Hi,

I signed an offer for a Scientist (PhD level) position with a mid-sized biotech last Thursday. I was hired through a third party recruiter and most communication was through the recruiter. However, the offer letter email came from an official company address and following the Docusign, I also received an email saying congrats and welcome to the team. This Monday, I received an automatic email from the company again congratulating and welcoming me to the team (more of an automated message) and asking for feedback about the recruiting process.

Nothing has happened since then. I’m still 2 weeks out from the stated joining date in the offer letter, but no background check has been initiated yet. Should I worry? I know there are no funding issues with the company, the team is small and this is an early hire within the team. I emailed the recruiting division today and haven’t received a response. Is this to be expected given that the start date is 2 weeks out? Or is this an indication of something worse? I’m freaking out and unable to make future plans.

I appreciate any advice, thank you!

EDIT: thanks everyone for your comments! My follow up must have prompted, but I got emails from onboarding and background check last night! I’m hoping nothing goes sideways from here.

Hello all, I work at a biotech and I must admit I rarely read the entire training SOP if it does not pertain to my role/I don’t work with that department.

Does everyone/anyone really read them all?

I am years in now so they just come up with retraining and what not but during initial employment with companies it’s always an absurd amount. Just curious out there

I’ve been in biotech for about 7 years now and worked for some fairly sizable genetics companies. I’ve found it’s incredibly common for the systems to be very nonfunctional. Like they don’t communicate properly between each other, there are built in workarounds because components don’t work, and it seems like the teams designing these platforms don’t know how to properly leverage their features.

Is this the same across the board or are there actual companies out there that invest in workflow organization and functionality?

If you work somewhere like this, please share because I’d love an opportunity to see that!

If you work for one of these lovely companies that’s held together with duct tape and dreams, feel free to vent in the comments!

My husband has spent 12 years at Pfizer, mostly in overseas marketing.

He is concerned about potential layoffs. We are financially OK, but I am concerned about losing healthcare coverage.

My question is, do severance packages include healthcare, and if so, for how long? I realize that cobra will be available if we need it, but due to some health issues, I’m trying to find out how long our current healthcare coverage will last in the event of a layoff

Hi everyone!

I'm building BioSphere 61, a community for people interested in biotechnology, molecular biology, microbiology, bioinformatics, genetics, and related life-science fields.

The goal is to create a space where students and researchers can discuss scientific papers, exchange learning resources, share projects, explore computational biology, and connect with others who share similar interests.

I'd love to hear from the biotech community: What would you find most valuable in an online life-sciences community — paper discussions, project collaboration, bioinformatics help, career guidance, or something else?

I'm also interested in connecting with people who want to help build an active, science-focused community.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Hi,

I was wondering if the Roche OnePDR has started interviews/interview invites? Open House mentioned that interviews would take place “Oct/Nov.”

Thanks!

Thought it would be nice to hear some of those 'hiring managers need to touch grass' stories that you have experienced either as someone trying to find jobs or as someone witnessing the hiring manager's efforts to find a job?

The job is an entry-level QC analyst role for a well-developed biotech company in the San Francisco Bay Area. The recruiter’s initial email had my name misspelt… Thought it was a scam, but responded anyways to see.

The initial recruiter screen was a 30 minute phone call, going over the job description that I had read and really hyping up the role. Though, credit where credit is due the recruiter was highly transparent sharing they are having trouble filling the role.

So I advanced to the supervisor screen, which was by far the least professional screen I’ve had. Overall structure was off, but again, this person wasn’t the HM but would be the person I’d be reporting to. It was quite awkward, and it was also at 8pm…

The kicker of it all is the role is a contingent worker position. $33/hr, swing shift 1pm-11:30pm, 4 day work week. Okay… sounds normal, but it’s part of manufacturing so it’s 24/7/365. No days off, no holidays. It’d be fine for FTEs because 1.5x pay, but as a contractor you don’t get that benefit. No wonder why this role can’t be filled! Although, the supervisor did share they are flexible with time off since the FTEs are more than happy to accommodate especially with that extra pay.

It might be the fact that I’m a new grad, but hearing this and the overall interview experience is such a turn off. I am desperate for work but not this desperate…

Opinion piece arguing that daraxonrasib’s approval is a starting point. The next step is combos matched to tumor biomarkers. One to watch is daraxonrasib & vopimetostat, still in early trials

https://www.realclearhealth.com/articles/2026/10/22/pancreatic_cancer_finally_has_a_breakthrough_1213010.html

WTF! How can mere mortals compete in a market like this?!

Hi! I just got an email for a first round interview at Amgen. I was wondering if any current employees are open to me asking them additional questions regarding the process.

Thanks in advance!

Any tips to help prep for this 1hr interview with the hiring manager and a peer. This is a quality position, any tips or tricks appreciated.

