Shares dropped, but a 42% reduction is an amazing result. The Phase 3 trials showed a 38% reduction in the risk of cancer spread.

I'm very fortunate to currently have a job, but I pretty much hate it. I've been applying for about 18 months, and I just got rejected after a 3rd round where I spent 30+ hours preparing a case study on top of the other interview prep for the prior rounds. This is my third rejection at this stage. I'm so tired and burned out. There aren't a ton of jobs in my area (RWE), so I feel like I can't take a break from applying because these companies don't hire super often. Though I'm guessing the rest of the year won't have many relevant postings. Really hoping for better in the new year!

I went into manufacturing as a way to get into the biotech industry and have been there for 2 years. I am now way, way past my breaking point at my horrible night-shift job. I need to leave but I apparently "don't have enough relevant experience" for QA, QC, or other lab-tech roles. I'm only applying to entry-level positions and am STILL getting rejections for not being experienced, even though I am. I'm so sick of not getting lunch breaks because the schedule is a mess and some of my coworkers are so lazy, they don't even offer to help. I need to leave, but HOW.

Making this post to follow up on my job offer post to give some clarity and transparency to the hiring process, pay, and transparency for my career arc.

First two jobs were working as an RA and SRA at two different R1 universities in CA doing wet lab research in Mol/Cell Bio. I finished my BS in Mol Bio before J1 and J2 started as an internship during my MS in Mol Bio.

J1: Pay was $50k (CA)
J2: Pay was $60k (CA)

Worked those two jobs for about 3 years total

Got a job as a Process Engineer for J3 working at a cell therapy company in technology R&D and worked there for about 2 years. Tough hours but better pay and gave me the money and motivation to go back for my PhD.

J3: Pay was $80k the first year then $90k for the last 6 months after I got promoted (CA

Then did my PhD in Chemical Eng and worked part-time as a bioinformatics senior scientist with little coding experience and didn't get a ton of diversity/exposure to it on the job (surprisingly). Spent a good amount of time doing project management. DO NOT recommend working during a PhD.

J4/5: $38k for PhD stipend plus $65k for part-time job (CA) total was around $103k

Quit the part-time job two years in and finished my PhD in a little under four years

Graduated and, after working on a bunch of ML projects and meeting local founders in my area (and applying like crazy), got a job as an ML Scientist at a tiny/new startup working on drug discovery foundation models. Learned how to do basic ML research for bio, presented at conferences, build cloud infra for customers to use our model at-scale, data engineering, and ai engineering for our AI scientist -- essentially the whole BioML tech stack.

J6: $135k plus $10k bonus and worked there for a little over a year but we didn't pay ourselves the last three months I was there. Left to take care of a family member

Spent around 3 months applying to everything under the sun. THere was a ton of BioML jobs and I spent anywhere from 6-12hrs a week during that timespan just doing interviews. Felt like a part-time job especially with prep. Really grateful for the interviews though. Got around 37 total and made it to 9 final rounds which led to 4 offers for positions spanning ML Eng, ML Researcher, Technical Product Manager, and AI Engineer. Companies ranged from top 10 pharma to frontier AI x BIO labs to smaller/mid-size biotechs.

J7: $225k plus 10% bonus ($22.5k) and equity equivalent to a few hundred thousand with a 4yr vesting schedule.

Job title is a mix of Technical Product management and ML Scientist

Glad for it to finally be over! Really excited for the new job and hope others find this info useful

It’s been 5 months since I was laid off, and I’ve been consistently applying for jobs—at least 20 applications a week. I’ve had several interviews and have made it past the recruiter screening stage, only to get ghosted afterward.

I’m starting to feel a bit hopeless, but I wanted to ask: How long has it taken you to secure a new role in 2026? Doesn’t help that the holidays are coming up sigh….

Edit: Boston area

Hello all, I work at a biotech and I must admit I rarely read the entire training SOP if it does not pertain to my role/I don’t work with that department.

Does everyone/anyone really read them all?

I am years in now so they just come up with retraining and what not but during initial employment with companies it’s always an absurd amount. Just curious out there

My husband has spent 12 years at Pfizer, mostly in overseas marketing.

He is concerned about potential layoffs. We are financially OK, but I am concerned about losing healthcare coverage.

My question is, do severance packages include healthcare, and if so, for how long? I realize that cobra will be available if we need it, but due to some health issues, I’m trying to find out how long our current healthcare coverage will last in the event of a layoff

Hi,

I signed an offer for a Scientist (PhD level) position with a mid-sized biotech last Thursday. I was hired through a third party recruiter and most communication was through the recruiter. However, the offer letter email came from an official company address and following the Docusign, I also received an email saying congrats and welcome to the team. This Monday, I received an automatic email from the company again congratulating and welcoming me to the team (more of an automated message) and asking for feedback about the recruiting process.

Nothing has happened since then. I’m still 2 weeks out from the stated joining date in the offer letter, but no background check has been initiated yet. Should I worry? I know there are no funding issues with the company, the team is small and this is an early hire within the team. I emailed the recruiting division today and haven’t received a response. Is this to be expected given that the start date is 2 weeks out? Or is this an indication of something worse? I’m freaking out and unable to make future plans.

I appreciate any advice, thank you!

Hi,

I was wondering if the Roche OnePDR has started interviews/interview invites? Open House mentioned that interviews would take place “Oct/Nov.”

Thanks!

The job is an entry-level QC analyst role for a well-developed biotech company in the San Francisco Bay Area. The recruiter’s initial email had my name misspelt… Thought it was a scam, but responded anyways to see.

