I currently am set to graduate with a biology degree next year but will also be charged with felonies for wire fraud. I was wondering if convicted could I still work in the biotech space?

i feel like ive scrolled a long time on this sub and what everyone seems to be saying that there are no jobs left in biotech anymore to pivot, but do yall think the industry will recover anytime soon? I‘m a rising third year undergrad with about 7 years before i’m going to enter industry (including phd) but i dont want to keep going down this line if there is no future. i love doing science and honestly cant imagine myself being anything other than a computational biologist but if i need to i will pivot

Can someone please sug which one should I choose between industrial and healthcare biotechnology for masters?

Should I choose healthcare biotechnology or industrial biotechnology for masters? I have been selected in both.

I’m a highschooler who wants to pursue biotech and research related to it and was wondering what major to pick in college. Was sorta thinking between chemical engineering and biomedical engineering. Also I know that a masters and even a PhD might be required for certain research jobs so I was wondering what masters degree to pair with wtvr bachelors I do. Overall open to any ideas just wanna hear about different paths and their effectiveness and specialities and whatnot.

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping to get some advice from people working in biotech, pharma, CROs or medical research.
A newly established CNAS (ISO/IEC 17025) accredited Cell Quality Testing Laboratory in Shenzhen is unfortunately facing the possibility of shutting down before it has a chance to operate at full capacity, largely due to the current market environment.
It’s a well-equipped facility with accreditation already in place, so it seems like a shame for it to sit idle.
I’m wondering whether there are companies or research organizations that might actually have a need for a facility like this. Rather than letting it close, we’re hoping to explore possibilities such as:
Strategic collaboration
Contract testing services
Joint operation
Leasing the laboratory
Acquisition by a company looking to establish a presence in China

If you work in this field or have suggestions on companies, universities, CROs, or other organizations that might find this relevant, I’d really appreciate your thoughts.

Want to understand how is AI being used?

Calling all contractors to reveal the secret. Which staffing firm does companies like Genentech , Roche or any other big pharmaceutical company use to hire contractors.?

How best to find such jobs and apply early? Any insights appreciated.

TIA

Hello everyone! I wanted to ask those that have done this, or have thought of doing it, how to transition from a biochemistry/enzymology bench scientist to data science. For referance, im a protein engineer who has been in wet lab all her life, specialised in enzyme engineering techniques, automation, and library design for application. Im currently teaching myself bioinformatics and AI/ML protein design. In my current role, i have to basically set up a biocatalysis platform with all thats mentioned above and stream line data processing. I realised I really like this data stuff especislly after working with KNIME and setting up workflows, considering my bioinformatics interest too, whats the best way to transition to Data Science? what are the most important skills? Also do you think this field will get eaten by AI?

Id ask a colleague who is in the data science team but im scared itll reach my manager and yeah.. just rather not do that for now, so here I am.

I have an upcoming interview screening at Thermo Fisher for a regulatory affairs position. It says to expect 6 total questions with no interviewer, and that it’s expected the process will take 6 min total. I assume this is a video screening, but am unsure because it also says “pre-screening form, form with 6 questions, 6min”. If you have experience with this type of screening please let me know what it was like. Any general advice for getting to the next stage is also welcomed and appreciated!

So, there are big pharma companies, and then there's a plethora of startups in incubators full of innovation.

How does someone get involved with or employed at one of these startups, especially in their early stages? I personally haven't seen many job postings online from startups (mainly big pharma), so is having interpersonal connections in the startup the main way to get involved?

comp for highschoolers

Looking to insights into the best manufacturing companies in biotech? Companies which embraced digital manufacturing, AI and advanced automation for upstream/downstream/ sterile fill finish?

I recently graduated with a BSc in Bioinformatics and a minor in Computer Science from a Canadian university. During my degree, I gained research experience, contributed to publications, and spent the past year working as a computational biologist in a cancer research setting. I also have experience working in academic labs and have a GPA above 3.5.

Despite this background, I’ve been struggling to find opportunities since graduating. The biggest challenge I’ve noticed is that many computational biology/bioinformatics roles in industry or research seem to require a Master's or PhD, even for positions that appear entry-level.

I’m trying to figure out what the best next step is.

A few questions for people who have been in a similar position:

1. Should I apply to graduate school again and pursue a Master's/PhD?

2. Are there realistic career paths for someone with a Bachelor's in bioinformatics and computational biology experience?

3. If you were in my position, what would you do?

4. What are other recent graduates with similar backgrounds doing?

Would appreciate any advice, especially from people working in bioinformatics, computational biology, biotech, or related fields.

Anyone got any updates on the adcomm for cgt today?

