Instructions
I
Email me your Job Hunt topic:
Due November 24 11:55pm
Information about Job hunt Assignment: (Due date is Monday, 11/24)
For this assignment, you will be researching types of jobs available at biotech companies. To make it more interesting, you will be pretending to apply for a position!
Step 1: Find a company that is hiring. Email me the name of the company and job title by November 17.
Resources:
Bay Bio Career Center: http://www.baybiocareercenter.com/Public/PublicSearchJobs.aspx
• Search jobs in California (Oakland-East Bay and San Francisco make sense, but you can pick somewhere else if you like.)
• Read through a few postings, and find one or two that interest you. Copy the complete job description to a word document. Note: You do NOT have to be completely qualified for a position to use it for this assignment! It just needs to be something you are interested in and could see yourself doing in the future.
Craigslist:
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sci/
• It’s Craigslist. You just have to hunt through by date. I’ve already directed you to the science jobs in the SF Bay area.
• Read through a few postings, and find one or two that interest you. Copy the complete job description to a word document. Note: You do NOT have to be completely qualified for a position to use it for this assignment! It just needs to be something you are interested in and could see yourself doing in the future.
Step 2: Research the company and find out some key information about it.
• Use the job posting, company website, news articles about the company to answer as many of the following as possible.
• Put your answers neatly in a word document
• Here are the questions:
1. 1. Recent news: (for instance, you can summarize one or two press releases about the company)
2. 2. What does the company do? (capture this in a few sentences)
3. 3. Different positions available at this company (note the name of the position and a phrase describing the duties)
4. 4. History of the company (eg: basic science that inspired the company’s technology, founding scientists and their past experience, etc.)
5. 5. Relate something you’ve learned in BioSc172 to what the company does (this is required!!!)
6. 6. A thoughtful question you have about the company that would be good to ask in an interview. does (this is required!!!)
7. 7. Where the company is located
Step 3: Now that you know about a job and the company offering it, it is time to write a cover letter
• Look at examples and templates to get you started. The first couple of links have instructions about each section of the letter, and the final few links have templates you can use to get started.
• http://www.careeronestop.org/ResumesInterviews/Letters/CoverLetterTemplate.aspx
o o Your tax dollars at work! Federal job site.
• http://www.career.vt.edu/jobsearchguide/coverlettersamples.html
o o Virgina Tech helps its graduates!
• http://gecd.mit.edu/workshop/cover_letter/index.htm
o o MIT has a neat powerpoint about writing a cover letter!
• http://jobsearch.about.com/od/coverlettersamples/ig/Sample-Cover-Letter-Format/
o o About.com has lots of stuff! Both advice and template letters here.
• http://www.jobsinscience.com/info/about.asp
• BioScience Career center has a couple of science-specific cover letters. Also some links to even MORE job hunting tips.
o o http://biotechnologycareers.blogspot.com/2009/07/101-top-cover-letter-samples.html
• o coast.contracosta.edu/legacycontent/courses/biosc187_spring2008/BioSc172_Su2010/Assignments/CoverLetterTemplate.DOCA template from our Biotechnology career counselor, Rebecca LaCount.
Step 4: Combine the job posting, answers to questions about the company, and your cover letter into one document and submit it to D2L.
• The document should be neat, and each section labeled clearly
o o Job posting
o o Company information
o o My cover letter
o The name of the document should be in this format:
o Lastname_Company_Job
o For example:
§ Krolikowski_Mendel_Scientist.docx
§ Krolikowski_Genentech_RA.doc