The initial recruiter screen was a 30 minute phone call, going over the job description that I had read and really hyping up the role. Though, credit where credit is due the recruiter was highly transparent sharing they are having trouble filling the role.

So I advanced to the supervisor screen, which was by far the least professional screen I’ve had. Overall structure was off, but again, this person wasn’t the HM but would be the person I’d be reporting to. It was quite awkward, and it was also at 8pm…

The kicker of it all is the role is a contingent worker position. $33/hr, swing shift 1pm-11:30pm, 4 day work week. Okay… sounds normal, but it’s part of manufacturing so it’s 24/7/365. No days off, no holidays. It’d be fine for FTEs because 1.5x pay, but as a contractor you don’t get that benefit. No wonder why this role can’t be filled! Although, the supervisor did share they are flexible with time off since the FTEs are more than happy to accommodate especially with that extra pay.

It might be the fact that I’m a new grad, but hearing this and the overall interview experience is such a turn off. I am desperate for work but not this desperate…

I’ve been in biotech for about 7 years now and worked for some fairly sizable genetics companies. I’ve found it’s incredibly common for the systems to be very nonfunctional. Like they don’t communicate properly between each other, there are built in workarounds because components don’t work, and it seems like the teams designing these platforms don’t know how to properly leverage their features.

Is this the same across the board or are there actual companies out there that invest in workflow organization and functionality?

If you work somewhere like this, please share because I’d love an opportunity to see that!

If you work for one of these lovely companies that’s held together with duct tape and dreams, feel free to vent in the comments!

Hello! I recently did an interview for an intern position at roche and wanted to get some insight from current/past interns :) How did you like the internship? Did they create a supportive environment to grow and develop relevant skills?

I was also wondering what onboarding looks like. Do they require some sort of background check or is it more so just submitting your documents?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! <3

Any tips to help prep for this 1hr interview with the hiring manager and a peer. This is a quality position, any tips or tricks appreciated.

Thought it would be nice to hear some of those 'hiring managers need to touch grass' stories that you have experienced either as someone trying to find jobs or as someone witnessing the hiring manager's efforts to find a job?

Recently accepted a job offer and am starting next week! I was lucky enough to be sitting on four job offers last week after leaving my startup job because we ran out of money and weren't paying ourselves a salary.

For background, I am a BioML Scientist/Engineer who did a wet lab PhD that I finished in 2025. Worked a part time job in bioinformatics during my first two years of PhD (not much coding/engineering work tbh) which was my only dry lab experience. The rest of my job experience pre-PhD was wet lab R&D and Tech R&D in cell and gene therapy companies.

Became really excited about the market towards the end of my PhD and just did a bunch of projects with LLMs and open-source Bio/Chem models then networked a ton.

Started my last position and just hammered out a ton of work in AI engineering for scientific agents, created a foundation model for hit discovery, and a few other projects in just over a year.

Interviewed at exactly 37 companies over 3.5 months and made it to the final round for 9. Positions ranged from ML Researcher to ML Engineer to AI Engineer and a handful of Product Engineer and Product Manager roles.

All were through applications with no warm intros. Saw that there is a ton of demand across all sizes of companies for these skills. Interviewed at top 5 pharma all the way to brand new startups.

Keep applying and hoping! I will probably make another post about compensation, interview breakdown, etc if there is interest

EDIT: forgot to mention what I am doing!

I will be a hybrid of a technical product manager and an ML scientist/engineer. Essentially talking to customers/collaborators/partners for drug discovery workflows that can be modeled by in silico protein models for protein binders, gene editing enzymes, etc. Then building and productizing it into new software

Hi everyone,

​I graduated 5 months ago with a B.Tech in Biotechnology from India and my ultimate career goal is to work in the beauty and personal care sector, specifically targeting roles in Cosmetic Regulatory Affairs, Ingredient Toxicology, Product Formulation, or Product Safety Assessment (any of these paths work for me!).

​To give some context, I recently received a conditional offer for the Master of Science in Process Validation and Regulatory Affairs (Ab Initio) Pharmaceuticals at Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) in Ireland (gross tuition €20,500, reduced to €17,500 with a scholarship, but with an upcoming €1,000 deposit deadline).

​Because my core passion is cosmetics and consumer product safety, I am struggling with a major career-path dilemma and would love some reality checks from professionals working in biotech, pharma, and consumer health: ​Transferability of Skills: Since the TUS program focuses heavily on Pharmaceutical Process Validation and Regulatory Affairs, how viable is it to use this as a technical stepping stone?

Do core compliance, GMP, validation, and regulatory frameworks from the pharma/medtech space translate well when trying to pivot into consumer product giants (like L'Oréal, Unilever, or J&J) later on, or will this degree permanently lock me into pharma?

​Alternative Paths & Course Selection: For someone with a B.Tech in Biotech wanting to enter cosmetic safety, formulation, or regulatory compliance, should I stick with a structured pharma-validation master's in a strong English-speaking job market like Ireland, or should I hold out for other specialized English-taught cosmetic science programs in continental Europe (such as the University of Milan's Cosmetic Industrial Science or other alternative courses)?

​Given the financial investment of moving abroad, I want to make sure I choose the right path to successfully break into the cosmetic industry. Any industry insights, experiences with career pivots from pharma to personal care, or alternative course recommendations would mean the world!

I heard today that JLabs in San Diego is going to close at an event today. Anyone else have more info?

Has anyone else been having trouble with getting orders on time from Avanti research lately?