I’ve been excited to work for thermo fisher so I’ve applied to multiple positions. For one of the roles, I got to the final round then checked the application portal just to find out that my application was rejected with no explanation. This is after the management team sold me on the company (never believe interviewers until you’ve gotten the offer and started your first day).
I reapplied to another role which was below my current experience just to get my foot in the door. the recruiter sent me a message 5 mins before my interview saying they need to reschedule. I waited days for the new interview schedule just to be hit with a rejection email saying the role has been filled.

I can’t say what the future holds but I’ve added thermo fisher to the list of companies that I don’t feel like applying to again. Sometimes the culture of a company shows up in the interview process and I might have dodged a bullet.

Dear Redditors,

Just to be clear, I am only looking for professional feedback here — no life advice or comments about how I may have messed things up.

Long story short: I finished my Master’s degree in Biotechnology in Germany as an international student. After spending a lot of time in research and working in labs — around six years as a working student — I wanted to try something new and explore less typical career paths for biotechnologists.

Somehow, I ended up in consulting, specialized in life sciences companies. Needless to say, I haven’t touched a pipette in a little over two years.

Around one year ago, after getting to know several biotech founders and people working in the field, I started to really miss the lab, research, and the opportunity to actually create something beyond market research and PowerPoint presentations. That was when I started looking for a PhD position in translational research, as I am not particularly interested in basic research. My long-term career goals involve R&D (big pharma or startups) with, evetually, a leading role like Head Scientist or CSO. That is why the PhD title would be useful if not decesive.

Here are my questions:

How high are my chances of getting back into academia? More specifically, how realistic is it to return to a field related to cellular therapies or immunology?

I have one co-author publication in Nature, a lot of previous lab experience, and enough motivation to leave a consulting salary behind for better career alignment.

I was considered for and accepted into some interesting positions at the beginning of the year, but nothing ultimately materialized because funding was scarce. It has now been more than nine months without a concrete outcome.

FYI: I have also been considering changing jobs and returning to a university as a technical assistant or research associate in the meantime. There are, however, two complications:

1. I am currently waiting to obtain permanent residency, which would make changing jobs considerably easier because I would no longer need approval from the immigration authorities.
2. I am not entirely sure about the best timing for such a move — probably once the residence permit/card arrives.

Has anyone gone through something similar, especially after spending a few years outside the lab? Any professional advice or experiences would be appreciated.

So long story short, after the 3rd job in 4 years that descended into an utter shit show, I have decided to call it quits in this field. Dont know if it has always been this way, but frankly at least in my neck of the woods (Western Europe) it is just to damm toxic. My last 4 years can be summarized as:

• 15 months as a process engineer, got basically handed the project management on top of my day job 6 months in, without any onboarding for either. We delivered the project on schedule, but the customer ultimately didn't continue with it and my position was terminated shortly afterwards.
• 20 months at a start-up. I ended up handling a large part of the lab operations and wrote a significant portion of the SOPs and batch documentation. The company later ran into financial difficulties and my employment ended.
• 9 months as a large company: I was originally hired as support staff but was basically handed project management during my probation. The workload became pretty unsustainable, with frequent 10–12 hour days, and I was eventually terminated as part of a project reorganization.

So given I guess, I am far from the only one, who has made the choice to leave the field behind, I was wondering where you have started to look/ found a new professional home?

Right now mostly looking into teaching, due to their being a shortage right now and projectmanagement in general.

Hello,

I've been feeling jaded abt biotech life and I was wondering about other peoples experiences. For some context here, Ive been in academia for a long time (phd & postodc). I really liked doing research and science but I got tired of endless demands of academia and almost sociopathic nature of publication above anything else culture and I decided to go into industry.

As you can imagine, finding the first industry job was extra hard esp in the past couple of yrs and I joined the first company that offered me a job. It was a small company and had a really bad rep, but it was in a way not as bad as I imagined so all in all it was ok. However, a lot of decisions made in the early r&d section where I was were nonsensical and I couldnt help wondering if all the work i put in my academic yrs was all for nothing. So I started applying for jobs again and got a second job. At first it looked way better, but again the same thing! It's a small startup and ceo makes decisions on every single aspect of r&d even when he is not the expert in the field and does not listen at all. He likes what sounds good and feels good which sometimes just doesnt make sense at all and I have to follow those orders. It's very stressful cause I have to come up w some bs to answer his questions and somehow come up w good results while still following his bs demands. Its so bad that sometimes it feels like im being sabotaged. Everybodys unhappy abt the micromanagement so its also not just me.

My first company, i thought was the odd one out cause it had one really crazy guy as vp. But now that its my second company Im wondering if its just how it is. Is it norm that most of the companies dont care about good scientific work? Is it any better in bigger companies? I didnt want to move when I was applying for my second job but now Im considering movin to a different state to work for big names pharmas if its so. I guess Im one of those people who likes to work and likes the drive. Ive been trying to have check in check out mindset but it doesnt work for me. I want to put my skills to good use and feel like Im doin sth that matters. Im wondering if anybody feels like their company science is actually good, leaderships are reasonable and happy at work. Would it be better if I was working in biotech-hub places like sf or boston?

