Hey there! Grab some popcorn.

I am late career bio pharma. I recently got a LinkIn message from a recruiter about a position that touched on strengths in my career and disease areas in my recent work and was a jump or two. I’m happy in my job, but hey why not hear more? Was a relocated position, but they could offer remote. Cool. So far we have LinkedIn, not a well known fountain of bogus biotech jobs. Then email with a plausible domain name for the company. Nothing obvious. But the position looked too tailored to me, and while I do good work I’m rarely the smartest guy in the room. I’m savvy to all these scams and wade through the WhatsApp, Telegram, and other scams every day. Then the HR person says “let’s move this to Signal”, which sets off all the red flags.

This is a three act play. So the first thing I do is WHOIS the domain and make sure the sender was in fact using that domain. Yep, looks good. Wait, it’s two weeks old. Sketchy as fuck. The HR director? No LinkedIn profile. I messaged the recruiter after they connected me to the HR director. But this person was from another country, and I know that language. They didn’t message me back and their LinkedIn account was grayed out. Dead. It’s easy enough to Google Translate a reply, but the account got flagged maybe? Crazy shit. So I ask the HR director about any easily verifiable credentials. Nope. Either ignored or excuses. Stealth mode. I’ve humored pig butchering scams before, to see where it leads but I’ve never seen anything like this and I am certainly not a special person.

I’ll see if anything else comes of it but what do you think the goal here is? I’m happy to share more details next week, but don’t want to ruin the fun for now. So watch out for this kind of shit. Not sure what the benefit could be to account for the level of effort.

I have a dilemma... I am currently a police officer for a big city in the USA. I am 41 years old and only been a police officer for four (4) years. My current work schedule is four, 10 hr shifts followed by four days off. Then I work five, 10 hr shifts and get three days off. Honestly, its not a horrible schedule. However, I work from 11:30 A.M. - 09:30 P.M.

I was a chemist for over 14 years prior to switching careers later in life. I have recieved a offer for a Research Scientist position. The hours are normal daytime hours with weekends off. I will also make approximately 20% more in salary.

I like being a police officer but I would rather have the normal hours. I will recieve a pension if I stay a police officer and will not if I take the Scientist role.

Any thoughts/insights on my decision?

Any feedback is helpful. The good, bad and ugly. Anything one should know prior to accepting a job offer. Thanks for all your help.

Hi everyone, just graduated with a PhD in Biology and have 2 years of CRO experience. Looking to join biotech in SoCal (Pasadena/Irvine area). Any tips? Recommendations? Referrals? Maybe contracting companies to apply through? Thank you in advance

Hello everyone,

I need to leave my job after only being here for 2 months, because of my health.

My current role is Full Time in office and I have a remote/hybrid option job interview tomorrow that I have a good chance of getting

I feel terribly but I had no idea my health would get THIS bad.

Would you think a 2 weeks is even going to be accepted?

I’ve barely done anything since I have been here, and definitely still in training. I’ll of course explain and say I’m sorry and thank them etc, but I’m not sure about if they’ll even want a 2 weeks from me. I’m debating if I should ask or just offer and see if they will accept.

I’m debating telling the job tomorrow that I started this one (I got this interview from apps I put in 3 months ago, so I didn’t have this current job on my resume)

Best ways to get my foot in the door? I’m not sure if my resume is the problem or what, but I’m finding it difficult to even land entry-level positions. I have a biochemistry degree and hands-on lab/research experience, so I’m not really sure what I’m missing.

I’m trying to stay optimistic and keep applying, but I’d appreciate any advice on what helped you get your first biotech job.

They treat these models like we are all bioterrorists, and guilty until proven innocent. If you have access to ChatGPT Rosalind, or Claude Fable/Mythos with no biotech restrictions, please share your magic.

Fascinating new avenue

Moving to the Bay Area from the DMV area. Have 8+ years of QC experience. I know it’s a bad market— but realistically speaking, are people in the area getting callbacks, interviews? Any insight is appreciated.

The supposed promised land for biotech turned out to be a scam; Prospera—the scam island—defrauded Minicircle, the only serious, genuine biotechnology company that decided to give them a chance. Btw they're the ones "helping" with the montanaetrb

Every time I go to a conference, the same thing happens:

1. I aggressively snap photos of brilliant slides, complex data charts, posters, and speaker contact info.
2. I swear to myself I’m going to review them all on the flight home.
3. They sit in my camera roll forever because they’re angled, glaring, impossible to zoom into, and totally unorganized.

