Help! I Need A Job

Scientist

2009-10-29T10:27:00.000+11:00

I applied for a Scientist position at a rather large and well known food/confectionery company. The description was for food science or chemical engineering with 1 year experience with a Ph.D. The application process was rather simple, just resume, no cover letter, and contact details. A few minutes to fill the form and attach the file, with the password the most annoying since it didn't say what you needed (upper and lower case, must have a number, must be more than 8 characters), so now thats done, thats done.

Analyst - Consultant

2009-10-15T12:08:00.000+11:00

Not much in todays job search, I applied for a position with a company in Boston as a research analyst. The description suited me very well, a snug fit with both experience desired (2 years), along with scientific and engineering background. I applied and sent off the application.

Last night, I also applied for a position as a research manager for a private engineering company, no names or details though.

Scientist Job through Accounting?

2009-10-10T16:06:00.000+11:00

I applied for a position as a scientist for a pharma company (not known) through Robert Half Accounting and Finance. It was actually interesting and different because their job submission system is geared for finance, not sciences, so I had not much choice but to put that I had no experience in the skills listed, or for the accounting software, no account credentials and so forth.... But, I still applied for the job anyway since the position was in R&D and not finance.

Tech Assistant/Lab Manager + Research Opportunities

2009-10-01T23:03:00.000+10:00

Two positions applied to today.

As the title says, one was a Technical Assistant/Laboratory Manager, while the other position was Research Opportunity in Neurobiology.

Research Associate

2009-09-24T12:04:00.000+10:00

Applied today for a position in Cambridge, MA, as a Research Associate I in a testing/characterisation and development company. The position seemed interesting and the mention of hydrogels perked my interest after seeing the seminar in regards to the use of supercritical CO2 for the formation of hydrogels. Application made, cover letter written, and sent off to the listed HR address.

Research Manager + Staff Engineer/Scientist

2009-09-09T17:08:00.002+10:00

I applied to two positions today, both in MA, one in the suburb of Cambridge, the other in Newtown. One was a Research Manager for biotech, with research lab experience and communications/writing experience, while the other being the Staff Engineer/Scientist position was for someone with engineering background and lab experience with hands on problem solving and analysis required.

I think I fit them pretty well, so I sent off my applications to them. Keeping at it.

Post-Doc + Applications Engineer

2009-09-06T12:55:00.003+10:00

Just a short note, I applied to two positions lately, a post-doc and a job in a pharma company as an applications engineer.

Nothing much more to say.

Assistant Professor Response

2009-08-27T07:24:00.003+10:00

I received in my inbox today an email and letter from the department I had applied to (see previous post about Assistant Professor + Rapid Rejection), and they told me that my application had been all received. I was asked to ensure that my contact details be kept up to date should they change especially my email, and expect to hear from them by January as they receive applications throughout the fall in the U.S. This has been probably the most positive of all of the academically related applications I have had, but I am obviously not going to hold onto false hope since it is a very competitive location, so I would expect some very solid quality in other applicants.

I think that if I can get my book chapter done, and also submit for publication the paper from some recent breakthrough work, it may assist in beefing up the application if I could somehow inform them of those additions to my application. We shall have to wait and see.

Research & Development Ph.D.

2009-08-20T10:48:00.002+10:00

I applied for a position today as a Research & Development Ph.D. with one of the worlds largest multinational corporations. The position was focussed in Microscopy with a preference for materials science or engineering backgrounds for product development and characterisation. Seems like a reasonable position, and unlike previous adverts from this company of positions I had seen, it did not say that internationals were not accepted.

Just another application, continuing on as always.

Technical Co-ordinator

2009-08-13T22:38:00.002+10:00

I applied for a position today in Geneva, IL. It's a little out of my normal range of search, but for some reason it came into the search results, perhaps a stroke of fate.

The position was for a technical project co-coordinator for powders. From the description of experiences and abilities, I believe I filled in 98% of them. The positive aspects that I filled were that I had a Ph.D. in chemical engineering, I had 1+ years of experience in powder technology development, 1+ years of powders for food and pharmaceuticals, experience in powder handling, had published and presented and was quick to learn new and complex concepts.

The only negative part was that they preferred someone who had project execution and management experience. I have experience in execution of projects, but I have somewhat little in terms of true "management". While I supervise projects at a lower level (as an associate supervisor), it is not really management. But, if the rest of it is enough to get me to have a chat with someone, I would be delighted.

Assistant Professor + Rapid Rejection

2009-08-08T23:33:00.002+10:00

Haven't had many jobs out there lately that I've applied for, but two of note.

I applied for a position at 3M and their turn around was under 24hrs, which was good for me I guess since I got the rejection practically immediately.

For the assistant professor position, it is at a private research university, seeking someone in chemical engineering. The process was relatively extensive where I submitted the standard cover letter and CV, then also publications, teaching and research interests, plus references and a letter of recommendation.

Can't do much else but wait after submission, and well, if you don't apply, you can't be considered.

Biomedical/Tissue Engineering Contact + Local Relocation Position Information

2009-07-30T10:20:00.002+10:00

I have managed to get a time to discuss with a head of department in regards to Biomedical and Tissue Engineering and ways to enter the field/be involved. I was recommended to contact them by two people in my own department and apparently they are quite friendly, so they said. I hope that I will be able to get some useful information through them, and perhaps even more so contacts into how I can get further into the field.

In regards to the local position I previously mentioned, the position turned out to be a replacement for the centre head of a technical marketing research group. They are shutting down at their current location and being moved into another facility where the actual laboratory work is outsourced but the research results are analysed and processed for technical marketing and sales. Unfortunately for me, they are seeing long term commitment (3-5 years +) as the current head of the group (28 years in the position) does not wish to relocate.

Incoming Recruiter + Local Relocation Position?

2009-07-24T20:26:00.002+10:00

Today had two bits of information come my way.

Firstly, my current supervisor returned from his trip to China where as part of it, he visited the Dow Chemicals Company. He informed me that their new research facility is incredibly modern, lots of space, unfortunately it is a little cubicle farmed in the offices but they have a lot of new equipment and labs. They do lots of polymer and new product work, and will have a recruiter coming to Sydney in November to talk to and interview Ph.D. graduates and soon-to-graduate students as potentials for the research facility. While China is not really somewhere that I wish to work, there may be the possibility that after some period of working there for Dow Chemicals, I could transfer across to the U.S. on secondment or something similar as an internal employee. It is a bit of a long shot, but still a possibility. Just means that I would have to survive and not eat a bad pork bun until that point in time. My supervisor did tell me also that the pollution there was dreadful even on their "better" days.

The second peice of information came in the afternoon, also via my supervisor, when someone at BHP (mining/industrial manufacturer) emailed him with a request for Ph.D. graduates or soon-to-graduate who would be interested in relocation to Brisbane (my former hometown) and a career in research. They wanted someone who was not only academically abled but also had the "other" qualifications, such as communications and interaction with people etc. Well, I don't think BHP has any operations in the U.S. but BHP is a big company, with very wide reaching branches. I know they have a big presence in China though, which still does not help. In any case, the position was not described in any way, so I emailed the contact person with a short communication requesting for more information available.

In this situation, it would not necessarily be a bad thing to have some form of industrial research experience with BHP depending on what the focus is, while still maintaining a job search overseas where I wish to be. I have no real qualms on resigning from BHP should an opportunity more suiting my objectives comes my way. But, being who I am, and while it would also hamper my chances of employment locally, I would still inform any interviewer of my desire to work overseas, so if I do bail on the job, it would not be a surprise, and who knows if it may be a positive because they may have positions or needs for people overseas at some point.

It is still up in the air however, but at least there is some change in the winds by the looks of it.

Networking

2009-07-23T17:11:00.002+10:00

Someone close to me was very generous in asking someone they knew if I could be considered for any positions in their lab. The group leader, a M.D. Ph.D. and Assistant Professor was nice about it and asked to see my C.V. and also asked a few questions, the usual of where/what I wanted to be in five years time, what my goals were and so forth. I wrote a response in letter form for him and sent the necessary details as desired.

The response that came back was, while I have a very impressive set of experiences and skills, they are not entirely sure how I could be of use in their lab and group since I lack the molecular biology experience, knowledge and techniques for their level of work (anatomical pathology in academic research). While it wasn't a definite "no" situation, it was more of a "I don't know how you'd fit in and what you can do with us". There was mention of data analysis and also computers in there, so I hope that there may be some sort of clarification available in what was meant by that since, I guess I can use computers....

In any case, it isn't a dead end since he may be able to assist me with his own contacts. He seemed happy enough to have a look at my details, and perhaps he might also be happy to forward, or provide contact details to others who might have interest in my range of skills.

Better than nothing, and I wasn't exactly shot down either.

Research Fellow

2009-07-18T09:24:00.002+10:00

After a false start, I managed to finally finish an application for the a position as Research Fellow at MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital, affiliated with Harvard University Medical School). The original job application that I tried to submit failed because they had forgot to include dialogue boxes for the inclusion of race/gender as the U.S. EEO usually requires it, but the system still needed it before the application could be submitted. I alerted the web staff at their HR about the situation, and a few days later I was given an email saying that the job had been re-advertised with a fixed application process.

The process on the website is detailed, but length, however I persisted and finally lodged an application. The position is with their Photomedicine department, working on building/developing/designing an optical system for the identification/diagnostics of skin conditions/cancers etc. They wanted someone with microscopy experience and knowledge (tick) and also preferred those with histopathology/immunohistology/enzyme biochemistry. While I have histology ad histological experience, I don't exactly have the pathology or biochem part, but I am sure that I can pick it up as required if they give me an opportunity to do so.

In any case, just have to keep at it with applying to positions as they come.

