🔬⚙️Don’t Just Study STEM—Thrive in It...

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✨✨Friday Vibes | Happy Friday, Innovators!
As the semester kicks into high gear and projects start stacking up, it’s easy to get caught in the cycle of deadlines and late nights. But remember—your STEM journey isn’t just about passing exams or landing that first job. It’s about building skills, connections, and confidence that set you up for long-term success.

In today’s issue, we’ll share career tips, real-world insights, and opportunities designed to help you move from the classroom to the lab, and from early roles to leadership.

Let’s make this week a launchpad, not just a finish line. 💡

Today’s issue:
🔎Career Spotlight: Vet Techs Drive Today's Biotech Innovations
💡Skills Spotlight: Your 7‑Day Fall Recruiting Game Plan
🔥Career Glow-Up Challenge: The Side Project Showcase
🔥Professional Resources: People who sound smart do 7 things when talking to others…
💼Resource: Breaking into Biotech: A Guide to the Biotech & Pharma Industry

🔎STEM CAREER JOB OF THE WEEK 
🐾🐾Vet Techs Drive Today’s Biotech Innovation

Veterinary Technicians in biotech/pharma bridge animal care and science. They play a critical role in preclinical research, ensuring animal welfare while supporting the development of new drugs, vaccines, and therapies.

🎓Major:
- Veterinary Technology, Animal Science, Biology, or a related life science.
- Credentialing: Most employers require an associate’s or bachelor’s degree in Veterinary Technology and passing the Veterinary Technician National Exam (VTNE). Some biotech/pharma roles prefer candidates with laboratory animal care certifications (e.g., AALAS – American Association for Laboratory Animal Science).

🧰 Job functions:
In the biotech/pharma world, Veterinary Technicians work with research animals to support drug development, preclinical studies, and safety testing. Some key responsibilities include:
🐾Animal Care & Welfare: Feeding, handling, and monitoring lab animals (often rodents, rabbits, dogs, or primates) while ensuring humane treatment.
🐾Clinical Procedures: Collecting blood/tissue samples, administering medications or treatments, and monitoring anesthesia during procedures.
🐾Health Monitoring: Recording vital signs, observing behavior, and reporting signs of illness or distress.
🐾Research Support: Assisting scientists with preclinical studies, surgeries, and data collection.
🐾Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring all animal work follows IACUC (Institutional Animal)
🐾Care and Use Committee) protocols, as well as USDA and AAALAC standards.
🐾Facility Support: Maintaining clean, safe animal housing environments and helping with the inventory of supplies.

🧠Key Skills: 
- Technical: Animal handling, dosing, blood collection, surgical assistance, anesthesia monitoring.
- Regulatory: Knowledge of GLP (Good Laboratory Practice), IACUC standards, and animal welfare regulations.
- Soft Skills: Strong observation, attention to detail, compassion for animals, teamwork, and communication.
- Adaptability: Ability to work in highly regulated, fast-paced lab environments

💰Salary Landscape:
- The salary range varies depending on factors such as location, experience, and skill level.
- You can expect an annual salary ranging from $24,673 to $65,136, with an average of $44,553 per year in the United States. (Source: Zip Recruiter) 

💡SKILLS SPOTLIGHT
Your 7‑Day Fall Recruiting Game Plan!

It’s campus + Q4 recruiting season. Follow this daily plan, send 15 messages, and book your next interview.

September is the peak outreach and screening season in biotech and the broader STEM field. Hiring teams are moving fast, and the edge goes to candidates who show direction, proof, and momentum. This issue gives you a focused 7‑day plan, ready-to-send scripts, and a keyword checklist tailored for lab, data, and engineering roles.

The 7‑Day Fall Recruiting Sprint
Day 1 — Target & Keywords (45 min)
Pick 15 roles across five companies (3 each).
Extract keywords (skills, assays, tools, domains).
Update your LinkedIn headline: Target Role | Domain | 3 tools | proof.
Ex: “QC Analyst | Biologics | qPCR, LIMS, GLP | Cut assay time 28%”

Day 2 — Resume Impact Pass (60 min)
Convert task bullets into impact bullets:
Verb + what + tool/tech + outcome (metric) + business result
“Automated QC (Python/Pandas) → cycle time −31%, saved $14K/qtr.”

Day 3 — Portfolio Proof (45–60 min)
Pin 2–4 artifacts: GitHub/Notebook, poster, SOP, case study, brief slide.
Create a 1‑page project sheet: Problem → Approach → Tools → Results.

