BCF Career Event for career awareness, enhancing skills and networking
29 May 2019
Blog by Elaine Lima de Souza – Ph.D. in Sciences
Last week was the BCF Career Event in Utrecht. Events like this have many benefits. Mainly they create a great opportunity to network with companies and getting relevant leads that will help find your dream job. However, I recognised that not all professionals were there with the same goal in mind. Some were more looking for career awareness and to learn new ways to enhance their skills.
From my perusal of the attendees, I was able to construct the following list of professionals with their reasons to attend this event:
- Individuals that are looking for a job in a specific industry, that want to change careers and/or are unsure about what to look for. Their goal is AWARENESS!
- Individuals that have a vague idea of what they want to do but do not know exactly how without having any relevant experience. Their goal is to ENHANCE SKILLS!
- Individuals that want to launch their first job in the industry and know exactly their career prospects. Their goal is to NETWORK!
Do you recognise yourself in that? Then the BCF Career Event is for you!
I walked around the exhibition floor with over 80 companies in attendance. I was able to gather valuable information from various biotech companies, recruitment/consulting agencies and about several training programs.
During the event, useful information was shared about training programs to help you to enhance your skills such as Biobusiness Summer School, the BCF courses and HELIS academy program. For example, at Biobusiness Summer School, you have the opportunity to increase your business acumen and to meet leaders of the Life Sciences Industry. And at HELIS academy, you can develop skills in high demand such as Business Development, Good Manufacturing Practices, and Data Analysis.
I think that the presence of these training programs raised an important question. I remember somebody asking for the reason why we do not get career development advice in University or even during the Master or Ph.D. I hope one day the educational system understands the need to give information about career development. But for now, I urge you to visit career events like the BCF or to gain information through training programs.
Moreover, during the BCF Career Event, I attended several interesting workshops. One of them was Jord Teeuwen, Managing Partner of QTC Recruitment’s, roundtable discussion. During this workshop, several industry professionals were present to talk about their career switches. Interestingly, more senior professionals shared that in “their times” the access of information for career transition was very rare. It made me realise that a career change is not a “millennium” thing. The difference, in my opinion, is that nowadays we have great access to information, and this event is helping to spread that.
Another workshop I attended was called “Next Industrial Revolution” by Julio Peironcely from DataFitter. During his presentation, he shared that data sciences, data analysis, machine learning and AI will be everywhere soon, even in the life sciences industry. According to him, we will not be substitutes by robots, but we will be substitutes by the people that know how to work with them. I agree with this theory! Therefore, I think that even if you are not a person that enjoys coding it is a good idea to sharpen your software skills.
I would like to finish adding that even if you are not looking for a career change, or looking for a job at the moment, you still will have a great time meeting nice and intelligent people at the BCF Career Event. Perhaps you will be the one giving a piece of advice for those struggling in their career paths. Helping always give happiness back!
Hope to be back next year and meet you there!
Elaine Lima de Souza, Contributor: I’ve spent a decade working in science. I have an MSc and Ph.D. from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and three years postdoc at Erasmus MC. I worked with rare diseases and molecular diagnostics. From thyroid physiology to cancer. I’m an award-winning scientist with 14 international peer-review publications. Moreover, I’m passionate about reading fiction and non-fiction books and share ideas. All of my articles reflect my personal views.