Technical/Laboratory Manager

2009-07-13T10:14:00.001+10:00

A quick note to say that I have applied for another position at M.I.T, this time as a laboratory manager in their school of engineering, with a lab for materials science testing that also involves some molecular biology apparently. While I would really love a positive response from this one, reality dictates that I will probably not get any response at all from the trend so far.

Quiet Times

2009-07-08T22:59:00.001+10:00

Still doing my regular searching of positions and applying when appropriate. Today I applied for an Application Engineer with a company for a position involving semi-conductor coatings. I also sent my CV to an email which they were collecting for Green Energy Jobs with engineering backgrounds. I also applied for two separate positions as a Pathology Assistant, having the prior experience in dissection/prosection.

My area of search has increased somewhat from New York City surrounds to now also the Boston region. It does mean more jobs, but it doesn't and has not yet really translated to more applications at this point in time. But, endeavour onwards.

Another Application, Networking and Rejection

2009-06-25T13:57:00.001+10:00

I received another rejection notice today, this time from Yeshiva University for a Research Technician position I had applied to months ago. Either their HR process is very slow, or they finally filled in the position or something.

The next agenda is that my current supervisor came by and told me about someone he had spoken to recently who was a venture capitalist that has links in research, more specifically, with interest in science and engineering with a focus in pharmaceuticals as one of their major fields. He gave me the fellow's details and asked me to contact him in regards to opportunities. So I did.

Finishing off, I applied for a position at Harvard University today in their School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, for a project support staff in electronic sensors in DNA sequencing. It looked interesting and they wanted someone who was interested in learning new technology and developing techniques and I think I would probably do well in it.

The search continues.

Three Applications + One Response = Revitalised Job Seeker

2009-06-19T23:45:00.002+10:00

In the last two weeks since my last post, I have only managed to apply for three more positions. I was a little busy working on something else, and also with work related matters (having been invited to write a book chapter for a new handbook to be published in 2010, writing its content is harder than I originally anticipated).

The three positions I applied for were:

One as a research and development scientist for a nutraceutical beverage company via Michael Page recruitment. I don't fully meet the requirements so I suspect that they won't bother contacting me back.

Another was a research specialist position at an academic institution.

The third was a post-doctoral fellowship position at a pharmaceuticals company.

I received an email today as a response from the pharmaceuticals company that had a somewhat unusual request, something that I have not yet really came across before but having not received many responses, that is hardly surprising either that it was new to me. The email requested that I confirmed with them that I understood where the job was located and that the position had no relocation assistance attached. Fair enough. It then also requested that I responded with if I had authorisation to work in the U.S., and asked that I share my reasons on why I was looking for new opportunities, and why this particular opportunity with them was of interest to me.

I ended up writing a nearly two page response into a .pdf before returning the email with said file attached. The person who wrote the email to me is apparently the recruitment account manager/HR project manager. I am not entirely sure if the email was a computer mass generated email or if their list of semi-short listed people were contacted as individuals. I am inclined to think it was generic since the mailing form did not have a header with my name addressed to it.

In any case, it matters little since I have written and given my response and all that is left to do is to wait once more. But, at least I am happy in knowing that they had enough interest to respond. I just hope they don't run me around like my previous experience regarding relocations and no-reply.

Two Scientist Positions

2009-06-04T11:47:00.003+10:00

I've applied for two Scientist positions this week, both in pharmaceutical companies. One position was related to crystallisation/crystallography work while the other is a general position in development of powder technology and API materials.

Nothing else new to report but to keep on keeping on.

Yet More Networking

2009-06-01T07:32:00.002+10:00

After talking to a friend yesterday who works for a subsiduary of a software development company, it was mentioned that they knew someone who had recently moved/transferred to the United States, or something like that. I jokingly said in our friendly conversation that they weren't doing enough to help me in my quest to finding a job over there and the end result of the banter was that she was quite happy to ask around for me if anyone had contacts or knew/heard of anything about positions that might suit me.

The end result is that she asked for me to send over my curriculum vitae and a bit of writing with my interests/expertise and position titles etc that I might be interested in that she could pass along.

We don't expect much to come out from it, but it is better than nothing and certainly making use of all the resources available in my network.

More Networking

2009-05-19T14:56:00.002+10:00

I received a phone call today from someone out of the blue. I have known this person for a while in work related business, having met them and talked to them several times in regards to materials and my doctoral studies project. They are a passionate person in their line of work and a solid business person. They are also quite friendly, and when he saw on LinkedIn that I was searching for a job in the New York region, he gave me a call.

It was a short call, about six minutes, but he told me that he had used a company before in the New York region (though when I looked it up, he was right in the sense that it was New York state, not New York City, though according to google maps, it is only 60 miles away, so not too bad) that did some work for him with spray drying technology. He then said he would forward me the name and contact details of the person he had dealt with in the company, which he did nine minutes later.

Being of course the business person he was, he then also asked me about some stuff that was related to his work, and incidentally that particular company (which is probably why he thought of it) and I unfortunately wasn't able to help him that much.

However, good for me that I have a cold-call lead to a company where I might be able to name drop, and at least I know that they do work that has some relevance to my experiences. I have yet to decide if I will call or email them.

But, with these little bits of networking happening, it is better than none and provides a slightly better outlook.

More applications

2009-05-16T19:45:00.002+10:00

Two jobs I have recently applied to:

Applications Engineer located in Allensville, PA, working in pharmaceuticals and characterisation of drug delivery powders. I feel that I meet all the requirements and have the right kind of experience, and the advert also has the magic terms that relocation is covered, however that is most likely a "local" relocation rather than international, but I will apply regardless, and I am sure there could be negotiation if they are open to hiring an international.

The second position is a research co-ordinator which involves microscopy/electron microscopy/confocal work. I think I have enough experience also in this for the role, but the description was rather brief so it is difficult to tell exactly what they are after.

Still, two applications is better than none.

A few applications and networking

2009-05-05T08:02:00.002+10:00

I applied for a few positions today, a faculty position in anatomical sciences at a osteopathic college of medicine along with a position as a postdoctoral researcher in fluorescence microscopy development at a university in Texas.

I am starting to branch out the area of searching and not being so confined to the NE corner of the US. When times get tough, you really have to be flexible to get through. So this is being part of it.

Additionally, through my network I have been formally put onto the radar to a research group in Princeton University, though I have no idea if it will make any difference but it is of course better to try and for nothing to happen, then to not bother trying in the first place.

Keeping heads up.

Post-Doc and Journal Manager

2009-04-28T23:56:00.002+10:00

A brief update on more positions applied to.

I contacted the head of a research group at an university yesterday regarding a postdoctoral position advertised. The position was a neuroscience and microscopy related position, and while I was not sure entirely that I had the appropriate levels of neuro background, I was interested in it since it was development of in-vivo technologies for brain function detection. I contacted them and explained my background to which they said to send my resume and a cover letter. I followed up with the requested documents.

The other position was a journal manager with a well known journal company. The position didn't have much requirements listed, or experiences/qualifications exactly, so I thought I'd apply for it also anyway.

Fresher Jobs

2009-04-14T15:14:00.002+10:00

I applied for several jobs today. While the pickings were still quite slim, there was a general feeling that perhaps some change is back in the air.

Some of the jobs I applied to today:
Biomedical Research and Development Engineer
Medical Liaison Field Medical Affairs
Principal Development Engineer - Controlled Release Specialty
Scientific Medical Writer
Physicochemical Characterisation Scientist
and the Honeywell Initiative for Returning Engineers

Delayed Rejection Notice?

2009-04-11T07:22:00.002+10:00

Another rejection letter came into my inbox today:

Dear Donald Chiou,

Thank you for your interest in the position of PhD-Material Science-[company] Manufacturing Division (Full Time) 2008-2009-PHA000779 .

While you possess many favorable qualifications, at this time we have extended interview invitations to those candidates whose qualifications and experience most closely match those sought for this position.

We sincerely appreciate your interest in our department and [company] and wish you every success in locating a challenging career opportunity.

Sincerely,

The strange thing about this rejection at least is that I had applied for this position a considerable time ago. I had already given up on this position thinking that it was one of those "no-replies" situations. I guess at least now definitely I know that I don't need to wait for this.

Medical Writer Rejection

2009-04-01T15:47:00.001+11:00

I received an email today which was very polite but informative.

Dear Donald,

Thank you for your interest in employment opportunities at [company] for the Medical Writer - Princeton, NJ position [ref number].

We had a number of candidates apply for this opening. After careful review of your resume and qualifications we have decided to move forward with another candidate that better meets the needs of this position.

Please note this communication is specific to Medical Writer - Princeton, NJ, [ref number]. If you applied to other positions within our company you may still be under consideration.

We thank you once again for your interest and encourage you to apply to other opportunities that arise at [company].

Best Regards,

This came nearly after a month of the initial application. I have no problems with these kinds of communication at all. Disappointing perhaps, but better than no notification at all.

Not So Positive After All

2009-03-31T21:21:00.002+11:00

In my previous post about the Forensic Technician position, it turned out to be not so positive after all. The application form stated that it needed a Social Security Number for the form to be processed. Having not possessed one, I thought it might be a problem and so emailed the contact person requesting clarification. I did not receive any for quite a while, and with the deadline approaching for the application to be sent internationally, I had no real choice but to mail off the application.

Then, the response came, informing me that I would not be able to have my form processed without the Social Security Number. It was slightly annoying that something so simple would be delayed in response, not to mention, they physically mailed me a copy of the application form. It arrived on the same day I mailed a printed copy to them. This was puzzling to me since surely they would have read the cover letter I attached, stating I was an international, and required sponsorship. Not to mention that they mailed the application to me in Australia.

I replied to their email requesting that my materials be sent back to me. They replied very quickly to that one, saying that they would send it back once they got it. ~sigh~.

Positives Plus

2009-03-17T22:06:00.002+11:00

In life there are always up and downs, and job searching is really no different to that, but rather just a more specific set of events. Today, for the first time in a long time, I had some more positive outcomes of my searching. Two things happened, both via email, and both were quite heartening.

