Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this sun of York !

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/261500.html

A summer characterised by traditional English underperformance is trudging to a close. To have come so close to glory at The World Cup, only to have had our hopes dashed by the excellent (in that game at least) German football team, was tragic. Equally so was the stalwart, if doomed attempt by the doughty British tennis player Andy Murray to lift the crown at Wimbledon! (Make no mistake, if he'd won, we would have acknowledged his Scottishness with respect and enthusiasm. As it turned out, we Brits may as well take the rap!) And a bus queue of Englishmen stood behind the exemplary Louis Oosthuizen (from South Africa) who prevailed at The Open golf championship at St Andrews (that's in Scotland!). It was a pity Louis called it 'The British Open' in his victory speech, because it most certainly isn't! It's The Open, plain and simple. But he is from Barcelona, innit?

All is not lost however! Great joy! By the time you're reading the next edition of The Hotsheet, the new football season will have kicked off. One of the few good things to come out of South Africa (from an English perspective of course) will be the arrival of a few of the stars from around the world, into The Premiership. Of course, that's part of the problem with English football: we may have (arguably) the best league in the world, but only 38% of the players are home grown. No wonder we can't raise an effective national team! Still, at least we'll get to see some good footie being played after Saturday 14th August.

In the meantime, The Editor and all the staff at Seltek would like to wish all our readers a very happy summer holiday! We hope your travel operators don't go bust, and that you won't get stranded by ash clouds, and that you avoid getting sunburn (remember the factor 50!)(we are not from Barcelona!) and we look forward to seeing you all again ready for the autumn term.

Incidentally, contrary to what you may think, the title means: The time of unhappiness is past!

Top

Annual Search for Fresh Meat!

An acquaintance told me he'd been to a fish restaurant in Japan which professed to serve only the freshest food. A devotee of such culinary delights, my friend had gone in and placed his order. He was mildly disconcerted however to see swimming around in a water tank in the restaurant, a large fish with a swathe of its flesh cut away from its side!

Sorry if that put you off your lunch! It horses for courses, though isn't it? Even that didn't come out quite right, given French gastronomic proclivities. Ah well, every dog has his day! O no! Koreans!

Where is all this leading? Seltek has embarked on a systematic program of growth which will lead us through the next five years, and beyond. We are therefore interested in hearing from new science graduates who are interested in a commercial career. We offer full training as a recruitment consultant, an enjoyable and potentially lucrative future, and a great team of like-minded enthusiasts, just like yourself, to work with!

If you are such a graduate, or know one, please contact Scott Peacock who will tell you more! Much more!

01279 657716 scott@seltekconsultants.co.uk

Top

Reasons To Be Cheerful (Not!): Part I !

It won't come as a great surprise for you to learn that almost everyone that comes to Seltek looking for a new job, has some dissatisfaction with their current employment. A few of course are 'just fishing', but even in those cases there is probably some deep-seated problem that its owner hasn't even admitted to him or herself.

One of the frustrations that we, as recruitment consultants, suffer from time to time, is when a candidate comes to us professing to be unhappy with his or her employment, we find them a job, candidate resigns, whereupon boss promptly puts right the problem that caused the candidate to go looking for a new job in the first place.

We vehemently advise people to resist counter-offers! If you make up your mind to leave a job and take a new one, then you should stick to Plan A, and not allow yourself to be manipulated by others who have a vested interest in their own security rather than yours!

So, although there's a danger that we might be shooting ourselves in the foot (by depriving ourselves of potential candidates), our advice to anyone who is unhappy at work is to try to sort it out and stay put in your job. Better the devil you know, and all that, and whilst there are huge benefits from changing jobs at the right time and for the right reasons, there is also jeopardy too.

Obviously if you have lost your job - redundancy, company closure/removal etc, then there is not much that can be done. If your company is moving location, you will almost certainly have been offered to keep your job, and you must decide whether you want to move, and if you have a family, then that is a complex decision.

It's rather the litany of other reasons for leaving jobs that we're talking about here, and one of the commonest reasons for dissatisfaction within employment is 'no further challenge/bored/not enough to do'.

