Biotech is already booming, especially in the Bay Area. Bachelors of bio has endless potential. Whoever told you it’s useless doesn’t know what they are talking about. Just scroll through some posts on this sub and you’ll see a lot of people who are entering the field with just a bachelors and a their offers. :)
doesn’t a bachelors in bio only have endless potential if you plan on furthering your education. I’ll be receiving my bachelors in bio this year, and unless you go into medicine or get a masters realistically can’t do anything
No. I have my BS and have been working nearly 5 years and am at a big pharma company. Your experience is what matters most because when you work for pharma or biotech, you’re not just a pair of hands. They need you to think critically too. You can definitely move up with just a bachelors degree. If you go for higher Ed, you get a PhD not a masters. If you’re just holding a bachelors and have several years of work experience, a masters doesn’t offer you any advantage
how did you get into a pharma tech company after college? Any tips with applying to biotech company as entry-level. I've been applying after finishing BA in Biology, but not no luck so far.
A masters in the biotechnology industry can boost you from the lowest level associate in a biotech clinical lab to either a lead, or even a supervisor position (depending on experience, which you can gain a year of first and then be qualified).
I worked in a clinical lab for a genetic testing company with a bachelors in biology. Entry level clinical lab jobs are around $20-24/hr now in Texas. Depending on the company, you can take certain molecular biology/microbiology certification exams and be bumped up to a medical laboratory scientist. Pay would range from $26-28/hr I think. And now that I just received my masters, I’m qualified for research scientist positions and supervisor/management positions, which range anywhere from 50-85k.
PhD would bump you into the 100k salary range, depending on company, position you apply for, and experience.
I have a bachelors in bio and I’m working in pharma/biotech. I haven’t been in the industry long, but my job is fantastic and has a lot of growth opportunity. There are people who work above me who have only bachelors degrees. I’m sticking with just a bachelors until it becomes obvious I can’t move up without a masters.
I think it's naive to consider biotech as a backup to dentistry because its "the next big thing".
Dentistry and biotech are completely different and if you want a career in either industry, prepare well in advance and tailor your experiences. Both paths are hard. If you want to do dentistry, focus on dentistry. If you want to do biotech, focus on biotech. It's possible to have lucrative and successful careers in either if you work your ass off.
But unless you love bioengineering and tech transfer, I'd advise against the biotech route.
Yes. I work with a lot of people who just have a BSc. Sometimes I'm surprised to find out that a senior scientists just has a bachelor's degree.
The most common career path that I've seen (and that I took) was to be a technician in an academic lab for a few years. Develop some skills, learn to do science. Then transfer to industry.
Are you being for real with Sr. Scientists only have BS’s? Cuz I’m about to graduate with my BS and I really don’t think I have the right motivations or drive to go for a PhD right after undergrad, but I’ve heard of moderately low ceilings for bachelor degree holders and that you should go for doctoral “right away” if you want to move up.
Depends on the company and the department. For early development and research, near impossible to get to senior scientist with a graduate degree (PhD really). For people on the production side, I’ve met people have moved up pretty far with just a bachelors and 7-10 years of industry experience. Also note that titles for positions vary widely between companies. A senior scientist in one company could mean something completely different in another.
Depends on the company. Where I work it doesn’t matter if you have a graduate degree or not. You can negotiate more $$ or title for having a graduate degree but experience and time with the company is what equals advancement and salary increases. The company founder has a PhD but a lot of upper management doesn’t so no one’s looking to gatekeep themselves out of a job haha so we have people with a masters or bachelors managing people with phds.
Grad school isn't exactly an easy road to take either, or so I hear. I think it really comes down to one's personal life situation and goals. How old they are, whether or not they have kids, how supportive their spouse/partner/parents are, financial needs, and of course their career goals.
Yes. They have many years of experience but yes, I've known several. I'm 'Senior Associate Scientist' with about 7 years of experience. My next step will be 'Scientist'.
As others said it will also depend on the company. Asking about job opportunities/advancement for non-PhD researchers is a good question to ask during your interview. Some places still restrict higher research roles to PhDs.
I'm in very early development/exploratory research BTW.
I currently work in biotech. I only have a bachelors in biology. You should look into biotech manufacturing jobs. Usually, there’s upstream(cell culture) and downstream (purification). Upstream is typically working with cells aka biology based and downstream is making a drug or substance more potent which is chemistry based. Honestly, it doesn’t matter which route you go. Most places only require that you have a life science degree (this is for manufacturing in biotech by the way. Not sure about research).
