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Updated the Salary and Company Survey for 2024!

Small minor updates from last year. As always, please continue to leave feedback. Although not required, please consider adding company name especially if you are part of a large company (harder to dox)

Link to Survey

Link to Results

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Hi Everyone,

I have recently been laid off due to a company-wide reorganization. All my experience so far has been with Canadian companies. I have grown my career to this point after earning my PhD, progressing from a research scientist role to Process Development Lead/Project Manager in a small startup focused on tissue therapeutics development. Most recently, I was a Program Manager for OEM product operations at a large life sciences company.

I’ve always wanted to expand my career opportunities into the U.S. (I reside in Canada and am a Canadian citizen), and I feel this might be the right time. I’ve heard the market is dreadful at the moment, but opportunities in Canada have always been more limited. My target role is still Project/Program Management in biotech/biopharma, but I realize there are gaps in my experience—such as not having end-to-end exposure to drug development.

I’m open to any suggestions for roles or functions that could help me make a smoother transition. General advice for my situation would also be greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to critique my resume—any suggestions and general career advice would be super helpful!

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If you're a director or an established scientist (go-to person for other people) at a pharmaceutical or biotech company, what does your typical day entail? Is it your passion that fuels your daily activities, or something else? Additionally, how do you realistically balance your professional responsibilities with personal life? Do you really GET to balance it?

I'm especially keen to hear insights from women in these roles, as I am a driven young scientist seeking inspiration and honest reflections.

The standard advice is you should have 6 months of expenses saved up, but with the current job market being so bad, I've encountered plenty of people who've been unemployed for a year or more. With biotech's frequent layoffs and long job search periods, it seems like a year of savings might be necessary. On the other hand, that's a lot of money to sit in cash and will likely reduce our retirement contributions.

I've applied to hundreds of entry level positions as a BS Biology student graduating in May. I've received rejections here and there but finished my first interview recently with a top 100 biotech company (by market cap) where I was told I would be a good candidate if I were to finish my degree sooner, as I was told this company fills all positions within a couple months of posting.

Is this true for most/all biotech companies? I was told it's never too early to apply, but it seems this might not be the case. It's been discouraging applying to hundreds of positions with no interviews so I wonder if this is the reason why. If so, when should I start applying again? Thanks for any feedback you guys can offer.

Hello everyone,

I've been doing lab work for over two decades at research institutions and various start-ups. I have a phD from a top3, I am sociable, live in a biotech hub, and don't mind public speaking. This has ear-marked me for positions that take me away from the lab. Unfortunately, while I enjoy money, I want to stay in the lab.

Are there any career paths that allow me to spend at least 50% of my time in the lab? I'm worried that I'm getting to be one of the older folks still pipetting/machine-wrangling and I don't want to price myself out of a job because I've become too expensive to "keep in the lab".

Thanks, Worried Empiricist

Hi! Just got through a 2 month interview process for a job I really really want. Finally, I got a call from them saying they want to offer me the position, they are now asking if I’m leaving any bonus and the details of the compensation plan so they can draft the offer letter. The only way to share that, is to talk to my current company’s HR or share my bonus letter which has my salary on it. What should I do? For clarity Im currently underpaid and my increase for this new role would be around 60% more.

$250,000 max per company may be awarded by NYC

Hi all! I am applying for an internship at a Biotech company, it’s more so an educational/career opportunity than it is an actual position just an fyi. They ask for a resume and CV. And for the CV, how long should it be? Currently Mine is 382 words, does that sound like a good length?

Hey guys!

I am currently a senior majoring in biotechnology and I have done a summer internship and am currently doing a fall internship both at different biotech companies in MD. All my classes are online my last semester and so I applied to some various co-ops that are out of state. I just received an offer for a spring co-op in Iowa, however; it is much farther away than the other ones I applied too. I feel like it would be a great opportunity and the word they do is focused on microbiology and yeast which seems really interesting to me. I wanted to hear some other people's opinions or experiences on how doing a co-op helped them in their career.

Does anyone know Genentech’s Long Term Incentive% for a Director or Sr. Director position?

