Biotech Career Tips

Lots of people have aptitude for particular sector but either they could not recognize it or could not enter in that field, all due to lack of proper career guidance or due to misguidance. If you want to pursue contributory, satisfying and successful career in research and production divisions of biotech industry, then you must follow the most probable sequence of approach given below:

Check Your Biotech Aptitude

Select Best Educational Institute

Set Your Goal

Strengthen Your Knowledge

Plan Industrial Training & Do It Aggressively

Develop Your Personality and Communication Skills

Search Biotech Job

Systematically Write Your Resume

Know Interview Process and Interview Questions in Biotech Industry

Check Your Biotech Aptitude: There are well established private and public biotech sectors in India, offering enough job opportunities to the deserving candidates. So it is better to check your Biotech Aptitude first, so that you don't make any regret later on.

Select Best Educational Institute: Go for Institute which has got best laboratories, (you can check its practical exercise syllabus), Specialized faculty, Industrial training and placement related activities.  Graduates (having B.Sc. degrees) are not always preferred and eligible for research jobs in biotechnology industry, therefore one must at least go for Post Graduate Degree in any applied branch of  biosciences.

       There are certain parameters on the basis of which one can check the standard of any biotech educational institute. You can ask for following information whenever you visit any institute for admission:

• Institute's Infrastructure: Check quantity and quality of laboratories, types and number of equipments, rate of the equipments, as there are very small but costly equipments and vice versa. Computer lab with internet connectivity is a must to keep yourself in touch with the latest happenings in biotech industry and get yourself updated regularly. Now a days for training and job applications online applications are needed. Very few private biotech companies advertise their job vacancies on newspapers.

• Faculty Qualification, Experience and Diversity: As biotech involves numerous specialized branches, so specialized faculties with industrial exposure are needed to teach the students.

• Instrumentation and Practical Exercises: Since biotech is an industry based subject, the practical exercises performed during the course must be industry oriented or must have some connection with the work going on in the industry. These industry oriented exercises will only be performed if an institute will have most of the following laboratories and equipments in it :

Laboratories

Plant and Animal Tissue Culture and Microbial culture labs, Genetic Engineering lab, Bioprocess Engineering and Heat and Mass Transfer labs, Protein Engineering lab, Bioinformatics lab, Microbial Technology lab, Biochemistry lab, Molecular Biology lab, Developmental Biology lab, Immunology lab, Environmental Biotechnology lab and Enzyme technology lab.

List of Major Equipments

UV-VISIBLE spectrophotometer, PCR, HPLC, Electrophoresis like- SDS-PAGE, Agarose gel electrophoresis and 2D gel electrophoresis units, Genetic transformation Unit, DNA and Protein sequencer, High speed refrigerated ultracentrifuge, Mass flow meter, Lyophillizer, Air sampler, Microbial colony counter, Flow cytometer, Gas chromatography unit, Electronic balances, BOD incubator, Automatic shakers, Animal cell culture fermenter, Laminar airflow etc. These are some basic instruments which a biotech student must know how to handle. There are so many training institutes which provide summer trainings to the students on payment basis. Students can learn these techniques if they don't have good lab facilities in their institutes through these institutes. Besides these above instruments running industries have several other instruments and mechanical setup in their research and production divisions which any educational institute can not afford/borrow or install in their campus. Such instruments can only be learnt in these industries during your summer trainings and dissertation/project work. Looking at the vast and varied branches of biotechnology you should take your industrial training very seriously with specific future job oriented goal in your mind.

• Academia-Industrial Interaction: Check out to what extent the institute interacts with the biotech industry as it is an industry based subject, so mere classroom study is not going to solve your objective. Find out whether the institute has any tie-up with biotech industries for any R&D work. Do check how many projects the institute has received from the funding agencies? Ask for the number of scientific patents the institute has received. Check whether the institute has running laboratories where active research goes on throughout the year?

• Student’s Placements and Satisfaction: Students who have passed out from the institute are the best source of information which you are looking for. It is student’s satisfaction with their placements which matters. If an institute claims that it places the students then do check the number of candidates placed, their salary packages and companies in which they are placed  ? If the placement is not satisfactory then it is a matter of concern. You must contact the previous students for the feedback. They will tell you their real experiences. Do ask for the contact details and phone number of the previous students of that institute. How often companies visit the institute for placement? Whether the placement is through student’s own effort or institute has played any role in it.

Set Your Goal: As we have seen in the home page there are numerous branches of biotechnology, therefore choose one or two fields in which you are interested, or where job opportunities are maximum. Do check the market capital or demand and the future trends in such branches. Prepare yourself strictly as per the market demands of the fields you have targeted. You can also check our business status pages given under various branches of biotechnology.

Strengthen Your Knowledge: Continuously update yourself in the fields of your choice both market wise and theoretical & research knowledge wise. Keep in touch with the latest happenings and the future prospects in your field. Prepare one or two projects related with the industrial demands or aspects of your field, so that you can present them during the interview, as now the leading companies demand for such projects along with the applications. In abroad such projects are compulsory.

Books, Study materials and Magazine: Always go for quality study materials. Always purchase good books only, having international standards. Now several such books are available at low prices particularly for students of Indian subcontinents and other underdeveloped and poor countries. Like a 1000 rupees book will be available for around 200 rupees. These books are mostly though bulky but will make your fundamentals very strong and you need not to correct your notes again and again.

            There are so many books magazines and other study materials which are available free online. Students should take the benefits of these books. We have tried to bring most of such free online biotechnology books and study materials for you.

