Derek Lowe's commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry. An editorially independent blog from the publishers of Science Translational Medicine. All content is Derek’s own, and he does not in any way speak for his employer.

By Derek Lowe

Posts tagged with "How To Get a Pharma Job"

• How To Get a Pharma Job

  How Much Do Good Publications Count?

  22 April, 2016

  A reader sends along a question that has been on the minds of many a grad student and post-doc over the years. He’s working away on his project, and trying to get work published. And naturally enough, he’d like to see it in the best possible journal, but what if the best possible journals turn… Read More

• How To Get a Pharma Job

  Interview Question Psy-Ops

  28 January, 2015

  Chemjobber picks up here on an interesting letter to C&E News. What do you do, on a job interview, when your interviewer says something that’s obviously wrong? In my case, however, there was not an explicit question being asked. Rather, while discussing some topic, the interviewer would say something that was clearly and obviously (and… Read More

• Book Recommendations

  Job Interview Advice

  3 November, 2014

  I find it very refreshing to be talking again, once in a while, about finding jobs in drug discovery. Via my Twitter feed, I note this fine article from Linda Wang in C&E News about job interviews. It’s a very picky world out there in the job market (still not so many jobs, still a… Read More

• Business and Markets

  What’s The Going Rate These Days?

  16 October, 2014

  Time to break out the pseudonyms for the comments section. I’ve had a couple of people asking (on both sides of the process) what the starting salaries for medicinal chemists are running in the Boston/Cambridge area. It’s been a while since this was much of a topic, sad to say, but there is some hiring… Read More

• Academia (vs. Industry)

  Where the Talent Comes From

  20 May, 2014

  I occasionally talk about the ecosystem of the drug industry being harmed by all the disruptions of recent years, and this post by Bruce Booth is exactly the sort of thing that fits that category. He’s talking about how much time it takes to get experience in this field, and what’s been happening to the… Read More

• How To Get a Pharma Job

  A Question for Recruiters

  6 August, 2013

  Some of you may enjoy See Arr Oh’s “Open Letter to Biotech Recruiters“. Or then again, you may find that you don’t enjoy it one tiny bit. Either way, it’s worth a read, and some thought. Read More

• How To Get a Pharma Job

  Those Drag-Over-the-Coals Interviews

  26 September, 2012

  My column this month in Chemistry World is on high-pressure chemical interviews. Is my impression correct, that the good ol’ “let’s go to the board and draw out reaction mechnisms” sort of interview is slowly leaving the world?… Read More

• Academia (vs. Industry)

  Lessons For a New Medicinal Chemist

  8 June, 2012

  I gave my talk at the Drew University Medicinal Chemistry course, and it got me to thinking about when I was there (1990 or 1991), and my early days in medicinal chemistry in general. There are a lot of things that have to be learned when coming out of a synthetic organic chemistry background, and… Read More

• Business and Markets

  Imperfect Pitch

  17 May, 2011

  Venture capitalist Bruce Booth has moved his blog over to the Forbes network, and in his latest post he has some solid advice for people who are preparing to pitch him (and people like him) some ideas for a new company. It’s very sensible stuff, including the need to bring as much solid data as… Read More

• How To Get a Pharma Job

  Walk Around Some

  15 April, 2008

  Not many chemists come into the drug industry knowing very much about biology. I certainly didn’t, not on the level that was needed. It’s not surprising, but it’s also not as much of a handicap as you’d think, at least not at first. That’s because the first job of a new hire in the med-chem… Read More