I’m currently building an open tool to fix this exact post-event mess-making slide/poster captures automatically de-skewed, grouped by session, and actually searchable/editable instead of dying in photo storage.

Before I write more code, I want to make sure I’m building features people actually care about rather than what I assume you care about.

I put together a zero-friction feedback form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeYUoTQ1LwAKIc0HBsuTEEFoI2Y88jwB8M46ygRlWhCI0GMLg/viewform?usp=dialog

• Takes under 60 seconds (just quick multiple-choice clicks)
• No sign-in or account required
• 100% anonymous

If you regularly attend conferences, symposiums, or live webinars, your raw input would be massive. Feel free to also just roast your worst conference capture experiences directly in the comments-I’ll be hanging out here to reply.

Thanks a ton!

Hi! I have one year of pharmaceutical experience in manufacturing, and one year starting up a lab in the electronics field. I also have a BS in biological chemistry. I am working on applying to graduate school and want some advice.
I loved working in pharmaceuticals and want to go back there, but would like to work in the lab at an r&d level. The reason I left manufacturing was to get some lab experience. I am looking at two programs at Tufts university, one is the Chemistry/Biotechnology program and one is the Biomedical Research program. I was to reiterate that I would like to work on the lab, and am worried the first program would place time back in manufacturing, but maybe I am mistaken? The third program is a medical chemistry program, which is currently my first choice.

Any advice would be great, thanks!

I'm applying for a role at the BMS Cambridge site and hoping to get some insight into the culture at this specific location. Have layoffs hit R&D there? How is morale and work/life balance?

Any thoughts or experiences you can share here or through DMs are really appreciated.

Hey, I’m about to start a BSc in Biomedicine in Malaysia, with my degree awarded by Lancaster University. Long term, I’m planning to do a Master’s in biotech or something related in Europe and hopefully eventually move there and work in the industry.
I’m mainly interested in hands-on lab work and areas like molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, drug development, biotech R&D, etc. I’m still figuring out exactly which area I want to specialise in though.
For those of you already working/studying in biotech, what would you recommend I do during my Bachelor’s to give myself the best chances of getting into a good Master’s and eventually landing a decent job?
What skills are actually worth learning? Any specific lab techniques, internships, research experience, coding/bioinformatics, certifications, or anything else you wish you had focused on earlier?
Would appreciate any advice, especially from people who took a similar path.

Hi everyone!! I currently work in big pharma in market access and genentech and amgen are my dream companies.

Does anyone know how hard it is to get in and if they hire externally? Ive been submitting applications constantly but its tough.

Do these companies care about employee referrals?

Hi everyone, I hope someone can help me out

​The Biotechnology program just opened here in El Paso Community College, and it caught my attention because I really love biology and microbiology. However, I have a few questions (that have probably been answered a million times already).

​I'd love to know if there's a real future in El Paso or Texas for someone with an Associate Degree in Biotech, if the pay is competitive, and whether I need to be really good at math and computer science.

​Any insight would be greatly appreciated! 😀

Anyone has any tips or questions recruiters usually ask for positions like internships?

I just got laid off 6 weeks into my 3 months probation and I’m kind of discouraged. Frankly speaking I was kind of struggling at first but after a month I genuinely felt like I got good at what I’m doing. And since this is my first ever job after graduating, they told me they were aware of this and told me not to be pressured because they’re gonna teach me everything, and since it’s a GMP lab it’s gonna take longer so I don’t have to worry if the rythme is slow. It’s a job I really wanted so when they talked to me today and ended my probation I was really shocked I couldn’t even ask why.
Now I don’t even know if I’m good enough for this, and I’m wondering if I should really put this experience on my resume and what to say if they ask me why I no longer work there.

I have a biochemistry degree and I’m struggling to find a job in San Diego. I know the biotech industry isn’t doing great right now, so I’m starting to wonder if I should branch out into other industries or roles.

At this point, I’m pretty open to anything that pays decently and gives me a chance to use my degree or transferable skills. I have laboratory/research experience, but I’m also open to environmental science, healthcare, defense/shipbuilding, government, or even jobs outside of science.

For anyone else with a biochemistry/biology/chemistry degree, what jobs did you end up getting? Are there any companies or career paths in San Diego that I should be looking into?