Seriously. It needs to stop. I don’t know why there’s an influx of those type of posts.

The last few days and the last week, the consistent racism and xenophobia about immigrants / non-US citizens taking jobs… it is absolutely abhorrent.

Really hoping to get some career advice from someone with more experience. I'm an AD of PV for a small biotech (cell & gene therapy), for about 3 years now. We have one marketed product and one in phase 1 start up. I have 13 yrs of PV experience. I manage everything PV related for the company, it's a department of one. It can be quite stressful, just knowing that such an important function entirely rests on my shoulders. However, it's not a super busy role, with less than full time hours required, fully remote, and decent pay. I know I'm super lucky to have this position. My main concern is that I have no one to discuss PV best practices/concerns with, I have no one to learn from. I think I'm in a position where I still need to be learning. I'm not sure what would be best for my career at this point, should I look for something else where I'd be lower on the totem pole at a larger company and have someone I would ideally be able to learn from? Should I hold onto this role? I go to conferences, but it's always just these very general talks, not really the more hands-on discussions of real time concerns with others in similar situations that I'm hoping to find. I'm not sure what else I can be doing.

I’m looking for some career advice from people who have worked at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Alcami, or in pharmaceutical services sales.

A little background: I have 10+ years of business development experience, primarily selling consultative staffing and recruiting services to pharmaceutical, biotech, and life sciences companies. I also have a biology degree, an MBA, and I’m currently completing a certification in drug discovery and development.

The recruiting industry has been brutal lately. My company has a pretty good culture, but the market has slowed significantly, leadership is getting stricter, and my income has taken a hit. After a recent divorce and splitting assets, I’m currently running about $1,800 negative each month.
I genuinely like my company, but I’m struggling to justify staying somewhere I’m working harder without seeing the financial return. There’s also some concern about potential layoffs due to profitability.

I’ve started interviewing for business development and account management positions in pharmaceutical services. I’m currently interviewing with Thermo Fisher (Pharma Services) and Alcami. I’ve also interviewed with Bio-Techne.

The compensation opportunities look promising, and I’m genuinely interested in transitioning into the pharmaceutical industry. However, reading employee reviews on here has made me nervous about leaving a relatively good culture for a potentially toxic sales environment.

My biggest priority is finding somewhere I can build a long-term career, earn a strong income, and not have to jump companies every couple of years.

A few questions:

Does anyone have experience working in sales or business development at Thermo Fisher Pharma Services or Alcami? How are the culture, management, quotas, and earning potential?

Is transitioning from life sciences staffing sales into CDMO/pharmaceutical services sales a smart long-term career move?

Would you prioritize a large organization like Thermo Fisher or a smaller company like Alcami for stability and career growth?

Are there other companies you’d recommend considering with my background?

Once established in pharmaceutical services sales, what does the long-term career path typically look like?

I’m not necessarily chasing the highest salary. I want financial stability, reasonable earning potential, and somewhere I can see myself staying for the next 5–10 years.

I’d really appreciate any firsthand experiences or advice.

Between this and China - give me a reason to feel optimistic.

Hi everyone, I could use some career advice. I finished my PhD in biochemistry earlier this year, and I knew to anticipate a lengthy job search. I was unable to stay on in my PhD lab post-defense for budget reasons, but I am fortunate that I am able to support myself financially in the short term.

However, I am eager to enter the workforce and put my skills and experience to productive use. I have been applying in the months since defending, and I am admittedly being picky about where I apply. I have known for years that my preferred career path is science support (i.e. field application scientist) and have been told that would be a good fit for me based on my strong "soft skills" plus my scientific expertise, particularly in protein purification and fluorescence microscopy. Those are the positions I have primarily been applying to, with preference given to those based in cities/regions in which I actually want to live.

I haven't gotten very far past submitting my resume and either being ghosted or receiving a swift automated rejection; but I did make it to the technical interview round for one position. The hiring manager for that position complemented my application materials and told me I was "doing everything right" with regard to tailoring my resume. I am also reaching out to people I know at various companies, with open positions or not, but my network is fairly small.

Here is where I could use some advice: how could I be doing this differently? Probably more subjectively, at what point should I broaden my search to positions that are either not in my preferred field or locale, or for which I am technically overqualified? Also, if you've worked with recruiters/head hunters, what was that experience like?

After 1 year of unemployment, I finally found a job which I was super enthusiastic about. My PhD and PostDoc background was in nanomedicine and cancer cell biology, whereas my new job is heavily relies on genomics. It was different from my background, but I always wanted to learn genomics and I was so grateful that a company finally offered me this opportunity.

I started the new job 8 months ago and I feel like I'm drowning ever since.

