Life Science Rabbit Hole #18: Job Searches

Some Life Science Rabbit Hole readers are familiar with a Hartwig Advisory Services side project, Chas Hartwig's Advice to Job Seekers. I'm finalizing the 2025 edition, and thought you might be interested in this excerpt, which addresses the role of online job postings in a job search.

Enjoy!

C. Job postings

I do not think a heavy focus on searching job postings and applying online will be a successful strategy for your job search.?

Job postings can be a valuable source of opportunities, especially when you combine LinkedIn and networking with a job posting, but first let’s clarify why job postings should not be your primary focus.

Too Many Applicants

Online job postings are simply overwhelmed by the number of applicants.? It’s very easy to search and apply from the comfort of your couch, so every posting reaches millions of potential applicants.?

One company posted a position and within days had 2,000 applicants!? How is a mid-sized company ever going to screen that many people, much less winnow it down to a slate?? Remember, this is just one of dozens of job postings their talent acquisition group has active.

Job searchers use AI tools to create resumes tailored to the posting, appearing to be viable candidates.? I spoke to a recruiter who said that when these candidates have a screening interview, it becomes immediately clear that the candidate hasn’t done any of the things their resume cited!

So the recruiters themselves now use AI tools to weed out the deluge of postings.? It has become an AI-driven arms race:

• Companies use AI to help draft a position description and a posting
• Candidates use AI to create (potentially false) resumes and applications to the posting
• Companies use AI to screen the candidates

Remember the point made earlier that you are a multi-million-dollar product.? If you were selling a multi-million-dollar piece of factory equipment, would you purposefully choose a sales channel that is full of many equivalent equipment providers, some of whom offering shoddy products, all trying to reach the same decision maker or gate keeper the same way?

Many Job Postings Are Not Real

Do you need additional evidence that investing your scarce time searching job postings and applying online is likely to be a waste?? The Wall Street Journal published “Fake Job Postings Are Becoming a Real Problem” in the January 12, 2025 newspaper.?

They found that potentially one in five job postings are for “ghost jobs – the roles that companies advertise but have no intention of filling”.?

According to the Wall Street Journal, “Companies have a number of nefarious and normal reasons for posting not-quite-real jobs.? They may want to suggest they’re growing even when they aren’t, or may keep postings up in case they get a candidate who’s too good to pass up.”

Also be aware of postings on recruiter web sites where the position or employer isn’t clear. ?A recruiter’s web site may post positions to harvest resumes for future positions that they expect (or hope) to be asked to fill in the future. You could end up wasting a lot of time if you aren’t careful

Even if you have been extremely judicious with your time, and only applied for five positions, likely one of them was not real!?

Effective Use of Job Postings

All that being said, an SVP of Human Resources confirmed to me that pretty much every position a company is trying to fill is posted on their website, company LinkedIn page, and/or on a recruiting site such as Indeed.com. If the job posting is by a specific company on their own company web site or on their company LinkedIn page, you can be very confident it is real.

On recruiting sites such as Indeed, you should read the posting carefully to confirm that the posting is for a real position and not a recruiter simply mentioning the company’s name to harvest resumes.

Once you are reasonably confident that the posting is real and is a role you are seeking, go for it. Fill out the on-line application and attach your resume. Make sure your answers are truthful and match the requirements. If the posting requires 5 years of experience, you need to be able to say yes. Otherwise, those remorseless online bots will do their work and your application will never get past the first screen.

However, don’t stop there. Remember two things: your network is the most powerful force you have, and extra initiative will help you stand out.

Power of your network: If you know someone at the company, or if you can be introduced to someone in the company, they may be willing to email your resume and a recommendation to the hiring manager or the internal HR person handling the recruitment. I’ve sent references like this myself on behalf of candidates and have seen it done many times. Hiring managers want the best talent possible, and a candidate coming with a reference reduces their hiring risk. The recommendation email may be nothing more than “Hello, Bob – I hear that you’re recruiting an engineering manager for Acme’s Anvil Catapult program, and I just spoke with someone who could be a great match for you. I worked with her at my last company and think her background fits your needs and she would be a great fit with the Acme culture...” A note like that can let you bypass the screening process and jump directly to a conversation with someone involved with the recruitment. Your odds just got a whole lot better.

Extra initiative: Employers want someone who wants the job. Consider these three situations (all of them are real)

• Someone applies online and sits and waits for a response. And sits. And waits. And gets no response. Ever.
• Someone applies online, searches out the name of the hiring manager or person in HR involved with the recruitment and sends them a cold email along the lines of “Hi – you don’t know me, but I just applied to your Firecracker Roller Skate engineering manager position. Here’s why I want to work for Acme and why I think I can be a major contributor to the program…”
• Someone applies online, can’t identify the hiring manager or HR person, so emails a senior person at the company whose name they found on the company web site. A client told me of a person applying for a second shift plant maintenance supervisor position who took the initiative to cold email the head of HR (or head of Manufacturing, I forget which) expressing their interest and qualifications. The senior person forwarded the email to the people involved in the recruitment (several levels down the chain of command) and the person actually ended up getting the job! The maintenance person showed initiative and drive, which got them into the process.

Why Might You Find It Hard to Deprioritize Online Postings?

I have found that some people have a hard time breaking out of the online posting hamster wheel and shifting their job search focus to networking, even though they find it extremely demotivating to go through dozens or hundreds of cycles of “research-apply-get no response.”

It may be that they haven’t done a lot of networking in the past, and they find it very uncomfortable to start.? Perhaps they have disempowering thoughts such as

• No one will meet with me
• I will come across as begging or weak because I lost my job / am looking for a new job
• I don’t think I have any useful connections to meet with
• I’m very introverted or not used to meeting new people
• I’m going to screw up the networking meeting
• The networking meeting might be another source of rejection
• etc.

You may be one of those individuals who has found it hard to deprioritize online postings.

When you read the list above, written down in black and white, you might react along the lines of “well that’s not really the case – those things are either false or simply not going to happen.”

However, unless you examine the unrecognized thinking that is holding you back, that unhelpful thinking will continue to limit your freedom of action.? The list above is intended as an example of unrecognized thinking.? What is your list?? Move your unhelpful thinking from “unrecognized” to “recognized”.? Now you can do something about it and change it.

Recall that Chapter 1 is entitled Your Mindset.? Recall the empowering mindset you chose.? If you didn’t go through that exercise before, or if you now realize that what you wrote down earlier isn’t serving you well at this time, go back.? Reread the chapter.? Call a friend.? Schedule some networking meetings.

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Concluding Thoughts

If you are a reader of the Life Science Rabbit Hole, you are probably a participant in the broader life science ecosystem.

You probably realize what a privileged position you have, being able to accelerate the development of therapies, medical products & services, in order to improve and extend the lives of patients and those who love them.

Our industry is characterized by rapid change across the entire ecosystem - scientific discoveries, manufacturing technologies, mergers & acquisitions, new startups, AI & IT platforms, etc.

This also results in constant people movement, both planned and unplanned. You yourself may have been impacted. Certainly some of your have friends and colleagues have.

I hope you find this edition of the Life Science Rabbit Hole useful to you as you lead your organization and our industry.