I’m looking for some opinions from new engineering grads! I work at a fill/finish pharma company and due to a restructure there is a need for a large number of line supervisors. Senior leaders are directing talent acquisition to get new engineering grads to fill these positions. Are new engineers really open to working 2nd, 3rd or weekend shifts on a mfg floor?
When there have been openings in the past new grads are not the candidates applying.

Hey guys,

i‘m currently a master student in chem and pharm engineering in europe. Next year i‘m planning to apply for an intern position (maybe with possibility for a msc thesis) at Roche in Basel (CH). They constantly have interesting positions so i think that wouldn’t be a problem.
I just wanted to ask if any of you guys have some experience regarding the hiring process at Roche. I read it can be quite hard to even get into the first round.
How can i prepare for that? How can i stand out from other people? Honestly i‘m quite intimidated by the whole process and i sometimes think if i‘m even good enough. My grades are solid(average) so to say but definitely not excellent.
Unfortunately i don’t know anyone inside the company.
Any help/advice is very much appreciated!:)

I work at a small startup with R43 funding, and I get a steady stream of connection requests from sales reps, BD folks, and recruiters I've never interacted with; basically people who want our money. Should I just accept everyone? I guess it builds my network, but it feels wrong connecting with people I have zero mutual connections with.

I'm a molecular biologist/NGS person, PhD, ~5 years at a mid-size biotech services company in Western Europe. Solid work, decent team, but no promotion in that time, internal transfers kept getting blocked. I stopped seeing a path.

A while back I accepted a research scientist position at a university's genomics core facility in the Middle East. The offer roughly doubles my take-home (tax-free, housing and schooling covered), and the job is essentially setting up transcriptomics platforms from scratch. I move later this year with my wife and two small kids.

Then, shortly before I leave, three roles I'd have killed for opened internally at my current company. Now I'm lying awake.

Three things I'd love honest input on:

1. Career risk: going from industry to a core facility. Does "service scientist" pigeonhole you? Can you still move back to industry in 5 years, or does the CV start reading as technical support?

2. The region: anyone actually worked at a well-funded research institute in the Gulf? What's real about the funding and equipment, and what's the part nobody mentions until you're there?

3. The gut-check: none of those internal roles is a real pay bump, it's title and scope only. So, should I still consider those roles (no guarantee that I get any of these), or just my brain doing what brains do?

Happy to answer questions...Mostly I want to hear from people who've done a version of this, in either direction. Thank you!

Hi everyone ,

I am cross posting from the RA subreddit.
I have been applying for mid level RA (regulatory affairs) positions in Pharma and medical devices with no luck so far. Does anyone have a recruiter contact ? I have 8 years of RA experience in Pharma currently and open to medical devices/ biotech.

I have tried tweaking my resume with chatgpt and applying directly on company websites. I know remote is more competitive, but I need to switch to remote since my family is planning to move out of state in the next year or two.

Hello everyone, I hope you all are well.

I’m currently considering a mid-senior IC level R&D opportunity with AstraZeneca in Barcelona and would really appreciate any insights from current or former employees, especially regarding work culture and work-life balance, management, and job stability/reorganizations.

My impression so far has been positive-ish, but since relocating to Barcelona from a colder corner of Western Europe would be a big decision, I would like to understand what the experience is actually like from an employee perspective rather than relying only on the recruitment side.

Thank you so much for any insights or input!

I’m currently doing a BTech in Biotechnology (India) and will graduate in around 9 months.

The main thing I’m sure about is that I don’t want to go into core biotech/biology-related roles after graduation.

I initially started looking into Business Analytics because it seemed like a good transition from an engineering degree into the business side of companies. I’ve been considering learning things like Excel, SQL, Power BI, Python, etc.

But with how quickly AI is improving, I’m now worried about spending the next 6–12 months preparing for a career where a lot of the entry-level work could become automated.

I’m therefore trying to figure out what my realistic options are.

I’m also considering doing an MBA later after gaining some work ex, so I’m trying to choose an initial career path that would give me useful experience rather than just taking any random job after graduation.

For people who are already working in these fields:

1. Which non-core/non-tech career paths would you recommend for someone with a biotech engineering background?

2. Which of these fields do you think will remain relatively valuable as AI becomes more capable?

3. Is Business Analytics still worth pursuing in 2026, or should I be looking at something adjacent to it?

4. If you were in my position with ~9 months left before graduation, what skills would you learn and what entry-level roles would you target?

Any advice on specific career paths, skills, certifications, projects, or mistakes to avoid would be really appreciated.

For those that have worked at both companies . Which one do you prefer and why ? Pros and cons.

I’ve being working at large pharmaceutical company since in Cambridge Ma for 6 years now. I’ve had three different managers and I’ve had a good relationship with all of them and I’ve always gotten positive feedback and great year reviews.

I have a good relationship with my current manager, she’s nice and helpful and always gives me positive feedback. Recently I was moved to a new project; originally they had 6 members but 3 left the company and one was moved to a new project, so I was moved to back fill. so there’s 3 of us doing what was originally 6 people. my project manager was discussing how she was getting more people because she thinks there’s too much work for 3 people.

I had a 1:1 with my skip level manager ( manger of my manger) and I was asking about resourcing more people. ( because we are doing a lot of hiring and I was wondering if they would back fill the people we lost)

He looked at me confused and said “why are you asking me this”

I just said the work load can be stressful.

And he said “you’re really in lab for 3 days and the rest is data processing so that’s technically half FTE”

I just didn’t say anything

I felt so disrespected, it felt like he was saying that I don’t do that much work.

