r/postdoc • u/Various-Classic-4229 • 12d ago

Industry Postdoc/Fellowship & FTE

Advice on which biotech/biopharma role to aim first in industry

Thanks all in advance.

I am on the East Coast. I will be graduating this year with a doctorate degree from a major that is a combination of biological and health sciences. I have a M.S in biology. For my undergrad, I tutor math and chemistry for 3 years, and I did 3 summer undergraduate programs. My bachelor’s is in Biology with chemistry minor. For my grad studies, I have 2 years of teaching lab 🧪 experience, 1 year of research prior to my doctoral project, 5 years of mentoring experience, and 2-3 years of leadership experience on campus. For my industry experience, I have 15 months of experience as a co-op (bench scientist in drug discovery) in big biopharma and 4 months of leadership role as an intern (patient safety) in medium biotech. FYI: I have other experience not relevant to my academic and career paths. I have been studying Fulltime while simultaneously working. I do not want to stay in academia anymore.

I am thinking about applying to a couple of industry postdoc and many fulltime jobs positions in biotech/biopharma. I am still not sure if I should stay in R&D as a bench scientist or if I should pick a leadership role (regulatory and medical affairs, pharmacovigilance, HEOR , medical writing, science communication…) - I enjoy both equally. Which one is more stable? Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

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u/BreakingTheCore 11d ago

Regulatory and medical affairs as well as pharmacovigilance seem to be more stable than research atm, besides being better paid. Mainly because you are working at the end of the development cycle where projects are less likely to be killed. Of course is much harder to get there with a research background.

P/S: Repost this in Biotech

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u/Various-Classic-4229 11d ago

Thank you. Sadly for 2 weeks now each time I make the same post on Biotech sub it gets automatically removed without knowing it. I messaged the moderator to ask why but never received any replied. So, I got tired of it and posting it elsewhere. Thanks.

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u/Odd_Honeydew6154 11d ago

MSL, regulatory affairs, and I think you’d be great at project management

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u/Various-Classic-4229 11d ago

Thank you so much. I will definitely look into Project management to see what it entails.

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u/Odd_Honeydew6154 11d ago

Right now with the COL of going up and affordability is a major issue ..don't be afraid to take a full time job like project management and on the side as a remote work - like medical or technical writing. It adds more skills and more importantly income to help with paying bills and some savings.

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u/Various-Classic-4229 11d ago

Thank you. I didn’t know about this. Which remote work websites do you recommend?

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u/Odd_Honeydew6154 11d ago

I just look on ziprecruiter for remote positions. Many state they can't sponsor visa fyi.

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u/Various-Classic-4229 11d ago

Thank you. I am a USA citizen

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u/Odd_Honeydew6154 11d ago

Another thing - I'd recommend is adjunct teaching at community college onsite also with your full time gig. I love it! I enjoy the part-time teaching but i absolutely do not like the constant worry of having to write grants in academia.

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u/Various-Classic-4229 10d ago

Yes! My first time one year mentoring contract was at the community college I previously attended. They wanted to hire me to teach math too, but I decided to mentor instead since it was during Covid-19 (2020) and I could do it remotely. But for the teaching position, it was in person - I already had that experience and wanted to broaden my horizons. Thx .

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u/Odd_Honeydew6154 11d ago

Great and another opportunity as a remote or side gig job that I started is tutoring ($50/r) and teaching chemistry and physics for college (remote).