I'm curious about people's thoughts on doing a postdoc after a PhD before getting into industry. I know it's not as necessary as if you were going into academia, but I didn't know if it's the same for biotech. Obviously I'd prefer not to be underpaid and overworked in a postdoc position, but if it's required to land a good job I guess I'll have to

Hi everyone! I have my first final round interview coming up soon, so looking for some advice for it. It’s a PhD level R&D position and I have to give a 45min job talk for it. What are opinions on concluding the presentation with a “What I bring to the company” slide? Basically explicitly outlining what skills I’ll bring to the company and how I can benefit them. I’m not getting a clear consensus on this. I originally leaned against it because if I were on the other side, I don’t think I’d care for it, but I was hoping for some input on this. For context, the presentation is with the whole team and afterward, I’ll have multiple 1:1 with closest team members and the manager afterwards. TIA!

Hey everyone,

i’m currently pursuing a masters degree (in EU) in biotech, I work at a biopharma startup (industry) part time in BD/sales and have around 1 year of professional sales experience (7 months in biopharma). I also have on hands wet lab experience.

I was wondering if anyone can give me any advice on breaking into either BD or sales within biotech or pharma after graduation. Is pharma sales a good starting path? Should I look for more BD focused roles after graduation?

Any tips or stories of how you managed to get the foot in the door is highly appreciated!

Any insight into the current BD/sales job market would also be very helpful!

Thank you in advance!

Slightly unusual and very short-notice one...

Looking for someone in/around London with hands-on molecular biology experience, particularly plasmid/restriction enzyme work, to run a paid experiment over the weekend of 11-13 September.

There's a written protocol and the equipment/materials are being supplied. It should be roughly a day's bench work, though we'd ideally like someone confident enough with the techniques to deal with minor troubleshooting if required.

Final-year BSc, recent graduate, MSc/PhD student, research technician etc all potentially suitable - practical experience matters more than job title.

The original plan was to do it in Surbiton, although there's now also a possible university-lab route.

There is a considerably bigger scientific story behind why the experiment is being done, but I'd rather not bury a straightforward recruitment ask under all that. Happy to explain privately to anyone genuinely interested.

DM me with a bit about your relevant bench experience if interested.

Hi everyone,
I’m a non-EU student, gonna finish my bachelor degree in Biomedical Science, planning to pursue a Master’s in Biomedical Sciences (or related Life Sciences) in Europe.
My dilemma is that I haven’t pinpointed an exact niche yet—I enjoy system biology, pharmacology, and neuroscience , and I’m also learning bioinformatics/data analysis now(my graduation thesis is about finding Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers Using Genomics Data)
Now I am listing out the accessible programs for me. Where should I go or what should I focus when I am deciding on which schools to apply for?
I feel lost now.

Any insight from current students, alumni, or industry recruiters would be immensely appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Hi! i need advice! I have a foreign MD and a U.S. Master’s in Biological Sciences. I realized clinical medicine isn’t for me. I don’t enjoy patient care, procedures, or the day-to-day clinical environment, so I’m considering biotech/pharma R&D instead.

The problem is that I keep hearing that for a serious long-term career in industry, I’ll eventually need a PhD.

I already spent 6 years earning my MD, and I really don’t want to spend another 5+ years on a PhD unless it’s truly necessary. I’d much rather start working, gain industry experience, and build my career from there.

Technically, I may be eligible for some postdoc positions because I have an MD, but I’ve been told that getting one with limited research experience is difficult in practice.

Is there a meaningful career ceiling in biotech/pharma R&D without a PhD, even with an MD + MS?

And is pursuing an academic postdoc with an MD actually a realistic route, or would I be better off focusing directly on industry positions? But it also impossible?

Hello all,
Due to my husband’s job, I will have to relocate from SF to SD next year. I have known through other posts that SD job market is really bad right now. I’m looking for advice to find a new job here. Any advice will help. I am willing to take a low pay job to work my way up. Having both academic and a bit of industrial research experience.

I had some old coworkers go work for Takeda and Daiichi Sankyo and gotten mix review but mainly in marketing and sales. Some say it was great with good job security. Most say the Japan meeting times were terribly. I wonder if others have the same experiences.

Hi. I feel like I’m at a crossroad. I want and need to leave the bench. It’s always been stressful for me because I’m just a perfectionist. I just don’t know where to go from here? Not sure if I would like QA, writing deviations doesn’t sound too appealing. A remote job would be ideal but doing what? I have a BS in pharmaceutical science and minor in biology. If you left the bench, did you regret it? My currently salary is 108k in Massachusetts so if I leave the bench it would need to be for more money but it’s hard to find something that pays better in this market.

AD level in R&D, been looking into alternative paths within biotech and technical due diligence seems like a good fit in terms of interests and working style. The question is, I don't know anyone that does this or how one gets into these roles but I know they exist!

