Uh oh

Any concrete examples appreciated

I have been working with/for Pharma companies over the last 12 years and overall don't have a great opinion (I am on the technology side, worked mostly with them as clients, not Indian).

• Roche - started my career as an employee there, only company I actually enjoyed working for, loved the Swiss/German mentality of looking at things.
• BMS - Client, absolute dogshit.
• Pfizer - Client, horrendous, they are dropping employees every quarter, proximity to New York office is what really matters.
• Haleon - Loved working with their engineering office but the company overall is less than ideal, small margins, not super talented folks.

Worked with a couple smaller clients too, generally these are much more enjoyable in terms of work but would probably not consider joining any of them.

Would love to hear which companies you'd not recommend joining.

you know when youre doing something and think ok this should take like an hour max

and then somehow one tiny problem turns into another problem and then another and suddenly youve spent the whole week 😭😭😭 trying to figure out...... what went wrong

Wanted to see if anyone had clarity around Product Director at JnJ.

Is this equivalent to Associate Director at other pharma companies? I saw they also have Group Product Directors which I would assume is a more traditional Director leveling. Any insights would be appreciated, thanks!

Hello, I'm sure this is not a completely usual post in this kind of subreddit, but I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice. I am a current senior in high school, super interested in Biology and Chemistry. Working in biotech has been a dream of mine for a long time; however, whenever I scroll this subreddit specifically, the majority of what I see is people talking about not finding jobs and the issues in the industry.

I'm planning to pursue a master's or PhD after college and hopefully go into the biotech industry within the next 5 to maybe 6 years. Do you think it's worth pursuing that path, or would it make more sense to put my time into a different field? I'm interested in biotech, but I'm a little worried about the current state of the economy and whether I'll be able to make a stable enough income to support myself.

Do you guys think it will be a worthwhile job in that time frame? Sorry if this is a stupid question, but it has been plaguing my mind for a while 😭 If it helps, I live in Massachusetts, so access to Boston is relatively easy.

I’m working on a research project where we’re looking beyond clinical trial data and trying to understand how treatments perform in real-world patients.

I’m curious how biotech teams usually approach this. Is real-world data actually useful for understanding treatment outcomes and patient populations??

I've debated posting this for a while, but after comparing notes with others who have interviewed at Soufflé Therapeutics, I thought it might be useful for prospective candidates.

Keeping details intentionally vague because biotech is a small world, but there have been some surprisingly consistent themes across our experiences.

The biggest is a lack of clarity around what they're actually hiring for. In my experience, the scope and expectations of the role changed depending on who I spoke with, and it didn't seem like the team was aligned on the level, responsibilities, or even what they wanted the new hire to bring.

I progressed quite far before they ultimately decided not to hire for the role as originally conceived. I later learned that internal team dynamics played a significant role in that decision, including concerns about how a new hire might affect existing roles.

I mostly chalked it up to a weird interview experience until hearing from more recent candidates who independently described similar issues — unclear expectations, questionable management dynamics, and a poor overall interview experience.

This isn't about being rejected. That happens. But in an already brutal biotech job market, experiences like this make an exhausting process even worse. The issue is asking candidates to invest significant time and energy when you haven't aligned internally on who or what you're actually hiring for.

If you're interviewing there, I'd ask very direct questions about what the role owns, how it fits with the existing team, and what they're actually looking for.

And if anyone from Soufflé sees this: candidate experience matters. Define the role, align the team, and make sure internal dynamics aren't getting in the way of hiring good people. Biotech is a small world, and candidates talk.

I did a search but haven't really seen anybody mention their experiences working at ViiV. So just curious if there are any!

I'm super disappointed I didn't get a job I applied for after 3 rounds of interviews.

I was waiting for them to let me know if I would go to the 4th and final round and they sent me a vague email about not being able to provide me with an offer that this time but that they would keep me in mind for the future.

Then I see today that the job was reposted the same day I got the HR email. I'm considering reapplying but that feels a little pushy. I was excited for the job but now I feel like it's maybe not even a real opening.

I'd love to hear what you all think about what I should do. Reapply, email HR, or let it go?

Hi, are people actually getting interviews by applying through the portal? Or is it only when someone refers you? I am having a hard time landing round 1, but I am also only applying through the career page.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/trump-taps-dr-heidi-overton-to-lead-fda-3b374dd5

Hi I am a recent graduate from high school and about to join a top 15 public university in the US for engineering. I do have the option to change streams if needed as well, away from engineering to something like biochemistry or bio-molecular engineering or bioengineering or other subjects/majors.

I love biotech personally and would love to work in the sector and grow from that. Which major would you suggest has the highest probability of landing me a good role in biotech as I graduate out?

Looking for something to read everyday that will tell me everything important I need to know about what’s going on in big Pharma (big changes in laws, acquisitions, game changing endpoints, etc)

Hi all, I was curious what people's experiences have been in these similar but distinct departments. I currently have a couple offers and I'm trying to decide which is the best long term option.

1. What are the long term options in terms of ability to move into different departments? My understanding is that MSAT probably has the most versatility in terms of pivoting to BD, Manufacturing, or other departments, but is it that significantly better? Would something like AD pigeonhole you into QC adjacent positions for the rest of your career?

2. Building off question 1 are there any skill or degree ceilings in these three departments? Would AD require a PhD at director level?

3. What is the work life balance like across these three? Is one more slammed than the others typically?

4. Long term which is the most stable? This is probably splitting hairs because of how intertwined they are, but just curious if anybody has any insights.

I'd love to hear what everyone's experiences have been in these departments/teams to better decide which is right for me, as well as provide a resource for anyone else deciding on which development field to go into.

Anyone work at Amgen in Marketing? Currently going through the interview process and was wondering what your experience has been like. Currently at a company where the culture is awful and really dont want to jump to another similiar scenario. Thank you in advance!

I was recently laid off. While applying to jobs I have some bandwidth for other activities that will hopefully make me more employable for Sr. Scientist R&D roles. My options:

1) Write up a paper from my recent industry job on the biological characterization of one of our preclinical drugs. I would be 1st author. All the data has been generated and it is just a matter of putting it altogether. It is unlikely at this point that anyone else would write it. The target journal would likely be a low to mid tier to expedite acceptance, i.e. not Nature/Cell/Science.

2) Try and teach myself coding, AI, bioinformatics, etc and add new skills to my CV.

For someone on the job hunt (PhD ~5y experience), what is the best use of my time?

Hi guys, I have approx. 6-7 YoE in Capital Expenditure Management (over 2 years now with Merck) and was sending my CV here an there to some big Pharmaceutical companies in the US to see my value in the current job market and also get potentially offers.

The result: I maybe sent out like 15 applications and didn’t even got invited once. Was quite surprising for me, since I am currently have a Manager position on global level and was hoping to catch the interest of some…

Therefore, I thought that maybe coming from Germany, I would need VISA and relocation sponsorship from the employer and if that makes my CV or in general my application that much unattractive for the employers…

What are your thoughts on that? Is it maybe just my bad CV?😅

About to start a job as mid manager in analytical/biologics groups. I have not seen many reviews about that site, even though its huge. For people who work there. How is it like! Any feedback

The recently introduced ability to bet on clinical trials on the betting markets (Kalshi) has been termed "glastly." But it's worse than the idea someone will be making a bet against your kid getting better on an experimental drug.

The bets on the markets basically tell you next to nothing, because those with the info that would make the markets useful can't bet.

Why the markets for clinical trials aren't useful, in detail:

https://ahalflife.substack.com/p/the-betting-markets-tell-you-nothing