We have a pretty good idea of what motivates a leader in the life sciences industry to move to a new opportunity because we hear it directly from them during interviews. But most of our discussions are informal. We decided it was time to get a more official temperature on what drives executive candidates, particularly […]
Hiring survey indicates executives candidates are less driven by how much you’ll pay them and more concerned with how they’ll fit into your company What’s the number one thing on the mind of executive candidates interviewing for a job at your company? It’s your company culture. Those were just some of the findings in a […]
Always talk to the overqualified candidate. You may find out there are any number of reasons why they want to take a role that seems like a step back.
A few years ago, my firm was called in to reopen an executive search project for a CSO in gene therapy. We hadn’t done the initial search. That one was handled by a combination of an in-house recruiter and a big search firm, and the result was a CSO who lasted less than a year […]
If you don’t know what “key selection criteria” is, it’s simply the skills, attributes, knowledge and qualifications that you believe a job candidate needs to succeed in a role. In theory, you’d find someone who meets all of it, make an offer, and take off running. Except when it’s an executive role you need to […]
Thirty years ago, we’d have a handful of great prospects for any life sciences role that needed to be filled -- fewer when recruiting executive positions. At the time, the industry wasn’t very big or diverse, and everyone knew the top names. Today, we still have a limited number of great prospects for any life […]
I recently read that Novartis has decided to shutter its antibacterial and antiviral research and development programs. It reminded me of something that happened shortly after I joined the Wyeth Research organization as an HR leader in the early 2000s. Wyeth had made the decision to pull out of the antibiotics space. My role was […]
I got a call from a life sciences firm a few years ago. They had a brilliant Controller, but the cultural fit was all wrong and it was affecting everyone around her. Problems were quickly escalating between her and the CEO. She had to go. The problem was that the Controller hadn’t been with the […]
I spend considerable time reading. Paper is my medium of choice, but I read plenty of digital publications and newsletters, too. I spend a portion of each day snapping photos of great print articles and sending them to my team or forwarding today’s newsletter. I’m not alone — when you’re an executive recruiter, it’s almost […]
One of my colleagues, Ed Herpel, forwarded a question to me the other day: "Are job interviews even necessary?" It wasn’t his question, just one that was gaining a lot of attention on LinkedIn that day. And the responses were mixed. The question couldn’t have been better timed. I had just finished interviewing a candidate for […]
