After a month of career development workshops, our much anticipated Bioscience Talent Connection (BTC) career fair was held virtually on Feb. 26th, 2021. With over 20 recruiting companies, over 200 participants, nearly 100 job opportunities, countless resumes deposited, and meaningful interactions exchanged between job seekers and recruiters, we are proud to say it was a great success!
This year, during February, we held weekly workshops to prepare job seekers with essential job hunting skills: from how to polish a CV/resume, to how to prepare for a job interview, to how to effectively network online. And finally, on Feb. 26th, 2021, we brought company representatives and job seekers together for a virtual exchange. Our BTC career fair kicked off with opening remarks by our president, Kathy Grotsch, on the networking platform Remo. We had more than 30 virtual tables with representatives from 21 biotech companies who were actively hiring. Our attendees had the flexibility to stop by at any table they were interested in and have face-to-face interactions with the recruiters. During the event, we had 10-minute spotlight presentations by Allogene, MaxCyte, Graduate Women in Science (GWIS), and Xencor, where the company’s mission and values were presented, and their job opportunities were broadcasted. Besides the spotlight presentations, we also had Acsel, Amberstone Biosciences, Azzur Group, Boehringer Ingelheim, Cannalysis, Cedars Sinai Biomanufacturing Center, DeciBio, EnCorps, IQVIA, Kite, the Lundquist Institute, PathoGene, PolyPeptide, Q2 Solutions, Scismic, Seed, Spatial Genomics and ThermoFisher Scientific at our exhibitor tables. Attendees were also free to network with other attendees to grow their professional circles. Although we look forward to the possibility of returning to in-person events soon, Remo provided similar networking capabilities and the experience was overall very enjoyable. All of the companies received applications from great candidates and gave positive feedback.
In line with BCLA’s mission, we strive to close the gap between academia and industry by helping people find their dream jobs in the biotech space. This year, we held three weekly workshops to help job seekers prepare for their job search. Read more on the career development tips from our workshops throughout BTC career month here. Our exhibitor companies at BTC career fair were very happy to receive CVs from great candidates and we hope to see more successful job hunting stories coming out of BTC career month!