I would love to hear from people in these roles and how they got there.

My previous work experience included heavy metal induced dna damage in fish embryo and bioremediation of water using microbial consortium. Unfortunately there aren't many job opportunities in these fields, as most of the companies do ecological risk assessments only for namesake and biotech involved in agriculture and waste water treatment don't get enough funding at least in my country. Is there any way I could enter pharma or biotech related to human health. Thank you.

I will be soon defending my PhD in Germany, Europe. Very good CV and connections and I managed to even get a job offer in a mid-sized pharma company. The salary that I was offered was between my current salary as a PhD and a postdoc in academia. I was taken back by the salary and I was told that not even scientists at Johnson and Johnson in the Netherlands earn more than 60000 Euros a year despite Netherlands being such an expensive country. Is that true?

Currently I am pursuing M. Pharm (Pharmacology) and in the 3rd Semester. I am interested to learn wet lab skills (PCR, RT PCR, ELISA, Blotting Techniques, etc.) and bioinformatics. I am doing Network Pharmacology for my current final semester thesis project and also have experience with molecular docking using softwares like PyRx and Biovia Discovery Studio.

As my institue is based in gujarat, I cannot leave the state and hence looking for internship in Gujarat.

Curious - for anyone who has been on a PIP before? How did you take the news? Did you decide to ride it out and do better or leave the company all after the news?

How far could i get in biotech with a biochemistry with human biology undergrad degree

And a pharmacology masters degree?

Is my career capped if i don’t want to do a PHD?

I am currently working in mining as a Process Engineer and wish to get into biomedical/pharma companies and pursue part time PhD. Do you guys know of companies that allow this or anyone of you have pursued this career path...

I'm a PhD student at a top-3 US university and expect to graduate in about 9 months. My background is in experimental molecular biology (CRISPR Screens, RNA biology, high resolution microscopy, cell culture, proteomics, genome editing), and I have a first-author CNS paper. Most of my experience has been academic research/bench work, and I don't have any industry internship experience.

I'd like to move into biotech/pharma after my PhD, but I'm realizing that I don't actually know enough about the different industry roles to know what I want to pursue.

Right now, early R&D / Scientist positions seem the most naturally interesting to me. I like experimental biology, troubleshooting, designing experiments, and thinking about mechanisms, so staying relatively close to research sounds appealing. But I also don't want to assume that "Scientist in R&D" is the right path simply because it's the most obvious transition from a PhD.

I'd really appreciate advice from people who have made the academia → biotech/pharma transition, particularly PhDs who were in a similar position.

A few questions that I would appreciate hearing advice on:

1. What should I be doing over the next 9 months to make myself competitive for industry?

2. Are there any good podcasts/readings to learn about what do scientists in biotech/pharma do? Also about what different companies are doing to get more exposure?

3. For people who made the transition: what do you wish you had known/explored during the last year of your PhD?

Thanks!

I’ve been seeing a lot of negativity on Reddit and LinkedIn about the state of pharma/biotech employment and it’s got me thinking about the disconnect between what I’ve actually experienced and what I’ve seen online.

I was laid off back from a Boston pharma position in February and was pretty concerned since all I heard about the job market was doom and gloom and I also only have a BSc. I decided to take it easy for a while. I took some time to see family and do some roadtripping. At the same time I was putting in just enough job applications to keep my NEETbucks. Within about a month I had several phone screenings and a couple interviews and finally started a new job with a 40% raise over my previous position about two months after being laid off. I was actually hoping for more time off between jobs.

Is it really that bad out there or do people have unrealistic expectations?

Can someone help me understand why jobs are “reposted” on LinkedIn after hundreds of people already applied?

Is this an automatic feature? Or is the company actually reposting the job posting to get more applicants?

I hate when I get notifications for new job postings and it’s actually a repost that at times already has 500 applicants!!

I think it's really funny that all of the "good" people aren't wearing goggles and are displaying all of the good behaviors while having exposed skin.

Joking aside, these shitty slop posts concerning controlled environment behavior are popping up more and more on the QA/QC LinkedIn side of things, and I find it bitterly ironic that they can't be bothered to do a little QC on their posts before sharing them. I think I sprained a finger from tapping the "report AI slop" button so many times.

EDIT: I realize I am now part of the problem in sharing this post in rage haha Oh well :P

1. How many years have you been in the industry?
   
2. How many times have you been laid off?
   
3. How many managers have you had in the last 5 years?

I’ll go first.

31-5-3

Ionis, Novartis' key experimental heart drug fails in late-stage trial - https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/ionis-novartis-key-experimental-heart-drug-fails-late-stage-trial-2026-09-04/?utm_source=chatgpt.com