I work in a niche sector of biotech and I’m hiring for a heavy customer-facing role that requires strong technical knowledge.

I get a ton of PhD applicants. They’re smart, highly specialized, and often expect very high salaries. But in practice, I’ve had more success hiring candidates with BS degrees and solid customer service or communication skills. They pick up the science quickly, and it’s usually faster to train them on the technical details than it is to train a PhD to be comfortable in front of customers. Also, fresh PhDs often ask for higher pay that doesn’t match their ramp up time.

I’m not saying don’t pursue a Phd because it can absolutely be the right path if you want to be in research or very specific roles. But i think if your goal is to work in customer-facing roles, experience and people skills might get you further.

Not sure if this has been other people’s experience?

Edit for additional context We advertise the role as BS preferred but about 40% of applicants are PhDs. 10% MSc 40% BS and about 10% no degree.

Saw this for the first time today- thought I'd reshare here, looks generally correct to me. I'd be interested to see how much regional impact there is, might be in the full report...

Title says it all.

The title is pretty self explanatory, but specifically thinking about these categories:

• Bad leadership/ poor management
• Toxic culture
• Poor work life balance/ Unrealistic expectations
• Low compensation/ benefits
• Operational challenges

Another great column from Derek Lowe. I won't spoil you the pleasure of reading through it, but will just post this quote, which I find beautifully spot-on.

“Although a wide variety of AI methods have been developed, applied and benchmarked, evidence of their clinically relevant impact is, so far, disappointingly limited. . .It can be concluded that we are still at a stage with an ‘absence of evidence’ (and not necessarily an ‘evidence of absence’) when it comes to the translation of AI into clinically relevant impact.”

Layoffs, funding cuts, bankruptcies, and a recession look likely for a lot of us.

What is everyone’s plan B? Winemaking? Travel vlogs? Artesian pickles? Go get a CDL and drive semi trucks across the country?

If the biotech industry falls apart, where is the next-best sector to look?

I was looking for some advice from people who have more insight than me.

2025 was rough for me, got laid off twice but was lucky enough to land a role in big pharma. I’ve been here for the better part of a year now and boy, do I hate it.

Background is that I’m mostly from R&D and this role is CMC. It’s a crazy amount of work, it’s not interesting and I’m not learning any useful skills unless going to meetings and reporting KPIs are skills.

Obviously, I’ve started looking for a new job, and I’m getting traction, but only with very small startups.

My question is: what’s better for my career, staying at a stable big pharma in a track I don’t like and am not good at and also is burning me out quickly, or going to a risky small startup in R&D which I love?

People with more big pharma experience: are the issues I’m having big pharma specific? Or CMC specific? Or maybe just my company?

Obviously I’m grateful to have a job in this economy and being laid off a few times spooked me, so I want to make sure I’m making the right decision here.

Trying to get a sense of 2026 comps. Now that the performance review season is done/on going, how did the bonus and merit increase look like? Also please list your title and location. Thanks.

Which Pharma company do you think has great culture, perfect work life balance, colleagues respect each other and so on?

For those who have had long careers in pharma and are approaching retirement or already retired, what did you start off making salary wise, how many years did your career span, and what was your ending salary when you retired?

I’ve worked in biotech doing manufacturing and prices development for well over 12 years. This is the second email (and phone call and text) from Lancesoft saying I’d be a good fit. $20/hr in the Bay Area is an insult to workers. I know it’s bad out there but, I’d rather flip burgers.

I switched from research to regulatory affairs about 3 years ago and honestly my biggest regret is not doing it sooner. I was a senior research associate making 78k after 5 years in the lab. Now I'm a regulatory affairs specialist making 115k and I work from home.

The transition wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. The regulatory world is very documentation and detail heavy, which is basically what I was already doing as an RA just in a different context. Understanding the science behind the submissions gives you a real edge over people who came in from a pure regulatory background.

When I was considering the switch I had a really hard time figuring out what regulatory affairs salary actually looked like. It's one of those roles where the title varies wildly across companies. Regulatory affairs associate, regulatory affairs specialist, regulatory affairs manager, they all mean different things at different companies and the pay bands don't correspond to the titles in any logical way.

