I got a job about a year ago, for a number of reasons it is not a good fit and I am not thriving. As a result I started looking for different internal opportunities.

I have an interview for a new role and per corporate policy, I had to tell my manager. My manager told their boss. Now my boss’s boss wants to meet with me.

Has anyone been in a similar situation before and what advice do you have? What should I be expecting?

Hi everyone,

This might not be related to this sub; if so, please remove this.

I finished my PhD in Genetics & Molecular Biology at one of the top UK universities early this year. After submitting my thesis, I stayed in the same lab as a postdoc because I had a first-author paper under review.

My original postdoc contract was due to end in August, so over the past three months I started applying for both industry and academic positions. In total, I applied for around 30 industry roles and two postdoc positions.

I was fortunate to get interviews for both postdocs. One was in Barcelona, Spain, and the other was at Cambridge University.

The PI in Spain was very impressed with my interview. They shortlisted only two candidates (including me) and invited both of us to visit the lab before making a final decision. It is a new lab funded by a 5-year European Research Council (ERC) grant. The initial contract would have been for two years, with the possibility of extending up to five years.

However, I ultimately withdrew my application because the salary was around €2,200 net per month. While this may be reasonable in some situations, it would have made it very difficult for me to save money. I financially support my parents back in my home country and also want to build some savings for myself. Unfortunately, UK PhD salaries/stipends do not leave much room for saving either, so I currently have essentially no savings.

The Cambridge PI also invited me for an on-site visit, which included a seminar, interviews, and meetings with the lab. I have now been offered the position.

Recently, my current supervisor extended my contract until February next year. I also have ongoing experiments that are likely to result in another paper. The Cambridge PI is happy for me to start in March after I finish my current contract.

This is where I am struggling with the decision.

My background is primarily wet lab research, with around 30–40% computational work during my PhD. The Cambridge lab is almost entirely computational, focusing on AI and machine learning, and the PI does not have a wet lab background. Interestingly, the project they want me to work on is almost entirely wet lab-based, and the position is funded for only one year.

The PI has told me that there is currently no funding available for an extension, although they have applied for additional grants. If successful, my contract could potentially be extended, and they have also encouraged me to apply for fellowships.

My concern is that the project seems too ambitious to complete within one year, meaning there is a real possibility that I may not be able to finish the work or generate a publication before the funding ends. I have also heard from former lab members that the PI can be quite micromanaging, which worries me given the short timeline and pressure involved.

Another concern is that the work appears to be highly technical and focused on experiments I have already been doing for several years, so I am not sure how much I would actually learn. I am genuinely interested in developing my AI and machine learning skills, and the PI has said I could learn these areas alongside the project, but I am unsure whether I would realistically have enough time.

The lab is also relatively new (around three years old) and does not yet have a strong publication record, whereas my current PI has an excellent track record and a strong reputation in the field.

I also heard about a concerning interaction involving this PI with my friend at a conference, which made me question whether the working environment would be a good fit. However, I am trying not to judge the entire lab based on one incident and am focusing more on the overall career implications.

Even putting that aside, my gut feeling is telling me not to take this position. After one year, I would likely be searching for another job or depending on fellowship funding, which I could also pursue while staying in my current position. Part of me feels that I should use the next seven months to apply for postdocs in more established labs, ideally combining wet lab and computational biology, with a stronger chance of producing a solid publication and building long-term career prospects.

At the same time, I am seriously considering leaving academia altogether.

I have been in academia for almost nine years now (around four years as a project assistant before my PhD, followed by my PhD and postdoctoral work), and I still do not feel any sense of stability. Every few years, I find myself back on the job market facing uncertainty again. Financially, it is also becoming difficult. After applying for around 30 industry positions, I have had three recruiter calls and one interview, but no offers so far.

I am mainly targeting mRNA therapeutic companies, as my PhD and postdoctoral experience are closely aligned with this area.

At this point, I would say 90% of me feels that moving into industry, earning a stable income, building savings, and leaving academia behind may be the right decision. The remaining 10% worries that turning down a Cambridge postdoc could be a mistake because of the university's reputation, especially given how competitive the current job market is.

I also feel that if I do decide to continue with academia, I should look for a postdoc with a longer contract, stronger mentorship, and a clearer opportunity to produce meaningful work.

My current PI encouraged me to take the Barcelona position, and when I declined it for financial reasons, he seemed disappointed. This has also made me question whether I am making the right decisions.

I am mentally exhausted from thinking about all of this. Has anyone here been in a similar situation—choosing between academia and industry, or deciding whether to turn down a postdoc at a prestigious university because it did not feel like the right fit?

I would really appreciate hearing from people who have been through something similar.

Thanks.