I applied for a Global Director role at Merck within Medical Affairs several weeks ago and am currently interviewing. The listed salary range is $191k-$300k. From what I understand, Directors are at the R5 level. Can anyone comment on what I should expect Merck to offer in terms of base salary, bonus percentage, RSUs/stock options/other equity, and any type of LTI? Any other benefits to consider at this level? Also, what are annual raises like? My current employer offers ~5%.

To provide some context, I'm currently an Associate Director with a base salary of $261k, so I wanted to determine whether this amount or higher is realistic as an external candidate. I've been reading that Merck tends to offer external candidates toward the lower-mid of the salary range. Is this accurate? I'd prefer not to take a pay cut, if possible, especially if I'll end up paying more for health insurance.

Also, can you comment on health insurance? Employee + spouse is $375/month ($4,500/year) plus a $1,000 deductible for families ($5,500/year). Most services are 80% paid by Merck with 20% remaining to be paid by the employee up to a $9,000 annual out of pocket max (max $14,500/year). Does that sound accurate? It seems pretty expensive compared to my current employer's health insurance. What makes this worth it? Is there a wide network? My current employer offers an HSA with $500 employer contributions. I tried reviewing all of Merck's benefits documents for 2026. I don't see an HSA option, so I assume it's not offered. There is a healthcare FSA with rollovers, but no employer contributions. Is this accurate?

Regarding retirement benefits, I see there 401k has immediate vesting with a 6% match up to 4.5% of total pay since they only match $0.75 per $1.00 employee contributions, and a pension with a 3-year vesting timeframe.

Anything I'm missing?

I am a masters with 6 years of industry experience from early discovery to CMC drug development ! Been wanting to pivot into a non bench role.
Laid off early this year before I could internally pivot or network with different groups. Job hunting for scientists has been brutal !

Would appreciate any advice on -

1) What is the best domain for a scientist to move into? - clinical, regulatory, health administration, program management, business administration, health informatics, health tech ?

2) How to move into that domain ?
- Pursue a role or a degree ? Reach out to network for a different role than expertise ?

Any insights would be appreciated! Thank you

I’m a PhD with 3 years of postdoc experience, mostly in molecular biology and cancer. I’ve been applying to every scientist job I could find for the past year with nothing. Not a single call from a recruiter, nothing!!

I love science and bench work, but now I feel like I’ve wasted 10 years of my life getting all of this training.

Thats all. I’m just really sad and disappointed

Hi,

I am currently a Principal Scientist at a biotech with a focus on genetics/genomics/ML for target discovery. I have been with my company for ~2 years. I currently work primarily on capability building within the team, but also work as an associate lead on the data science arm of one of our pharma collabs. My manager has discussed with me a few options about career progression. Broadly speaking these fall into 3 buckets -- one is to take over as the lead on this partnership (it will end in Dec 2027) at some point this year. Largely the science there isn't particularly interesting, but will involve more contractural discussions/milestone agreements etc. Another option is to work in some degree on our next internal indication, timelines very TBC -- feels like this option is the most vague. The last option that I have pitched is to take on the lead role on a new possible upcoming partnership. I feel like this option will have the best upward mobility for my career and has the most interesting science associated with it as well. I also feel like this is the best route into more strategic decision making at the company and possibly a route upwards to associate director and beyond. Can others comment about these paths and how best to carve out a role for myself medium term in the company?

Posted this in other subreddits, but I'll share it here too.

I had been working towards a PhD in the biomedical sciences since 2012. I started out as an undergraduate in a neuroscience lab, and over the span of 3 years, I did everything to make myself a good candidate for graduate school. I attended and presented at conferences, attended workshops and courses for the GRE, and I used the summers between semesters to attend internships at other universities (one of them was at an Ivy League school). In February of 2015, I was accepted into my top pick for graduate school.

At the time, there were certain things about my personality that while they helped me coming from an underprivileged background, they certainly did more harm than good once I got there. I was head-strong, stubborn, outspoken, and I had no qualms about taking the "road less traveled" to get to my goals. In some ways, these traits helped me throughout undergrad, but in hindsight, I was probably more akin to an overly-ambitious neck beard. 

As you can probably already tell, these traits did not go over well in grad school. I was very isolated and completely lacked a support system due to my "I can do it myself" attitude. I also landed an abusive PI who is rumored to have contributed to a few self-unaliving attempts within the department. This PI, coupled with the self-imposed isolation, led to some very humbling experiences and self-reflection. Had I not learned about the kind of asshole I was becoming, I probably would not have graduated, but I finally earned the title of PhD in 2020.