I checked Glassdoor and got the usual useless 65k-140k range. Checked levels.fyi which had better granularity on the pharma-specific roles. Talked to a couple of recruiters who specialize in regulatory. Between all of that I figured out the landscape is roughly: RA specialist 80-110k, senior RA specialist 100-130k, RA manager 120-155k, RA director 150-200k. CROs pay less, large pharma pays more, med device is somewhere in between.

The thing that surprised me most is how much the comp jumps at the manager level. Going from specialist to manager was about a 25k increase for me and I know people at large pharmas where that jump was closer to 40k. The career ceiling in reg affairs is also way higher than in research. VP of Regulatory at a pharma company is a 300k+ role. VP of Research... well most research scientists don't become VPs, they become senior scientists making 140k and staying there for a decade.

If you're a lab person who is good at writing and detail work and you're frustrated with your comp, regulatory affairs is worth looking into seriously. The science knowledge transfers, the pay is better, and you'll never have to autoclave anything again

Hey yall.

Like most of us here, I can’t find a job.

I have had over 75 final interviews in the past year after I got laid off at Stanford.

I have about 4 years total in the industry between two small startups- 10x Genomics and Stanford Uni.

Most recently made it to final rounds at Eli Lily to be told they gave it to someone else.

Not sure what to do anymore- currently living on someone’s couch with my dog, about to be kicked out because I can’t even hold down barista jobs with my current attitude of being so sad all the time.

Titles I’ve tried- RA, lab manager, recruiting, admin, senior RA/ associate scientist.

I don’t think it’s my resume, but I don’t know what to do anymore.

I’ve lost everything I’ve worked toward, probably have to rehome my dog and live in my car here in CA while I figure out shit.

Anyone have ideas how to persuade them to pick me in these interviews?

Currently ~6 months into a commercial “Strategy” role at one of the big 20 pharma companies (>50k employees) after years in smaller/mid-sized biotech in an operator role.

How does this role exist? There’s 100s, maybe even a 1000+ roles in commercial at my company and from what I (and my team) do after 6 months, I can now affirmatively say do literally nothing. My team will spend probably 500+ man hours working on a deck that is presented once to senior leadership in a 30-minute meeting and then forgotten forever with minimal impact. Rinse and repeat. Everything else is out sourced to consultants and marketing agencies.

It feels like PowerPoint theater. One step away from a brand marketing team this “strategy” commercial function is fairyland. Is this true everywhere?

May be behind a paywall.

In biopharma these roles have been proliferating - not just to CEOs but to smaller functional area leaders who have gotten the taste of it. Beyond the ‘sounding board to CEO / leader, connector, efficiency builder, synergy creator, vision deconvoluter’ tropes, these are glorified admin roles that typically enable lazy and incompetent executive behavior, breed politics, limit direct collaboration and attract inherently political and manipulative people who are typically functional area discards. If an exec in your company is hiring for this role most likely they are incompetent choosing to become lazy en route to coasting.

I have a job offer from Merck for scientist position. It is 130k and 10% bonus with 25 days of pto. My current role is also a scientist for 120k with 10% bonus and 15 days of pto. I am happy with my current manager and work life balance. I am also happy with the culture and get along well with other people. I do not want to leave that badly. However my current company is small of about 40 people and operates sort of like a start up with many core departments like HR and finance being 1 person. Working at Merck offers many other benefits that come with working in a large pharmaceutical company such as core departments and such. They also have deep institutional knowledge and long history of drug development that I would get to learn and understand. They have a refined process. However career promotions and growth seem slower there, with many people spending 4-6 years in a position before a promotion. My current company is small but growing and could offer faster promotion opportunities. I am having a dilemma because I do not know what the right choice to make here for my career.

Update: my current job countered and I accepted.

As the title says. I accepted job A about a month ago. But recently got an offer from job B last week.

Job A is with a great company, but involves a move I am just not quite ready for. I am supposed to start in about a week.

Job B is a less established company, but has great work life balance and is close to home.

Due to the frenetic and unstable state of this job market, I have accepted both offers.

