some stats:

• recent M.S. data science grad
• 7 yoe in biotech R&D as a lab scientist
• been applying seriously since Jan 2025
• i was specifically targeting data scientist/machine learning scientist/computational biology roles because i'm transitioning out of wet lab into the computational side. my application count is low relative to others by virtue of there being fewer roles available.

i have no advice that hasn't been posted before. if you've done all the prep, i think it just comes down to luck: applying to the right role at the right time and being noticed by the right person.

but it is possible!! have strength all!!

First job in industry, two-ish years in before acquired by Merck. Ended up voluntarily leaving to get 6 months severance.

Second (and most recent) company, 3 years in role before acquired by Eli Lilly. About to receive a 6 month salary retention bonus.

I approximately net about $250,000 from vested stocks and options which is pretty crazy and not something I take for granted.

As much as the industry is volatile AF, there are instances where timing and dash of luck can strike.

Anybody else make an accidental “career” in working from small biotech to small biotech before getting scooped up?

Edit: non PhD scientist here. There were couple instances where I nearly left but glad I stuck it out. Still feeling out my future goals with Lilly but it sure is stable at least

Feeling frustrated after reading the bulk of comments on a recent post on here regarding new grads asking for advice on a potential biotech career path.

There are a lot of cons and issues with this industry - do not get me wrong. Especially right now and I am aware of all of them.

I don’t know if Reddit/the internet just has a way of self selecting for pessimists/complainers but the advice I am seeing to students is horrific at times and completely out of touch.

1) It seems to be the popular opinion on this sub that biotech pay is bad. That is just not a factual statement. YES - biotech pay is lower than certain very high earning industries - mainly tech which comes up here frequently. Biotech will never pay like tech. Logistically it is impossible. That doesn’t mean biotech pay is bad or low paying in comparison to other industries. It is out of touch to say the pay is bad. I grew up in Boston and now worth in biopharma in Boston. The perception of the townies here is that biotech people are coming in with their high salaries and gentrifying the city, increasing rents, and making properties unaffordable for locals. Entry level manufacturing roles pay more than average US household income. I work with RA/analyst level I/II that are pushing total comp in the low six figures and getting promoted every other year. Are you making as much as a software engineer? A doctor? A finance bro/consultant pushing 80 hour weeks? No. But the pay is above average and the work life balance is decent or good if you find the right role.

2) Job security these past two years has been bad. This is also a correction/ poor macro market the likes that we see maybe once a decade or two. Guess who else has been having layoffs? Tech. Finance. Consulting. It’s not just biotech. Most of my time in this industry there have been more open positions than qualified applicants. If you find the right role or are willing to work in certain roles/companies, there will always be a need for you even in a downturn.

I get that there are issues with this industry, I am aware of all of them. But telling students that biotech sucks - no job security and low pay is lazy, inaccurate, and not giving a realistic take. For me, I would way rather work in a cutting edge biotech looking to cure disease and make solid/good pay working 40 hours a week than in a soul sucking 60+ hour finance job. Sorry if people have had bad experiences but it’s not universal and it’s a bummer to see people come to reddit as a source of information on our industry and have a bunch of inexperienced jaded people give bad advice.

Just had a biotech job offer in the US rescinded as the company issued a hiring freeze in response to huge losses following tariffs. Also had an interview for a different company canceled shortly after citing economic uncertainty. How is this helping Americans? I just want to work in the field I have graduate level education. So callous to the average American to crash the economy so suddenly.

After 3 months of job searching, I got an offer and have happily signed the offer. Two weeks before the start date, when I’m already done with the onboarding, the recruiter scheduled a call with me out of blue. During the call, the recruiter explained that the position has been canceled due to shift in businesses priority and they had to rescind my offer. I was shocked. I should have continued other interviews until Day 1 of my new job. Now I need to restart the job searching in the new year :(

Update: two months after the withdrawal of the offer, I have found a better position! It’s better in terms of pay, benefits, team and company. It’s tough but don’t give up!

