View comment(1) | Comment on this blog   

For those of you who have dreamed of doing science in Europe but don't know how to find the jobs, MIT is hosting a European Career Fair from February 2nd to the 4th, to introduce job-hunting researchers to European employers from academia and industry.

The fair is free to candidates and open to the public. No registration is required, but posting a resume online gives employers a chance to find promising candidates ahead of time. Sven Loebrich, the co-chair of the European Career Fair and a postdoc at MIT, says he expects to see jobs ranging from post-doc positions to associate professorships as well as industry research jobs.

In the past, the European Career Fair has focused on engineering and technology by virtue of its association with MIT. But this year, the student-run organization is reaching out to life science institutions and expects good representation from research institutes and pharmaceutical companies. How many companies and institutions? There were more than 100 employers from a wide range of fields last year, but we won't know the final number this year until December 14th, when registration for employers closes.

The Career Fair was designed for foreign researchers who wanted to find out about opportunities back home. In recent years, the fair has attracted many US natives, who will have to compete with their multi-lingual peers. Loebrich said it's fairly common to find candidates who speak as many as three languages fluently. "Five languages is less common," he said, but still represented.

But you have to hurry up if you want companies to book you for a personal interview. The deadline for posting your resume is November 23rd (this Friday). You'll still be able to tweak it after you submit, using the "revise resume" button.