Scientific Career Forecast For 1994 Remains Gloomy, As Funding Constraints And Sluggish Economy Persist

only slowing down hiring but also laying off their current employees. Last month, for example, Pfizer Inc., headquartered in New York, announced that it would eliminate 3,000 jobs; Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Upjohn Co. announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs; and Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. announced 4,000 planned layoffs. The displaced scientists are "excellent hires for us," says Ed Bocko, Jr., a biotechnology human resource consultant for Protran Resources Inc. of Sharon, Mass., "but the biotech industry is not large enough to absorb the large numbers of people. Large numbers of scientists on the market is not good news" for job seekers. On an optimistic note, Irwin Ruderfer, president of Krow Associates, a recruitment firm in Little Falls, N.J., says that extreme cautiousness on the part of pharmaceutical firms cannot continue indefinitely. "A narrowing down or cutting back of the work force will not be an ongoing philosophy," says Ruderfer, who predicts "increased activity" as the plan becomes "more and more defined." off, at least temporarily, as a source of research employment, smaller biotech companies are heating up, experts say. "Many [small biotechs] are at the research stage," says the Lendman Group's DiGeronimo. "They're looking at research people with higher levels of specialized experience in their particular area. Often they look for experience, but it's not available, so they end up taking [candidates with] less." Ruderfer agrees. "The place to look are the smaller companies as opposed to the giant companies," he says. Ruderfer says that the job seekers having the most luck with these smaller firms are those with master's degrees or Ph.D.'s and one to two years' experience; these researchers are being hired at salaries ranging from $35,000 to $60,000, he says. "Highly skilled and experienced Ph.D.'s are also finding positions with big pharmaceutical and biotech companies," although their success rate is not as high as that of their less-experienced colleagues, Ruderfer says, noting that researchers in this category who are lucky enough to land jobs are commanding salaries of $100,000 or more. Yet, cautions recruiter Erwin Posner, president of the Southfield, Mich.-based Professional Advancement & Placement Institute, "There's not as much room at the top. When I do get a higher-level person, who's at the upper reaches of the salary level--perhaps [such a researcher is job-hunting because] the lab moved out of the country, or the company downsized--I have trouble duplicating that same level of salary." Scientists in middle-management positions--those earning $70,000 to $90,000--aren't faring well, either, Ruderfer says. "They're afraid of leaving their positions; they have a false sense of security." It is researchers in these jobs who are being laid off en masse or being asked to take early retirement, he notes: "Then they come to us [recruiters] in an emergency, and we can't always solve their problems." The declining strength of the large pharmaceutical firms means tough going for newly minted scientists, who used to be absorbed in large numbers by these giants, says the Lendman Group's DiGeronimo: "There's less demand for entry- level [scientists] as the quantity hirers move cautiously." While he agrees that smaller biotechs are now hiring more researchers than larger companies are, Posner notes one factor that is decreasing somewhat the opportunities at the small firms: Some are entering into research partnerships with larger companies. "The smaller biotechs can't afford to go it alone" in many cases, Posner says. In addition, he says, most small companies are confining their hiring to only one or two areas of specialization: "They're concentrating on certain markets rather than being broader in their approach to research," as many of the larger companies traditionally have been. opportunities to fade away, the outlook is brightening for B.S.- and M.S.-level scientists with production experience, biotech placement specialists say. "The companies that two years ago were hiring research people are hiring manufacturing people now," says Steve Aeby, director of the Career Connection, a Thousand Oaks, Calif., organizer of biotechnology job fairs. Demand is growing, Aeby says, for "process-development types of people--manufacturing, quality control. They're going to be the hands-on people." The ideal candidates, he says, are those with bachelor's or master's degrees and at least two to three years of experience who "started out doing research, but ended up in a manufacturing role; who have been involved in successful pilot plants and have quality- assurance experience." Because the industry is young, there are not many individuals who have experience working with a firm that has gone into production, Aeby notes, causing the demand to be higher than the supply: "Especially in the Boston area, they're screaming for these people." "The sole emphasis will not be R&D," says human resource consultant Bocko. "All of a sudden there'll be all these other openings people haven't had to think about." Bocko predicts that the hot disciplines for the B.S.