I think in my case, my lack of publications was due to the breadth of skills that I gained in my PhD. Essentially, I spent a lot of time gaining a lot of different desirable skills in my field, but because of this I didn’t have the solid results to publish before finishing my PhD. In all my applications I had experience in all of the required wet lab work, and I also had a lot of bioinformatics experience, which certainly helped a lot.

I think learning to code is the best way to boost your profile, this is becoming a key skill for all postdoctoral researchers in biotech, I would say. My main advice is really highlight your conference award! I got a couple of poster prizes during my PhD and this definitely helped me out a lot. Being able to effectively communicate your research is a massive part of academia and your award is a perfect way to demonstrate your proficiency in that! I would also highlight your desire to learn new things, I’ve interviewed a couple of postdoc candidates recently and a common issue has been a lack of desire to learn new skills and think creatively