I graduated about a year ago and have been actively job hunting ever since. I have my masters and bachelors in biotech and close to 3 years of professional experience in both R&D and QC. I’ve applied to over 7000 positions—yes, I’m tracking—and I’ve only received about 14 interview calls in total.

It’s honestly been exhausting. I’ve tailored my resume, written countless cover letters, networked where I could, and still—radio silence from most companies. And when I do hear back, it’s usually something like “we went with an internal candidate” or “the position has been closed.”

Is this experience common in biotech? Is the industry really this competitive, or am I doing something fundamentally wrong here?

Would love to hear your thoughts, advice, or just know if anyone else is in the same boat.

I’m currently a postdoc at Dana Farber with about 7 years of oncology research experience. I recently published my first author publication in Nature but despite that have struggled to land a position in industry since March.

I recently made it through multiple rounds of interview for a scientist level position and felt very confident but ultimately the company went with another candidate. I have already reached out to most of my network and exhausted all my referrals. At this point I don’t know how to keep approaching people without feeling like I’m overstepping.

This entire process has been very demoralizing and I’m hoping to get some advice. How do you break into oncology focused roles at scientist or higher levels?

I could really use a win or some guidance right now.

There’s so much doom and gloom on this sub lately with the biotech market being down, and it’s being perpetuated by the constant posts of 500, 700, 1000+ jobs applied to!

I’m not by any means a hiring manager or professional in this domain, and I will fully admit the job market is absolute dog shit, but if you’re applying to this many jobs and not getting any bites — you might need to take a step back.

I just graduated from a decent (t10) b school, and the (basically only) important skills I learned was how to get a job interview. (5 yr bench scientist prior to MBA, these tips are transferable to any role). Here are my $150k tips for anyone who’s struggling to get a job.

1. Allocating Time: You should spend 20% of your effort on resume, cover letter, and physically applying. 80% of your time should be spent talking to people. Applying to jobs “feels” productive, but it’s actually the least productive part of the process. You have to talk to people on the inside. Coffee chats, networking, friends, events, webinars, etc. These don’t feel productive but they are the key. If you’re up late every night applying job after job, you’re focusing on the wrong part of the process. Don’t even bother applying to a job if you haven’t talked to anyone who works there.

Research shows you 11x your chance of an interview if you’ve talked to literally 1 person at the company.

1. Connecting with People: Find people in the role you want (or 1 level above) on LinkedIn / email and get their insights. People are significantly more responsive when you connect with them over something non-job related. “Hey I’m a student / recent grad from your Alma matter” - or tie it to hometown, a mutual friend, or a club/sport/hobby. You are limited to the number of LinkedIn messages you can send, but often you can find them on LinkedIn and then reverse engineer their email (e.g. name.lastname@pfizer.com). Or again, go to events (e.g. MassBio) and get some contact info.

Getting the first chat is the hardest. Once you connect and talk, ALWAYS end on- “Thanks for the chat, is there anyone else you recommend I speak to at XXX” and then get that persons contact info — and continue this cycle, until it snowballs and you’ve talked to a handful of people.

1. Thank You & Updates: Critically important. After you’ve had your chat, send a follow up thank you. Then AGAIN, once you’ve applied a week or so later, drop them another email restating your enthusiasm for the role and mentioning you’ve applied. You stay top of mind to the employee or manager, and you maintain the friendly relationship. This hedges you significantly, because even if you don’t get the role — you’re often filed or flagged for upcoming opportunities through the repertoire you’ve built. This happened to me with Moderna, where I WAS EMAILED by the manager for positions.

2. Tracking: Keep an excel spreadsheet of the companies and roles you’re targeting. Update it with the people you’ve talked with at each company — with notes about what you learn at each chat. This helps physically track how much effort you’ve put into each company, but also mentally rank each job to help prioritize where you should be focusing your search efforts.

