アメリカ製薬研究職への転職活動 No. 2：Cover LetterとResumeの作成

November 17, 2016

Dear Madam or Sir,

I am writing to apply for the open Senior Scientist, Crystallography in the department of Structural and Molecular Sciences (SMS) at Pfizer – Job ID 1042136. This position strongly appeals to me because the scope of this position captivates my passion contributing to novel therapeutics. Since I have a keen sense of adventure, I am excited to learn cutting edge technology and work with multidisciplinary team at Pfizer.

I learned the fundamentals of structural biology, crystallography and NMR spectroscopy, biochemistry and biophysics in the Inagaki lab where I drove my own project as a group leader and also mentored members of my team. My solid expertise and strong work ethic enabled me to establish the molecular basis of ubiquitin-like systems in autophagy (publishing 4 first-author papers and 2 co-author papers in this highly competitive area under tight deadlines).

I took a second postdoc position with Brenda Schulman to extend my multi-disciplinary skills by working on a large multi-subunit complex in cell cycle that is dynamic and difficult to study. I developed insect cell expression, purification, cross-linking and Sortase-mediated ligation protocols for a 1.5 MDa protein complex (nearly 30 subunits) and then helped lead an international collaboration to solve the complex structure trapped in action by electron microscopy. Together, our team has shown for the first time a switch that could keep cell division off, which could be a novel avenue for anti cancer therapeutics. (Yamaguchi et al., Mol Cell 2016).

I have extended my technical skills and broadened my expertise by learning quantitative biochemistry, tailored protein engineering, integrated structural biology and fit-for-purpose construct design. I have also gained valuable experience helping manage teammates toward maximum productivity and effectiveness by helping them prioritize their work to allow the team to publish under extreme time pressure.

My passion is to contribute my strong abilities to integrate structural, biochemical and biophysical studies with a team seeking to convert basic research into novel drug discovery.

Thank you for your time and consideration.
I am looking forward to the opportunity to discuss this position with you.

Masaya Yamaguchi, Ph.D.

もちろんJob Descriptionに応じて、このCover Letterの文章は少し変更して使い回しましたが、大筋は9月に仕上げたコイツで最後まで押し通しました。

印象はもちろん個々人によると思いますが、これでこのポジションは次に進んだので、決して悪い出来ではないと思います。

もしこれを見てる誰かがアメリカで就活するなら、Cover Letterを書いたりJobにアプライする前に、是非コーヒーかビールでも飲みながら自己分析をして、自分のパッションを見つけることから始めて下さい。きっといい文章が書けますよ。後は、友達に添削を頼むのもお忘れなく! !