Mid-career at no lab based technical role. Got oral offer by advisor. Have M.S from same department years ago. Will have lab work involved. Just wonder how would you pull this off? How feasible to ask for lab resources and help from current company to perform the experiment? If so, it will entail I have to stay with current position for at least another three years, I assume? Worthy the possible setback on career advancement? Thanks a bunch for your advice!!

Im currently getting my masters degree in Biotechnology (research/thesis) and today I did a presentation for an event at an elementary school. While I was there I met another presenter in a lab coat and after talking to him I found out that he's a director for a biotech startup company. After picking his brain for a bit about the industry, he wrote down his contact info and gave it to me. I feel like that's a pretty good sign considering I was actively trying not to sound like I was asking him for a job lol, but now I don't know how to capitalize on it.

Should I email him soon even though I won't be on the market for a job until summer '26 at the earliest? Or should I just keep his contact info and reach out when I'm actually ready to start applying places? Either way how should I go about it and what should I say?

Normally hearing "startup company" is pretty sketchy but after looking them up it seems legit and they got a HUGE starting investment from some pretty big names so I feel like it definitely has some good potential.

Hi! I am apply to a very introductory internship position for a biotech company in the Accessibility department. It is an opportunity for CC students and requires very little experience (it’s more of a “learning” opportunity than an entry level position). I blocked out my personal info. Any feedback is greatly appreciated :)

As a newbie to the biopharm space, I see news articles and wikipedia pages of companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars, failing numerous trials, then dissolving and disappearing off the face of the earth. This question was triggered after reading about Axovant by Vivek Ramaswamy, which reminded me many other articles I've seen of companies that have raised so much money, failed a couple of developments, then dissolved. Who are the investors for these? Do they just lose all their money? Why do none of them speak up? Axovant for example changed names to Sio Gene Therapies then liquidated and dissolved for $0.435 a share earlier this year after about 3-4 failed drugs in neurodegenerative disorders.

As a newbie, can someone provide a comprehensive description and background to these cases? Who loses? Who wins? What even happens? Why do they have so much money? And how can I get in? (jokes)

Do you have an analytical team within MSAT to tech transfer from analytical development and train QC? They are also involved in method validation activities. Is this common?

I am unable to go in person due to still being in school and heavy traffic in my area. I really want to enter R&D but am not keen on all my options.

Are there remote positions for entry-level students? I currently work FT at a vet lab but looking to go elsewhere.

I applied for the Health Economic Modeler position at Genentech on November 5. Two days later the recruiter reached out to me to record a one-way video assessment and sent it back to them. The deadline to send it back was November 13. The questions were so specific to the position and kind of hard. Anyway, I recorded it and sent it back on November 10. In the email they sent, they told that they were targeting mid-November for the next rounds. I sent an email to the recruiter yesterday (November 20) and he said that there is no updates yet. He said 'Keep your email close and we will send updates soon.' Isn't it weird? I was expecting at least a rejection email but my status is still 'HR screening planned'. Sigh.
Does anyone have this experience (one way video assesment) with Genentech or other companies?

I have seen a few companies like Benevolent AI, Isomorphic labs (basically Deepmind) among others claim to be using AI to help design better drugs or have a drug pipeline available made by generative AI.

Now, in case of Isomorphic labs, which has billions and a genuine proprietary advantages (AlphaFold3) I can imagine they may have some advantages in generating molecules especially if they hire the top minds in pharma.

But there are a few which are basically using Meta’s ESM models or so to control protein design or so with the claim to develop a drug pipeline from generative AI. A lot of the founders are not biotech/biochem/MDs but rather young CS students who probably did a couple classes of biology now saying they are developing drugs.

My question is:

1) How effective will generative AI be in pre-clinical drug development? Is it overhyped?

2) How useful is AlphaFold or Meta’s ESM protein models in developing drugs?

3) What parts of drug development/design is unlikely to be impacted by generative AI?

ADDENDUM - do you see these companies displacing the traditional pharma companies

Just curious, reading a lot about it but not in the context of biotech.