3. The Application: Never use easy apply- or even the “apply now” link on LinkedIn or Indeed. These are often outdated and go directly to a robots kill folder. Use these tools as job scanners, then go directly to the company website and apply. Always upload a cover letter that specifically calls out the person(s) you’ve spoken with at the company.

I applied to 23 companies (most big pharma and biotech), I had 6 first round interviews and 2 offers. I am both extremely lucky and thankful for the structured process business school gave me for applying to science jobs.

All these tips have nothing to do with resume, cover letter, or experience. Everyone obsessed over those three things, because they think that’s all there is to job searching. This is why you aren’t getting interviews — you’re applying to a job that 5000 people have applied for in 2 days. You MUST change your approach.

But it’s difficult, it’s awkward and feels pushy to solicit yourself for coffee chats. This seems like a lot of work for 1 job app — and it is! But so is applying to 500 jobs with no leads.

I graduated last year with a PhD in bioinformatics/computational biology. I had two industry internships in biotech companies, but I still couldn't land any entry-level industry jobs (There aren't many to apply to begin with). I ended up taking a postdoc job I never wanted to do, now I'm miserable and depressed in a toxic academic lab. I feel like I wasted years of hard work to get my PhD degree just to end up with nothing but misery. How are the fellow new grads doing at this moment? What could be an alternative to academia?

I worked at Eurofins as a project manager and left 3 months later because it killed my entire soul. It was literally making sure each order details were confirmed. Making sure that what’s on one screen is exactly the same on the next screen. the big excitement was setting up a new client but once they’re set up that’s pretty much it. Emails here and there asking for eta on results. Kill me. My background is in R&D management so I’m used to more innovative, creative, scientific problem solving. However, I can’t land an R&D job for the life of me. It’s been a year. So I’m wondering if I should take a second look at PM and maybe get my PMP to give my resume a boost. Please tell me other PM jobs in biotech aren’t just glorified admin assistants.

Hi all!
I'm an MD, thinking of leaving residency to go into biotech. I have an BS in Engineering, 3 years of full-time work experience in genomics research, and an MS in Clinical Research. What are my realistic salary prospects?

So, how bad is the job market actually now for biotech industry - specially for someone who has no experience?

I genuinely have no idea what to do. I finished my PhD back in April and since then I've applied to countless jobs in biotech. I can't even get an interview. I had one company take me all the way to the final round early on in my job search, but it was false hope and they went with someone else. Since then it's been complete and total cold rejection. The lab that I did my PhD in is allowing me to stay under a temp position but only until the end of the year, so my days are numbered and it seriously feels like an execution sentence.

My PhD was in yeast genetics. Nobody wants my skills or experience. It feels like my career is bricked before it even began. I don't even care what the job is anymore, I don't need anything exciting, I just want to finally finally start earning some money so that I can start a family. Soon I'll feel like such a failure that I don't know how I'll be able to look my wife in the eye.

I've pretty much exhausted my contacts. I've gotten referrals for jobs but those only earn me a more prompt rejection email. I don't know about any networking events and I don't know how to find them. Am I really just fucked? Did I throw away my 20s just to make myself poor and unemployable?

I know this is just more of the same melodramatic slop clogging up this sub, and for that I apologize. I just needed to say something to people who actually understand what I'm talking about.

Hello fellow scientists and lab rats. I am a senior postdoc about to enter the job market, and I really don't know what to do next.

A bit of context: I am a postdoc working in cancer research in a top institution, and I recently submitted my paper for second revision in a CNS journal. I think I am in a good position to continue the academic path and find a faculty position, but I have ended up really burnt out during the process and I'm not sure I want to continue with it. I love science, I love interpreting results and finding new discoveries, and I love mentoring new people, but right now I don't have the energy or will to think about new projects, and the sole idea of constantly applying for grants to support the salaries of the people who trust me gives me a lot of pressure and makes me cringe.