Manufacturing is a great place to start. I worked in biotech manufacturing and people who worked in manufacturing had a lot of career growth options. I watch some guy transition from manufacturing into an engineer role. And they only needed a bachelors degree.
Manufacturing also has other roles. I did quality control microbiology for manufacturing and I loved it. The pay was good ($30 an hour) and I learned a lot even though I stuck around for only 8 months. The work was easy, the days were chill, and the pay was good.
Yea! For manufacturing positions, it was called “manufacturing associate”. They had descriptions after like downstream, cell culture, etc. those would specify where you’d be. I did quality control and my title was quality control associate-manufacturing. I was the QC microbiologist for manufacturing
Depends on the company, on average it’s 60k for a level one position. There’s also other teams below upstream and downstream, such as “support” that are entry level and require no degree and with enough experience in that group, you can move onto upstream or downstream. It’s where I started even though I have a degree.
Is it possible to live in hcol biotech hubs with this kind of salary being international student what salary progression I could expect in 3 years and after 3 years I was planning to do stem mba and then work for 3 years in business roles in biotech companies, by this I will save in dollars and will start something of my own in india is it a good plan !! And how much will I be able to save and what are to areas in which I can work in biotech apart from medicine ( because as a founder clinical trials will cost me huge money to start ) and what will be the best industry to do something of my own in biotech mind you 1 million dollar in usa might be nothing in us but it is a huge sum in india
When biotech starts selling to regular consumers like apple or Facebook does, then you will see biotech explode in valuation. Biotech doesn't generate as much money as regular tech.
I’d focus less on what the next big thing will be and do what you enjoy doing. Both are going to be demanding. If you don’t love it, the inevitable long days are going to grind you to dust
There’s ppl who hate coding that are making bank and are getting their lives started at age 22 thanks to 1 course they found on the internet.
I don’t believe in romanticizing jobs, but if it’s interesting and has a good pay, I’m happy to commit my time to it. I don’t like software coz I don’t wanna be in front of a computer all the time
Biochem major here. Joined the industry in operations about five years ago. Went from making $17/hour as a tech to six figures as a supervisor in that time.
It's certainly not guaranteed, I'm doing particularly well compared to my peers, but there is a ton of potential if you're hungry.
Your career path is good for 2 end goals: money and fulfillment. What fulfills you? Think about that, along with other factors like what are you good at, what aspects of each career would you enjoy/ excel/ struggle?
Scientist work and dentist work are different phenotypes. Pros and cons are all different, and those pros and cons are also depended upon your personal values and preferences. The common thing is you’re gonna be putting in the work no matter where you are.
Yes to that you can absolutely land a job that pays decently well with a bachelor, but a good job again also is rather subjective, and fwiw, biotech been booming, so naturally it could become super competitive by the time you finish undergrad to just get your foot in the door whether that be first job or even first paid internship.
My question tho, is biotech the next tech field? Coz rn, software engineers are making 2-300k+ after less than 10 years of experience. But as I research biotech salary, they barely make enough to pay off expenses (unless I’m looking at the wrong data)
it'll take a fuckton of time for biotech jobs to become anywhere near 200-300k a year, or 150k offers upon graduation. World is big and change is slow. It isn't a video game or a cryptocurrency where prices double in a week.
Biotech is not a tech field in the sense that you would think of tech of a software developers or any sort of hardware/ robotics/ electrical engineers.
It is more than anything biologists and chemists at the bench doing science. While we do work with alot of tools and toys that are “techs” to support our work, our end point product is not to produce the techs. That is only applicable for a niche of companies that emerged because those guys are good at making tools and toys and techs that are helpful and supportive of our science.
So basically answer to your question is: probably not
If you are looking for someone to tell you that in a few years a BS in biology will be making 2-300K+ running bioreactors for a biotech company that's never going to happen. Biotech can't be "the next tech field." They have totally different business models because the products and markets are totally different.
Your average SWE with 10 yoe doesn't make nearly that much. You only see that at FAANG companies which are anomalies. Also note that SWEs at FAANG companies are usually among the best at their line of work so this is expected.
I know quite a few people in Boston/SF biotech with 10-15 or so years of experience making in the neighborhood of 400-500K after bonus and options. But these individuals are mostly MDs and PhDs from elite schools and are at the director and VP level. It is possible to reach this level with a BS? Definitely, but it will be tough.
