On the second day of the Drug Delivery to the Lungs meeting in December 2010 (DDL 21), Xiang Kou, a grad student from the National University of Singapore who had been spending time as a visiting scholar at Purdue University, was approaching the end of his presentation on “Direct observation of particle dispersion mechanisms in DPI using particle image velocimetry technique,” when a slide having nothing to do with aerosolization popped up.
It wasn’t one of the silly cartoons that presenters often include to wake up the audience. It wasn’t photos of his colleagues or his lab or his university as had appeared on the slides of other presenters that day.
It was a plea for someone to hire him.
The DDL organizers had specifically indicated that one of their objectives for the meeting was to provide a forum “for young scientists and people recently moving into industry to get an opportunity to make a contribution and take part, to get involved.” As part of that effort, they introduced the Pat Burnell award for young researchers at the 2010 meeting and provided opportunities for the award finalists to present their work in a “Posters on the Podium” session.
Burnell had pushed for the inclusion of young researchers at DDL starting with the very first conference, often saying that “those who do the research should present their work, not their stuffy old boss or academic supervisor.” Academic supervisors and bosses still do often present the work of young researchers, however, and Kou only got the opportunity to take the podium at DDL 21 when Teresa Carvajal of Purdue University, who was originally scheduled to speak, had a last-minute scheduling conflict.
Drew Otte, Teresa Carvajal, and Xiang Kou
Those supervisors who present the work of their younger colleagues are often acutely aware of how valuable the exposure gained by a presentation at a major meeting can be for a grad student or postdoc. That sensitivity was demonstrated by Daniela Traini of the University of Sydney at the same meeting when she made a plea from the podium for someone to hire Sydney postdoc Susan Hoe, whose work on the effect of electrostatic charges on inhalation formulations Traini had just presented.
In fact, Hoe and University of Sydney grad student William Wong express their gratitude for the efforts by faculty members Traini and Paul Young for actively promoting their students, including making it possible for them to attend conferences like DDL and RDD. Teresa Carvajal has also worked actively to find jobs for students. Purdue grad student Andrew Otte cites Carvajal as a major force in his job search, saying that she “has really stuck her neck out to get my name out there for opportunities I may not have heard of.”
Susan Hoe at RDD Europe 2009 in Lisbon
The multiple appeals for jobs from the DDL podium exemplify the anxieties facing young researchers looking for jobs in fields related to inhaled and/or intranasal pharmaceuticals, especially for those who come from remotely located universities or relatively small programs. While they have relatively rare skills that make them especially valuable to employers looking to hire for specialized positions, those positions are scarce, rarely well advertised, and often located thousands of miles away.
Current grad students have watched colleagues ahead of them in the program struggle to find employment. According to Otte, while Purdue graduates are still receiving job offers, they no longer have the opportunity to pick and choose from among three or four offers as they did several years ago. At Sydney, according to Hoe and Wong, graduates have required several years to find jobs, returning to postdoc positions at the university each year until they are hired elsewhere. For Wong, that will not be an option unless Hoe finds a job and the postdoc position she currently occupies opens up.
Just finding out about job openings can be difficult. For Hoe, who would prefer a tenure-track academic position to an industry job, a web search generally means going to individual university sites and attempting to locate job postings. Wong agrees that it is often very difficult even to locate a jobs database on some sites, particularly those for institutions outside the US. Large pharmaceutical company career sites are often just as difficult to search for relevant jobs, sometimes requiring that job seekers search different locations individually.
William Wong
Web searches are also complicated by the fact that job titles for developers of OINDPs are unstandardized and vary widely from place to place for the same type of position. A job search using the keyword “inhalation” may miss jobs that use “respiratory” or“pulmonary” in the description. In addition, keyword searches using terms such as “inhalation jobs” or “respiratory” often bring up jobs such as inhalation toxicologist or respiratory therapist.
LinkedIn touts its ability to help users find jobs, claiming that “Job seekers can utilize inside connections at potential employers to help land their dream job,” and Kou recently has joined nearly 20 groups on the site in order to network with other OINDP specialists and to have access to job postings.
LinkedIn, however, has proven to be a poor source of job information for Hoe, who has been using the site for a while. She notes that, “A lot of people in the community are on there, but the design of the web site itself makes it difficult to job search.” “It all depends on you joining the correct group,” she says; “If you don’t join the correct group, you don’t find out about those jobs.” She joined several groups, including one for the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, but worries that she misses jobs posted in groups to which she does not belong.
Presenting at conferences like DDL and RDD appears to be the most effective way to make connections that could lead to jobs, all of four of these young researchers agree, and all of them have done so. “It would be really hard to find a job if it weren’t for attending conferences and getting to know people and being introduced to others,” says Wong. Hoe agrees, noting how crucial it is to actively network at the meetings.
The 2010 DDL meeting was Wong’s third international conference and the fourth for Hoe, compared to one or none for most of the other Australian pharmaceutical students they have spoken to. “I don’t know whether people really understand the isolation,” Hoe speculates; “people talk about collaboration but you really do feel like you are outside of the European community or the American community.”
Graduates in other parts of the world may need to travel even further to gain experience. Since completing his undergraduate work in China, Kou has spent time at universities in South Korea and the United States, as well as in Singapore where he will earn his doctorate. In addition, he has traveled to the UK, Japan, Kenya, and Canada.
Kou and Otte also both have interdisciplinary experience, which they think may help them to find jobs more easily than graduates who have spent their entire careers in pharmacy schools. However, neither Asia nor the Midwest US offers many opportunities for specialists in particle manufacturing and aerosolization, both will likely have to take jobs far from home.
An international job search introduces additional complications into the picture, including the availability of work visas and competition from OINDP specialists native to the employer’s country. Wong especially worries whether companies outside of Australia will be willing to bother interviewing him, in the face of the logistical and financial hurdles.
Given all of the difficulties involved in the search, it’s not surprising that young researchers might resort to outright begging when faced with an audience of industry.
Since DDL 21, Hoe has interviewed for a postodoctoral position in the US that she discovered on OINDPnews.com and has had conversations about several other potential North American postdoc positions.
Kou’s plea, however, got no response He remains confident that he will manage to find a job in the industry. “I’m an optimistic person,” he says.