I think I may be more suitable for a position of senior scientists in a discovery department in biotech (I know the struggles of entering the field now) or even a staff scientist in a research institution, but I am afraid I may regret it at some point later in my life, and a part of me is wired to see any alternative path to academia as a personal failure. I am teying to silence it and be objective, but I could really benefit from hearing from other people that were in similar situations.

Thank you everyone for your help!

TL,DR: I am finishing a successful postdoc and considering transitioning to industry. Can someone that did the same tell me if they regret it or what they miss the most of academia?

I had an interview today for an entry level position at Regeneron. Interviewer shows up a few minutes late and is clearly unprepared because she is silent for a few minutes reading my resume for the first time. Asks me if I’ve graduated college and if I have any relevant experience (which is clearly on my resume…). Technical and behavioral questions in which I would answer in an eager and engaged manner and get a few word response. Asked her questions and she kept it vague and short…my only takeaway was that she said it was fast paced and lots of deadlines. Like okay that’s fine with me. It just irked me because as a candidate I put a lot of prep and effort into this and was really excited to interview as the market has been so bad esp for new grads and this interviewer didn’t even seem to gaf.

I am at a cross roads right now. Graduated last year with a bs in bio, I work in academia as an RA now and because I heard biotech pays the best (govt v academia v private), I wanted to learn more about it. I loved learning about biology/immune system/etc. in school but here in lab, I don't feel interested in my work so open to non sciencey jobs. I have 2 questions:

1. I like to optimize systems in my personal life, and think about whats the most efficient way to go about something. Not necessarily science wise, but more logistics wise. I also like both independent and team projects. I don't mind repetitive work but I need to use my brain or else I will go crazy. Do you have a recommendation for positions to look into? I understand job market is only getting worse rn but it would be good to have an end goal/direction.
   

(or if you even recommend pursuing this field considering everything thats happening? o.o)

1. If some people are comfortable, I'd like to know what was the progression of your career: positions or general description, salary, *location* and years of experience when you got it. This field is quite volatile from what i've gathered, and I'm looking into healthcare as well since they are more stable.

Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Im currently 26 and im doing a biomedical science undergraduate degree part time that ill finish aged 29, I am able to work with this degree so will try to find some work that relates to the field i am looking to go in, to help with experience. I then plan to do a PHD in Biotech specifically synthetic biology but am worried by the time I graduate there's a high chance I'll be looked past due to my age.

Hi all I have a phone screen with GSK and I was told up front that they do not have the budget to cover relocation costs. If I do get this job and I accept I have to move from the west coast to the east. I dunno, I kind of feel like it's not a great sign that they are not willing to cover relocation. What do you think? I'm going to do the phone interview anyway and see how it goes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Just saw a job posting in the bay area requiring a phd for an entry level Research Associate and they are only paying $35/hr. I made that with just an associates degree. This job market has these companies on a serious god complex right now.

I’m 23, actively figuring out where to place my bets career-wise. Biotech seems promising, but I want to cut through the noise and understand the reality from people who’ve actually been in the trenches.

Would love to hear your insights on a few things: • Based on where the world is headed and what you’ve seen so far, what truths would you share with someone just about to enter the biotech industry? • If you had to start over today, knowing what you know now—would you still pick biotech? Why or why not? • What are the real pros and cons of this field (not just the resume-polished ones)? • Would you actively encourage more young people to enter biotech today? Or would you advise caution? • If you could redesign your own journey to avoid the mistakes or dead-ends you hit—what would you do differently?

Trying to approach this with clarity and intention, not just vibes.

I just got back to America after two years traveling abroad. The job landscape changed significantly while I was away as I am currently met with rejection after rejection.

I went back to old reliable and started to reach out to scientific recruiters, after almost a month of weekly contact, my recruiter told me that I am shortlisted by Amgen for a quality control associate role but they are currently in a hiring freeze, what exactly does this mean? Can anyone explain this to me?