Webinar 4: Exploring Biotech Careers in the Time of Coronavirus

This informal webinar addressed two main topics:

• What are biotech companies doing to combat COVID-19?
• How can we have students explore biotech career opportunities in these crazy times?

Speakers

• Dr. Sandra Porter, InnovATEBIO, Digital World Biology, will provide an overview of the resources at Biotech-Careers.org.
• Dr. Karen Leung, City College of San Francisco, shared an assignment that her students use with Biotech-Careers.org.  This link goes to her course:  CAREER EXPLORATION IN BIOSCIENCE 
• Dr. Todd Smith, InnovATEBIO, Digital World Biology, will demonstrate how students can use the tools at Biotech-Careers.org to explore the biotech company database and see how biotech companies are working to combat COVID-19.

Visit the blog:   Exploring Biotech Careers Online to download the interest survey and assignment from Dr. Karen Leung, view a tour of Biotech Careers, and check out ideas from the chat session.

This webinar presents Biotech-Careers.org, a career site and biotech company database that students can use to explore biotech careers. The site was developed by Digital World Biology and is currently funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced Technology Education (ATE) program (DUE 1764225).

We also discussed how companies are pivoting to work on COVID-19 and how company changes might affect hiring. Companies may need more technicians to conduct COVID-19 diagnostic tests or manufacture COVID-19 related products, or they might be laying people off, due to shut down orders and changes in demand.