The first was a response from an application I had made for a position as a Forensic Technician. The email came back with a form that they wanted me to fill out by hand, along with a copy of my official transcript (I am yet to decide if I will have a Justice of the Peace copy or send a university official one that will cost me money, but I think I am probably going to lean towards the paid one for safety since I do not know if they even know what a Justice of the Peace is as it may be different over there). Interestingly, they told me in the email that the cut-off-date for the application to be returned by was different to the actual date in the form they sent me by one week. Additionally to this, they said if I met their requirements, I would be given an oral examination, where as the form mentioned that it was a written exam. This may be the considerations they are giving to me as an international applicant, which, I think is great.

While this position is not a dream job, I think it would still be interesting from my point of view and experience. I also expect that it would not pay very much, though for the line of work involved the pay scales are reasonable, and it is a public department job so there are at least set standards of pay. I will probably look it up if I can.

The second event was that one of my emails to an academic institution was returned positively. While they told me they had no positions on offer (which I did not specifically ask about in the first place), they were happy for me to come visit and present a seminar about my work. I spoke to my supervisor and I will be giving a seminar (that I am yet to prepare since I only got the email today of course) about the work conducted in our research group, mine included. This is not exactly ideal either in the sense that I was originally only after a informal visit, but in the long run, giving a seminar like this is far better as a way to present our work, and myself. At least it gives me something to do for one of my days there since by the time of the visit, there could be the remote chance I have exhausted the popular/regular tourist things there in the region. Not likely, but just a small remote chance.

Well, they are the best outcomes for a while, so hopefully some other applications out there might have the same, a positive outcome.

Research Specialist

2009-03-16T20:09:00.002+11:00

I just applied for a position as a Research Specialist. It is not located in NY, but rather in MA, or to be even more specific, at MIT, yes, the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I found the position in a slightly different search parameter to my usual searches, and Boston isn't really too far out of the way.

The position is a microscopy related role, providing support in characterisation of nanotechnologies and polymer/soft surface materials. It isn't very specific in job description of the project involved but there is a reason for it and while I believe I could do the job, it will possibly be given to a local if the local has equivilent experiences to me as hiring an international is always more bother. However, the job posting date is nearly a month old, and while I do not know how long they must advertise before accepting an applicant, at least I still was able to apply for it.

Multiple Positions

2009-03-15T17:08:00.002+11:00

I applied for quite a few positions today, compared to the previous few weeks or so. Amongst them I applied as a Materials Scientist/Engineer for a Helicopter/Aircraft manufacturing company, a Research Technician for a Microscopy facility at a university, an academic teaching position, and as a Forensic Technician. While the number of positions is still dropping, the world moves on and people still need to get things done therefore jobs will be out there. Its an issue of keeping on looking and not being more disheartened by the situation more than it is already worth.

I still haven't been able to line up and interviews or visits, so I guess once I touch down and can make phone calls more easily to applications with numbers, I may be more successful in at least talking to someone instead of sending rather "blind" emails to people and inboxes. At least if I don't get any visits I will have a lot more holiday time than I intended. Always look on the bright side.

Not Skilled/Experienced Enough or Too Skilled/Experienced? Another Academic Contacted

2009-03-11T08:45:00.003+11:00

This is always an interesting point of consideration when applying for positions, and also being rejected. I was rejected for another application today, and in their response, which felt more personally written than automated at least, they put in this line:

Although we were impressed with your accomplishments and substantial credentials, we feel that they can be applied to best advantage elsewhere than at [insert company name]

Does this mean I am not what they are looking for because I have *too* much experience and credentials? The position I had applied for was open to a wide scale of levels from entry to mid-senior positions and I would have expected that with my experience and abilities I would have been slotted along somewhere if that was the case.

Or, is it that they still think I am lacking in abilities and experiences but are just using pretty words to mince around? Hard to say, and hard to even figure out for sure even if I could ask them since they would probably be defensive about their decisions.

Moving along however, I sent another email to an academic at another university in regards to my visit. They are the leading head for a group that does work/research/education in Forensic Sciences. While I have not received a response, it doesn't discourage me as I am in all practicality, cold calling, like some telemarketer at night asking for a Mr Chiou but not knowing who I'm actually speaking to, and selling myself instead of some poorly constructed telephone contract deal with the premise that I have been given a free holiday if I subscribe. It would be nice however to still get a rejection email from the academic though, since whenever I deal with telemarketers, at least I say no thankyou instead of hanging up on them straight away.

After sifting through over another thousand positions yesterday, it is really evident that positions on offer, save the academically connected ones, are shrinking even though some are still being re-advertised over and over again. This does not bode well for my situation, except for the advantage that I do have a solid academic background and history at least, if only I could penetrate the area market and an appropriate field.

Re: Visiting Academics

2009-03-07T09:48:00.002+11:00

The first person I contacted on my list was a professor who does research in a field relevant to me. I received a very quick and prompt reply, which unfortunately for me was not useful. They told me that they were not in for this current semester (not sure why, probably sabbatical or leave) and would be back only in September, which unfortunately for my travel plans, is significantly far away.

I did follow back up with an email thanking them, and then proceeding to ask if there was anyone else in their group that I could talk to, or other academics in their department/faculty who might have interest in someone with my background and skills/abilities. I guess it doesn't really hurt, and is at least showing some of my determination, even if they can't help me directly that much.

Now to continue looking for places to visit.

Quick Mentions

2009-03-06T09:49:00.002+11:00

I applied for two positions yesterday, a scientific writer and also applied for an open vacancy call for post-doctoral positions. The scientific writer position was fairly easy, just name, email, phone, upload a resume through the recruiting website. Clean, fast, no mess. The post-doctoral position wasn't specific, but instead they offered to people with scholarly research and excellence in education experience to send their resumes directed at specific departments for opportunities. So I did.

I also received an automated rejection notice from a company, which was actually quite nice to receive having not received any rejection notices from any of the positions that I have applied to lately, since at least you know where you stand when you are rejected.

Medical Writer and Visible Signs of Slowing

2009-03-03T12:17:00.003+11:00

I applied for a position as a Medical Writer with a company that does healthcare and healthcare products such as drug development and clinical trials. The company head offices are actually in Denmark but have positions and bases in the U.S. which suits me fine.

Position wise, it is a lot of literature, writing, results and so forth, but I can handle that since I do a lot of writing anyway, and have done a lot of writing already. Clinical material, statistics and understanding of principles are not new to me in this way, so I am confident I could be a medical writer if the opportunities were presented to me. Obviously, still playing the waiting game as usual.

There are visible signs now of the slowdown. While there are still a lot of jobs out there being advertised, the number is shrinking a little. For me, I have seen a lot of adverts and now can recognise even companies by their locations and position descriptions, so much to the point where I don't even bother looking at them because I know it is the same job being readvertised.

While I haven't really applied for much lately with my upcoming trip, I am still keen to be there and hopefully use the opportunity to find more resources while I can. Slowdown or not, I am sure the opportunities are there for me, it is just a matter of persistence.

Auto-Filling Systems

2009-02-20T12:47:00.002+11:00

I applied for a position as an Analytical Development Scientist yesterday. As part of their online submission system, they allowed the uploading of a resume/C.V. which then attempts to fill in the fields for you with the information of the uploaded file.

I have not used them before, but this time I let it do its thing, and the results were terribly abysmal. The auto-fill system tried to put details of my referees into the personal details slot, complately omitting my details. The education history was semi-botched, and so was the work experiences with incorrect title lines, and essentially ripping out the wrong information.

Perhaps it was because my C.V. that I uploaded in pdf file is formatted with tabs and indenting, while people might just write their documents without such formatting. In any case, I think it is faster to just fill the detail in manually than by using the auto-filling systems in the future as it means you have to delete or re-check it to make sure the right information goes through.

More Scientist Positions + Timeouts on Sites

2009-02-17T16:17:00.002+11:00

I sent off two applications today for positions as scientists in a pharmaceutical company. One as a general scientist in their general medicine division, and another as a particle engineer in their pharmaceutical development division. The applications were fairly straight forward and I met their requirements.

What did annoy me slightly was that, while it was my fault for typing straight into the web form, it timed out without warning that it would time out. So when I submitted the cover letter via the web form, it didn't work. I had to re-type the cover letter again, but this time into Word, where I saved it also. It's a minor thing, but I wish they could make things more friendly than timeouts without warning.

Now in my cover letters as I am applying, because I am making my visit to the U.S. soon, I am mentioning that I will be in New York City from the 24th April to the 10th May 2009, so if they would like to take the opportunity and time to meet and chat in person, I am available to arrange something before I go. I don't know if this will be much of an incentive for anyone who receives my applications, but at least if they think about it, they will save costs for international phone call, or flying me for an interview if I am already there for other reasons.

Just have to see if they will bite though.

Revisiting Business Consulting

2009-02-15T22:42:00.002+11:00

A little while ago, quite a while ago actually by relative terms, I had applied to several business consulting companies. I had some issues regarding their criteria back then, and while I am sure I would still have the same issues now, at least with the one I applied to today, they are less evident because their application process doesn't require the academic transcript, but it is listed as an optional if you are a recent graduate.

The cover letter was pretty hard to generate, because unlike normal job adverts, they don't really have specific criteria and experience listed. They discuss a very broad and in a way, vague kind of person who has some aptitude in analysis and critical thinking, and that is really it. I wrote the cover letter, had some people go over it with their input, and then applied. They say that they usually go through the applications within three weeks, so I guess it's to see if an automated reply comes back with the rejection or not.

Oh, the reason why I am revisiting them is that it is in a different country, and I also have a lot more experience compared to when I had applied before.

Visiting Universities and Offices

2009-02-12T22:55:00.002+11:00

I am in the process of planning a trip to New York for both work and holiday purposes. I have spoken to my supervisor/current employer about my planned trip and he believes that it is an excellent idea and is most happy to support anything that comes from it.

