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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Any science job related to biomedical/pharmaceuticals/biology/medicine

TERRIBLE[/quote]

Why?  Several of us here would like to know why these fields are so terrible?  They're terribly important.  I have a kid heading into the workplace in a year in these fields.[/quote]

Because it's massively oversaturated.  Companies can push salaries low because there is so much supply of labor.  Supply is inelastic because tons of people are naive.  They have altruistic visions of doing science to cure cancer and any other disease and claim it isn't about the money.  That's all good and dandy for a while until you get stuck with a low paying deadend biotech job or job loss.  Job security in biotech is notoriously fickle, muchoreso than most industries.  Job layoffs are constant. Companies are always abruptly cancelling projects and closing divisions, acquiring buyouts and laying off staff, or are just laying off people if they hit a snag with development. Then when you go out and try to find a new job you have to compete with all of the other 500 people applying for the same position because of huge labor oversupply in the industry.

I knowsny people in biotech.  Their resumes are littered with job experience after job experience. My old boss, for example, had almost 6 jobs with all different companies over the course of only about a decade.  All different parts of the country too.  Can you imagine trying to start a family or settling down and buying a house when you have to consider you may need a new job every 2-4 years?  It's extremely unstable.  After a certain point, you get desperate and get hired as a temp or work for a shitty low paying CRO because you need work. So many biotech companies these days hire staff using temp agencies because scientists are a dime a dozen.

Stick with the business development or sales side of biotech if you're adamant staying in the industry. The research side is terrible.  The only svitbce based part worth it is if you can get into the development and manufacturing side where you often need highly particular experience to manufacture complex biologic products. But you're not doing pure research.  Manufacturing knowledge and skills are always in much more demand and are rarer.[/quote]

NP. This was an informative read!

I’m currently in a biomedical science PhD program... working on cancer. A little over a year ago I decided I didn’t want to go into any position requiring more bench work post-graduation. Academia is incredibly toxic, and I didn’t realize that until I was embedded in grad school. You’ve also shed a lot of light on the industry-side for me with what you’ve posted.

Due to the toxicity we face, I’ve made it sort of a mission to tell my fellow classmates and schoolmates to prioritize their lives with a healthy work-life balance. My mentality is to get in, get my experiments done, and peace the hell out of lab. It’s incredibly rare for me to go in on weekends (only when I have a 6 day experiment), I largely work 5-8 hour days, and I could care less what my PI, lab manager, committee, and lab mates think of that.

My mentor doesn’t even provide me with adequate mentorship. It’s laughable. I’ve long since lost the “people pleasing” mentality I had for most of my educational career. I’m not bending over backwards over the course of 6-7 years for a PI that can’t even bother to train/mentor me as he should. I’m all about just respecting others, but wholly pleasing myself. Everyone else’s opinion of that be damned.

I’m living my best life because of this firm mindset, and I plan to go into medical/science/grant writing after graduation. A career that will satisfy me intellectually, and make use of my amazing writing experience and skillset. Hopefully this will be a good career, even if it’s still within this realm. 🥲[/quote]

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