CY Partners is a scientific recruitment consultancy based in the North East of England. Founded in 2008, the expert team works with an international client and candidate base and has specialist roles from junior laboratory placements to senior executive positions.
Daniel Younger (pictured below), founder and consultant at CY Partners discusses the reoccurring problems scientific graduates face when trying to land their dream job.
“We receive countless CVs and phone calls from graduates looking for their first role to launch their career. As a scientific recruitment consultancy, said graduates usually have eight years’ study, training and research behind them, so they are looking forward to starting a bright rewarding future where they can change their world for the better.
Unfortunately, this is often met with a blunt: “Do you have any industry experience?” If they have completed a placement as part of their studies and answer “yes” then a world of opportunity awaits; if it’s a “no” they are immediately advised to gain it – even if that means working unpaid for several months. Not an ideal state of affairs.
As recruiters, we are limited by the requirements of our clients. If these include prior experience with specific industry standards and quality protocols with proven experience working to tight deadlines, then we are restricted to those who have worked in a commercial environment. Therefore, no matter how enthusiastic the candidate may be or how high their academic grades, this will always represent a barrier to entry.
So, how can candidates overcome this? How can the UK produce research scientists and laboratory analysts capable of filling the employment gaps in the scientific sector? The current method of teaching science dates back to before Isaac Newton and trains students to follow the academic research model. This focuses on blue-sky research projects in order to generate as many peer-reviewed papers as possible. In this model, a negative result is treated in the same manner as a positive result and the focus is on winning the next grant rather than producing an outcome.
In Germany, the model is different. The Mittelstand refers primarily to privately-owned SMEs and employs more than 70% of all employees in the private sector. Such is the power of the Mittelstand that many German Universities develop bespoke courses in order to maintain the supply of technically-skilled staff. In this way, the graduating students leave with the training required to find a job and the companies are guaranteed a skilled workforce.
Universities should train their students to be both good academics and also commercial researchers. Support should be prioritised to ensure that a placement year in the industry becomes the norm rather than leaving it up to the individual to arrange, whilst juggling studying, exams and probably a part-time job. Furthermore, many institutes offer courses that are not directly relevant to either an academic or a commercial career and lack scientific rigor. These courses are often more popular than ‘pure science’ degrees, offering diverse study but without sufficient depth to meet employers requirements.
Roles within the academic sector itself typically are short-term contracts, requiring significant upheaval for a researcher and their family every one to two years in order to maintain employment. Similarly, many highly-qualified post-doctoral scientists also leave academia in order to gain stability and certainty but are faced with the same challenge.
In the UK, more than 1,800 specialist start-ups and spinout businesses have been established since 2000. A quick glance at the UK Science Park Association website demonstrates the scale of scientific research that this country offers. However, without the correct training, the annual crop of new graduates will not be sufficiently qualified to gain meaningful employment and several years of training may go to waste. Companies will continue to struggle to find candidates with the right technical skills and training and will look to Europe and the rest of the world to fill these gaps.
Recruitment is a profession driven by the ability to influence those around us. Perhaps, we should start trying to influence the academic sector in order to ensure changes are made? CY Partners is already trying to help UK graduates by lecturing frequently at Universities, providing CV and interview advice as well as advice on searching and applying for jobs and how to gain experience whilst still in education. Students need to understand that in today’s economy they have to ensure they stand out – we help them achieve this.
CY Partners is a specialist, independent consultancy with over 25 years’ experience of industry specific recruitment within the Oil and Gas, Pharmaceutical, Biotechnology, Chemical, FMCG, Medical Device, Forensic, Food and related scientific and Engineering industries.
For more information and job opportunities please visit: www.cypartners.co.uk | Twitter @CYPartners | Facebook: CY Partners