Plan Industrial Training and Do It Aggressively: Select the industry related to your field and go for training after every session end. Go through the companies website and also through various job website (given in this website also), and see their technical eligibility requirement. Make a list of the company’s requirements and cover those requirements in the research/summer trainings. During your industrial training be disciplined and follow your instructor or guide, work dedicatedly, so that in future you can start your career from the institute itself, if your work and behaviour is good your guide or instructor can recommend you to some other good companies. So training is a place where you can make and increase your network. Training will make you confident in front of interviewing committee, because these trainings will some how be considered as your job experience, if the field of training and the job vacancy are same.

How to prepare a project ? A project must have following titles and it should not be more than 10 pages (A4, double spaced typed):

• Title: It should comprise some qualities like- it should give some hint of the result of the project and more importantly reflect industry demand/benefits or industrial appeal.

• Introduction: It should explain in brief the objects on which you are working, and its importance, giving authentic historical references. Collect market data on the said topic. It should have authentic datas. The project should be cost effective. It shouldn’t be hypothetical. As huge amount of money is spent in research. So you project must be very close to reality.

• Objectives: Explain why you are doing the projects and the expected result.

• Plan of work: Write stepwise What experiments you will perform in the project and how you will proceed. Give the timeline of the project. Expected duration.

• Budget required: Calculate the economic aspects of the project like how much manpower, space, lab facilities, duration will be needed to complete the project.

• References: Finally write the References you have quoted in the project in a particular standard format, for that you can see any standard research journal. Your reference information also must be very authentic and taken from standard source.

Develop Your Personality and Communication Skills: These are now the integral part of any interview process. These skills can help you put good first impression at the interview desk. As these skills classes are not included in your regular degree course, that’s why you need to learn them outside your classrooms. These skills, in fact play some role in your selection, though the first and foremost requirement is your knowledge. Personality development and communication skills classes let you know about the hidden skills you are having, help built up your confidence, and correct the usual mistakes you do and better our presentation skills. These are now available in every town and city. The training hardly takes more than three months and if you are a little bit concerned it is sure that you will learn a lot from these classes. The fee charges are also nominal if you compare it with the fee you pay for the biotechnology courses. It can start from around Rs. 3000.00 to Rs. 10,000.00 onwards.

Search Biotech Job Maximum biotech jobs are now-a-days available online and you have to apply for them online. Though we will try to post all the biotech jobs opened in India in our Jobs Openings page. Still one can directly check the company's website for recent openings. Do check the eligibilities companies are looking for in their candidates.

Systematically Write Your Resume: If you want to make career in Biotechnology you must have a scientific aptitude and deep interest in life sciences. Other essential skills required for successful career in this field are analyzing and interpreting skills, problem solving skills, IT skills. You must be methodical and patient by nature, able to work neatly and accurately, have a flair for laboratory work. Since you will be dealing with toughest problems therefore you must have the ability to work independently, nobody is going to give you his or her brain and time. Before Approaching any Biotech industry you need to do some rigorous preparations. First write quality Covering letter and Resume.

Covering letter: A good covering letter should always accompany a resume. Through covering letter you can introduce yourself and generate interest. Covering letter should be of one page only.

Follow following rules while writing any covering letter:

• Use ‘Arial’ font

• Write your name and address on top right side

• Then write recipient’s name and company’s address on left side. Write date below the recipient’s address.

• After the salutation (e.g. Dear Sir/Dear Mr. Smith), you should mention the reference of the subject, (e.g. Re: Vacancy biotechnology scientist 11/2007)

• Body of the covering letter: Divide the body into 3-4 paragraphs

• First Para: Talk about the complementary things (product, services) of the company you are applying for, you have heard or read from friends, website or media.

• Second Para: Highlight 2-3 main points from your CV, correlate the company’s demand with your personal skills.

• Third Para: Write in 1-2 lines about the possibility of any call or interview, and finally end the letter with ‘Yours faithfully’ if the salutation is ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘Yours sincerely’ if it is ‘Dear Mr. Smith’.

• Write ‘Enc’ below your name for the documents including the CV you are going to attach with the covering letter.

Curriculum Vitae and Resume: Both are marketing documents which highlight information about your education, professional skills, experiences and personal skills that present you as a suitable candidate for the post. Very shortly you can include following headings and subheadings while writing your CV.

• Curriculum Vitae: at the center, top of the page.

• Personal Contact Information

• name

• email

• phone number

• address (current, permanent)

• Education

• Doctoral work

• Postgraduate work thesis/dissertation titles (if any)

• Graduate work

• Senior higher secondary

• Professional Skills:

• Academic/Teaching Experience (If applying for Teaching post):

• Subject taught

• Courses introduced

• Other achievements

• Academic Honors and Awards

• Professional Development

• Seminars/workshops attended

• Other Skills Developed

• Research/Scholarly work

• Journal articles

• Books

• Magazine articles

• Research papers presented

• Ongoing work

• Grants

• Social Service

• Academic/Research Interests

• Memberships

• Foreign Language Abilities

• References

Know Interview Process and Questions in Biotech Industry: Individual company has its own interview process. Like in big companies there are several round of interview where one has to face HR, Subject specialist etc. In their job openings every company mentions what qualification and professional skills the company is looking for. So while you are pursuing your degree course, make a list of the eligibility criteria and professional skills required for particular branch after going through various companies WebPages. Simultaneously do your trainings/Dissertation/Research and career oriented courses according to that requirement. Don’t wait till you finish your degree. Prepare it now.

For questions asked in interview click Interview Questions