April 13, 2015
By Riley McDermid, BioSpace.com Breaking News Sr. Editor
Boston biotech is gearing up for theSpring Genetown Talent Connect on April 21, as Massachusetts continues to be a powerhouse for some of the best science in the world, said local market experts.
“Massachusetts continues to see growth not only in research and development biotechnology jobs, but in a range of careers across the life sciences ecosystem,” Robert K. Coughlin, president and chief executive officer of MassBio, the Massachusetts life sciences trade association, told BioSpace. “These jobs are an important piece of the Massachusetts economy, but more importantly mean that there are more treatments and cures in the pipeline to help patients around the world.”
Job seekers or life science professionals who want to mingle and network will be able to network with other life science professionals and have on-site in-depth private interviews with employers like Acorda,Integrated Project Management, Kelly Scientific Resources, NITTO DENKO Avecia and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, all of which have multiple job offerings on tap at Talent Connect.
Candidates looking to attend must pre-register and submit their resumes for pre-screening in order to be approved for one-on-one 15-minute interviews.
“Kelly Scientific Resources currently has 48 positions available in the Boston area,” Brenda Guerrero, senior marketing manager at Kelly Services, told BioSpace.
“If candidates attending the Genetown event are interested in relocation options, we have more than 1,000 open scientific positions across the country,” she said.
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute has eight positions open presently, while Acorda will be hiring for five, and Integrated Project Management will be shopping for five project managers.
Boston remains one of the world’s best places to find top-notch life science talent. “Massachusetts has the highest educated workforce in the United States. It ranks 1st in the nation in percentage of residents with a bachelors degree or higher,” said The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council in a statement. “Its elementary and secondary students perform best in the nation on national assessments.”
The council is an association of more than650 biotechnology companies, universities, academic institutions and others dedicated to advancing cutting edge research. According to the council, there were 57,642 biopharma employees in Massachusetts in 2013 and the companies employing those workers are responsible for over $7.2 million of in-state payroll. There are more than 550 biotech and pharma companies located in Massachusetts, 284 of which are drug development companies.
“The Massachusetts biopharma industry grew by41 percent between between 2004 and 2013.Massachusetts is home to a biotechnology cluster that is second to none,” it said, adding that money used to fund the industry continues to pour in.
“Massachusetts received $2.3 billion in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding for basic research in Fiscal Year 2013. Massachusetts researchers receive over 11 percent of all NIH research funds.On a per capita basis, Massachusetts receives over twice as much NIH funding (FY 2012) as the next closest state, Texas”.
Complementing its outstanding biopharmaceutical companies are 122 colleges and universities, over 40 of which offer advanced degrees in the life sciences, the top five National Institutes of Health-funded hospitals in the nation.
