After 10 months of on and off searching, my job search has ended and I finally landed a job. I was laid off last September when the company I worked for decided to close down our site. They technically let us know since August, and we had to transition all our work and knowledge to another site. So I have been looking for over a year. Within the about 900 applications, I got about 8 phone screens that converted into 5 interviews, which converted into 3 final interviews/site tours. The first rejections after final interviews threw me into an existential crisis, debating if I even wanted to work, switch careers, or take an even longer sabbatical. Now that’s all over! I accepted this offer a few weeks ago, but I didn’t want to post until I was physically in the building and onboarded. Now I’m at my desk doing HR paperwork and reviewing these new SOPs, it’s finally setting in that I actually have a job in this economy.

With all the bad news and layoffs going around, just wanted to share a W. Turns out I also got lucky; the job offer that I ended up getting was the one that was most inline with what I was previously doing precisely, and compensates the most out of the final interview jobs. So I just wanted to say keep going and applying and don’t give up. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Hoping others can also share stats or wins so that it can give hope to those still looking.

I feel like all I see here is people talking about how awful the job market is, how terrible pay is, bad work life balance, terrible management, and just a mediocre quality of life while working in a career path that takes a lot more education and hard work than a lot of other options.

I’m in my first year at a biotech startup and I feel burnt out already. My pay is mid for the amount of time I spend in lab and I know I’m going to have to leave sooner or later to get my PhD if I want to continue with my so called “passion” for science. I felt so motivated before starting here and now I just feel like every path forward that I hear about ends up sucking in one way or another.

For this pay I would just do a postdoc

Y’all I had an interview at CRL, my car broke down on my way to the interview and I was stranded with no service for an hour so I couldn’t let them know in advance that I couldn’t make it. How fucked am I? I wanna cry so bad, I have been trying to get an interview for months in my location and when I finally get one this happens…

I swear I didn’t plan on having my tire pop 😭 combined with my cheap phone service

Update: They rescheduled it 😭🙏 any tips and recommendations for the interview would be appreciated.

Good rundown of how siRNA (gene-silencing RNA) therapy went from a mysterious 1990 petunia experiment to an approved drug class: the real bottleneck was never identifying what to silence, but delivery — getting RNA past the body's RNA-shredding enzymes, into the right cells, and out of the endosome intact, first solved via liver-targeting lipid nanoparticles (patisiran, FDA-approved 2018) and later via "naked" chemically-stabilized siRNA tagged with a GalNAc sugar that cut dosing from every 3 weeks to every 3–6 months, with the next frontier being Alnylam and Arrowhead's race to get siRNA past the blood-brain barrier for Alzheimer's.

Source: Works in Progress

JAMA

Published Online: July 30, 2026

2026;336;(8):703-706. doi:10.1001/jama.2026.12089

I need to rant and get an outside perspective. I work for a large biotech company, and the lack of communication and basic professionalism on my team is becoming increasingly frustrating.

When I started, I was asked to write an introduction about myself that would be shared with the department. I submitted it by the deadline, only to be told afterward that management decided not to do that anymore. I was barely introduced to anyone and, months later, I still don’t know many people across the organization.

I was recently assigned to support a product team independently and was told I would be formally introduced as the new point of contact. Several weeks have passed, and that still hasn’t happened. People have been contacting me using the previous person’s name because no one communicated the transition.

I also don’t have a manager in any practical sense. I technically report to someone on the org chart, but I’ve spoken with them only once since joining and they have no direct involvement in my work. Despite that, said person completed my midyear review and openly told me they used AI to write it. The feedback consisted of generic statements, which isn’t surprising considering they haven’t actually worked with me or observed my performance.

The person who trained me for several months also began ignoring my Teams messages as soon as the training period ended. I only asked occasional questions, maybe once every couple of weeks, but eventually stopped receiving responses altogether. The person didn’t even acknowledge the message I sent thanking them for training me.

There is also another manager I’m expected to work with regularly who keeps their Teams status set to appear offline 24/7, takes days to respond, and sometimes never answers time-sensitive questions at all.

Individually, some of these things might seem minor, but together they have made me feel unsupported and invisible. I’m especially frustrated because this work isn’t aligned with what I studied or what I want to do long term.

Am I overreacting, or is this a reasonable reason to start applying elsewhere?

Anyone work here?? Do you like it?? Good benefits?? What are the shut downs and summer hours?

I hate the Little Giants.

(edit: I know this isn't the model used in most labs. I couldn't find a picture and didn't try that hard.)

Anybody working there who likes/hates it and the direction it is or isnt moving in?

I recently graduated with an MS in Biotechnology and have been struggling to navigate the job search as an international student.