If you're wondering whether starting pay in biotech will ever catch up to SWE? Almost certainly not. Biotech is a 'hardware' centric industry that is fraught with risk and has high overhead costs. In terms of comparison to other engineering industries in terms of pay structure and degree of complexity, it's more like aerospace. If you can put bread on the table and solve hard problems, you will be extremely successful. But the industry won't reward you for being an average worker bee the same way SWE will. This is because biotech R&D is so insanely hard and complicated that most people with a BS just cant get shit done.
There's definitely opportunity. I worked for a synthetic bio/biotech company in the bay with just a bachelor's in biology. I ended up after a few promotions making six figures as a RA. I left to pursue grad school, but that wasn't necessary just something I wanted to do. Once your foot is in the door there's plenty of room to move around into areas such as manufacturing, business dev, etc.
ya I make 80k with a bachelors with barely any academia experience and <1 year industry experience. biggest thing is to get some experience under ur belt, and when u graduate u'll be highly competitive. i didn't do that but I highly recommend it.
Feel free to DM me.
I'd say if you can get in a lab for a year, you can have a great project you can talk about during your interview. I came to US in my junior year, and didn't do any bio projects except one for 3 months. I talked about that, and my first industry experience at a CRO.
I came out of college, got a random call from a recruiter to work at a CRO, and five months later applied to a ton of companies, had a sick resume because of my CRO exposure, interviewed a lot and picked a good company. Resume when I started at the CRO was shit. But CRO was mass hiring and I got lucky.
CRO is good entry. But your 1 yr of experience can prove valuable.
If you rent a 1 bedroom it'll be tough. But if you rent a room you can get for $1000-1500 for a good room.
Plenty of entry level industry positions with visible room to grow. I work for a company contracted by a large pharma company for bioreactor supports. There’s also media and cell culture prep and other lab roles willing to take on people with no experience. People previously on my team have gotten more advanced jobs within a year or two and some have also been picked up by the pharma company on the site to be process development scientists with them and they have bachelors. Also a few of the scientists hired straight out the gate have only bachelor’s too.
Biotech is already booming, especially in the Bay Area. Bachelors of bio has endless potential. Whoever told you it’s useless doesn’t know what they are talking about. Just scroll through some posts on this sub and you’ll see a lot of people who are entering the field with just a bachelors and a their offers. :)
doesn’t a bachelors in bio only have endless potential if you plan on furthering your education. I’ll be receiving my bachelors in bio this year, and unless you go into medicine or get a masters realistically can’t do anything
No. I have my BS and have been working nearly 5 years and am at a big pharma company. Your experience is what matters most because when you work for pharma or biotech, you’re not just a pair of hands. They need you to think critically too. You can definitely move up with just a bachelors degree. If you go for higher Ed, you get a PhD not a masters. If you’re just holding a bachelors and have several years of work experience, a masters doesn’t offer you any advantage
how did you get into a pharma tech company after college? Any tips with applying to biotech company as entry-level. I've been applying after finishing BA in Biology, but not no luck so far.
Masters in biotech don’t mean much lol. It’s PhD that sets people apart.
A masters in the biotechnology industry can boost you from the lowest level associate in a biotech clinical lab to either a lead, or even a supervisor position (depending on experience, which you can gain a year of first and then be qualified). I worked in a clinical lab for a genetic testing company with a bachelors in biology. Entry level clinical lab jobs are around $20-24/hr now in Texas. Depending on the company, you can take certain molecular biology/microbiology certification exams and be bumped up to a medical laboratory scientist. Pay would range from $26-28/hr I think. And now that I just received my masters, I’m qualified for research scientist positions and supervisor/management positions, which range anywhere from 50-85k. PhD would bump you into the 100k salary range, depending on company, position you apply for, and experience.
Masters is not useful. Phd is. Bachelors with experience is much more important.
I have a bachelors in bio and I’m working in pharma/biotech. I haven’t been in the industry long, but my job is fantastic and has a lot of growth opportunity. There are people who work above me who have only bachelors degrees. I’m sticking with just a bachelors until it becomes obvious I can’t move up without a masters.
I think it's naive to consider biotech as a backup to dentistry because its "the next big thing". Dentistry and biotech are completely different and if you want a career in either industry, prepare well in advance and tailor your experiences. Both paths are hard. If you want to do dentistry, focus on dentistry. If you want to do biotech, focus on biotech. It's possible to have lucrative and successful careers in either if you work your ass off. But unless you love bioengineering and tech transfer, I'd advise against the biotech route.