It's also one of the simplest things for a boss to put right, if you resign when you have a new job to go to. 'Oh, Billy! Why didn't you tell us! How would you like to move into marketing and help the Marketing Director arrange all our exhibitions? She's frightfully overworked and I'm sure she will appreciate your input!' Problem solved!

If you're feeling overpaid (!) and underworked, why not ask your boss for an appraisal meeting? Every business should hold appraisal meetings with staff at all levels regularly, but it's our observation that actually it's very rare. Your boss might be a little put out if you ask for something to happen which has seldom, if ever happened before, so it needs to be done tactfully. Perhaps you could suggest that you have a meeting to analyse precisely what you're doing for the company, and to outline areas where you feel you could do with a little help, and areas where you feel you might be able to contribute more to the company. Say you'll do all the groundwork, prepare documents, figures etc. Suggest you hold it early one evening when you know your boss won't be too busy or otherwise occupied; suggest that you go out afterwards for a bite to eat and a beer or a Pimms (or whatever).

With a bit of luck, you should be able to open a dialogue which will give you more, and more interesting work to do, without having to go through the whole palava of going into the job market, attending interviews, all the heartache of resigning etc etc

If your ideas fall on stony ground, then at least you know you will be doing the right thing, looking elsewhere for gainful employment, and that when you resign, your boss won't be able to swing you around, because you'll be able to say 'I told you I was unhappy, but you didn't want to listen! Goodbye!'

Top

Are You Getting Enough?!

Calm down, calm down! We're not talking about what goes on in the dead of night behind closed doors! It's occurred to us, that one of the ways we can help people - employers and employees alike - is to provide periodically a list of salaries of candidates that we have recently interviewed.

Obviously salaries vary enormously, certainly between different industries, but even between companies within the same business niche. And one must also bear in mind that in some cases, people come to us because they feel they are underpaid, and they believe that the salary they are being paid is less than the norm. (Actually, real dissatisfaction with pay is one of the rarest reasons that drive people to look for a new job.)

So, merely to provide a yardstick that is based in hard reality, here is a list of people that we have interviewed in the last month, and their basic salary/annual on-target earnings:

MD £140K/170K
Senior BD Manager (Italy) €82K/100K
Regional Sales Manager (Germany) €76K/86K
Field Applications Specialist £55K
Business Development Manager £55K/65K
European Support Manager £43K/50K
Account Manager £42K/57K
Product Manager £40K/46K
Internal Sales Leader (European) £38K/68K
UK Sales Manager (non-supervisory) £38K/44K
Technical Sales Representative £35K/47K
Sales Representative (Europe) £35K/41K
Product Manager £35/37K
Regional Sales Manager (non-supervisory) £33K/41K
Sales Executive £33K/49K
Business Development Manager £32K/37K
Account Manager £32K
Technical Specialist £29K
Technical Services Advisor £23K/24K

Top

Hot Jobs

Summer holidays! A time for rest and relaxation, rolling up your trousers, and paddling in the pool of gentle excess! Entrust the kids to the mother-in-law, and take the partner out to a fancy restaurant!

Everyone adores the lovely dog days of July and August, but of course, we all know in our heart of hearts, that working life will go on remorselessly afterwards! If the thought of what you will return to after basking in your summer of discontent (see above), then consider one of Seltek's Hot Jobs, to make sure the joy continues, maybe even forever!

Job Ref:

Position:

Category:

Salary:

Package:

Location:

Description:

Job Ref:

Position:

Category:

Salary:

£350,000 basic

Package:

Location:

Description:

• Summary:The role is field based in the South East / South West / East Anglia so a fair degree of travel would be expected across the territory. The markets targeted are universities, biopharma companies, and analytical laboratories so there are plenty of customers to approach and build on. The typical value of this fairly niche instrumentation is £10-50K , so if you are looking for an entry to mid level chemistry capital-equipment sales, this opportunity is the one for you!
  
  
  
• Why you should apply for this job:This opportunity is with the major player in a field of chemistry instrumentation that applies to biopharmaceuticals, food processing and analytical chemistry. The company is stable and experiencing excellent growth! With a majority market share you will be well placed to benefit from new demand from customers in this area. This is a privately owned mid-sized company with a very strong market reputation.
  
