<p>My perspective comes from years of working in biotech startups. In my field, if VCs funded my employer for another year, that is as stable as it gets. One has to be enterpreneurial, adaptable and mobile to survive in this world. Often, there is a need for a certain skill set, but someone has to point to the company what exactly it needs. I know several people (my H and myself included) who created their current positions out of temporary, unpaid or consulting gigs. It also helps if one lives in the area with a major biotech hub and has an extensive network in the field.
scout, I know pretty well what is happening with medicinal chemistry - even teeny tiny companies think they are better off outsourcing it, but they still prefer to run their own bio assays and clinical trials (they lied to you in 2000 - outsourcing of chemistry was already in full bloom at that time). And the age issue… what you said about people of our age is so true. Our generation has the hardest time when it comes to finding jobs. Yahoo finance ran an article on it explaining why. We’ve been labeled as “specialists with narrow skills” and “middle managers”, and that’s not what companies want nowadays. The current fad is that they want flexibility and interdisciplinary skill sets. For people coming out of big pharma it is a double whammy: biotechs do not like to hire bench people from pharma due to the specialization. For example, at one of the companies I worked for, we interviewed chemists who never ran an HPLC chromatogram, because at their big pharma they had analytical departments that handled the analysis (the person we were looking for had to maintain the HPLC instrument and do a lion’s share of the analytical work in addition to med. chem. - basically, the job of 2 people). That’s the life of biotech statups.</p>
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<p>I know Boston is one for sure.</p>
<p>“what are the areas of the country with good Biotech career prospects?”</p>
<p>To add to the previous post:</p>
<p>[BioSpace</a> - Hotbed Communities](<a href=“http://www.biospace.com/biotechhotbeds.aspx]BioSpace”>BioSpace | BioSpace)</p>
<p>Genetown, BioBeach and BioBay are the leaders.</p>
<p>Biotech hot-bed: Boston, San Diego, San Francisco.</p>
<p>Biotech hot-bed: Bethesda/Rockville/Gaithersburg/Germantown Maryland.</p>
<p>All those NIH escapees have to go somewhere, but can’t go too far because they don’t want to have to move their kids to a different school, and the other spouse is still working in a lab at Navy Med anyway.</p>
<p>^^^LOL</p>
<p>I appreciate the input from contributors but do worry about the negative nature of some of these comments. The fact is ALL fields go through downturns, from accounting (yes, accounting) to engineering, chemistry, biology, computer science – the list goes on. Some fields recover periodically – especially those listed above – some never do. </p>
<p>I don’t believe there is a field that’s GUARANTEED to give you a good job for life. Kids in this generation are told over & over again that they will probably change professions at least a few times in their lifetime. And while I’m sure there are many people who have problems finding jobs in chemistry and biology, I also think that there are far worse fields to try to break into. Long-form print journalist; high school Latin teacher, anyone?</p>
<p>I would rather train in a trade like to become an electrician, than pursue something that is going to lead to an endless amount of temp jobs, jobs that only last 3 or 4 years before you have to find another one, or jobs that pay low and have little or no health care benefits. Electricians can make VERY good money, hell, after an apprenticeship and on the job experience, it’s like earning a bachelor’s degree anyway, except for the fact that you get to earn money while learning and graduate with absolutely no student loan debt. Depending on what field you get into, some electricians can earn more than $50/hr. working overtime.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, while it doesn’t sound ‘glorious’, an elevator repairman can make a damn good living too. In the end what’s really more glorious–earning $60k/year with no student loan debt and with a relatively stable career as an elevator repairman, or earning $40 k per year with the title as ‘biologist’ and also having student loan debt, a monotonous QC or analytical job testing the same samples over again, and almost no job security?</p>
<p>The jobs created for scientists these days without PhDs are an absolute JOKE. No job security, little or no health care, and mostly temp work. Scientist=permatemp. Even if you find a job offer for something that isn’t temp work, it is probably a horrible job doing monotonous work doing quality control, low paying, and if it is decent paying, there’s probably an insane amount of competition. As for PhD level jobs, there’s simply way, way, way too many PhDs out there and not enough jobs. A PhD in science will get you a long string of postdocs, temp work, or a job at a company that only lasts for 3 or 4 years before you are laid off, and that’s only if you can beat out 20-30 other applicants for the same job.</p>
<p>Then you clearly believe in the value of trade school over a college education. Fair enough. Just know that most of us on this forum don’t necessarily see it that way.</p>