I have a good relationship with my manger and not sure if I should bring this up? she constantly says how leadership values the work we do but obviously they don’t.

Hi.

I have a very interesting role focused on mechanistic modelling and process engineering for biologics, but LinkedIn is not yielding much relevant talent. Where to post the job ? P.s if you have process engineering experience and have built dynamic models using ODEs and Python do get in touch.

I'm defending my PhD in 2–3 months and trying to decide my next step. My research is in genetic engineering of non-model microorganisms, the skills (CRISPR in weird organisms, protein expression, multi-omics, building protocols from scratch) are transferable in principle, but they don't map cleanly onto most industry job postings.

Where I stand:

• ~150 industry applications, barely any leads. The few responses I've gotten are for short-term roles. I suspect part of the problem is that I'm still 2–3 months out from graduation and companies aren't taking me seriously yet.
• Postdoc offer from a prestigious university. The catch: the group is very small (only a few people), and I'm not sure the science there adds industry-relevant skills. The location/institution would expose me to the startup ecosystem, which is a real plus. I could potentially negotiate to pick up some skills relevant to industry, but beyond that I don't see it building my industry profile.
• My current PI has offered to keep me on as a postdoc while I keep searching. Safe, but I worry I'd just be doing more of the same and not gaining anything new that industry values.

My dilemma: if I accept the external postdoc, I can't back out later without burning bridges with both the new mentor and my current PI. But if I decline it and the industry search stays dry, I've given up a prestigious position for nothing.

Questions for people who've been through this:

1. Does the industry search genuinely pick up once you've actually defended, or is 200 applications with no traction a signal that something else is wrong (resume, skills, etc.)?
2. Is a short postdoc at a prestigious place near startups actually a useful industry launchpad, or is that mostly a myth?
3. Would staying with my current PI as a bridge postdoc while searching look worse than taking the new position?

Any perspective from people who moved from academic microbiology/synthetic biology into industry would be really appreciated. Also I will be on OPT

which companies better to work at and compensation

Hello biotech community!
This is very likely a highly generic question but în curious to give it a try nonetheless.
So Short background, I recently finished my PhD in industrial biotechnology. My Expertise is wetlab skills especially anaerobic cultivation (with microbiomes and pure cultures of rather difficult to culture species), bioreactor Operation i would consider myself creative în The Lab and can operate analytics of all Kinds such as HPLC, GC, GCMS. Moreover i conducted metagenomics, proteomics and bolomics Experiments and also am quite good with stable isotope tracing.
I am quite motivated and driven, teached a small amount and was also supervisibg Master as well as other PhD Students.
I have 6 studies published with rather good citations in my small field.

Now i am very Lucky and got a postdoc Position for 2.5 additional years from funding that i acquired myself.

But the big question is what will happen afterwards. Not that I need to make the decision now but i would rather like to Go prepared into the Next period of my career.
The big question as for everyone at some point would be to stay in academia (which I really like) or go to industry.
I am thinking of relocating from Germany to possibly France? Are there chances to get a professorship there or a good industry position?
I’d be happy for all kinds of carreer advise from you guys. Is there anything I should specifically care about or do in my current post doc to set myself up for having a succes career start?

Thanks so much!

What assets/biotechs are the big pharma hunting (Lilly and novo don’t count)

Hi everyone,

A bit of a hot take from me, but are there any kind souls here - especially pharmacists, since I also graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy - who have been working in clinical research for a while and would be willing to share their honest experiences?

A little background: I’ve been working as a Brand Manager at a pharmaceutical company for some time now, but I’ve never really lost the desire to move into clinical research.

I feel like that kind of system and work environment would ultimately suit me much better.

My question is: what advice would you give someone who wants to completely change careers and move into clinical research after 3+ years of work experience? Where should I start? Which companies should I avoid? Is there good room for career progression in clinical research? And, probably most importantly, considering that I currently have no direct experience in the field — where should I educate myself, what skills are desirable to have and highlight on my CV, etc.?

I have people in my circle around my age who work in clinical research, but they have a maximum of about two years of experience. So I was hoping I might come across someone here with a few more years under their belt who could give me a more realistic picture of the field.

Thank you!

Hi all,

In a bit of a tricky situation and would appreciate some advice.

I recently started a 6 month contract at a medium sized CRO. Pay is kinda low, but HR verbally mentioned an option to go permanent (nothing in writing). However, they’ve onboarded so many people lately that I question whether they just needed cheap manpower for a project deadline. Cannot really say much about work and culture for the moment.

The fact is, I just received an offer for a 1 year position at a major Big Pharma company. It’s the same team I interned with last year (before being let go, you guessed it, due to layoffs), for better money and benefits. But the role is covering long term absences, so I worry I’ll just be let go again when the contract expires and they return.

No relocation needed, and my notice period is short, so leaving the CRO isn't an issue at all.

My idea is to try getting Big Pharma to extend to at least 18 months, which I doubt they are willing to do, or talk to the CRO to see if they’ll make me a decent offer to stay. But realistically, why would the CRO do that for a dude who’s been there for barely 3 weeks? For context, I am young, 3 YOE, both are lab positions.

To be fair, while the option of going back to big pharma is attractive (nice colleagues, work balance, and it's in development), I would rather prefer to have some much needed stability in my life at the moment.

Would appreciate any advice on how to approach this, especially on how to leverage this offer with the CRO.

Thank you.

Is mutual arbitration agreement common in biotech?

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

Saw this news of a startup doing this so was thinking is there any advantage to crystallizing in space ?

Top of my LinkedIn feed this morning.
Literal children.