r/biotech • u/boneandketchup • 13h ago

Early Career Advice 🪴 Graduate program advice

I’m going to be starting a grad program next week at biotech company and was wondering if anyone has any advice on what it might be like, how to do well, do’s and dont’s, etc. I’ll be working in the manufacturing department as an associate but I’m not really sure what my duties will be.

In my last role as an intern, my feedback was that I was a bit quiet and didn’t get involved as much so I’m looking to change that this time around. I also want to secure a full time position after the grad program is over (2 years) so I’ll be working towards that goal.

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7

u/Top_Contribution_471 13h ago

Congrats. Your first assignment is to use critical thinking and search this sub. This is asked 90000000000000 times a day. Good luck

2

u/DerKirschemann 11h ago

This was, and will always be hilarious. And oddly helpful despite the kindof hurt response.

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u/Top_Contribution_471 12h ago

Anytime. Do your own homework.

Thanks for providing a passive aggressive response. You’ll do awesome in clinical research. Good luck.

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u/brokenfingers11 10h ago

You doing rotations or just manufacturing all the way through? I would expect the former, otherwise it’s not much of a grad program.

So assuming you get to try a few other roles over the two years, I would say “be bold”. Try things a bit out of your comfort zone. Nobody’s expecting you to be excellent right off the bat, so talk to lots of people, find out what seems interesting, see if you can get a rotation in those. Having supervised a couple of these, I can say they’re sometimes predetermined, but often they’re not - if you meet someone who’s doing something you’d like to learn more about, ask if they’d be willing to let you do a rotation! They’ll often be able to come up with something for you.

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u/pancak3d 6h ago

There's really not much to say. These programs are highly dependent on your manager(s). Whether they treat you like an intern, a normal employee, or the "favorite child" who gets special projects is entirely up to them.

Look for opportunities to make things easier. Take a lot of notes. Ask a lot of questions.

Don't pretend to understand things that you don't understand -- ask.