<p>Hey how about that yahoo running an article about careers w/ surprising salaries. What tops the list? Elevator repairman. </p>
<p>[7</a> Surprising Careers That Pay - Yahoo! Education](<a href=“Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos”>Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos)</p>
<p>If I could make close to $70 k per year (and maybe even more w overtime) in a field that at least has a modicum of job stability I would easily trade in this science degree that has cost me a lot in student loan debt and has done nothing for my salary except make me hop around from job to job, temp work to temp work, and has made me lose salary with more work experience. I got my first job starting out at $51 k, you know where my salary is now? $40 k after 6 years in industry. I laughed when my current company wanted to give me a $1k raise this year. At that rate ill need 10 more years just to get back to where I was fresh out of college.</p>
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<p>Of course most don’t see it that way. It’s hard to admit that college for most people is completely overrated and a huge waste of money when you are spending $30-50k per year, especially for science majors.</p>
<p>It sounds like in your case college was overrated and a huge waste of money. Because that’s clearly what you’re implying. I’m sorry to hear that, on the other hand, like I said, there are no guarantees in life. I personally do know scientists who like their jobs and make enough to support themselves. They enjoy the laboratory experience and wouldn’t get much enjoyment from being, say, an elevator repairman. Chacun a son gout, as they say.</p>
<p>One particular challenge that I have seen many biotech types face, is the acceptance of the loss of the dream of a career inside academia. After four years of college, four to eight years of M.S. and Ph.D. programs, and umpteen years of post-docs, those who realize that there will be no PI position or Professorship in their future have to find whole new definitions for their selves. One friend of mine, many years out of the university environment, refers to herself as a “recovering academic”. I have other friends who despite finding gainful employment in private industry or on the editorial staff of a scientific publication remain bitter about the years that they now consider themselves to have mis-spent in pursuit of their old professional goals.</p>
<p>I think that the OPs child who would be entering this career path now, does not need to end up as angry and bitter as these 40+ year olds, because the world has changed. It is possible to elect to pursue a career in biotech. It no longer is something that only odd-balls go into or that one “settles” for. It is a legitimate career direction in and of itself.</p>
<p>Sadly, from reading many of the Science Majors threads, I get the impression that these bitter, negative posters are under 40, and most are under 30. One is apparently only a college sophomore. I don’t believe they have the perspective that comes with life experience to know yet that there are no safe majors or careers, especially when the economy is in a depressed cycle like it is now.</p>
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<p>Actually, if only a few odd-balls studied biology, the job and career prospects would be excellent because there supply of people to hire would be small.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, there is a huge number of pre-meds who did not get into medical school who are “settling for” any other biology-related job, which depresses job and career prospects for those jobs.</p>
<p>NeedAVacation and ucbalumnus,</p>
<p>Sorry, I don’t think I made that as clear as I’d intended. I was thinking in historical terms. </p>
<p>Back when Happydad and his friends started the long path that ultimately led them out of the professorship track, the few “odd-balls” that mentioned an intention of going to work in industry immediately after college were practically laughed out of the freshman biology lab. By and large the biology grads who landed in R&D or Marketing for companies like Proctor and Gamble or a pharmaceutical firm after college graduation felt that they were “settling” for something much less than “the best”. The difference that I now see is that more young people are entering college with the specific goal of a career in a bio-related industry. No one is telling them that they are “odd” or that they are “settling”. This is a huge improvement.</p>
<p>Of course, in the current job market, no one can find work. But that isn’t limited to biologists!</p>
<p>C&E News has a good article on what it takes for today science PhDs to stay afloat:</p>
<p>[Survival</a> Skills | Employment | Chemical & Engineering News](<a href=“http://pubs.acs.org/cen/employment/89/8916employment.html]Survival”>http://pubs.acs.org/cen/employment/89/8916employment.html)</p>
<p>The same principle applies to biology grads: to stay employed even in these tough times, one needs to evolve constantly.</p>
<p>See job outlook for biology/biochem/biotech grads in this Top Ten ‘Where the Jobs Are’ listing from last Sunday’s NYT. </p>
<p><a href=“Top 10 List: Where the Jobs Are - The New York Times”>Top 10 List: Where the Jobs Are - The New York Times;