We are receiving large numbers of CVs at the moment from people with experience from Covid testing labs. If you are in this situation yourself, or know someone who is, here is some advice:
To begin with, make sure that your CV really emphasises the skills you developed through your Covid lab experience. Presumably you had to follow strict SOPs and work with high levels of urgency, whilst maintaining strong attention to detail..? It’s important to make this clear.
What techniques were you using? Go into some detail about your use of PCR or other techniques, and any specific examples of situations where you had to act quickly and apply some of the knowledge you acquired in your degree.
Recognise that you were fast-tracked into this position, which in all likelihood had quite a narrow set of responsibilities. It is important to recognise that this experience WAS useful, but you may also need to take a step ‘backwards’ (in terms of job title, for example) in order to take this experience into another organisation.
The Career Converter tool from the Advanced Therapies Skills Training Network (ATSTN) is a great starting point for looking at career opportunities (see the link in the comments below). Similarly, registering for job alerts on our website is also a way of ensuring that you are informed of new positions as soon as they arise.
There is an abundance of roles within the Advanced Therapy sector at the moment, including GMP manufacturing, early research, process development, QA, QC, supply chain and more. It can be hard to know where to begin, so hopefully the advice above will be helpful. You are of course also welcome to ring our Next Phase team on 01403 216216.