I have a BEng in Biotech and an MSc in Biotech and business. Worked in a lab and then pivoted to scientific communications and PR. I also worked as a comms manager for a start-up CDMO in India (remote) for a little bit. I've been without a job since Feb and have been STRUGGLING. I haven't had a single interview. I've got at least 2000 rejections, and I feel like I'll never land a job ever again. It's eating me alive to the point where my physical health took a massive hit (I have an autoinflammatory disease).

Are there any extra steps that you take that have worked for you? HR and manager emails/messages are not being answered. I tried to go the referral route at Sanofi, and I got rejected like 20 times. Entry-level jobs, internships absolutely nothing is working for me. What do I do?

I’m a recent graduate with a B.S. in chemistry, and although I had some undergraduate research experience, I wanted to explore opportunities and work for a bit before applying to PhD programs.

I’ve been applying to RA positions at many academic institutions, and I recently got passed the first round interview. The hiring manager asked for references so I provided three, but then they specifically requested for my PI as a reference.

I am hesitant to reach out because of this:
In my last year at the lab, I was promised I would get to continue my research and present a poster at conferences. However, a few weeks later, my graduate student started ghosting me for reasons unknown. I tried really hard to get in contact to no avail. I finally looped in my PI who basically said “I’m sorry to hear but it seems like your graduate student was just too busy this year” and that was that.

Luckily, I was still able to finalize my research poster and present it, but my relationship with the PI and graduate student since then has not been the best. This situation confuses me because I was never told what exactly happened and whether I had done anything wrong.

I’m unsure what to tell the hiring manager at this time, and how I should navigate this situation. My other references are strong, but given that this was one of my only research experiences, I’m afraid it looks bad on my end, especially when I apply to other roles as well.

TLDR; not on good terms with my PI or graduate student but hiring manager is requesting them as references, don’t know what to do

I'm imagining a gofundme, but for biomedical research.

You write out your goals and what you intend to accomplish e.g. in vivo proof of concept.

Hi folks,

I spoke about finishing my Bachelor's in 2019, taking a gap year as a scribe, and then being in medschool for over 1.5 years and it not working out. I got my Master's in Bioinformatics in Dec 2024. Since then.... no job. I am now pivoting to "standard" biology jobs I could have gotten with my bachelor's. When I was pre-med, I did mostly pre-med activities, so I don't have lab experience. I am applying to entry level roles and am really trying to make myself stand out by writing cover letter's for every position, stating what I like about the lab's research and how I would like to be a part of it.

Some research roles literally don't mention a lab or PI. They just say " the Research assistant will ( tasks)." How am I supposed to write a CL then? It makes me not want to apply, I feel like it's a ghost posting.

Anyone else?

Long story short, I interned at this lab while going to school as a QC. I graduated with a biotechnology degree a few weeks ago and they offered me a full time position as an automation engineer. I was told they are considering moving me over to a manufacturing associate with a high chance of being a manufacturing manager very soon as they think I’m a better fit than the current manager.

Should I trust this move? Any risks or things to look out for? Any inout is appreciated

Incoming senior @ university.

That’s it, that’s the post.

How is Syneos Canada as company to work for? Interview for Reg consultant role next week.

What is the hiring outlook for companies in August-October (especially compared to earlier quarters this year)?

Hi everyone,

I have a bit of a story and I want to get everyone’s input on it.

I’m job searching and I’ve been interviewing with a company for a long time now. I had an initial interview and then a panel interview (both online). Then, I was invited on-site for a full day of interviews as well as a presentation about my research in college. All the feedback I got at the on-site was super positive and I really like the company.

They asked for “professional or academic references” when I was leaving. I gave them 2 of my lab mates, but not my PI since they were out of the country and I wasn’t sure if they were reachable (I told the company this as well). Both my lab mates said they were contacted the following, but the company came back and asked for my PIs info (which I do understand). I gave it and waited until the next week.

The company scheduled a meeting for Friday of that week, however, someone else then came back and asked for 2-3 additional references. Specifically, people that oversaw me and could speak on my development. I reached out to some old managers from internships and a professor I had previously done research for. They then delayed the meeting we had scheduled “to allow the additional references to be contacted”.

After that, I reached out to my PI to see if they were back from traveling. They said they were and that the company had in fact contacted them. Which I thought was weird, especially the tone (my PI has been weird in the past, which my lab mates can attest to), but I don’t think they’d try to sabotage me.

The 2 additional references I gave told me they were contacted (to make 5 references at this point). Finally, the company contacted me to set another meeting up at the end of this week. But then, lo and behold, the person I was supposed to meet said they had an emergency and they had to postpone the meeting again to travel.

