It has helped recent graduates, post-graduates, and other job seekers to focus on key areas of opportunity. Since small biotechnology companies have started to fulfill a middle role between large pharmaceutical corporations and academic departments, they frequently hire academics who can comfortably talk with their peers who have remained in the ivory tower. General biotechnology is reemerging as a hot topic, after a few years of lower significance. Genomics of all types, and notably functional genomics, have huge potential, according to industrial biotechnologists. Bioinformatics is a hot area, and one that has far more open positions than qualified personnel.
Combinatorial chemistry has strong appeal for the pharmaceuticals business.
And immunology continues to show great promise. Recruiters emphasize the need for training in molecular biology. They also point out the desirability, to potential employers, of postdoctoral students with a few published papers. Increasingly, European life scientists who have moved to the United States for postdoctoral training are returning to Europe rather than staying on in the United States as they used to. In the process, they are bringing to European companies American ideas for employee participation, such as stock options.