The current idea is that prior to me going, I will attempt to contact several people of interest to me (in terms of academics) at particular universities and hope to arrange a time to meet and talk with them if possible. Spending a few minutes, it doesn't necessarily have to be a long period of time, but enough to say hello, and discuss their work, interests, my work, interests, and then hopefully make some form of impression and leave a copy of my curriculum vitae with them for consideration should any of their future projects have an opening that I would suit. In the other time there besides doing the usual tourist thing and perhaps meeting up with people I know there, I will also see if I can find recruitment company/agency offices, and also arrange to visit them to talk and also drop off a copy of my c.v. there too.

The dates that I am planning at the moment is to be leaving Sydney on the 23rd April at some point, and leaving New York on the 11th May, so giving me roughly eighteen or so days. This was scheduled because I currently work three days full time, and so the 23rd is a Thursday (work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and leaving on the 11th (Monday) and arriving back on the Tuesday, it enables me then to work on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. So far in terms of accommodation however, I'm still not entirely sure where to stay, though right now from my limited searching, the Sleep Inn Brooklyn seems like a reasonable option at ~$80 USD/night. In any case, as I read, there is no such thing as "cheap" motel/hotels in New York, just "less expensive". Yes, I could get a $20/night hostel accommodation sharing with ten other people, but I prefer to pay extra for both privacy and security purposes. Especially for a longer staying period of time that I am planning. In terms of airfares, there are a few deals perhaps floating around but prices are reasonable, starting around the $1300 mark and going up depending on where you search, but I have also been told of two travel agents to talk to for cheap fares also. I guess we'll see.

If anyone reading this out there who might be interested in interviewing me for anything, or referring me for a position while I am there, please by all means contact me and we can go from there.

Applications into Left Field

2009-02-08T22:07:00.002+11:00

I normally tend to apply for positions that I am familiar with already, because while I am flexible and quick to learn, I'd rather start off on a strong footing to ensure I get work done straight away and make the right impressions, naturally you would want to especially if you are attempting to obtain employment overseas involving complex visa issues.

Today however, I decided to apply for something a little off my usual area, and filled out an application for research into thin-film materials for a very well known company across the world. The position required someone with a Doctorate degree in engineering with a particular preference for three years in electro-chemistry, but it was a preferred, not required.

Yes, naturally this means I am already at a disadvantage to applicants who have this experience, but I am now at the point where I will apply for things that I see that are interesting and I meet minimum requirements. I don't expect to hear from them except perhaps a polite automatic rejection notice if at all. But, for me, taking the courage now to apply for these less "safe" positions is a big step. At least I think so. But, in the grand scheme of things, I know I can do anything when I apply myself, the issue is to convince them, the employers, that I can.

Forensic Engineering + Revisiting Business Consultancy

2009-02-06T09:42:00.002+11:00

I have recently been working on a investigation for cable failures used in a nickel mine in New Caledonia and the work has been categorised as "Forensic Engineering". Talking with the other members of the investigation team, it would appear that I possess the appropriate skills that would work in such a career path. Thanks to their encouragement, I have re-written my cirriculum vitae to reflect this and I applied to twelve forensic engineering firms with a new cover letter also.

In the space of twenty-four hours, I have already received two responses back from the twelve companies. One of them was at the closing down point due to retirement and currently did not hire any full time employees, while the other cited a hiring freeze from economic downturn reasons. In such a climate, it is not surprising nor disappointing but I certainly appreciate their quick and to the point responses. In fact, the gentleman who is in semi-retirement was also extremely helpful by providing some links to associations that I could consider joining. The only problem with that is the major benefit for joining those associations is the networking by attending meetings and seminars, except that they are all in the location that I am not in. I am sure that if I was in the actual United States, joining the associations would be far more useful than at my current location.

So at the moment there is still another ten companies that I am yet to hear back from, and I would say if I hear back from half of them even with rejection notices, I would be doing well.

I subscribe to a few job listing email services, and one came across me today with business consultancy. At the start of the whole process, I had applied to several companies that did business consultancy, to be rejected by all of them. Now, it is a year later, I have a few more job titles under my belt, and some more international experience (technically with this project in New Caledonia), what would be the chances of gaining more ground in this area? Would I be really suited to it? Do I want a position in business? Stability with economic turmoil is just as bad, though I guess their services may be in good demand as companies attempt to reshuffle their structures so they survive and still do good business. This company that was advertising has offices around the world, as they usually do for bigger firms. What is more interesting though is that their heirachy is slightly different.

Typically, their step structure is that undergraduates start off as consultants, then postgraduates/MBA are their senior consultants, then experienced professionals are their principals and then comes management. In this particular company, they completely omit postgraduates and only mention MBA's. Is this just a simple oversight of consideration? Or do they not wish for Doctorate level applicants, preferring to have those who are professionals instead? Hard to say. In any case, I will consider it some more before I decide to put myself through the hoops again for a company that will look at my undergraduate marks and dismiss my application.

Post-Doctoral Positions + Letter of Recommendation

2009-01-15T20:16:00.003+11:00

I applied for a post-doctoral position today with a college of pharmaceutical and health sciences. The position was on research for nano-particle engineering and synthesis for drug or imaging probe technologies. I whipped together a cover letter and sent it off with a my resume and a letter of recommendation that I received today. They wanted someone with a minimum of a Master qualification and experience in TEM/SEM/DLS/AFM as a few characterisation techniques. I have TEM/SEM, I know about AFM but I was not familiar with DLS (which I think stands for Dynamic Light Scattering). In any case, I think I have some suitability for the position.

The letter of recommendation was sent to me by my supervisor after I requested it as I have noticed that a lot of positions in the U.S. generally mention them. They are not really common in Australia but he was happy to provide one for me. I hope it will be of some benefit.

Pressuring on Follow-Ups, Considerations of Fields

2009-01-15T11:20:00.003+11:00

As I mentioned before in regards to the job where I was informed that they would rather hire a local candidate because it was "faster", I once again saw the advert re-advertised this week. Considering that it has been a good month since they told me that they would not proceed with me, I have continually seen the position advertised over and over again. I checked on the Careers section of the company, and the position was still there.

What I concluded from this is that their "local" candidates that they had been getting a "good response" from didn't cut the standard they wanted. I decided to email the recruiter who handled my case to apply a little pressure again, asking for them to re-consider with the afore mentioned reasons. I doubt that they will respond to me at all, though if they did that would be nice.

Something interesting though, is that because I have their email in my email contacts, and I often go through my contact list and import the whole lot into LinkedIn.com, I have found that this recruiter is mainly an IT recruiter than healthcare/biotechnology and they appear to be currently listed as working for Cisco Systems. Huh?! So did they move jobs? Or. . . ? But the registered email that I found them at was not a Cisco address but the company I had applied to, so that adds a little more confusion. Perhaps they actually work for a third party recruitment agency that both Cisco and the other company hire to find them candidates, which is possible...

I have also been spreading out somewhat more on my locality searches and also fields. While something in technology R&D would be nice, I guess I am also flexible in doing technical work and even anatomy based things if I can find something decent to apply for. At the moment things are fairly quiet still on the advertised positions front, but I will of course keep looking while I work part-time locally here.

Associate Principal Scientist and "da Vinci Specialist"

2009-01-09T10:47:00.002+11:00

I applied for another two positions today. While I apply, and try to keep track of positions I've applied for, it is starting to get harder and harder to remember where I have and haven't applied for, and what positions that I have and haven't applied for also. For the companies that have their own submission sections it is easy to keep track of the submissions if it is recorded, but for those who don't, it is a little trickier.

I applied for an Associate Principal Scientist position, and it sound reasonable for me since it is a 0-2 year experience requirement. Of course, they probably prefer someone with a Master and the 8 years listed...

I also came across a rather interesting sounding position, the "da Vinci Specialist", with a company that deals with surgical things of sorts. While it reads to be fairly administrative (which I don't mind really) it also has a componentry in the requirements for someone with a Bachelors degree and/or experience in Anatomy or surgical knowledge. I think that with my rather unique background, I both have experience in anatomy, and at least dissection knowledge, which while is not exactly surgical, it is partially there. Interestingly with that application though, they did not permit a cover letter, only CV and the regular informations that you find requested. Oh well, I hope they just read enough and far down to see my experiences in anatomy, if they haven't tossed it after seeing that I need visa sponsorship...

Research Associate and Associate Scientist Positions

2009-01-08T15:59:00.002+11:00

I applied for four more positions today in the ongoing battle against HR staff and the U.S. economy. One of the positions was at an academic institution, one was at a hospital, one was a pharmaceuticals company and one I'm not entirely sure about actually.

They were mainly research associates or associate scientist/research scientist positions with the right amount of experience that I have. It adds onto the slowly growing number of applications that I have made in this crusade to obtain a job there. I think it would be nice if someone did look at my applications and consider me at least regardless of the fact that I am an international. It really isn't too much to ask is it?

Researcher and/or Manager Roles

2009-01-07T23:07:00.003+11:00

I found a company that operates near Newark in New Jersey, just outside of New York City (so close enough for me anyway) that were all about scientific research and consultancy. While they didn't exactly advertise specific positions, they had an open invite for resume submissions to anyone that thought they could be of use to the company.

As part of their descriptors, they had two roles that I believed I could suit quite well, the researcher and the manager roles. The tasks and duties listed in both of them are ones that I have been involved with in my work over the last little while so I decided to write up a cover letter and sent off my resume to them.

While it has only been twenty-four hours without a response, I think now, if I get a response, even in declining me for a position, I am perked by it, since the norm is simply to just ignore applicants that do not suit it seems. Just got to keep looking, as usual.