- and M.S.- level hires will be peptide chemistry and analytical chemistry, particularly for "industry-experienced people who have done protein purification on a large scale." He also anticipates a demand for biostatisticians and finance officers. Says Bocko: "I can see the companies thinking about sales forces in '95 and '96." Thinking Creatively It is not only the biotech industry that will be heavily focused on products, says MIT's Weatherall, noting that physical scientists and engineers will also be sought by small companies to conduct applied, rather than basic, research. "Opportunities at the big research labs, like IBM [Corp. of Armonk, N.Y.] and [AT&T] Bell Labs [of Murray Hill, N.J.], remain poor," Weatherall says. "Where Ph.D.'s are going to find jobs is in applied situations in small companies. [They will] not be so much asked to do real research as to help come up with products or improve products." As examples of employers looking for physical scientists to work on applied problems, he cites software companies and the biochemical processing industry. Weatherall and other university career-placement officers predict that in 1994, demand for science students will continue to come from an unconventional source: the world of business and finance. "There's a demand for mathematical- minded Ph.D.'s from the financial world," says Weatherall, who notes that 40 percent of the employers that recruited at MIT in 1993 were software, management information systems, management consulting, or financial firms. Caltech's Asmundsen agrees. "We've had a lot of contact from financial concerns, investment banks, and management consulting firms," she says. "They're not just looking at bachelor's and master's people, they're looking at Ph.D. people." But Kevin Aylesworth, a condensed-matter physicist now working as a paralegal in Cambridge, Mass., has not seen a high demand for physicists on Wall Street or here. "If [those optimistic about the job market] can supply me with a list of people who will hire us, I can supply them with a list of people who are willing to work," says Aylesworth, founder of the Young Scientists Network, an electronic bulletin board (E-mail: ysn-adm@zoyd.ee.washington.edu) where frustrated researchers are invited to share their job- search experiences. "I know people who've been told to keep the Ph.D. off their resume [because of the perception that Ph.D.'s] aren't good for anything except sitting and thinking; they don't contribute to the bottom line. I can't see where the driving force to improve things will come from, especially in physics." Aylesworth says. Temporary Help One source of sustenance for those unable to find permanent employment is temporary scientific work--an area that is expected to grow in 1994. "The market for temporary or contingent workers is increasing because of uncertainty in the economy," says Tom Buelter, CEO of Lab Support, a Canoga Park, Calif., agency for temporary lab workers. Buelter says his firm's earnings increased by 8 percent in the third quarter of 1993 over 1992's third quarter; he cites the biotech, environmental, and food industries as growth areas. Buelter says that typically, scientists sign up to take temporary assignments because "they don't have another job, but would like to stay within their discipline." The prototypical temporary worker, he says, has a bachelor's degree in chemistry, biochemistry, biology, or microbiology and 0 to five years' experience. Employers use temporary workers for assignments that "are temporary by nature," says Buelter. "Maybe a company is going to take a drug to the FDA [Food and Drug Administration, for approval], or they need relabeling on a food product, or they need people in a pilot plant to start up." The typical assignment, he says, is 3 1/2 months. Companies that downsize, says Buelter, "have a number of employees as core employees." During peak periods, when more staffers are required, "they use a contingent work force to meet their needs. That's managing the work force in the '90s." Job-hunting scientists should take comfort in the fact that there are, indeed, scientific jobs out there, analysts say, although not necessarily of the type that existed in previous years. "The level of hiring is about the same, but in different phases with different companies," says the Career Connection's Aeby. "There are companies planning to do hiring, but the requirements are changing."

Scientific Career Forecast For 1994 Remains Gloomy, As Funding Constraints And Sluggish Economy Persist

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