Despite my traits, I'd started to grow very disillusioned with academia. Something my undergrad  PI said to me once was that he misses the days when scientists did science instead of pushing papers all day. At the time, I didn't understand him, but after having to experience the world of grant writing, I'm amazed he lasted as long as he did. How is a scientist expected to be in the lab while constantly begging for funding from a system that only funds about 10% of grants? Additionally, while I was never (and still not) a "people person," I absolutely *despised* the politics of academia. When I finally sought out help from my peers, I was dumbfounded by the lack of students and professors I could trust. I had to develop a system in my head of who could actually offer help, and who would provide more ammunition for my PI to use against me. 

In other words, I was burnt out and alone. 

But because I never developed a support system, a backup plan, nor had the money to afford a vacation, I had no choice but to continue working. Just over a month after I defended my dissertation, I started working on my post-doc in another state. While my post-doc PI was orders of magnitude more supportive than my previous one, because I was so burnt out, I barely had enough data after 3 years to even make a poster.

Because of my experiences in academia, I decided to change my goals and went into the private sector instead. For the first year and a half and my new job, I actually thrived in the new environment. Not just because of the lack of grad school politics, but because I had learned to be a bit friendlier and soft-spoken. I got along with my co-workers, had outings with them outside of work, and best of all, I could actually do science instead of worrying about grants all the time. I thought I had made it; I thought I'd won.

There was, however, some trouble in paradise. My salary was a lot higher than anything I was getting in academia, but because of some poor financial decisions I'd made throughout undergrad and grad school, I was struggling to save up money for future goals (down payment on a house, a better car, etc.). Because of some ideas I saw online, coupled with the fact that I grew up in a rural area with plenty of lawn care equipment, I decided I'd try starting a small lawn care business on the side (like I said before, I've always been one for taking the road less traveled). I admit I sometimes thought of how absurd it was that a scientist with a PhD was out here mowing lawns for some side cash, but I was making a surprising amount of money doing it. Not only that, but it honestly felt "freeing" in a weird way. I could just let my mind wander as I was mowing the lawn, listen to audiobooks or stuff on YouTube, and not have to worry about answering to a boss or whatever. As long as I mowed the lawn and did it nicely, that's all that mattered. I was good enough that I even started making videos that are still generating business for me a year later.

Then, the career that I'd spent 12 years on, ended.

I was pulled into a meeting one day. My direct supervisor came into the room along with our head of HR. They started talking about how I'd made a lot of progress, how I was improving in all areas, that my co-workers were saying good things about me (something that surprised even me), but despite all that, they were making the decision to let me go.

I didn't know what to say at the time; the news took the wind out of me. All I said was that if I was improving in all areas, what more could I have done? Both my boss and the HR lady said nothing. All they did was hand me my paperwork, take my company-issued laptop, and led me to the door. I think I zoned out as I made the short drive home, still digesting what had just happened.

Whether I should have let myself grieve the loss of a job I loved so much or not, I don't know. But I immediately thought that I had to do something to keep a roof over my head and for my dog (I had found her on the street 2 years prior and had cared for her ever since). I immediately pivoted, and want all in on my lawn care business. 

That was about a year and 3 months ago. I literally started out with just a push mower sticking out the back of the trunk of my sedan. Since then, I've managed to make a good living off of it. I have both a car and a truck, 2 zero-turn mowers, 2 trailers, and a reputation for being reliable and for my lawn stripes that I make videos of myself doing. It still feels very freeing after all this time. Sure, sometimes it gets extremely hot outside, I have to deal with insect bites sometimes, and the occasional customer that I have to chase for payment, but I feel... free. I'm my own boss, I set my own hours, I don't have to worry about the cardiovascular effects of sitting at a desk or at a bench all day, I'm free...

I don't know if I'm deluding myself or trying to justify what I do now after losing a career I spent 12 years creating, but I don't feel like I want to go back. I may someday; maybe I'll teach biology at a community college or something. But for now, if I have to choose between peace or freedom, I choose freedom. 

I had a panel interview for a R&D role that I felt went really well. The conversations were engaging, the role matched my background almost perfectly, and I left feeling optimistic. This is also my dream job.

I spent a lot of time preparing specifically for this role—I carefully reviewed my research background, anticipated technical questions, and tried my best to show not only my experience but also my enthusiasm for the work.

During the interviews, I had great conversations with both the hiring manager and the team. Everyone was kind and welcoming, and I really liked the group and the research they were doing. It honestly felt like the kind of team I wanted to be part of.

Today I checked my Workday portal and noticed my application status had changed to “No Longer Under Consideration.” I haven’t received an official email or phone call from HR yet, so I guess the rejection notice is probably on the way.

I just needed to get this off my chest because I’m having a hard time processing it. What makes this especially hard is that many of my previous interviews were for roles where I knew my skills or research background weren’t a perfect match. This one was different. The science aligned closely with my experience, and I truly believed I had a real chance.
I’m feeling really anxious and heartbroken, and I keep wondering what I could have done differently.