Post-Doctoral Associate Response Update

2009-01-06T07:22:00.002+11:00

I received an email back about the position I applied for yesterday very quickly. I was informed that they had already made a finalised shortlist of candidates and were in the process of interviewing them, and thus unless they could not find a suitable candidate in that list, I would not not be contacted. However, if one was not suitable and they felt I was better qualified, then I will be contacted.

I don't mind when those things happen since the advert was two months old, and I really appreciate the speedy and informative response that I was given. Keep looking.

Post-Doctoral Associate

2009-01-05T21:46:00.003+11:00

I have applied today for a position of a Post-Doctoral Associate at an academic institution in New York. The advert was a little on the old side, having been posted 3rd November 2008, but I figured that for these kinds of things, they are advertised until filled and even if it is filled, they may know of something similar that I could be referred to instead.

The position is in bio-engineering, and is a joint project between two departments from separate institutions, so having this connectivity between them may be more useful later on if I am successful in obtaining this position. The project sounds interesting and while I am probably not the perfect candidate, I think my experience in some biological sciences and also in engineering, with relevant research skills might slot in nicely to their needs.

While it is the new year and many people predict doom and gloom in the economics of the world, with jobless rates increasing, I still think that it is important to keep ahead in searching for work, and also maintaining my experiences with what work I have as is. I just hope that something better and interesting does come up that takes me over there sooner than later.

Research Specialist

2008-12-30T15:36:00.002+11:00

I applied to another academic institution today for the position of a research specialist in a molecular biology laboratory. The position is seemingly more grunt work than anything else but I don't mind that as it will be quite hands on with anatomic work and histology/microscopy which I have enjoyed extensively.

I don't hold too high a hope naturally with my hurdles of international sponsorship and relocation being a greater barrier to my application compared to other applicants, but I think I fill the requirements quite strongly with my educational and employment history so all I can do now is wait and see.

It would be nice however to get some form of feedback from the applications sent out. The new year is approaching soon, and I hope at least that things might pick up a little more.

Post Graduate Jobs

2008-12-22T12:46:00.002+11:00

While I have loathed to take graduate programs here in Sydney, it is something that I have had to consider as a method of going to the United States in my continuing search for employment there, even in such dim economic times. The general premise of the graduate programs is that since you are fresh out of a degree program, your skills and knowledge, abilities and competencies are below that of someone with working experience. This entitles the company who runs the program to hire you cheaper while supposedly giving you further training and education on the job.

I guess if I was deciding upon staying here locally, as the situation continues I would be more accepting of applying for one of those kinds of positions but since I am not, I have not. I did however apply today to a very large and well known pharmaceuticals company in the United States for a position that is specifically aimed at Doctoral graduates. While it is not listed as a graduate program, the manner of the position does seem to be quite close to one. As an entry way, while the location is not ideal, if I can get it then I will take it so long as it will provide me to work legally with a visa, and will pay my bills. Experience wise, if I work there for a few years, it does allow the opening of many more doors in the pharmaceutical industry in theory.

The application is sent, now it is up to them to see if I tantalise their interest or not.

Automated Rejection Praise, Difficult Decision Makings

2008-12-20T08:31:00.003+11:00

I received an automated rejection email today from the Johnson & Johnsons Family of Companies in my inbox this morning. It was concise, precise and well, automated. While I don't mind receiving rejections, I praise that J&J actually use a system to notify applicants like myself when they are unsuccessful since it means we have some form of closure upon the application. For those companies that use any form of electronic submission, I am certain that they could easily set up an automatic mailer similar to what I received, which would send off a simple, polite yet informative email to say sorry, we are not pursuing you as a candidate, best of luck on your continued applications, please check back with our advertised positions regularly. At least I would think so.

At the moment I have a difficult decision to make, and while it is mostly made (nearly 100%) there is still time and opportunity for me to withdraw from it. I have been offered a position as a full-time Postdoc here at my university but in another department. The contract is for a minimum twelve month period and will involve research and also student supervision of three doctoral students as their supervisor is away overseas on a regular basis. While the position is good, the field of research it is in is not one that I am familiar with at all, and due to my own personality I have commitment issues.

It isn't that I am not able to commit, but rather that if I signed on this contract for twelve months, the way that I am means I will stick it out for the twelve months because I made that commitment. While other opportunities may come during this time, I would have to let them go by because the person who has offered me this position is someone I know personally and by accepting this I know that they really would not appreciate me leaving anytime before the completion. Additionally, besides that, it would also disrupt their research group activities in having to find another postdoc and getting up to speed with everything going on. So at the moment, I am inclined to decline the offer as good as it is, but in compensation, I have began to expand the search range of locations within the U.S. While I am still aiming for that part in the North-East coast, being realistic I understand that I may have to expand and leapfrog my way across.

The only problem with that approach is the sheer number of adverts to sift through when you expand from looking at one small location to a whole country. Quite mind numbing an exercise to do.

Referrals and Applications Update

2008-12-16T19:26:00.003+11:00

I received a short email from the person I contacted as mentioned in the previous posting. While short, it was helpful as originally I did not include my resume in the email I had sent since I did not want to clutter their inbox quota space etc.

Their response asked me to send my resume to them and they would send it to their available contacts for me. While nothing more is promised, it is more than I could expect from my side and while I don't expect jobs to instantly materialise, it is at least branching out and using all of my available resources as best as possible.

In addition to this piece of news, I was told by my friend in New York who checked up on a job application for me that it wasn't a complete dead end yet. The job had been applied to via postal mail and not digital application, and while it had been sent off in October, they had only just started reviewing the applications. They would come to a decision soon but notify applicants in the new year ahead.

While this seems to be an awful long delay between application then consideration and response, I guess while they are still open to consideration, all I can do is also wait. The position is a academic based research associate in the engineering field, which I think I would do quite well in. The more promising aspect of it though is that they treated local and academic applications equally since on the academic world of things, internationals can often better than locals.

While it isn't a huge pickup to the pace, at least it is something to keep the hope afloat.

Christmas Slowdown and Referrals

2008-12-16T08:31:00.003+11:00

As the year comes to a close, and Christmas fast approaching now only just more than a week away, it is not unusual for job posting boards to slow down. Having a look at the boards, there is not a lot being advertised and those that are appear to be many re-postings of jobs previously listed. While this normally may indicate no "suitable" candidates have yet to be found for the positions, it is also a sign of the times that companies are having hiring freezes but keeping their adverts running to gather a list of suitables for later when they decide to start hiring again.

Of recent times since my last post, I have applied for only one position as an Associate Scientist with a company doing powder research in a research institute. I have also found another position of interest but the advertisement was very vague and unhelpful so I have asked my friend to check into it for me for more details and my suitability (if I should bother applying in the first place as an international).

In addition to this, I have decided to contact a person at a university there at the suggestion and referral of my supervisor. Their interest area is similar but not specifically the same as my doctoral studies and while the location is a little further than I would prefer, at this moment if something turns up from them I would be happy to give it very much serious consideration. An entry way if you will, since with a foot in the door, anything is possible.

Chin up and keep at it.

Back to the Drawing Board

2008-12-13T07:02:00.002+11:00

Hello Don,

For the time being, we're going to concentrate on candidates who are currently living in the US. We've had some pretty good response from our job posting, and we'll be able to hire more expeditiously if we find a local candidate. That being said, I'll be in touch should any of our searches lead us outside of the US.

Thanks, and keep in touch.

I guess it's back to looking and applying still.

Followed Up and Checked Upon

2008-12-12T09:44:00.003+11:00

I still have not received the email that I have been waiting for and after the close of business today for them, I sent off an email just to keep in touch and asked for an update to the situation if any. I guess it is just more waiting.

On an interesting note however, Academia.edu has sent me using their notification service that someone searched for my full name on Google and clicked on the link to my profile on Academia.edu. I wonder who it may have been and what implications come from it since if they are doing a background google check on me they will find my profiles on the internet, possibly all of my blogs, and maybe my name in miscellaneous listings for archery competition results. My published papers might also come up. I am not in the habit of searching myself on google so I don't know what is out there these days or if I have other people sharing exactly the same name. I guess if they like what they see, they might contact me. Though, thinking about it, it would be interesting if it was related to the Assistant Professor position I applied for...

No-Show: Positive Or Negative?

2008-12-11T20:44:00.002+11:00

The response that I had been waiting for from the previous two posts did not come today as they had indicated that it should have. It was a little disappointing in a way since I had got up early to check, and while I waited until the close of regular business hours their time (assumed to be 5pm) which was my 9am, there was still nothing. I had hoped if there was an email in that time, I could have had time to fire off a response if it was required such as setting up more information exchange or possibly even the prospect of arranging for an interview on the phone.

Since it didn't happen, there are lots of possible reasons for it but if we remove the possibility that they were all too busy to discuss my situation, it leaves a positive and negative aspect. The positive aspect is that they need more time to discuss and consider the options available in order to hire me. Decisions of this nature with regards to hiring an international employee and visa sponsorship is probably not that easy to make since it is a time consuming process and no doubt costly also. This as a reason for no response I could handle since it means I still have a chance and a foot in the door so to speak.

On the negative side, they may have come to a decision about my situation and deemed it to be not worth their while. If this is true, they may have been busy with other things and since I am no longer a priority for them, they can respond to me later, or worse still, not respond to me at all without me prompting for a response.

While it stews over inside, I will wait until tomorrow morning again, until their close of business again and if I have not received a response by then I will send a friendly reminder (since I have no reason to be not-friendly, I'm just anxious, not angry or upset) that I had not got an email in response it.

This is the frustrating part when you are halfway in between.

Major Hurdle?

2008-12-09T09:06:00.002+11:00

After I had received and replied to the email mentioned in my previous post about a first positive response, my weekend was a bit of a nervous wait to see what would happen come Monday at New York time. The wait was over this morning as I woke to find an email from the human resources department (the same person previously) in my email inbox.

