Biotech and Pharmaceuticals Jobs
FYI. A good summary of the positions and salaries available for newly grads at a biotech/pharma.
Lab TechLab techs perform the routine maintenance tasks—cleaning and maintaining
glassware, working with animal colonies, operating lab equipment, and so
on—that are needed to keep labs functioning. A high school diploma is
required, and many people with college degrees start here as well. Salary
range: $24,000 to $35,000.Research Associate
A BS or MS in some form of chemistry or biology and experience working in a
lab are typically required to land this job. Associates work at the bench,
conducting experiments under the guidance of PhD scientists. If you’re coming
out of school with some lab experience but no PhD and you want to work in
R&D, this is the job for you. Salary range: $33,000 to $65,000.
Research Scientist
After receiving a PhD and completing a postdoc, a scientist can get a job as
a research scientist (sometimes the initial title is Associate Scientist),
designing and conducting experiments and writing up results for publication
when appropriate. Salary range: $65,000 to $110,000.
Sales Rep
Sales reps work with physicians, hospitals, HMOs, and countless other medical
institutions to keep health-care professionals abreast of—and, if possible,
partial toward—their company’s line of products. Some of these jobs require
extensive travel; others don’t. A bachelor’s degree in the sciences will
help, but previous sales experience is more important in landing one of these
jobs. Big Pharma companies have huge staffs of sales reps, so these positions
can offer the necessary prerequisite for the more complex job of
biotechnology sales, where salaries are higher and bonuses can exceed base
salary. Salary range: $42,000 to $76,000, plus incentives.
Marketing Analyst/Associate Product Manager
Job seekers without a background in science can also find work on the
marketing side in Big Pharma and large biotech companies. A marketing analyst
is primarily responsible for coordinating and implementing campaigns for
specific drugs, audiences, or both. This involves a little strategy and a lot
of execution—things like developing collateral pieces, working as a liaison
to advertising agencies, and overseeing a company presence at conventions.
Many MBAs enter the industry this way, and—perhaps more important—few without
MBAs move far beyond the marketing analyst level, although this varies from
company to company. Other people come to these positions from sales. Salary
range: $38,000 to $75,000.
Product Manager
This job requires managing a team of people and working to determine price,
distribution, brand image, forecasting, and overall strategy for one or more
drugs. On a micro level, the job can be claustrophobic: Imagine spending 13
months of 6-day weeks learning every aspect of a single drug, then having the
company decide that it would be best simply to let the product die. But over
the years you should be exposed to some of the most important, dynamic, and
profitable drug markets in the industry, an experience that will give you a
big-picture understanding of the industry and make you a greater asset to the
company. Salary range: $60,000 to $100,000.
Programmer/Analyst
These titles cover a wide variety of jobs, but put simply,
programmers/analysts are computer people. There’s a lot of complex database
work to be done in this industry, particularly for clinical trials, which can
involve thousands of patients (sometimes in several countries) with elaborate
medical histories and completely different responses to each of the drugs and
placebos being tested. And the computational demands of postgenomic research
are enormous, creating demand for job seekers who have backgrounds combining
science with computers. Bachelor’s degrees are usually required (though not
always). Salary range: $47,000 to $86,000.
Regulatory Affairs Associate
The regulatory affairs career path suits job seekers who have a background in
science but don’t want to do lab work. A regulatory affairs associate
completes the piles of paperwork required by the FDA. A BS is typically
required; candidates without one may find themselves lost for several months.
Those with a law degree come in at a higher level and with greater
responsibilities, but with the same basic job description. Salary range:
$39,000 to $84,000.
Clinical Research Physician (CRP)
CRPs are MDs who develop and implement plans for ushering experimental drugs
through preapproval clinical trials. They work on cross-functional teams to
maximize understanding of the pharmacological, regulatory, and clinical
dimensions of the drugs being studied. Salary range: $90,000 to $200,000;
company-sponsored speaking tours and other promotional events offer the
enterprising physician numerous other ways to increase net income.
Source: Wetfeet