Exploration Program for Industry Careers 2012-2013

Application Deadline: November 30, 2012

Use the link above to download a pdf of the instructions, which can also be viewed in entirety on this page.

Update: 11/27/2012 - Addendum added after Section 3 instructions

Application Instructions – Read BEFORE beginning web application

Thank you for your interest in the Exploration Program for Industry Careers (EPIC). All current FHCRC graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and medical fellows are eligible to apply. The information provided in your application will be viewed by participating industry partners when you attend their site visits. Do not include confidential information in your application.

IMPORTANT: You will not be able to save your progress on the web application.  Have your biosketch completed and ready to copy and paste into the application text box in Section 3 BEFORE beginning the application process.

Link to web application page:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFVOcG5RZ1BXdWtmRmt3RkxNZUtoV1E6MA#gid=0

Section 1: Demographic Information

This section is straightforward questions about your current position and background.

You will also be asked your anticipated start date range for an industry job. This is just your best guess, and you should answer regardless of whether you are committed to pursuing a job in industry or not. Available answers: Jan-Jun 2013, Jul-Dec 2013, Jan-Jun 2014, Jul-Dec 2014, 2015 or later    

Section 2: Interests and Expertise

This section corresponds to a bullet-point list of your relevant interests and skills, and will be presented as such to the companies whose site visits you attend (see sample at the end of these instructions). In the application form you will find 3 open slots for each of the categories described below. Have these answers prepared before starting the application, and check to make sure each answer fits within the limits described below. The application will not notify you if you exceed a character limit, but your entry may be truncated.

All 4 categories below allow for three entry slots each. It is not required to use every entry slot, but you are encouraged to use them to highlight your interests, skills, and achievements.

• Career Interests - Enter keywords about your industry career interests (job titles, industry sectors, etc). Each entry should be 1-3 words.
• Areas of Expertise - Enter keywords about your current areas of expertise. Each entry should be 1-3 words.
• Technical Skills - 95 character limit per skill. This application does not measure character limits, so if you do not check yourself your skill description may be truncated
• Major Accomplishments - Grants, Papers, Patents, etc.  95 character limit each. This application does not measure character limits, so if you do not check yourself your description may be truncated.

Section 3: Biosketch

1750 character limit, including spaces. Note that the application does not measure character limits, so if you do not check yourself then your biosketch may be truncated.

Your biosketch is one paragraph that should emphasize the most important things you wish to communicate to the industry partners whose site visits you will be attending. This biosketch is a hybrid between a resume and cover letter, and thus should include your career interests and motivations as well as key points about your previous experiences, education, accomplishments and honors.

When you attend a site visit, the host company will see this biosketch paragraph in combination with the “interests and expertise” that you listed in Section 2. You can see a sample of what this will look like at the end of these instructions. While you should still stress anything you find especially important, do not be redundant by simply reiterating all of those same skills and expertise in paragraph form.

This biosketch should be your best professional representation of yourself in this format. We recommend writing several drafts that you get feedback on before you access the web application to copy and paste in your final biosketch.

Side note: There is also a mechanism in Section 3 for changing your biosketch in the future, which can be used if there are significant changes in your accomplishments or interests between now and the site visits. This will ONLY be allowed for acceptable reasons – not taking the time to create a revised biosketch now during the application process is NOT significant reason for us to accept a new biosketch from you later this academic year. The most common reason we foresee for people changing their applications is due to new major accomplishments (a major paper, grant, patent, etc). You do not NEED to update your application in these cases, but will be allowed to do so if you want.

EPIC Application Instructions Addendum - Writing your biosketch

Using the Sample

When filling out your EPIC application, start by looking at the sample provided. This sample illustrates what companies will see when you attend their site visit. This page is created directly from your responses to the application questions in the web form.  We do not make any additional edits. Some key points to note when reviewing the sample:

• Most of the demographic information you supply in Section 1 of the application will appear in the top portion of the page.
• Section 2 of the application involves bullet-points about your career interests, expertise, technical skills, and major accomplishments. These will be presented under your main paragraph biosketch, as shown in the sample.
• Section 3 of the application is where you enter the main paragraph, 1750 character limit. This MUST be in paragraph format, not bullet-points, and should not include info like your name, since that will appear at the top of the page as shown in the sample. This main paragraph will also appear on the same page as the accomplishments, skills, etc that you enter in Section 2. It is okay to have a small amount of redundancy here for key points you want to emphasize. However, consider this final document as one whole piece, rather than treating the biosketch paragraph and Section 2 bullet points separately. The companies WILL see them together, as shown in the sample.

NOTE: This should go without saying, but everyone in the program has access to this sample. Your biosketch should be entirely your own work. Do not reproduce exact phrasing used in the sample. Make your biosketch stand out for the rest in the pile by writing it in your own voice and emphasizing YOUR best accomplishments and stand-out features early in the paragraph.