Their email was very short and to the point, while I won't copy it, in paraphrase it stated that this may be a major hurdle and they would have to consult with their Hiring Manager about the situation. However, they were good enough to tell me that I should hear back by the end of Wednesday, which I will assume is Wednesday New York time, thus my Thursday early morning.

Once more I will be in wait, but I replied with my thanks, which are very sincere since their responses were both very prompt in response and informative about the situation. This is far better than anything else so far with my applications. I also mentioned that the three visa's that might be best suited for the situation would be the H1-B, EB-2 or EB-3, or the new E-3 Australian Skilled visa. While the cost of relocation may be covered by myself, the visa still needs to be petitioned by the hiring company, and while there are costs associated with the visa, perhaps I could be of assistance in that situation, or since the advertised position said relocation was available, any funds that would have gone towards a local relocation could be used as part of the visa process.

While my hopes are still not flying high, they are a little bouyed with good reason since it shows that my skills are actually viable in this current market climate. Tallyho~!

Reposted Jobs

2008-12-08T09:24:00.002+11:00

Digging through the listings today as I continue to still look for positions while I await responses and replies, I saw a position that I previously applied for, re-advertised. Reading the description through, the position was exactly the same and so was the reference code for the position. I guess that is enough of a response to anyone who is actively searching who may have applied that their application was not successful since they chose to re-advertise it without change.

I do find it annoying a little that they don't respond in any way and while I am not naive enough to be hanging on to false hope when there is no response in a reasonable amount of time, with technology today, it is not difficult to have a standard rejection email template that you could fill in the applicants name after you breeze through the resume and send off. I was sent some like this from companies like Bain & Co. and 3M. I appreciate being informed about my situation, regardless if the news is positive or not.

I don't think that just because a company is big or small, that they automatically have the right to be ignoring candidates like that, or at least they should try to be more communicative. People can have good memories and perhaps a candidate ignored now may become a candidate they want later, and if they headhunt that person, their memory might kick in about how poorly they were treated, and decide not to take their offer, thus the company will lose out.

It does not cost much time or much effort to be nice and polite in these dealings, and being kind goes a long way these days in what is a often difficult and bleak task of finding a job. Just my thoughts on the matter at least.

First Positive Response

2008-12-07T18:57:00.002+11:00

I received an email from one of my job applications. It was the most positive sign of a response that I have received yet out of all of the responses, including the classic 'no-response' that you get from companies that tell you in advance that they will only contact those they are interested in.

The response I got in the email was as follows:

Hello Donald,
I recently viewed your resume and believe you're a good fit for the position to which you applied,[Position Title] . Unfortunately, we don't have the resources for an international relocation. Did you have plans of moving to the US on your own?

Thanks,

[Mr X]

HR Staffing
[Company Y]

Now in terms of my situation, while it is a bit stingy for them to say they can not afford an international relocation (in the sense that the company turned over more than a billion dollars in 2007 profit), I can understand that their business model may mean cutting all possible costs in the light of the economic downturn and financial crisis that is gripping their nation.

I responded in that I would be okay with relocating myself but I still required a visa sponsorship to be able to work in the United States. I have money saved for this purpose, and after consult with my parents, I was told that they too could loan me some money to help out with relocation if I was able to get the visa and be employed. A very positive situation for me.

While it is the weekend still in that part of the world, I will have to wait until next week sometime (giving them a few days leeway to get around consulting appropriate people in their company about what they are willing to do) before checking up on what they are thinking.

I am feeling much more positive right now justfrom this one situation than I have been for a while since it means while many people nay-say about companies their wanting to hire, there are companies who will be still wanting new employees with skills, and hopefully skills I have.

More updates as they come.

Open Until Filled

2008-12-05T21:59:00.002+11:00

I did my usual searching for positions today and found something that looked interesting. The position was for a Laboratory Specialist at an university of science and technology. I had originally looked at their job listings because they had advertised for an assistant professor position similar to the one I had applied for earlier. After reading the description of the specialist I thought that I might have been suitable and thus underwent the process of application.

Their online system was very unwieldy and did not have much flexibility in terms of choices and accounted little for overseas applications in some sections, especially when it came to telephone format since the U.S. standards are XXX-XXX-XXXX, where as the full Australian number is XX-XXXX-XXXX, now while this is exactly the same amount of digits, it doesn't allow for the +61 to indicate an international call to Australia.

I filled all of the boxes and uploaded a cover letter with c.v. also.

Now, the position said it was open until filled. Which, in this current job climate may mean it won't be filled any time soon if they have been strongly affected by the credit crisis scenario. What was a little more interesting was that the position had been open since 2006. So almost three years of advertisement without succesful application by anyone. I don't know what this might mean for my chances, perhaps their standards for the position are very high. The system worked perfectly fine for submission though so I think that the position is seriously still open and not mistakenly left there after it was filled. It may have been obsolete and forgotten to be removed however. I guess it doesn't matter since they will receive the application tomorrow U.S. time anyway and either ignore it, tell me it isn't open, or consider it with responding either with some form of contact or ignoring me if I don't suit their needs.

~shrug~
On goes the search still.

Multiple Applications & Observations On Submission Systems

2008-12-02T16:45:00.003+11:00

After I got home from doing some casual work at the university, I went through my customary job searching online for appropriate positions. With the more recent global economic downturn, it has been seen that the number of positions advertised in what I search for has dropped a little, but there are still 'new' positions being advertised, or re-advertised if they have not been filled.

I found a few and applied for them all, six in total. Five of them with the same company, but they were different positions ranging from Associate Scientist to Scientist in Formulation. I also found another position as a Scientist in Formulation Development at different company and promptly sent off the details they required from me.

In observing the details of their online submission systems, two 'big' software systems has been noticed. One being "brassring" and the other "taleo". Compared to the online submission systems from other places such as jobsearch boards (instead of specific companies own careers sections), the brassring/taleo systems are very good and extensive in obtaining the details and data for some of the more complication positions. Which of course justifies their use by these specific companies.

In particular, the taleo system was very position specific in what it asked post-resume/cover letter submissions, with confirming educational backgrounds, and leaving 1000 character boxes to explain your abilities in regards to the criteria they leave. In my case, the position had about seven criteria you could select that you had experience in, and then in the box following explain how you had those experiences, incase it was not completely or obviously evident in your resume.

I quite liked that aspect and it helps candidates express their true abilites more significantly than a blanket application system that relies upon a recruiters judgement to determine if a degree title or work experiences suit appropriately. From personal knowledge by talking to someone I know who worked as a recruiter, quite often many details are glossed over by the recruiter as they have to read through hundreds of applications sometimes and important aspects and abilities are easily missed.

Well, now that they have been sent off, it is back to waiting, as usual. No doubt I will not be contacted by these two big companies if they are not interested in my submission, and these days I do not expect a rejection notice, but am quite happy and grateful to those companies that do send them (such as 3M in the past, and the Consulting groups such as Bain, Boston Consulting Group etc.)

Following Up On Applications

2008-12-02T13:53:00.003+11:00

A dear close friend of mine who has been instrumental in assistance to me once again helped out by following up on some applications for me. I provided them with the application details and companies that I had applied to, which in terms of a total list was quite sort since many of the jobs I have applied for through places like CareerBuilder.Com are anonymous companies using the online systems.

After they called up two of the companies they told me that one of them (Stryker Orthopaedics) has no Human Resources department and that the positions were all handled depending on the job by different people (since they have multiple divisions).

The other one (Pall Corporation) had not responded to me and that the job was no longer open. They did however have a HR department and the person Stephanie was most helpful (Thankyou Stephanie at Pall HR ^_^ ) in informing my friend that the job applications were forwarded to different recruiters in their HR division depending upon the position and if the job was still open she would have forwarded the call to the appropriate recruiter. She also mentioned that I should re-apply for new positions instead of relying upon my resume being in their system.

Back to doing position searches I guess and continuing to apply to places that I can.

Academia.edu

2008-11-27T23:15:00.002+11:00

I have come across this website Academia.edu and it seems to be quite another good/powerful possible source of extending networks and contacts. Since I am a partial academic of sorts for the time being, I thought it might not be such a bad idea to take advantage of these types of systems, and so I have registered and filled out my profile accordingly.

You can either see my profile through the link here or the link in the sidebar in the future since this post will come off the front page as new posts come up.

If you are an academic and have the time and inclination to put yourself into the system, why don't you? ^_^

Utilising Contacts

2008-11-27T07:01:00.003+11:00

People always talk about networking and how important it is to network. Why is this? I think it is because who you know can open up a lot of doors in terms of not only employment but business opportunities and diversity in what your knowledge and connectivity allows you to access for future situations.

Things like Facebook & MySpace are known to be Social Networking sites, while things like LinkedIn or Climber are more of your Professional Networking sites. While I am registered with both LinkedIn and Climber, they have yet to be fruitful in my search. Interestingly though, through LinkedIn, it allows you to see in a vague way who has looked at your profile. For me, my latest data says this:

Your profile has been viewed by 3 people in the last 12 days. In the last 3 days, you have appeared in search results 6 times.

and in more detail:

Your profile has been viewed by 3 people in the last 12 days, including:

Someone at Lincoln Electric
Someone at University of Sydney
Someone in the Research function in the Biotechnology industry from Greater Boston Area

At one stage though I had more views in the last 56 days, so I guess for whatever reason, the clock ticked over.

In addition to these kinds of sites, personal contacts are helpful too, even if they do not show much in results. Our School has a Foundation which is specifically set up to develop and maintain networking between companies and the school for business purposes. Not only do they provide financial assistance in forms of research funds and scholarships and prizes/awards for events, but they also provide industrial feedback for the work and research that we conduct here. These contacts are very valuable. The Executive Officer of the Foundation has been pretty good to me too by assisting me with fixing up formality for cover letters, giving advice on salary brackets and so forth. Further more, he has contacted on my behalf a high level exec in the Dow Chemical Company to enquire about opportunities in the US, and also yesterday was going to be talking to a person at General Mills (supposedly the sixth largest food manufacturer company in the world) and would also ask about opportunities suitable for me. Our school does a lot of placements in industry for our undergraduate program work experience/internships and also our MIPPS program (it is a industry placement program for the very talented where they spend a year in industry and get paid for it too as their final year thesis).