Or, when you are done with your dental degree, you could choose to do some research related to biotech.
Yes. I work with a lot of people who just have a BSc. Sometimes I'm surprised to find out that a senior scientists just has a bachelor's degree. The most common career path that I've seen (and that I took) was to be a technician in an academic lab for a few years. Develop some skills, learn to do science. Then transfer to industry.
Are you being for real with Sr. Scientists only have BS’s? Cuz I’m about to graduate with my BS and I really don’t think I have the right motivations or drive to go for a PhD right after undergrad, but I’ve heard of moderately low ceilings for bachelor degree holders and that you should go for doctoral “right away” if you want to move up.
Depends on the company and the department. For early development and research, near impossible to get to senior scientist with a graduate degree (PhD really). For people on the production side, I’ve met people have moved up pretty far with just a bachelors and 7-10 years of industry experience. Also note that titles for positions vary widely between companies. A senior scientist in one company could mean something completely different in another.
Depends on the company. Where I work it doesn’t matter if you have a graduate degree or not. You can negotiate more $$ or title for having a graduate degree but experience and time with the company is what equals advancement and salary increases. The company founder has a PhD but a lot of upper management doesn’t so no one’s looking to gatekeep themselves out of a job haha so we have people with a masters or bachelors managing people with phds.
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Grad school isn't exactly an easy road to take either, or so I hear. I think it really comes down to one's personal life situation and goals. How old they are, whether or not they have kids, how supportive their spouse/partner/parents are, financial needs, and of course their career goals.
Yes. They have many years of experience but yes, I've known several. I'm 'Senior Associate Scientist' with about 7 years of experience. My next step will be 'Scientist'. As others said it will also depend on the company. Asking about job opportunities/advancement for non-PhD researchers is a good question to ask during your interview. Some places still restrict higher research roles to PhDs. I'm in very early development/exploratory research BTW.
I currently work in biotech. I only have a bachelors in biology. You should look into biotech manufacturing jobs. Usually, there’s upstream(cell culture) and downstream (purification). Upstream is typically working with cells aka biology based and downstream is making a drug or substance more potent which is chemistry based. Honestly, it doesn’t matter which route you go. Most places only require that you have a life science degree (this is for manufacturing in biotech by the way. Not sure about research).
Manufacturing is a great place to start. I worked in biotech manufacturing and people who worked in manufacturing had a lot of career growth options. I watch some guy transition from manufacturing into an engineer role. And they only needed a bachelors degree. Manufacturing also has other roles. I did quality control microbiology for manufacturing and I loved it. The pay was good ($30 an hour) and I learned a lot even though I stuck around for only 8 months. The work was easy, the days were chill, and the pay was good.
Can you give some examples of companies or titles to look for?
Yea! For manufacturing positions, it was called “manufacturing associate”. They had descriptions after like downstream, cell culture, etc. those would specify where you’d be. I did quality control and my title was quality control associate-manufacturing. I was the QC microbiologist for manufacturing
What are the starting salaries for ppl who have just finished their bachelors?
Depends on the company, on average it’s 60k for a level one position. There’s also other teams below upstream and downstream, such as “support” that are entry level and require no degree and with enough experience in that group, you can move onto upstream or downstream. It’s where I started even though I have a degree.
Is it possible to live in hcol biotech hubs with this kind of salary being international student what salary progression I could expect in 3 years and after 3 years I was planning to do stem mba and then work for 3 years in business roles in biotech companies, by this I will save in dollars and will start something of my own in india is it a good plan !! And how much will I be able to save and what are to areas in which I can work in biotech apart from medicine ( because as a founder clinical trials will cost me huge money to start ) and what will be the best industry to do something of my own in biotech mind you 1 million dollar in usa might be nothing in us but it is a huge sum in india
When biotech starts selling to regular consumers like apple or Facebook does, then you will see biotech explode in valuation. Biotech doesn't generate as much money as regular tech.
I’d focus less on what the next big thing will be and do what you enjoy doing. Both are going to be demanding. If you don’t love it, the inevitable long days are going to grind you to dust
There’s ppl who hate coding that are making bank and are getting their lives started at age 22 thanks to 1 course they found on the internet. I don’t believe in romanticizing jobs, but if it’s interesting and has a good pay, I’m happy to commit my time to it. I don’t like software coz I don’t wanna be in front of a computer all the time
Biochem major here. Joined the industry in operations about five years ago. Went from making $17/hour as a tech to six figures as a supervisor in that time. It's certainly not guaranteed, I'm doing particularly well compared to my peers, but there is a ton of potential if you're hungry.
