, an advisor in the International Office at Scripps Florida who helped organize the BioFlorida event.

While the postdocs were learning the ins and outs of job hunting, a few dozen employers were at their own workshop, exchanging best practices for hiring Florida’s home-grown talent and learning about the academic training programs (like the one at Scripps Florida) producing top-notch talent throughout the state.

The simultaneous sessions were followed by a networking reception that provided the opportunity to make one-on-one connections.

“The mix of people at the networking reception after the discussions was a great success,” said Harry Orf, Scripps Florida’s vice president of scientific operations as well as chair of BioFlorida’s Institute Task Force. “There was a tremendous amount of energy in the room, with people talking and exchanging CVs and information. The format was a good one, I think—just right for what we were hoping to accomplish.”

For Rosie Albarran-Zeckler, a graduate student at Baylor College of Medicine and an external graduate student in the Department of Metabolism and Aging at Scripps Florida, both the panel and the networking gave her a lot to think about. “One panelist suggested learning programming, which is hard—you need to take some courses,” said Albarran-Zeckler, who is considering jobs in both academics and industry. “After the panel, I also met somebody from a biotech firm who told me what they were looking for—and that was very helpful.”

For chemist Xin “Cindy” Qi, a Scripps Florida senior staff scientist, it was the little things she learned that surprised her.

“All the things they said were very helpful, but it was the small things you never think of that I remember,” she said. “The one thing that all of them mentioned was to write thank-you notes. Even if you don’t get an offer right away, this will help build long-term relations with decision makers in the company. I thought it was a very good suggestion from all of the panel members, and I put that idea in brackets.”

While her long-term goal is to remain an academic researcher, she thought the career forum was important in starting a dialogue between a number of different employers and potential employees, so that both sides gain valuable feedback.

“These forums help people from both sides,” she said. “It’s also good that both industry and academics were represented. That gives everyone an overview of what’s required, which was most helpful.”

Seeing just how far the biotechnology industry in Florida has come in a relatively short period of time, the career forum couldn’t have come at a more opportune time.

According to Michael Schmitt, life science analyst and editor of the Florida BioDatabase who commented on the BioFlorida conference in the Tampa Bay Business Journal, there are 171 biotech companies in the state, up 26 percent since 2008.

He credited The Scripps Research Institute with a lot of that growth.

“When you have one A-team player, like Scripps Florida, other A-team players want to be here, too,” Schmitt said.

Send comments to: press@scripps.edu