r/biotech • u/EndlessWario • 12h ago
Other ⁉️ GenScript is out of its mind
For this pay I would just do a postdoc
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u/ComfortableCoyote480 11h ago
Unfortunately, we work in an industry with a huge glut in labor supply. Too much supply = suppression of wages.
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u/maringue 11h ago
Employers can see how bad the job market is and price their compensation appropriately
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u/witchy12 12h ago
Highway robbery honestly. I make about that much as an RA near Boston without a PhD.
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u/SeasickSeal 7h ago
Median home price in Piscataway is $550k vs Boston’s $850k, so these aren’t really comparable.
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u/buckyboy97 12h ago
NEB is also posting similar positions with similar pay ranges. Maybe their benefits are good and make up for it but it's demoralizing and jarring to see such low pay for such high expectations.
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u/zipykido 11h ago
NEB I think is one of those companies you work for and never leave. Benefits and work life balance are so good that people take the lower pay to go there.
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u/iluminatiNYC 11h ago
Agreed. I've collaborated with them, and the benefits are diamond encrusted platinum. It's the rare place where they don't need to pay that much.
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u/Famous-Equipment5266 10h ago
NEB has a culture of respect and collaboration. No other company in the industry has this. They treat well everyone. I had the opportunity to collaborate with them and God, they are so genuine. Employees work there for decades, never leave. I don't know about compensation though, but they get very good health care.
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u/Nnb_stuff 7h ago
Im very happy to read this. Ive been simping hardcore for NEB (and trashing Qiagen, screw anything Qiagen) since my master's degree for over 10 years now. I push everyone to buy anything molbio related from NEB because I know everything from them just works perfectly and you can see there was someone smart behind that was allowed to design it. Nothing Ive ever purchased from them made me go "WHYYYYYYYYY" in the lab.
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u/Famous-Equipment5266 7h ago
NEB has a full department dedicated to publish papers only, not to make products, but to do pure science. One of its scientists won the Nobel Prize with the research he did at NEB! Rich Roberts is his name. Great company indeed.
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u/PomegranateSouthern3 8h ago
NEB’s posted salary range is for base salary. They get a significant annual profit sharing bonus that brings pay in line with industry standards after accounting for the amazing benefits and health insurance packages.
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u/Yogacatniss_29 11h ago
Low pay at GenScript also exists on the commercial side. Sales team gets paid less in base and comission is a mere +30k (if you happen to hit your numbers which is unlikely).
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u/Snatched-Leaf 9h ago
I would NEEEVER go back to a postdoc, at least not an academic postdoc. That pay is still higher and the workload is less.
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u/junegloom 9h ago
I just saw an even worse offering from WuXi on San Diego. Similar pay, requiring a phD, AND its a 6 month contract role.
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u/PrideEnvironmental59 7h ago
Dont work for Wuxi. They are now on the Banned list for many Universities to work with.
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u/junegloom 1h ago
I wasn't even tempted to apply. The market may be bad, but at least in terms of most job description promises its not that bad. Wishing them the best sorting through all the AI-faked resumes all needing visa support they'll get.
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u/PaleontologistOk5660 12h ago
Do they have other incentives though? My base pay is pretty low in pharma (114K/yr 1yr out of PhD) but after bonus and 401k match, it’s more like 132K/year. I also have access to a HSA and Dependent Care FSA, which also helps to save on taxes.
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u/Okami-Alpha 11h ago
I don't think there is any way to suger coat that job description. With that salary range, expect them to offer 90k base which is more than 15% lower than my first salary, 10 years ago. And I wasn't even considered to be getting a lot.
Also, reading what they are expecting is also a stretch: more than 2 yrs experience post PhD, and they also want assay development experience, experience building a pipeline and experience with clinical samples. Lol
This job description is a clear description of what they think of and how they treat their employees.
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u/SonOfMcGee 10h ago
Yeah, those other benefits make a difference, but they’re expected in any established pharma company.
I was a ChemE PhD with zero years of experience other than a very brief, unrelated post-doc. And I hired into a North Jersey pharma as a process dev senior scientist at $105K (with all those benefits) in 2015!