While everything is going very slowly, and nothing is coming forth right now opportunity wise, I am still holding on and being as optimistic as best I can. After all, that is all I can do within my power and I will continue to search for openings and apply for them where appropriate.

Real Deal Update

2008-11-22T12:08:00.002+11:00

After some investigative searching by a friend of mine, and some careful reading and consideration, we have come to the conclusion that Ms X and Company Y from my previous post are legit. Thus, I have responded to their request appropriately by sending a copy of my resume/CV to them with the information that I am primarily interested in work in the NYC region and surrounds.

I guess we will have to see how that goes. ^_^

Scam Or Real Deal?

2008-11-22T09:43:00.003+11:00

As you may know, I posted my resume on Craigslist.org a little while back (here on the 17th November) and in that post I also warned about the scammers that tend to hang around on sites similar to that. I listed a series of warning signals that may point towards someone trying to rip you off or cause identity theft and alike. Today however I received an email which smells like a scam but may actually be real. Out of the many emails that I have received since posting my information on Craigslist this is quite possibly the first and only real one so far, but yet it still does not entirely stack up.

The email is as below, with appropriate details removed for their protection if they are real.
**

from	Ms X
reply-to		Ms X@Company Y.com
to		res-920951387@craigslist.org
date		22 November 2008 01:20
subject		RESUME
mailed-by		craigslist.org

hide details 01:20 (8 hours ago)

** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Dear Mr. Chiou,

My name is Ms X. I work for Company Y
Executive Search. I place in LEGAL with a focus on Intellectual
Property. I saw your resume on CRAIG'S List and wondered if you
are still looking for a position? Things are a little slow right
now - with the approach of the holidays - but I'd like to keep
your resume on file in case something crosses my desk that is a

good fit for you.

Couple of quick questions:

Are you interested in working in house with a law firm as
a technical Advisor? If so, send me a copy of you resume and
CV.

Thanks for your consideration and reply!

Ms X
Company Y.
v: XXX.XXX.XXX ext. 102
f: XXX-XXX-XXXX
www.Company Y.com

------------------------------

------------------------------------
this message was remailed to you via: res-920951387@craigslist.org

***

Looking at that, it seems reasonable right?
The email address and names match. Doing a Google search, the website exists and looks proper and professional, though it only has a info@Company Y.com address and does not list their staff. The telephone numbers match though there is no way to verify the extension. The industry (Legal) seems to match.

But why is it suspect to me?

There isn't that many reasons, but just they say a couple of quick questions but only ask one question, and they request a copy of my resume AND CV, which to me, are exactly the same thing. Yes, I am being pedantic about it but you can't be too careful sometimes right?

So what should I do? Send them my resume? Ignore it? Though the legal field isn't my first pick, I think it may be interesting to work in the technical aspects of intellectual property since I did apply to Harakenzo World Patent & Trademark Law Firm in Japan for a position of Patent Engineer, though they rejected me for it...

Decisions decisions.

Frustration with Search Engine

2008-11-21T10:53:00.002+11:00

I've been using a few different engines in the past bit of time to look for jobs, as seen by the list on the sidebar of this blog. More recently I have been just using the search engine system built into LinkedIn, and the engine is based off SimplyHired.Com, which I have found seems to be quite extensive in its range of jobs and other sites it crawls.

The only thing that bugs me, which is quite frustrating, is the Job.Com engine. Why it annoys me is because I can never actually connect to it. I search for jobs on SimplyHired, and when I click on the advert, it opens up and tries to connect to job.com, and times out. I try to go to www.jobs.com and it times out. I don't know if it is an Australia thing, or my ISP or what, but I know my friend in NY in the US can access it fine... it is frustrating seeing positions advertised but being unable to see the specific details. I can, and have got around it sometimes if I'm lucky because the LinkedIn/SimplyHired shows the advertiser company, and if it isn't a blank space or recruitment company (not all recruiters list the jobs they are advertising on their home sites), then I can dig up the company careers pages to find the position for the information I am after.

At least it is only one search engine that does that to me so far....

Analytical Scientist - Characterisation

2008-11-20T13:58:00.002+11:00

I found a position today (after sifting through 1058 jobs for Research Engineer, I switched to searching through Particle Engineering) in Tarrytown for a Scientist in Particle Characterisation. The job description was pretty clear, and I felt that I suited the qualifications quite nicely, especially the 0-3 years experience in particle characterisation part.

I did the website registration, wrote out a cover letter and submitted my resume. Their automated system responded pretty quickly and dropped this in my inbox:

Dear Donald,

We very much appreciate your interest in this position. To help you manage your job search, please note that we generally contact only those individuals selected to interview and generally would do so within one (1) to three (3) weeks.

Thank you again for your interest in this position.

Sincerely,
[Insert Company] Human Resources

Well, it is one of the few places that tells you their consideration period, and I really like that. It seems like potentially an interesting position, so lets see if they bite with my application.

After all, my entire PhD experimentation was characterisation of my produced powders...

Interestingly though, they feel that they have to romanise the numbers, ie, for those who might either mis-read or can't spell the word version of numbers e.g. one(1)..... makes me wonder about applicants if that is the case....

Quick Followup on Academic Application

2008-11-18T11:31:00.002+11:00

As a quick followup on my application to this academic position I applied to, I had been briefly concerned (a few hours) because this morning before I left my house, I received an email through google mail saying that my email could not be delivered for four hours. It was only a warning since the email said not to resend it as the system would attempt to resend it for the next three days. I was a little concerned, and when I had the time, was going to contact the department using alternative forms of communication to see what was up, since the reason why the email could not be delivered was because their quota was full.

Once I did manage to check my mail after getting into my office space, I found a confirmation of reciept from a person in the department. It was much appreciated with some relief. Further more, they must have read some of the application, or if not, then assumed everyone who applied has a Doctorate since they did address it as Dear Dr Chiou. I guess though you are requested to have a doctoral degree before applying for it so they could just assume so.... But it would be interesting if someone without it applied, just to see if they were making the assumption on application. It doesn't matter, just idle curiosity.

So, now I'm definitely playing the waiting game with them, and I wonder if they'll inform me if I am not successful in my application.

Academic Application Away~

2008-11-17T21:23:00.002+11:00

I've just click "send" on the email that has whisked away from my inbox an application for the position of an assistant/associate professor at a good university in New York City. This application has been on the burner for several weeks if not months really since I found it. With some help from some very good people, my Doctoral supervisor included, I put together what we (my supervisor and I) think is a good solid if not strong, application for this position.

While my background is a little unorthodox for these kinds of things, I think I would probably do quite well in this position with my unusual array of skills and interests. The research plan submitted is also quite a viable one, which I feel would make a significant impact upon the industries that use the technology, if anyone was to make a solid breakthrough in it. I just hope that they won't steal my research plan and use it themselves without hiring me XD.

The application is supported by three referees (as requested) and so on my list I have two Associate Professors and one full professor. In Australia at least, we have Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor, which is different to the U.S. from what I understand, which has Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor, so the Associate Professor here in Australia is possibly a slightly higher edge). The full Professor is actually from Poland, and is the Vice Rector for his Technical University, while one Associate Professor is a Deputy Director of his Unit which is a significant component of an Australia-wide research conglomerate, while the other Associate Professor is the Head of School for the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at my university. I hope that they will provide some good positive feedback and grunt to my application if they are ever contacted.

Well, now that it is off and away, there is not much else to do besides twiddle my thumbs and wait. I hope the wait is short. I do know I have to wait until after the 30th November since that is the closing date for applications, and I chose to send it off now than forget it accidentally (you never know, it could happen) and miss out on it. It obviously won't stop me from looking still at other jobs and applying since I can't imagine that it would be a quick response and turn-around, nor that I am guarenteed to get the position.

Craigslist Entry Experience + Bounced Email Addresses

2008-11-17T08:25:00.003+11:00

As suggested by my friend, I decided to list my resume on Craigslist.org the other day. The process is easy enough. Visit the desired location (newyork.craigslist.org), click on the "resumes" bar link on the bottom of the page, select the region (manhatten is where I have chosen to dump my details) and then post accordingly.

The first thing to be aware of (and I was aware of this before I posted) is that spammers love places like Craigslist. They will trawl through and hit up vulnerable people all the time. In this situation, I have already received numerous emails of dubious nature, which after reading, I have all deleted.

The common points to identifying a bogus job offer is quite easy really.

1) Check the email address that it is coming from. Any "real" company would not be using hotmail or gmail email accounts to start with, and the person emailing should match accordingly, so Micheal should be ringing warning bells straight away.

2) They should not be paying for your employment through something like Western Union Money Transfer. This is one of the most common methods used by 419 scammers (otherwise known as Nigerian scammers using the Advanced Fee Fraud method). Further details in payment such as asking you to send a certain percentage of your earnings to them as their comission or tax is also a warning sign to you.

3) Language use/ability. If it is a proper company/job offer, the level of language should be relative to the location. I would expect that a company from the U.S. or London/UK would have good quality if not perfect English, and not broken English with poorly constructed sentences, spelling and punctuation. Mind you, with the state of education in some countries and locations, this may not actually be as big a warning bell as it might be...... LOL.

4) The details they ask *you* for. Be aware that most companies, if they are interested in hiring you will want to *talk* to you. They won't ask you for all these details. Scammers want these details from you for the purposes of ID Fraud/Theft, so they can make fake documents, and con other innocent people of their hard earned money.

