Getting the Chemistry Just Right for Hiring at Amgen

Persuading dozens of scientists from across the nation to move to Thousand Oaks every year is no easy task. But that’s precisely what Sherry Dolkart does day in and day out.

As one of Amgen’s eight recruiters, she is constantly on the lookout for top candidates to satisfy the company’s insatiable appetite for new hires.

For the last two years, the biotechnology giant has been growing at a rate of almost two employees a day. In a highly competitive biotechnology market, the new hires--and new research scientists in particular--are the fuel that keeps Amgen going.

“Science is our business,” Dolkart said. “If you don’t deliver the scientists, you won’t have the next product. It’s just that simple.”

For the recruiters, helping Amgen cope with that kind of growth is a never-ending task, Dolkart said. To find bright, qualified candidates, she must explore every avenue and follow every possible lead--databases, college campuses, the Internet, professional conferences and a network of contacts she has built in her seven years recruiting for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

This year alone, about 75 of the scientists Dolkart brought in were hired for research positions. Overall, Amgen recruiters helped hire 533 new employees in 1995 and 587 so far in 1996.

As her employer keeps snatching up most of the candidates she comes up with, Dolkart constantly has to keep the pipeline filled with new blood.

“You are always recruiting,” Dolkart said. “There is always a flow of candidates. It is a revolving door, an ongoing process.”

The pace is not likely to slow down any time soon. Amgen officials expect they will add 650 new employees in Thousand Oaks in 1997. The company, already Ventura County’s largest private employer, is adding eight buildings to its 36-building, 105-acre campus.

For Dolkart and Amgen’s other recruiters, that means constantly sorting through the 800 or so unsolicited resumes the company receives each week, conducting scores of phone interviews and flying people in--sometimes more than once--for face-to-face meetings.

But Dolkart’s biggest challenge often comes after all that work is done and she has found the ideal candidate.

That is when she has to convince the candidate to move to Thousand Oaks. While Amgen hires locally for many positions, when it comes to top-flight scientists, Dolkart has to look throughout the country--particularly in places with a strong biotechnology industry such as the San Francisco Bay Area, the Boston metropolitan area and North Carolina’s Research Triangle.

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Despite top salary offers, benefits that are the envy of the corporate world and the privilege of working at one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies, selling candidates on this hillside community is no pushover.

“People tell us, ‘Yes, we heard about Amgen and we know it’s great. But you are in Southern California, right?’ ” Dolkart said.

Never mind that Thousand Oaks is rated the second-safest city of its size in the country. The mere proximity to Los Angeles conjures up images of crime, riots, earthquakes and fires. Some dread the dullness of suburban life; others, the smog and traffic-filled freeways; others still, the lack of seasons. Families fear substandard public schools and sky-high housing prices. And some people simply don’t want to uproot their families.

Despite all the odds, Dolkart does pretty well at selling Amgen and Thousand Oaks. And with its soaring revenues, Amgen’s ability to roll out the red carpet for top recruits surely helps.

Just ask Bill Richards. The research scientist was recruited last month from the prestigious Oakridge National Laboratory in Oakridge, Tenn., where he was a postdoctoral fellow.

Richards was well aware that coming to Amgen would be a good career move. But with most of his family, as well as his wife’s family, in the Northeast, Richards had been focusing his job search on the Boston area. After a great deal of prodding from a recruiter, he reluctantly agreed to take a look at Amgen.

“I came by myself the first time, and I was pleasantly surprised,” Richards said. “I was very excited with Amgen. The atmosphere is almost like an academic environment. You can tell that everyone is very interested in what they are doing.”

More important, visiting the Conejo Valley convinced him that the area was far enough from Los Angeles that he wouldn’t be a prisoner of urban sprawl. At the same time, Thousand Oaks was close enough to the city to enjoy its cultural amenities. And the cost of living was comparable to that of the Northeast.

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But that wasn’t all. For Richards’ second set of interviews, Amgen spared no expense. The company flew him out with his wife and two kids.

“That’s one thing that Amgen did that really impressed me,” he said. “They were the sole company that took the time to contact my wife and arranged for people to meet with her. They knew she was an important part of the decision” to move here.

Dolkart arranged for the whole family to tour the Conejo Valley and gave them information on local schools and the area’s recreation and cultural opportunities.

“She was fabulous,” Richards said. “It convinced me that Amgen wasn’t just saying that they are an employee-friendly place. They actually showed us they were.”

Dolkart has an array of ammunition to convince just about anyone to move to the Conejo Valley. She touted the area’s mountain biking trails to a Harvard University scientist who was used to biking to work. For young, single recruits, she talks about Amgen’s many activities groups: the scientists club, the gourmet club, the hiking club.

And when Amgen wants to hire someone, the company acts fast, Dolkart said.

Richards began working in Thousand Oaks just a month after his first interview.

“I really liked the way they handled it,” he said. “It was nice to see the attentiveness was there. Competition for good people is tough. If you can show someone that you are truly interested in them, that helps.”

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Hiring is so important for Amgen’s future that last year the company began a generous employee referral program. Each Amgen employee who brings in a candidate who gets hired by the company receives a $1,000 bonus. So far, the program has brought in more than 90 successful referrals.

That helps, Dolkart said. But it doesn’t lighten her workload much.

“You are always working every avenue,” she said. And always asking what else could be done. “Where haven’t we advertised? Who is downsizing?”

“You have to keep it going or else it goes cold,” she said.

Last week Dolkart had five offers out. On a white board beside her desk, she had scribbled the names of six candidates who would be visiting Amgen in the coming week. And in the meantime, she was looking out for the next batch of suitable candidates to screen on the phone.

“It’s exciting to be here because it’s the No. 1 biotech company and because of the quality of the people you get to hire and work with,” Dolkart said. “As the company grows, you feel that you helped make a difference.”