Your Biosketch

This program is about careers in the biotech industry, so you should emphasize the same things you would emphasize in a resume and cover letter if you were applying to a job at this type of company (as opposed to academia). What are those things? It will depend somewhat on what career path specifically you are interested in (ie, scientist, project manager, business development, etc). The resources listed at the end of this document might give you some ideas on what to focus on.

NOTE: If you are still some time away from a job search and are just starting to learn about jobs in industry, don’t be overly stressed about knowing exactly what to say for an industry job here. One goal of EPIC is to educate participants about careers in industry, including the best way to “sell yourself” to get them. Make sure your biosketch is well-written and an accurate reflection of you and your skills/accomplishments/future goals, but if you don’t know how to stress specific things for industry careers you shouldn’t worry. If, however, you are indicating that you are entering the job market during the time-frame of the site visits (Jan-Jun 2013) then you should spend time researching what to put in an industry cover letter/resume compared to academia, and use what you learn while writing your biosketch and filling out Section 2.   

Other things to consider:

When writing your biosketch, think first about what you want the reader to learn about you. What are your main assets that a company might find attractive, or that make you stand out from other applicants? Highlight this early in your biosketch.

You do not need to include the name of PIs you worked with in the past, but if you have work experience under someone with “name power”, you should use it to your advantage.

If you published in a high-profile journal, highlight that accomplishment. Do not, however, give a laundry list of every publication you have been involved with. That belongs in a CV, not this short biosketch.

Some Additional Resources:

Book: Career Opportunities in Biotechnology and Drug Development, by Toby Freedman

                The website for this book has many links to other resources: http://www.careersbiotech.com

Website: The UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development has samples of cover letters and resumes for both industry and academia: http://career.ucsf.edu/lifesci/samples.job.html

These are just 2 resources that I have looked into and think are useful for this – there are many others out there. If you find one that you think is particularly helpful, feel free to email them to me (email link below) and I will compile a more complete list of useful sources at a future date.

Final Submission, Confirmation, and Next Steps

Once you hit submit, your application will be uploaded to our database. After the application deadline of Nov 30, all applications will be processed and merged into the template of the sample below. A copy of your application will be emailed to you at this time for your records.  Please allow 2 weeks after the application deadline for this email to arrive. If you do not receive it by Dec 14, email Shannon Dennis at smdennis@fhcrc.org.

Site visits will be scheduled for January-June 2013. Once companies and dates are finalized, all applicants will be invited to RVSP for those visits they wish to attend and are available for. Participants will be selected from the RSVPs based on the applications submitted in November. Furthermore, the application information of each site visit attendee will be made available to companies prior to the site visit. This information will be presented similarly to the sample below. Numbers of applicants and space limitations for site visits will determine how many site visits each participant is allowed to attend.

If you have questions about any part of the application process or EPIC itself, please contact Shannon Dennis, EPIC program coordinator at smdennis@fhcrc.org.

Exploration Program for Industry Careers Sample Application 2012 - Note that this sample is slightly reformatted to appear on this website, and some personal info removed. The sample in pdf form (available in the application instructions pdf linked at the top of this page) shows more precisely how your application would appear to companies.

Additional Postdoc and Grad Student Information

Biosketch:

Currently a postdoc with Chris Kemp and Alanna Ruddell at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (FHCRC), I have an extensive background in cancer biology, immunology, and pharmacology. For my doctoral research in the laboratory of Alan Eastman (Dartmouth Medical School), I studied apoptosis using human primary leukemia cells and cancer cell lines to determine optimal combinations of small molecule inhibitors that selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells but not normal cells. Some of the combinations from these studies have advanced to clinical trials. During this experience, I learned that one major hurdle in the field of translational research is the efficient delivery of pharmacologic agents into the target cells without initiating adverse host immune responses. To further understand the role of immune cells during cancer development, I thus chose to elucidate B cell-mediated tumor-induced lymph node lymphangiogenesis and metastasis using mouse models for my postdoctoral research. Outside the lab, I have held numerous leadership positions, including President of the Graduate Student Council at Dartmouth College and Co-Chair of the Student/Postdoc Advisory Committee at FHCRC. I have earned the 2006 Toastmaster of the Year Award (Toastmasters International) and the 2010 Dartmouth Community Award (Dartmouth College) for my leadership activities. I have also started up a company, Damarni Solutions, and with my partners, we aim to solve problems that have been overlooked in the healthcare system (provide website). I would like to participate in EPIC to learn how I can advance my career in developing novel therapeutics.

Career Interests:
Translational research, Product development, Marketing

Areas of Expertise:
Cancer Biology, Immunology, Pharmacology

Technical Skills:

• Mouse models of cancer, in vitro and ex vivo manipulation of human and mouse cells
• Flow cytometry: multi-color surface and intracellular staining, FACS, FACSDiva and FlowJo
• Immunofluorescent staining, ELISA, Western blotting, immunoprecipitation
  

Major Accomplishments:

• Received Ruth L. Kirschstein training grant and published work in peer-reviewed journals
• Started a growing biotech company
  
• Recognized nationally for leadership and communication skills