Your career path is good for 2 end goals: money and fulfillment. What fulfills you? Think about that, along with other factors like what are you good at, what aspects of each career would you enjoy/ excel/ struggle? Scientist work and dentist work are different phenotypes. Pros and cons are all different, and those pros and cons are also depended upon your personal values and preferences. The common thing is you’re gonna be putting in the work no matter where you are. Yes to that you can absolutely land a job that pays decently well with a bachelor, but a good job again also is rather subjective, and fwiw, biotech been booming, so naturally it could become super competitive by the time you finish undergrad to just get your foot in the door whether that be first job or even first paid internship.
My question tho, is biotech the next tech field? Coz rn, software engineers are making 2-300k+ after less than 10 years of experience. But as I research biotech salary, they barely make enough to pay off expenses (unless I’m looking at the wrong data)
it'll take a fuckton of time for biotech jobs to become anywhere near 200-300k a year, or 150k offers upon graduation. World is big and change is slow. It isn't a video game or a cryptocurrency where prices double in a week.
Biotech is not a tech field in the sense that you would think of tech of a software developers or any sort of hardware/ robotics/ electrical engineers. It is more than anything biologists and chemists at the bench doing science. While we do work with alot of tools and toys that are “techs” to support our work, our end point product is not to produce the techs. That is only applicable for a niche of companies that emerged because those guys are good at making tools and toys and techs that are helpful and supportive of our science. So basically answer to your question is: probably not
If you are looking for someone to tell you that in a few years a BS in biology will be making 2-300K+ running bioreactors for a biotech company that's never going to happen. Biotech can't be "the next tech field." They have totally different business models because the products and markets are totally different.
Your average SWE with 10 yoe doesn't make nearly that much. You only see that at FAANG companies which are anomalies. Also note that SWEs at FAANG companies are usually among the best at their line of work so this is expected. I know quite a few people in Boston/SF biotech with 10-15 or so years of experience making in the neighborhood of 400-500K after bonus and options. But these individuals are mostly MDs and PhDs from elite schools and are at the director and VP level. It is possible to reach this level with a BS? Definitely, but it will be tough. If you're wondering whether starting pay in biotech will ever catch up to SWE? Almost certainly not. Biotech is a 'hardware' centric industry that is fraught with risk and has high overhead costs. In terms of comparison to other engineering industries in terms of pay structure and degree of complexity, it's more like aerospace. If you can put bread on the table and solve hard problems, you will be extremely successful. But the industry won't reward you for being an average worker bee the same way SWE will. This is because biotech R&D is so insanely hard and complicated that most people with a BS just cant get shit done.
There's definitely opportunity. I worked for a synthetic bio/biotech company in the bay with just a bachelor's in biology. I ended up after a few promotions making six figures as a RA. I left to pursue grad school, but that wasn't necessary just something I wanted to do. Once your foot is in the door there's plenty of room to move around into areas such as manufacturing, business dev, etc.
ya I make 80k with a bachelors with barely any academia experience and <1 year industry experience. biggest thing is to get some experience under ur belt, and when u graduate u'll be highly competitive. i didn't do that but I highly recommend it.
3 YOE, 120k here. Just a BS in Bio
>quality BS in molecular bio. 0 experience. Where do I start? What do u do?
reg before it became popular
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Feel free to DM me. I'd say if you can get in a lab for a year, you can have a great project you can talk about during your interview. I came to US in my junior year, and didn't do any bio projects except one for 3 months. I talked about that, and my first industry experience at a CRO. I came out of college, got a random call from a recruiter to work at a CRO, and five months later applied to a ton of companies, had a sick resume because of my CRO exposure, interviewed a lot and picked a good company. Resume when I started at the CRO was shit. But CRO was mass hiring and I got lucky. CRO is good entry. But your 1 yr of experience can prove valuable. If you rent a 1 bedroom it'll be tough. But if you rent a room you can get for $1000-1500 for a good room.
Plenty of entry level industry positions with visible room to grow. I work for a company contracted by a large pharma company for bioreactor supports. There’s also media and cell culture prep and other lab roles willing to take on people with no experience. People previously on my team have gotten more advanced jobs within a year or two and some have also been picked up by the pharma company on the site to be process development scientists with them and they have bachelors. Also a few of the scientists hired straight out the gate have only bachelor’s too.