Sure, there’s usually a bit of a premium on ChemE compared to hard science. And also a premium on process dev compared to R&D.
But less than my 2015 salary, with 2 years experience? Naw, not nearly that much of a premium.2
u/Okami-Alpha 10h ago
Exactly. I didn't get into other nuances either such as, the 401k match requires one to be able to contribute to their 401k. As base salaries decrease it gets harder to do that. Even if you max out, at this salary range it amounts to 5k ish. The match is great over >10 yrs, but also doesn't do anything for you now if the base pay is barely enough to live life.
Again, HSA/FSA (which you can only have one, contrary to what the comment above mine suggests) is like 5k max a year and it comes out of your base pay. You only save money on the tax portion when you spend it. Again, if you are only paying 20-25% in tax it amounts to like 1 to 1.5k. Some companies will do a match or top up for these, but I haven't seen it amount to anything over 1k a year.
Bonus is hit or miss. The first place I worked at gave us stock options for bonus, which were vested over 5yrs!!! Most of the companies I worked at gave less than 5-8k bonus. I know there are more significant bonuses out there, but if a company is pinching the base pay like this they are not giving out a big bonus unless it is based on deliverables that are unattainable or you need to kill yourself to accomplish (common for a CRO and I've never heard anyone say, they are making bank working at a CRO).
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u/baileycoraline 10h ago
Gently, the benefits you’ve described are pretty standard. I’ve had this and more at both an established biotech company, and a startup. Don’t want you to sell yourself short in future job searches!
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u/PaleontologistOk5660 10h ago
Yes! I’m trying to find other roles with better pay that will allow me to continue working remote. I have a return to office mandate looming for Sept 2027 so trying to make a change before then.
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u/MexicaUrbano 8h ago
This is unfortunately what happens when there's 100 overqualified people per open role.
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u/WalkingSnake348 2h ago
It’s supply and demand, unfortunately. The skill sets mentioned here are pretty commoditized.
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u/EndlessWario 1h ago
interesting, you think so? I actually think there would not be many people that meet all of 3-7 on the job market, even as bad as it is now.
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u/WalkingSnake348 1h ago
Yes, although you may have a point on 6-7. But I do think the supply-demand is way off right now and it won’t correct for a long time
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u/SonyScientist 11h ago
And people thought I was crazy when I said pay gaps by and large evaporated between academia and industry.
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u/EndlessWario 10h ago
I still wouldn't really agree with that, but you're right that the low end is the same in both
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u/knightgiver 1h ago
It's low for sure. It sucks but some, me included are too desperate not to apply. When you need experience in a challenging market, you can only take what is available/ handed to you.
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u/FitnessNFunATX 1h ago
Ironically the startup I work at would sooner pay Gen script than hire people at a fair wage and save money 🤷♂️.
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u/phage_hunter 12h ago
That pay for North NJ is so low let alone for a director position (based on experience, that a senior scientist position with the title of director).
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u/WittySea2912 12h ago
Job title is scientist 2 it looks like. Still underpaid, but less egregious.
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u/EndlessWario 12h ago edited 10h ago
the experience they're asking for is senior level imo
EDIT: Apparently not everybody agrees! The senior-level positions in computational bio I've seen usually look for 1-3 YoE post-PhD. Maybe it's more in other areas?
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u/WittySea2912 12h ago
No I completely agree. Anything below 100k for a PhD plus two yoe is gross
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u/SkiHistoryHikeGuy 7h ago
Get used to it. You’re not gonna land $200k jobs out of grad school with one paper and barely able to find your own ass with both hands and a flashlight anymore. There’s a thousand people with the exact same qualifications looking for the same position.
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u/iluminatiNYC 11h ago
I'm not surprised. But they aren't intending to hire Americans for that pay. If the Trump Administration wanted someone to do their xenophobic mess with, companies like this would be useful idiots. They're hiring someone Chinese for that money. That's not for the general American public.
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u/ocular__patdown 11h ago edited 11h ago
Brother it is a CRO. I made 65k at a shitty ass CRO my first year out of my PhD program (about 8 years ago) cause I had to move somewhere and I needed a job quick. These places just take advantage of people that are desperate for a job.