5) Have some common sense~! If the deal they offer sounds like it's too good a deal to be true, most likely it will either not be true, or come with some hidden strings. Take the time to research the details they send you. If they send you a number, address, company name, look it up. Try to call it from a public phone if you can if you don't want them having caller ID on your number. If someone you know lives near it, try and see if they can physically go and check it out. Just be careful.
**

I applied for the Research & Development Engineer that I mentioned in the previous post. There is something a little strange in regards to their details since the email that they supplied (www.jobs@[company].com) bounced. I did resend the email to the address without the www. infront and it seemed to go through, but for completeness I also faxed the application through to the number listed in the application. Hopefully they won't think I'm some kind of stalker...
**

I have a meeting later today for some casual work in regards to a court case consultancy job for a few companies disputing the cause of some material degradation and failure of equipment. The work that I will most likely be doing will be microscopy using scanning electron microscopy to examine and visualise any differences between certain materials used in the equipment and degradation effects.

I will also talk to our technical officer here to see if I can arrange to learn some HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) and GC (gas chromatography) while I can since it appears a lot of positions require these sets of analytical skills which I am currently lacking due to having never needed to learn it or use it in my experiences. I have used it once in second year chemistry but that was a long time ago so a refresher is not a bad thing at all.
**

If you are bored, and or have been 419 scammed yourself, and want some entertainment, check out this site here at 419 Eater which is a group of people called Scambaiters who have decided to take matters into their own hands in regards to the scammers. Entertaining if you have the right sense of humour.

Entry Level Engineer

2008-11-16T13:14:00.002+11:00

I looked through 1101 jobs today, lots of clicking, lots of closing of tabs, and it took a little while also. Mind you, this was just the ones within 50 miles of NYC... Only one of the tab windows stayed open, which is a position for an entry level research & development engineer with a company that works in membranes and filtration. I knew of this company from different aspects by name previously, and also through their association of products manufactured by another company.

The position, being entry level means that I do qualify for it quite easily I feel. While I do not cover exactly their "a plus" requests (knowledge in membrane separation, and polymers), I'm pretty sure I could easily learn about it and pick it up as I go as required. I'm pretty diverse I think with the right kinds of 'on the fly' skills. In any case, I will apply for this position.

It is located in Port Washington, not too far out from where I'd like to be roughly based, but once again the magic phrase of "salary requirements appear". Or more so, this is the final segment of the advert:

We offer competitive compensation and a comprehensive array of benefits to include medical, dental, vision, tuition reimbursement, life insurance, 401k, cash balance pension plan, ESPP and flexible spending accounts. For immediate consideration, submit your resume/salary requirements to: [email] or fax: [fax number].Reference ID: R&DEng,Entry-TA EOE: m/f/d/v

I guess we will see how it goes, as with every other application.

A friend of mine suggested I perhaps link this blog to Craiglist.Org in the New York subdomain, however I don't know which is the correct area to put it, since from my investigation, if I try to put it into the Job Postings (though it's not posting a job) it would cost me $25 to do so.... Hmm. Well, if you are a generous reader and would like to help me out, please spread my URL around.

Cheers. : )

Orthopaedics Position

2008-11-15T14:28:00.002+11:00

Doing my usual job searches through the variety of sources, I applied for a position today with a leading Orthopaedics company. I've know of this brand for many years now since they produce particular equipment that I have used in the lab.

The position is for an Associate Research Engineer with 0-2 years experience, and doing particular testing and development of joint systems. Sounds very interesting, and I found the advert because they mention use of characterisation techniques such as SEM (scanning electron microscopy) and I was searching for microscopy related positions.

I feel that I would be able to fit into the role fine, as with many of the positions I apply for, since it makes no sense for me to apply for jobs that I can't do, or would not have the ability to do, even if I am after a challenge. A position like this is naturally a challenge since I have never done this kind of work, but I am highly interested in anatomically related topics, as well as development of technologies.

Using their online system, I submitted my resume, cover letter and contact details, so all I can do now is wait.

Salary Requirements & Value

2008-11-13T12:36:00.002+11:00

As I search for jobs in the US employment market, I am often confronted with the term "salary requirement", usually in the phrase "including salary requirements". From what I gathered, by thought processes and talking to people involved in finding jobs for others, it is their way of saying, we want to know what you think you are worth.

In Australia, generally speaking, since this is not always the case, the salary of positions are either listed upfront in the advertisement, stated as "depending on experience" or as something like "competitive salary". Usually when it says depending on experience or a non-stated number, they well get to the interview state, or job offer before they either tell you straight out what they are willing to pay you, or then ask you how much you would like to be paid.

As an example of this, someone I know was given the interview, and then they followed up with a phone call not long after with the job offer. They asked him what he thought he wanted, then proceeded to laugh and make a lower offer. He accepted, but now with lower performance across the industry that he was in, he was retrenched and given a severance package and is too looking for employment.

So, what exactly am I worth?
How much do I ask for?
How valid are my experiences when it comes to the term "depending on experience"?

From talking with people who have similar qualifications as myself in terms of a PhD in an Engineering discipline, the range of salaries is quite different. The approximate figures range from about $63k starting on a graduate program with a mining company, to $66k starting package with a government body, to $75k with a oil company, to $85k with a pharmaceuticals company and higher.

Talking with the executive officer of the Foundation in my own School of Engineering, they told me that I should not sell myself cheap with my very extensive research and technology background. My diversity is compliment to my skill base and should show employers that I can transfer these abilities to any field desired with enough lead-in time. He suggested that for a field that I was familiar in, $85-90k would be a reasonable good starting position as a Chemical Engineer with a PhD, since Engineers are all in demand, while $75k + would be for the science field. Below the $70k mark should include benefits or extras that bring the total salary package up to the baseline. It was also mentioned that due to my lack of industrial experience so far, it would not be likely that I would receive offers above the $90k in the industry sector, at least not yet, while depending on the academic institution and the role I apply for, it too would probably cap out about the $80-85k range to start with. At least I know that Associate Professors at our university earn over $110k.

To round off, where should I be toeing the line at?

Effects of Economic Downturn

2008-11-12T22:41:00.002+11:00

I have been looking for employment for the last six months now by the time November ends. Although there are many jobs out there, I am for one, being a little picky since I believe that my educational background and skills are far more suited to certain things than, say for example, teaching English in Japan or Korea. While they are in themselves worthy positions, it is really a waste of my education and higher learning and thinking abilities to be working in that capacity.

The global economic downturn in the developed nations, such as Australia and the USA has seen job security decline significantly. A number told to me by someone (un-backed up by evidence) basically said that the US has lost approximately 600 000 jobs since the Wall St decline began. This is a staggering number of jobs. But yet, I am still determined to seek and find employment in the NYC region within a reasonable distance.

I recently had dinner with a retired former Australian Senator, and he himself being an educated person told me that with my knowledge and background in science and technology research, I should strive to obtain work in the US since the Australian sector is quite weak still and lacking in development and funding. However, I should keep my options open and perhaps also consider China. I shun the China region for simple purposes. My ability to speak Chinese Mandarin is very basic on a daily use basis and not technical enough for me to work in any research capacity. Further to this, I can not read nor write Chinese in any fundamental capacity at all. Due to this, at this point in time, I am focussing my energy on the US, as the cost of living in the UK/Europe region is higher than what I am looking at.

So, I end this first post with the news that in the next week or so, I will be submitting an application for a position at Columbia University, located in New York City. The closing date for this application is the 30th November, so I will get it in before then.

Help! I Need A Job

Scientist

Analyst - Consultant

Scientist Job through Accounting?

Tech Assistant/Lab Manager + Research Opportunities

Research Associate

Research Manager + Staff Engineer/Scientist

Post-Doc + Applications Engineer

Assistant Professor Response

Research & Development Ph.D.

Technical Co-ordinator

Assistant Professor + Rapid Rejection

Biomedical/Tissue Engineering Contact + Local Relocation Position Information

Incoming Recruiter + Local Relocation Position?

Networking

Research Fellow

Technical/Laboratory Manager

Quiet Times

Another Application, Networking and Rejection

Three Applications + One Response = Revitalised Job Seeker

Two Scientist Positions

Yet More Networking

More Networking

More applications

A few applications and networking

Post-Doc and Journal Manager

Fresher Jobs

Delayed Rejection Notice?

Medical Writer Rejection

Not So Positive After All

Positives Plus

Research Specialist

Multiple Positions

Not Skilled/Experienced Enough or Too Skilled/Experienced? Another Academic Contacted

Re: Visiting Academics

Quick Mentions

Medical Writer and Visible Signs of Slowing

Auto-Filling Systems

More Scientist Positions + Timeouts on Sites

Revisiting Business Consulting

Visiting Universities and Offices

More PostDoctoral Applications

Applications into Left Field

Forensic Engineering + Revisiting Business Consultancy

Post-Doctoral Positions + Letter of Recommendation

Pressuring on Follow-Ups, Considerations of Fields

Associate Principal Scientist and "da Vinci Specialist"

Research Associate and Associate Scientist Positions

Researcher and/or Manager Roles

Post-Doctoral Associate Response Update

Post-Doctoral Associate

Research Specialist

Post Graduate Jobs

Automated Rejection Praise, Difficult Decision Makings

Referrals and Applications Update

Christmas Slowdown and Referrals

Back to the Drawing Board

Followed Up and Checked Upon

No-Show: Positive Or Negative?

Major Hurdle?

Reposted Jobs

First Positive Response

Open Until Filled

Multiple Applications & Observations On Submission Systems

Following Up On Applications

Academia.edu

Utilising Contacts

Your profile has been viewed by 3 people in the last 12 days, including:

Real Deal Update

Scam Or Real Deal?

Frustration with Search Engine

Analytical Scientist - Characterisation

Quick Followup on Academic Application

Academic Application Away~

Craigslist Entry Experience + Bounced Email Addresses

Entry Level Engineer

Orthopaedics Position

Salary Requirements & Value

Effects of Economic Downturn