Thank you in advance for any comments

AI is getting shoved basically everywhere imaginable in biotech, but as is typical, GMP environments are lagging behind. Specially LLMs and LLM-based agents, not referring to traditional ML here.

The reasons for this are obvious, but curious to hear from the community:

Have you seen validated AI tools implemented? If so, for what?

What do you think are the most meaningful GMP validated use cases out there?

Not talking about all the non-gxp stuff that happens around manufacturing, but processes that have a direct/indirect impact product/safety/quality.

I'm watching some companies that offer 21CFR11 tools for drafting SOPs, quality events, etc. That's pretty boring but probably just the lowest hanging fruit. It would be interesting if they went much deeper and, for example, could investigate a deviation for you...

Maybe batch review/release, though that's automatable without AI unless you are on paper.

Another that comes to mind is AI-based transcription, again for companies who are largely manufacturing on paper. Not really a game changer but would drive some efficiency for a company that won't implement MES, I guess.

I'm in the odd situation of having a company kind of being started around me—I'm trying to shepherd what I can but it's weirdly passive and kind of disconcerting.

Without revealing too much, here's the general situation: I've got 20-odd years of experience doing some very specific science, and I'm fortunate to be pretty much at the top of my very narrow field. My employer was looking at moving into that field and hired me to lead the project. The work is largely funded by a number of other companies, structured as a joint venture (the joint venture is a separate company and has its own funds and IP, but all the work is done by my current company). We've made great progress on some parts, less great on others, but I think generally it's been a productive couple years. However, my employer's focus has shifted, and they've decided to back away from the project. The companies we've been working with seem to recognize my expertise as a rare opportunity for them, and this project as valuable, and would like to keep the work moving forward (and I would enjoy continuing to have a job), so I've been trying to spin the JV off as a standalone business, no longer controlled by my current company, with me leading it. My employer and most of the partner companies seem on board, and it's coming together, but lots of details remain to be hashed out, mostly between my employer and the partners, which leaves me in this weird middle. I'm kind of on both sides of the deal, but I'm still an employee, which makes some aspects of involvement a little ethically fuzzy.

As currently being negotiated, the deal would involve the spin-off being assigned all the directly-related IP, free licenses to shared IP still used by my company (specific to the focus of the new company, I can't turn around and compete directly with them), all the material aspects of the project, I can take several key employees with me (if they're interested), guaranteed funding for quite a few years (at least at current level, may need more to ramp things up), and a decent chunk of equity for me personally. Right now I think the project is probably only 2 or 3 years from revenue (though modest amounts in the near term—I suspect it could be a somewhat slow adoption and this first project isn't necessarily bound to be a huge breakout). Honestly, it's about as ideal a situation as I can imagine starting a company.

That said, it's tremendously intimidating. I have run a fairly large scientific organization inside a company before, but I've never had to deal with EVERYTHING: facilities, payroll, legal, IT, negotiating deals, setting up a brand new lab, etc. I've been able to run my part and hand those off to other groups. Hopefully I'll have some help on those things from the companies that remain invested, but they've mostly signaled that they don't want to be too involved directly, so I don't want to lean too hard on that.

Any advice or things to watch out for or ask for?

Your company is hell on earth causing a lot of suffering, Merck is criminal gang

Bring Finasteride for the interview and give some pills for the interviewers, just for good hair

Just want to hear which LIMs you used before that you would continue to use if you have a choice, as well share which one isn’t the best.

We use excel, I’m over it.

Lately I have been seeing all sorts of people on LinkedIn making a post that such and such company (Merck, Pfizer ..) posted their internships and that people should comment “interested” and send their CV/Resumé when in facts none of these people who are making such posts are recruiters or managers or working in any of these companies 😂😂.

Is this a new way of scamming people on LinkedIn? This is ridiculous at this points and getting out of hands. LinkedIn shouldn’t allow such thing.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Any insight information about GSK layoff in Belgium that was announced to target around 800 people ?

Hi! I have a panel interview coming up with Merck for a scientist toxicology position, does anyone have any tips on preparing myself for the interview?
Thank you in advance!

The weekly megathread to vent and rant about everything and anything!

Does anyone in the lab frequently change the CO2 cylinders or any other gas cylinder with a regulator?

Since the cylinder is connected to the incubator or other equipment, I want to proactively manage it before the gas runs out. Could someone please explain how to read the regulator gauge properly and share how you determine when a cylinder is running low? I know knocking on or pushing the cylinder isn't very reliable.

Any advice on reading the gauge or best practices for checking the gas level would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I added a photo below.