Day 4 — Referral Outreach (30–45 min)
Send 9 messages: 3 alumni, 3 peers, 3 hiring‑adjacent (recruiters, team members). Use the script below.

Day 5 — Recruiter Pass (25 min)
Write a blunt, kind note to 3 internal recruiters. Attach a 3‑bullet fit summary.

Day 6 — ATS Tune (30 min)
Mirror the job post’s nouns + verbs in your resume and LinkedIn Skills. Keep truth ≥ 100%.

Day 7 — Mock Interview + Send (45 min)
Run 3 STAR reps (technical + behavioral). Then apply to your top 10 with customized first lines.

Script & Template Pack
Alumni / warm connection DM:
Hi [Name] — Fellow [School/Program ’YY]. I’m targeting [Role] in [Team/Domain] and noticed your path at [Company].
Two‑line proof: [Tool + result], [Domain + metric].
Would you be open to a quick 10–12 min chat about how your team evaluates candidates for [Role]? If helpful, I can share a 1‑page project sheet ahead. Thank you!

Internal recruiter note (email or InMail)
Subject: Fit for [Role Title] — 3 bullets

Hi [Name], applied for [Req ID / Role]. Quick fit:
• Tools: [3–5 exact tools/assays/stacks]
• Impact: [Outcome + %/+Δ/−Δ]
• Domain: [Therapeutic area / platform / industry context]

1‑page project sheet + resume attached. Happy to flex interviews around your schedule.

STAR answer frame (with metric)
S/T: “Throughput bottleneck in [process].”
A: “Built [tool/process] using [tech].”
R: “Reduced [metric] by X%, saving $Y / enabling [business result].”
Rxn: “Rolled into SOP; trained 4 peers; audit passed with zero findings.”

Project one‑pager outline (copy/paste)
Title: [Outcome] with [Tool/Method] in [Context]
Problem: 2 lines
Approach: bullets (tools, datasets, assays)
Results: 3 metrics (%, time, $, quality)
What changed: process, reliability, decisions
Next: how you’d scale or extend

📅🔥CAREER GLOW-UP CHALLENGE:
The Side Project Showcase

🔥 Goal: To create and share a small, meaningful project that highlights the skills you want to be recognized for—building your portfolio, personal brand, and career confidence.

🔥 Why It Matters: At work, you don’t always get the projects that show off your best abilities or interests. A side project lets you:
- Prove your skills in action (not just list them on a resume)
- Practice creativity and problem-solving in a low-stakes environment
- Show initiative—employers and recruiters love self-starters
- Build a portfolio you can point to in job interviews, LinkedIn posts, or performance reviews
- Grow your network by sharing your process and results with others

👉🏿The key isn’t creating something massive—it’s about creating something specific, finished, and shareable.

Outcome:
By the end of this challenge, you’ll:
✅ Have a completed mini-project that shows off your skills
✅ Share it publicly (on LinkedIn, with colleagues, or in your portfolio)
✅ Gain visibility and credibility for the type of work you want to do more of
✅ Build confidence in taking initiative and finishing what you start

Step 1: Pick Your Skills Focus
Ask: What do I want to be known for?
Examples:
- A STEM grad: “Data visualization in Python” → Create a chart that analyzes trending biotech jobs.
- A marketing pro: “Email subject line writing” → Run a mini test on your own newsletter.
- A project manager: “Organization” → Build a Notion or Trello template others can use.
- A designer: “Brand identity” → Reimagine the branding for a nonprofit or student club.

Step 2: Define a Tiny Scope
Keep it small and doable in 1–2 weeks.
Examples:
- Build 1 dashboard (not a whole data platform)
- Write 1 case study (not an entire campaign)
- Design 3 logo options (not a full brand kit)

Step 3: Document Your Process
- As you work, take notes or screenshots. This makes your project more engaging when you share it—people love to see the behind-the-scenes.

Step 4: Share Your Results
Post your finished project (and process) where others can see it:
- LinkedIn post → “I wanted to practice [skill], so I built [project]. Here’s what I learned.”
- Personal portfolio or website
- Team Slack or email → share a tool or template that others might use

Step 5: Reflect and Repurpose
Ask yourself:
- What did I enjoy most about this?
- What feedback did I get?
- Could I expand this project into something bigger?

Then add it to your Brag File, resume, or LinkedIn “Featured” section.

✨ Motivation Reminder: “You don’t need permission to showcase your skills. Start small, finish strong, and let the world see what you can do.”

💼RESOURCE
People who sound smart do 7 things when talking to others…