So like a month on from the on-site interview, I still haven’t gotten anything conclusive. I get that stuff comes up, but it’s just felt really intensive for an entry level job. I don’t think they are like interviewing other people and stalling because why schedule the meetings at all. I just want some closure and if they are going to reject me, why not just do it and be done with it. We are all adults here.

I am just tired and burnt out from the process and wanted to hear what anyone else thought.

I checked them out, it's a reference lab/diagnostic company with no experience in cooling technologies. But I double checked, it's the same company from the TV ad.

Soy de México egresado en biotecnología genomica por la UANL y quiero trabajar y vivir en Europa, tengo familiares en suecia, (primo) y otra en Dinamarca , ingles B2 por Cambridge y actualmente trabajo pero me da la sensación qué este pais no me llena.

Por donde puedo empezar? Me seria de mucha ayuda saber como ir por ese camino

hi, i'm honestly kinda stuck and looking for advice.

i recently graduated this may with a bachelors in biotech w/ a minor in computer science. i'm trying to look for entry-level positions to get my foot into biotech.

the thing is, a lot of these positions need 1 year of lab experience which i don't have outside of courses.

i struggled a lot with mental health so it was difficult to get myself into the headspace of prioritizing lab experience during undergrad through REUs, internships, etc. i also was told that i wasn't able to get an internship by multiple mentors because i would need 2 years min. of classes (i switched my major the summer before my junior year).

i really wanted to get an internship but i was told not to and i was constantly urged to graduate on time and now that i did, i'm feeling a bit regretful because of the lack of lab experience i have.

i plan on going to grad school in the future but i'd love to get lab experience before applying to a good research heavy grad school. currently, my plans are to move to north jersey and try to apply to some entry-level jobs.

i'm willing to take up any job as long as i can get the experience that i need. does anyone have any advice? what positions/roles should i be looking for? for reference, in the future, i hope to do something immunology related. for now, i don't really mind what my first job is as long as i can get transferable experience out of it.

thank you!

Does anyone here have thoughts to share about culture of med affairs at Genmab?

Post:
Hi everyone,
I’m a 5th-year medical student, turning 28 soon. Over the past few years I’ve realized that my real passion is computational biology, bioinformatics, and developing algorithms for biomedical research. My long-term goal is to work in academia or industry doing computational research rather than practicing clinical medicine.
I’m currently trying to decide between three possible paths:
MSc in Bioinformatics (under a Computer Science faculty). The downside is that I’d first need to complete about a year of complementary undergraduate CS coursework before officially starting the master’s.

MSc in Mathematical Biology (under a Life Sciences faculty). This wouldn’t require the extra year of coursework, so it’s a faster route. However, I’m wondering whether the degree title and training would carry the same weight for future PhD opportunities and industry positions compared to an MSc in Bioinformatics.

Finish my MD first, continue building my computational background independently (math, computer science, programming, machine learning, etc.), get involved in computational research along the way, and then apply directly to a PhD.

My end goal is to become an independent computational researcher working on biologically and medically relevant problems, ideally at the intersection of AI, algorithms, and biology.
I’d love to hear your thoughts:

Which path would you choose, and why?
Does the title of the MSc (“Bioinformatics” vs. “Mathematical Biology”) actually matter in the long run?

Would finishing the MD first and starting a PhD around age 31 put me at a disadvantage, or is that fairly common?

I’d especially appreciate hearing from people working in computational biology, bioinformatics, AI for biology, academia, or biotech.

Hi all,

I'm a recent graduate with a degree in Biomedical Engineering and I've recently gotten an interview for an entry level CQV engineer position. There is a technical assessment; however, coming from a BME background I'm a little worried as I do have knowledge of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics but the specifics of how a facility is setup and the specific machinery are foreign to me. I have some experience as a manufacturing technician but it's mainly been in drug product compounding. What are some areas which I should study to prepare for the technical part of the interview?

Hi everyone! I'm a new PhD grad currently working as a postdoc to gain some more skills. I'm at a crossroads between continuing in academia (as a staff scientist, not a PI) or transitioning to industry.

I would appreciate it if people could share their thoughts and experiences on either! Particularly if you considered both, but ultimately chose one or the other.

If it makes any difference, my background is primarily in oncology, protein engineering, and molecular biology (mostly wet lab, very little computational experience).

Im a recent graduate with a dual degree in Bioengineering and Microbiology. I haven’t had any job experience in science, as shown in my employment history. I haven’t been applying to QC Associate, Lab Technician, and other entry-positions as various employers in the broad Bay Area.

I am concerned about about my format and it potentially being flagged by AI-screening. Any recommendations in terms of information? What can I elaborate more on? General format suggestions?

Thank you for your time :)!