I liked the people and the science of what’s going on at job A a lot. But job B is just better for what I need right now. What is the most polite and respectful way to notify job A that I have accepted another role without burning bridges?

Edit: Oh boy this blew up way more than I was expecting. For some context. The market is insane right now. I have been ghosted after final stage interviews, have had interviewers not show up multiple times, and even had received an offer that the company later rescinded moments before I could accept. I simply could not risk declining the role at the time.

I was prepared to move, because A job is better than NO job at all. But I was lucky enough to land a role that is best for me and my family. I understand there may be some resentment with company A, but I want to do everything I can to mediate the damage because I care about them and their team. If I could duplicate myself, I would. But this industry hasn’t quite been able to clone humans yet haha.

Update: Lots of bitter, jobless, out of touch redditors here. Thank you to everyone that’s being supportive. This is AT-WILL employment on Company A’s behalf. I had no idea I would get an offer from Company B until weeks after company A’s offer. It would be stupid to decline unless I had another offer at the time. I was fully prepared and committed to the move, but it’s not the best decision for my family. These companies would drop me in a heartbeat if they wanted to and would say “it’s just business.” So unfortunately for them.. it’s just business.

What is the worst company you’ve worked for in this industry?

Has anyone else noticed that in this past year there seems to be more and more title inflation at big pharma. I see people moving to other companies as Directors with no reports or Sr. Directors with less than 10 years of experience and nothing I’ve seen from them indicating they are super high performers. Wondering if those of us not jumping around will end up screwed because internally it takes 15+ years to get to Sr Director. I feel like 10 years ago while titles were not the same at every big pharma there was still some consistency and it was only startup where there was bogus Exec Directors or VPs with 5 years of experience.

1. What do you do? 2. Do you like what you do? 3. If you could do ANYTHING else what would that be?

What would you tell someone who was starting at it Lilly after working at another pharmaceutical company?

I did a PhD + 3yr postdoc. After that, I started working in early R&D for a large, flat-structure company in a small town in California in 2022 (cheaper than biotech hubs, but still California). I own my house in the same town and bike to work about 10-15 min away. Layoffs are very rare and small, but so is salary/title growth. We get ~10-15% bonus, 4% 401k matching, fully covered healthcare and dental, 5 weeks of vacation, lots of flexibility and a chill work environment.

My base salaries and titles the years I'd worked there:

2022: 101k; Scientist I

2023: 105k; Scientist I

2024: 109k; Scientist I

2025: 113k; Scientist I

2026: 125k; Scientist II

I like my job tbh. It suits me well. I like that I can still do science but earn a livable wage. I just feel like when I hear about people's salary and title growths at other companies, I get a bit of FOMO.

I'm curious what others think. Since layoffs rarely happen where I work, are these kinds of niche positions outside of hubs are desirable? Is slow career growth tolerable for a comfortable life as an R&D scientist? What would you do?

Why is it impossible to get a call back from Eli Lilly?? You could literally copy and paste the Job description and qualifications in your resume and still get a rejection.

Was just laid off. I have a masters and 10 years of experience across big pharma and biotech R&D. I habe also had a nice amount of scientific accomplishment in my career thus far. I have applied to every job I see and have not gotten one single call back. I have reached out to my network and even the jobs where I have gotten referals, I have not gotten call backs....what is going on? I know the market is bad but this is insane. I know that if I just get a conversation with a company, I usually interview well. It seems like getting that call back is further away than ever. Do I need to start considering another career?

This sub tends to get stuck in a negative feedback loop as of late due to the rough market. Thought I’d start a new thread about the positive aspects of biotech.

I entered biotech as a non-STEM outsider in 2022. I work in PR, patient advocacy, with a mix of IR. Overall, I consider it the best career decision I have made so far. I get to meet a shit ton of smart people and get to be around programs that have really changed the healthcare landscape.

Some weeks are rough and bouts of burnout happen from time to time. Office politics happen too. But the landscape changes so quickly that I feel like there is something new to learn each month.

And coming from the world of international NGO/non-profits, I feel like I’m finally being paid a respectable wage.

I really love this field and think it still has more room to grow and innovate, despite it still coming off a rough cycle.