  

Job Ref:

Position:

Category:

Salary:

Package:

Location:

Description:

Job Ref:

Position:

Category:

Salary:

£45,000 basic salary

OTE:

£75,000 p.a., car allowance, uncapped bonus, pension, healthcare

Location:

Description:

• Summary: An innovative manufacturer of genomic research products is expanding its commercial team in Europe and is keen to recruit an Account Manager to focus on a specific group of products dedicated to the functional genomics/screening market within the UK and Ireland. The role will involve managing existing accounts and growing the business further by developing strong relationships with key opinion leaders within the market.
  
• Why you should apply for this job?  It is expected that sales will grow significantly and future progression within the business will be encouraged as the business grows. This is a brilliant opportunity to take highly innovative products to the market and be a key part of this product group's success!
  

Job Ref:

Position:

Trainee or Experienced Sales Representative

Category:

Salary:

£25,000 basic salary

Package:

£26,500 p.a., Blackberry, annual bonus, laptop, 20 days holiday

Location:

Description:

• Summary: The role is to sell a custom range of bespoke life science reagents and biochemicals across the UK. The role is based from the head offices in the North East and you will be visiting customers 2-3 days per week. The company has exciting growth plans so now is the time to join to be part of this expansion. The role is open due to internal promotion. This is a genuine trainee sales role and full training and support will be provided.
  
  
• Why you should apply for this job: The company is a rapidly expanding custom manufacturer of life science chemicals and reagents. Offering a fully bespoke service to their customers they offer a market leading range of biochemicals and are recognised as experts in the field. The culture is a team based and customer relationship led environment where individual effort will be rewarded.
  

Clinical Jobs

Job Ref:

Position:

Category:

Basic:

High negotiable basic salary

Package:

Location:

Description:

• Summary: One of the top ten clinical research organisation (CRO) is expanding, and is keen to recruit a Senior CRA to join their team in Germany. The role can be office or field based with regular travel to monitoring sites. You will assist in managing large scale clinical trial projects or act as a project manager for small scale projects ensuring on time and on budget performance. Monitoring which will include pre-study, initiation, routine and close-out visits, GCP compliance, investigator recruitment and negotiation of study budgets with investigators will all be part of the role.
  
  
• Why you should apply for this job: Working for one of the leading organisations it this field will offer unrivalled opportunities for progression and security!
  

Job Ref:

Position:

Category:

Salary:

Package:

Location:

Description:

• Summary: As well as undertaking detailed analysis of projects and providing recommendations based on the data gathered, you will be involved in drafting business proposals, designing questionnaires and structuring presentations.
  
  
• Why you should apply for this job: This is one of Europe's leading pharmaceutical and healthcare market intelligence companies!
  

Hot Candidates

When you hire people that are smarter than you are, you prove you are smarter than they are. R.H.Grant

Smarten up, employers! Hire one of Seltek's incredibly smart Hot Candidates, and prove yourself to be smarter than a smart thing!

Scientific Sales & Marketing Division

* Senior VP Global Business Management Anywhere! €200/300K Ref: 93591

* European Key Account Manager Anywhere! £90/100K Ref: 86506

* Director of Sales (Europe) South East £70/100K Ref: 31535

* UK & Eire Sales Manager M4 Corridor £50/95K Ref: 107170

* European Sales Manager London £50/62K Ref: 63804

* Product Manager South East £38/44K Ref:79776

* Automation Engineer South East £36K Ref: 92254

* Instrumentation Sales Specialist Anywhere! £32/36K Ref: 83461

* Product Specialist South £30/35K Ref: 80430

* Technical Product Specialist South West £30K Ref: 106913

* Account Manager Scotland £22/28K Ref: 92964

***************************************************************************

Clinical Research Division


*Associate Director of BD Phase I London £55K Ref: 62245

*Clinical Business Development London £50/56K Ref: 106757

*Clinical Trials Manager London £45K pr Ref: 106596

*Senior Research Scientist Anywhere! €35K Ref: 107212