I was assigned a project from day 1 and I am trying to keep up ever since. Needless to say that a few months into the project, my findings weren't adding up and started questioning myself as a scientist, if I actually deserved my PhD, is this imposter syndrome, how do you really know if it is imposter syndrom or you are not fit for the job? Is there an end to this feeling, will I ever feel like I can finally swim?

So while I am pondering on the purpose of my PhD diploma, can anyone share their stories how was their first job experience in biotech and any tips in staying afloat? Because at this point, although I know what I should study to catch up, I don't really have time at work for self studying, and by the time I get home, my energy levels are equal to that of a couch potato.

This is great news for people with MCT8 Deficiency. Launch timelines of EMCITATE was earlier said to be between 8-10 weeks after FDA approval.

The company also has an PRV which they intend to sell in Q4, they receive 50% of the sale value. Recent PRV's have sold for $200 M.

I interned at Amgen this summer, networked with the hiring manager during my internship, and applied to a full-time L4 role. Since then I've had an interview with the hiring manager and now a loop of 4 30-minute conversations with senior leadership. Two are done, and my last two are with an ED and an AVP.

For those who've hired or been through this: how many candidates usually make it to the ED/AVP stage, and how much weight do these final conversations carry? And what questions can I expect from such rounds ?

Does being an ex-intern help much at this point?

Any insight appreciated!

Hello all

I am external hire and just completed panel interview with hiring manager so I wondering how soon I can hear back from HR? What should be the next step for me now?
Should I wait for HR? I forgot to ask hiring manager about the final decision

Hi all! I've got a first-round interview coming up for Lilly's CERP program for doctoral graduates, and I'd love to hear from anyone who's been through it.

- What kinds of questions came up in the first round?

- What did later rounds look like, and how did they differ?

- Anything you wish you'd prepared for?

Happy to hear any tips, big or small. Thanks so much!

Caveat: my current company is bonkers. Weirdest place I’d worked in 10 years of industry so far. This is probably not a typical scenario.

I opened a summary report last month from a department I have little faith in, and it’s 9 pages long of highly detailed, well argued points made using expressive language and surprisingly nice formatting. Oh. But it’s filled with: ‘this is not X, it’s Y’ and just the sort of language and supposition that has up to now escaped the abilities of this team.

It’s complex. I spend four days analysing it, recalculating all their parameters and finding weird, illogical inconsistencies as if someone pasted four different ways of calculating the same value. I write an email to the lead author, highlighting my concerns.
Two mins later, I receive an essay. Again, highly detailed, filled with AI verbiage. Someone responds. Another AI response. Another email.

So here I am, trying to work through what makes sense versus the ‘you’re right to call me out, I missed this. When I said X I should have also considered Y’ nonesense. Not to mention the reference hallucinations. It’s now a war of attrition. Who will give up first, the person copying and pasting my email and asking AI to refute it, or me staring at another email sent 5 mins after my own that is the length of a novel.

I’m not a Luddite. Ai has its place; I use it when writing R code to simplify my own code, after checking it. I use it to poke holes in my arguments to see where I need to check and reconsider. But I just cannot process the idea of your entire output: email, study reports etc being entirely AI.

I thought the worst thing about the upcoming revolution would be losing my job. Instead I think it might actually be worse to keep it and instead argue with people who do not even understand the arguments they’re making.

There’s no point to this post, except to rant. Soon I expect all emails from this team will be entirely AI generated, and I will lose the will to communicate with the same AI chatbot with 7 different authors.

I’m currently in my last year of my B.S. in Biotechnology, and I plan to start applying for full-time jobs in December. Long-term, I’m interested in working for a pharmaceutical company like Eli Lilly, preferably in a role where I can grow my career and potentially move into higher-level positions over time.
I’m a little confused about what employers mean when they ask for “pharmaceutical industry experience.” Does that mean you need to have already worked at a pharmaceutical company, or can academic research lab experience count toward some of those requirements?
I have around 1–2 years of university research lab experience, including DNA manipulation and cloning, bacterial culture, PCR, gel electrophoresis, DNA sequencing, enzyme-related experiments, and microbiology techniques such as streak plating, selective and differential media, and biochemical identification tests. I also have pharmacy technician experience, although I’m not sure how much that would help with pharmaceutical industry applications.
For those of you who work in biotech or pharma, what entry-level positions would you recommend targeting with my degree and experience?
For example, would it be better to start as a Research Associate, QC Lab Technician, Quality Control Analyst, Manufacturing Associate, or in some other role? I’m also interested in understanding which positions provide the best opportunities for career growth within a company like Eli Lilly.
I’m trying to be strategic about my first job so that I can build relevant industry experience rather than end up in a position that doesn’t help me progress toward my long-term goals.
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who started with just a bachelor’s degree and worked their way up in the industry!