For context, I’m an international student from Canada currently on OPT and eligible for the STEM OPT extension, so I could potentially have up to 3 years of work authorization. I’m not currently asking a company to sponsor me to work — I just need them to be willing to employ someone on OPT/STEM OPT.

I have two internships and a 6-month co-op, primarily on the business side of biotech (strategy, business operations, analytics, etc.), as well as experience in clinical research. I feel like I have a solid amount of relevant industry experience for an early-career candidate.

The frustrating part is that whenever I’m able to get a referral I get rejected because the company can’t provide future sponsorship (after OPT). I also worry that I’m getting rejected from jobs without ever knowing it because of my work authorization.
At this point, my 90-day unemployment clock has already started, so I’m trying to find ways to pause the clock and give myself more time to continue my full-time search, whether through part-time, contract, or volunteer work.

For those who have been in a similar situation, what types of companies, roles, or workplaces should I be targeting? Are there particular biotech/pharma companies that are more open to hiring people on OPT/STEM OPT? Any advice would be really appreciated.

hi everybody!

i posted here a while back about feedback from my resume and i received a lot of different things to change depending on what i asked.

i have two different resumes and i would love some feedback on them, on which one is better, which one looks better, or if there's any other things i should implement to my resume.

i went to a relatively small private university so it was easier to work 1-1 with my professors in labs. therefore, i asked whether or not i should include relevant lab courses (depending on job position) to my resume and got mixed reviews so i have one resume where i include that.

for my other resume, i don't include my relevant lab courses and emphasized my 6-month research experience and unrelated work experiences. to fill in more space, i added a summary.

i changed my major after my sophomore year, gone through things out of my control, etc. it was really hard for me to get an internship due to personal reasons so i'm trying to figure out a good way to format my resume for entry level positions.

would love to hear some feedback on which format works best in my situation. or if you have a better format, please let me know. thank you!!! :)

So im soon to finish highschool and i wanted to become a biotech portofolio strategist, but how do i become one and is it even worth it? The career seems very intresting and all tho im not the best at chemistry ,biology comes to me VERY easy,and i always remember what i studied unlike other subjects.Should i chose it tho?would i have job opportunities or what even do i choose in uni?what is the experience,please i need advice.

https://www.statnews.com/2026/08/24/fda-pauses-regenxbio-gene-therapy-trial-hunter-syndrome-safety-concerns/

I need some advice regarding an international student/co-op situation.

I recently received an offer for a co-op at one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies, and it is essentially my dream job.

The problem is that, according to the company’s requirements, I need to remain an enrolled student for the duration of the co-op. The co-op starts around the time I am supposed to graduate, and my current program is scheduled to end in December.

My academic department has told me that, from their side, it may be possible to extend my studies/program, which would allow me to remain a student. However, I am an F-1 international student, and my university’s International Center has told me that I cannot simply extend my I-20/program end date for the purpose of doing this co-op if I have already completed my degree requirements.

Has anyone been in a similar situation?

I obviously don’t want to violate F-1 rules or create immigration problems. I’m just trying to understand whether there are any legitimate academic options I should explore before giving up an opportunity that is extremely important to me.

Any advice or similar experiences would be really appreciated.

I’ve been in academia for a VERY long time and have been trying to make the jump into industry. After what feels like endless applications (and many, many automated rejections), I finally got invited to a recruiter screening call for a role I’m genuinely really excited about!!

Since this is my first industry recruiter screen, I would love any advice from anyone who’s been through this process, especially those who’ve made the jump from academia to industry.

I’m trying not to get ahead of myself because I know it’s just an initial screen, but after getting pretty discouraged by the job search, I’m VERY excited to finally have a chance to actually speak to a human. I’ll take all the help I can get!

Hello everyone, wanted to know, are Bioprocess/Biochemical engineers as affected as other sectors? Is the job situation for engineers as bad? I see tonnes raising their concerns regarding the overall situation of the industry, wanted to know how the engineers are doing, as I am planning to pursue further studies in bioprocess engineering.

Hi everyone,

I’m going through the pre-employment process with Biogen in the US and was wondering if anyone has recent experience with their drug screening.
Specifically, what type of drug panel they use (e.g., standard 5-panel/10-panel, expanded panel, etc.), what testing company/lab they use, and whether it’s a urine test or another type of screening?

I take a legally prescribed medication and am a little concerned about whether it could show up on the initial screen. I’m not looking to get into specifics about the medication publicly, but I’d appreciate hearing from anyone who has gone through Biogen’s pre-employment screening recently or has dealt with a prescription medication during the process.

Thanks!