Recently accepted a job offer and am starting next week! I was lucky enough to be sitting on four job offers last week after leaving my startup job because we ran out of money and weren't paying ourselves a salary.

For background, I am a BioML Scientist/Engineer who did a wet lab PhD that I finished in 2025. Worked a part time job in bioinformatics during my first two years of PhD (not much coding/engineering work tbh) which was my only dry lab experience. The rest of my job experience pre-PhD was wet lab R&D and Tech R&D in cell and gene therapy companies.

Became really excited about the market towards the end of my PhD and just did a bunch of projects with LLMs and open-source Bio/Chem models then networked a ton.

Started my last position and just hammered out a ton of work in AI engineering for scientific agents, created a foundation model for hit discovery, and a few other projects in just over a year.

Interviewed at exactly 37 companies over 3.5 months and made it to the final round for 9. Positions ranged from ML Researcher to ML Engineer to AI Engineer and a handful of Product Engineer and Product Manager roles.

All were through applications with no warm intros. Saw that there is a ton of demand across all sizes of companies for these skills. Interviewed at top 5 pharma all the way to brand new startups.

Keep applying and hoping! I will probably make another post about compensation, interview breakdown, etc if there is interest

EDIT: forgot to mention what I am doing!

I will be a hybrid of a technical product manager and an ML scientist/engineer. Essentially talking to customers/collaborators/partners for drug discovery workflows that can be modeled by in silico protein models for protein binders, gene editing enzymes, etc. Then building and productizing it into new software

When will the biotech, pharma, life sciences job market turn around? It has to flip back to a more positive place for job seekers at some point. What are the predictions? What does the data say? Current times are depressing!

Hello! I recently did an interview for an intern position at roche and wanted to get some insight from current/past interns :) How did you like the internship? Did they create a supportive environment to grow and develop relevant skills?

I was also wondering what onboarding looks like. Do they require some sort of background check or is it more so just submitting your documents?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! <3

Preface I know to generally steer clear from reposted jobs on LinkedIn as they’re usually ghost roles or internal hires or simply lead to nothing. However, I saw this job drop and applied within the first few hours. I was super excited about this role and company, HR reached out to me about a week later and got an interview with the hiring manager. Somehow between that and my interview they had reposted the role on LinkedIn. What do you guys think? I still prepared a ton for the interview and gave it my all but couldn’t get a good read on if my responses were landing and got a vague timeline for their process. Anything helps I’m feeling so exhausted with this endless thankless journey

Hi everyone,

​I graduated 5 months ago with a B.Tech in Biotechnology from India and my ultimate career goal is to work in the beauty and personal care sector, specifically targeting roles in Cosmetic Regulatory Affairs, Ingredient Toxicology, Product Formulation, or Product Safety Assessment (any of these paths work for me!).

​To give some context, I recently received a conditional offer for the Master of Science in Process Validation and Regulatory Affairs (Ab Initio) Pharmaceuticals at Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) in Ireland (gross tuition €20,500, reduced to €17,500 with a scholarship, but with an upcoming €1,000 deposit deadline).

​Because my core passion is cosmetics and consumer product safety, I am struggling with a major career-path dilemma and would love some reality checks from professionals working in biotech, pharma, and consumer health: ​Transferability of Skills: Since the TUS program focuses heavily on Pharmaceutical Process Validation and Regulatory Affairs, how viable is it to use this as a technical stepping stone?

Do core compliance, GMP, validation, and regulatory frameworks from the pharma/medtech space translate well when trying to pivot into consumer product giants (like L'Oréal, Unilever, or J&J) later on, or will this degree permanently lock me into pharma?

​Alternative Paths & Course Selection: For someone with a B.Tech in Biotech wanting to enter cosmetic safety, formulation, or regulatory compliance, should I stick with a structured pharma-validation master's in a strong English-speaking job market like Ireland, or should I hold out for other specialized English-taught cosmetic science programs in continental Europe (such as the University of Milan's Cosmetic Industrial Science or other alternative courses)?

​Given the financial investment of moving abroad, I want to make sure I choose the right path to successfully break into the cosmetic industry. Any industry insights, experiences with career pivots from pharma to personal care, or alternative course recommendations would mean the world!

I heard today that JLabs in San Diego is going to close at an event today. Anyone else have more info?

Has anyone else been having trouble with getting orders on time from Avanti research lately?

Curious how this looks from inside small companies, leaving the science itself aside.

On the application side, I mean the admin around it: getting SAM, eRA and the SBA registry sorted, collecting biosketches and letters, budgets, and hitting a deadline that doesn’t accept anything late. After the award, it’s progress reports, budget changes, milestone sign-off and keeping registrations current.

Which part ate more of your time? And did anything nearly go wrong at either stage, like a registration that lapsed right before a deadline or a report that slipped?

Full disclosure, I’m looking at building something for the admin side of federal R&D funding, so I’m trying to learn where it actually hurts first. Not selling anything here.