As originally asked by Beth Hage.

With so many group members in transition, what can you share to help them?

Perhaps you have a link or resource to share, or a personal story how you found work in the industry despite long odds. Really, anything you can do to help your fellow member is appreciated.

Manfred Draeger
Patient Release Mgmt., Hospital Roll-out
Had to leave an American company’s European subsidiary (Med Dev sales) in Germany as their GM after new investor failed to support previously agreed strategy. Not having been able to find a new job quickly at age 57 I decided to try and offer my support to private equity investors in the European / German healthcare market, as they are looking for external expertise on markets they do not know intimately.
Also, they sometimes install consultants who had supported them in projects previously as members of advisory resp. supervisory boards of their portfolio companies. I now have two large and one smaller investors as regular clients.
It’s not what I like best, which would be to lead a company and team operationally again, but it generates income and keeps me in close touch with “my” healthcare market.

Shuzhi Zhang
Regulatory Affairs
Good to her all these comments, no matter what status you are currently, it is important to upskill ourselves and keep making network.

Mark Ellis
Head of Nursing Recruitment at MatchMedics
My advice is to utilise your network as much as possible. Keep focused and apply to jobs that are a fit for you – not just any job. Only prospect your CV to a company that would employ someone with your skills – again networking to find out more about the types of roles they have and whether you would fit them is a good starting point.

You may need to consider training / education programmes and courses to upskill. These also serve to keep your knowledge as fresh as possible if there is no job on the horizon – periods of unemployment do not carry the stigma they once did but lack of activity during a period of unemployment does.

A good recruiter should be able to help you in terms of giving advice and may be able to help you find a new position. The challenge they have is that employers use recruiters to find people they cannot themselves – so expect them to supply a perfect fit.

Korina Fischer
VP Healthcare at Optel Group
I have two suggestions: 1) Speak to organizations investing in Medtech startups. They may need experienced professionals to add to thier teams 2) Take a look at the interesting technologies to license from Universities and research centers and consider starting your own medical device company.

Charles Kreps
Retired! Contact Doug Johnson (Doug@MedPharmSales.com)
Network like crazy with all current and past contacts. Apply directly to co’s.
If you have been out of the workforce for more than 4-6 months, chances are recruiters will not be able to help you.

Joerg Schulze-Clewing
Electronics Design Consultant
My advice would be this: Diversify. I can only say it from the engineer’s perspective but it holds for most other careers as well. I branched heavily into non-med. When Obamacare was signed and the med tech investment climate soured that paid off. But it doesn’t have to be this extreme. Consider at least some other medical areas. If you specialized in ultrasound like I did that doesn’t mean you can’t deal with the technology used in ablation, MRI or other markets.

Then, save, save, save. No, you do not need a $70/mo cable TV package or a $50/mo cell plan. If you consider striking out self-employed, and maybe you have to, you’ve got to develop a financial buffer that can at least tide you over six months.

And as Hank wrote in his blog, stay positive and keep in shape. Make sure to surround yourself with people and communities you can trust. For me that’s our church.

LOUIS MEMOLI
Available for project management, marketing projects, startup coaching, and management/marketing advisory.
I’ve been in transition for a little over 4 years. After spending too much time looking for jobs online I realized that it’s doubtful that I’m going back to corporate America, so rather than go crazy, I started ‘consulting’. I have been working as a business and marketing coach for the past two years. It is interesting work and it keeps me challenged. Unfortunately, paying clients are hard to find. For the past 8 months I’ve been working pro bono for a start-up and this week we have a chance to get the funding we need to launch the company. If we are successful, I will finally have a paycheck again. I think this what they call sweat equity.

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
We have a nice experiment underway on Linked:Seattle, another group I guide.

I’ll report back on this string as the idea comes together. It’s hyper-local and requires in-person interaction but we could try it using our [http://medgroup.biz/subgroups|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3medgroup%2Ebiz*3subgroups/6lc9?_t=tracking_disc] in well-developed cities.

See [http://linkd.in/an-idea-for-the-unemployed|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3linkd%2Ein*3an-idea-for-the-unemployed/lL2y?_t=tracking_disc].

Joe Hage
🔥 Find me at MedicalDevicesGroup.net 🔥
We have a few resources you may find helpful.

First is the group itself. I curate content and protect the discussion page from spam and self-promotion to provide a truly valuable member experience.

Now’s the time for you to add meaningful comments on strings and, perhaps, start your own discussion. I know for a fact well-read and commented-upon discussions can yield opportunities as seen in these group-member testimonials: [http://linkd.in/new-business|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3linkd%2Ein*3new-business/Ftix?_t=tracking_disc].

Also:

1. We have a “Resource Discussion” right now featuring members looking for work at [http://linkd.in/In-Transition|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3linkd%2Ein*3In-Transition/Te4Q?_t=tracking_disc]. Leave your information there because I send many recruiters to that page.

2. Check this list of medical device recruiters who WANT you to find them! [http://medgroup.biz/MedDevRecruiters|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3medgroup%2Ebiz*3MedDevRecruiters/WQIv?_t=tracking_disc].

3. Join our Careers subgroup at [http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4241076|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3www%2Elinkedin%2Ecom*3groups%3Fgid%3D4241076/Mipq?_t=tracking_disc]. You might also join location-based subgroups near you at [http://bit.ly/MDGsubgroups|leo://plh/http%3A*3*3bit%2Ely*3MDGsubgroups/Hz6P?_t=tracking_disc]; perhaps where you live (for in-person networking) and in the cities where you’d consider relocating.

Good luck!