What makes a good lab informatics candidate?

What do candidates need to do to stand out in the competitive lab informatics job market? Our head of recruitment Zachary Harris shares his thoughts.

In a highly competitive job market like lab informatics, it can be difficult for candidates to stand out from the crowd. Having matched candidates and clients in this industry for a number of years now, there are a few key considerations that help me identify the best-suited candidates for certain roles.

Here, I’ll summarise some of the most important factors that both candidates and clients should consider in this specialist market.

For candidates:

Be ready to present evidence

We’ve touched on how to optimise your CV in previous blogs, however you’ve got to do more than just talk the talk – you’ve got to show you can walk the walk as well. When preparing them for interview, I ask candidates to share stories that demonstrate the experience listed on their CV. If they tell me that they have managed multiple teams of people on a project, that’s a great start – but I also want to know what they did to keep everyone on track, how they kept everyone motivated, and anything they put in place to improve the culture, for example.

While I wouldn’t recommend including this amount of detail on your CV, candidates should have examples at the ready for interviews. And if you can’t back it up with examples, consider taking it out.

Show flexibility

Candidates that have both project management and business analyst experience are particularly in demand right now, as employers are looking for candidates who can both start a project, and deliver it. The business analyst experience comes in useful for gathering requirements and mapping the process, but the project manager experience comes in when it’s time to lead the project once everything is ready to go.

For candidates with solely business analyst experience, I would advise getting the PRINCE2 qualification to demonstrate project management skills, as well as seeking out project management experience to show they have the ability to deliver a project from start to finish.

Sell yourself and your technical experience

Depending on the role, lab experience may not always be essential. But for two candidates side-by-side, the candidate with experience in a lab setting may have the edge over the candidate that has a strictly IT background.

Showcasing your experience on a specific system can also help you to gain an edge in some circumstances. Candidates who can name systems they have worked with are more likely to be noticed by a potential employer who is looking for experience with that specific tool or platform. This applies to systems such as laboratory information management systems (LIMS), electronic lab notebooks (ELN), chromatography data systems (CDS), scientific data management systems (SDMS), lab execution systems (LES) and more.

Showcase transferable skills

From ‘soft’ skills such as team leadership and communication, to practical skills such as LIMS experience, highlight how your skills can be transferable to other roles, situations, and organisations.

For lab informatics jobs (particularly functional roles), even if candidates don’t have experience with a specific system, if they can talk about their experience in mapping a similar project and gathering the requirements, they could still stand out. Employers will understand that any role has an element of learning and adapting, so candidates that can demonstrate experience, flexibility, and willingness to learn will stand in good stead.

What can employers do to attract informatics candidates?

It’s not just candidates that need to stand out – employers also need to make sure they’re attractive in a competitive space. Offering real benefits to employees is a huge plus, and can not only help companies attract new talent, but also help to retain existing staff.

One area to consider is hybrid working policies. Attitudes towards remote working have been changing continuously since the shift to remote working in 2020, and if you’d asked me at the start of 2023 how employers in this industry were operating, I’d have told you remote working was still the norm. Now, we’re seeing more and more hybrid roles coming to market.

It can be tempting to ask for full-time, on-site. But as candidates have become accustomed to home-working, flexibility is essential, and hybrid roles are a good compromise. Many candidates understand the value in having people on-site, but typically, the roles that offer flexibility and only require employees to come into the office a couple of times a week are more likely to attract more candidates. This also opens the role up to candidates further afield, who may not be able to make a long journey every day, but may be willing to do it for part of the week.

In summary, there are a few ways that candidates can help themselves stand out, and also ways in which employers can attract the best lab informatics talent. Whatever side of the fence you sit on, 32 Stripes is here to offer advice and support to get the best people in the best hard to fill roles.

For more information about the roles we have on offer, visit our vacancies page.

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