r/biotech • u/Many_Difficulty_490 • 11h ago
Education Advice 📖 Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently in college?
would you stay in the bio field at all?
or completely change?
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u/haze_from_deadlock 10h ago
Well, I was in college in 2008, so I would have bought BTC at like $0.10, and if I did that, it wouldn't really matter what I do now.
But, if I really knew what I know now, I probably would have used that massive BTC funding to become a VC in AI
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u/Loose-Reflection2965 10h ago
I would have studied finance, be an investment banker and not have to worry about money.
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u/Unusual-Relief-1982 10h ago
I would've done med school, not a PhD that got me nowhere.
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u/notthatcreative777 9h ago
Well I don't know how old you are but I once knew a dude in his 40s in my undergrad bio class who then went on to med school
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u/Unusual-Relief-1982 8h ago
I'm contemplating applying to med school, but I'm in my late 30s already. I had pivoted to data science (DS) but it's also very bleak here at the moment. I've applied to DS positions in pharma/biotech and it's all rejections, which makes me think the whole AI thing in biotech/pharma is kinda bogus, at least in Europe.
Anyways, DS or CS comes with its own set of issues, especially now. Everytime you need to find a job in these fields, the interview process has multiple technical rounds. There's a lot of push from management to use AI and sprints are getting shorter in a lot of companies as well. Not to mention the whole replacing people with AI thingy. At the same time, I'm tired of reskilling and not getting much out of it. So, I don't know.
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u/homenia 11h ago
I woukd have gotten a JD
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u/_Anthropoid 9h ago
I haven't had a single JD, including ones that are rather successful from top-tier law schools, suggest that I pursue a JD. And I've asked quite a few. It's been pretty surprising.
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u/Many_Difficulty_490 10h ago
well thats completely different
is there any specific reason for that? Is it a passion thing or something else
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u/homenia 10h ago
I like money and competition. I am ambitious. I also like my personal effort meaning something. At big law, my bonus would have been tied to my performance. I could have been competitive and people would have considered it normal.
At my company, no one is ambitious. And personal effort does not mean shit because your bonus is tied to company performance. I worked so much this year and only got half of my target bonus because company was doing badly and they had to layoff bunch of people.
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u/Many_Difficulty_490 10h ago
oh i see, law rewards competition. my only ick with law is that law school means ALOT for employment right? After you ARE a lawyer, how do you compete with others? Is it just in firms and stuff?
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u/homenia 10h ago
In the firms. When you start as an associate in big law, there are 100s of you but only 5-10% of the starting class makes partner and in turn, makes millions of dollars.
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u/Many_Difficulty_490 10h ago
is it about hard work or skill? this is actually kinda interesting to me. I dont have any "passion" for law tho, but idk if anyone does. Im not really sure what the career looks like either, like the difference between a attorney and a lawyer.
I might look into this
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u/homenia 9h ago
I had passion for law and connections but my parents wanted me to study something chill so I studied something chill. Somehow ended up in pharma.
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u/Many_Difficulty_490 9h ago
my dads in pharma, hes really wants me to get a pharmD. He says I could easily get a 6 fig job or something, i dont think so tho. I know pharmD is different from biotech but i havent looked much into ti
whats the difference between finance and law? do both just reward hard work and skill? or does one do it more
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u/Ok-Complaint-37 10h ago edited 10h ago
I would NEVER go to biotechnology. Ever. And not even because the market is dead. It is because of general environment in this field. Awful. Negative. Snobbish. Arrogant. Political. Dismissive. Extremely specialized so if you are doing the same thing but from a different angle you are not respected as a professional. You can get lucky if you have job. But the moment you are out, your skills will not be transferable if they are not 100% match. In employee market it worked but right now it is employers market. You must be Unicorn and Nephew of CEO.
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u/MycologistThen9160 4h ago
is bioengineering better?
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u/PuffinPenguins 2h ago
Bioengineering is solid depending on where you get the degree and how you market yourself. In many places bioengineering is treated as a process engineering education (similar to ChemE) which can feed very well into pharmaceutical manufacturing jobs or things like equipment commissioning
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u/ProfessionalHefty349 10h ago
I would have finished that damn paper, instead of leaving it at 95% and assuming my PhD mentor would polish it and submit it.
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u/TreesandWe 10h ago
Engineering or I would have done law school for IP. Majoring in biology was the worst decision I made then I got an MPH second most worst decision I made. Expensive mistakes that didn’t get me too far in life.
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u/Many_Difficulty_490 9h ago
what undergrad major do you think is worth it? whether you wanna go into law or medicine or something. Is there anything thats like a good for all
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u/AssimilateThis_ 8h ago
The general criteria to think about imo are how much money the industry generally makes relative to capital required, how hard is it for others to get in with licensing restrictions or sheer difficulty, how hard is it to automate, and how far away does it sit from the actual revenue.
Biotech R&D is actually generally decent in most environments (we are in an unusually bad time rn). The main room for improvement is really the ROI on invested capital and the distance from revenue. Tech was doing great on all fronts except barrier to entry, though they've recently started suffering from a lot of automation pressure with AI.
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u/Driver8onI5 10h ago
Engineering all the way. Way more options. Less additional education needed. You can actually get jobs in more than 5-8 different locations.
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u/Sn0w_whi7e 10h ago
I would have done something in engineering, robotics, computer science along those lines
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u/Pandas1104 10h ago
Would have ate the cost of law school and gone for IP law like I originally planned. I ended up in a peripheral industry that is being choked to death by the slow decline of biotech.
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u/fanAdict 9h ago
I would have cared more about academics and slightly less about athletics initially. That all said, ending up in biotech worked really well for me and not sure that would have happened otherwise.
8 years later and I am now a director of corporate development and strategy at a biotech company that plans to IPO ~March 2027.
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u/SnootchieBootichies 7h ago
Finance and banking instead of science.
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u/yoyogi_voidwalker 7h ago
100% agree. my business roommates were partying their asses off while I was studying physics and o chem. now they all make at least twice my salary and work remotely. it’s actually quite depressing
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u/SnootchieBootichies 6h ago
To be fair, I went to business school about 10 years into my bio career and do pretty well compared to what I would have made had I continued the path...and I'm still arms length from the science so the undergrad degree isn't wasted. My friends that work in investments still make a ton more money that I do.
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u/Gilchester 10h ago
Nothing.
During my masters I would have done at least some pharmacoepideniology.
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u/ieatallthemangos 10h ago
Can I ask why you’d do pharmacoepi? I’m a current Epi PhD student and thinking of taking a couple pharmacoepi classes next year.
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u/Gilchester 9h ago
Having recently switched to pharma in RWE, I think my interviews and early stages of the work would have been better with a little more experience in the field. It's been fine so it's not a strong regret, but it would have smoothed things a bit.
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u/ieatallthemangos 9h ago
Thanks for responding! I’m hoping to transition into pharma once I’m done and my advisor is encouraging me to take these classes, the only thing holding me back is that it’s at another university’s pharmacy program and is a bit of a hassle to enroll in. But I figure I might as well do it while I’m already in school. Sounds like you were able to make it work without those classes though!
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u/New_Intern7243 9h ago
Probably would have done a Bachelors in petroleum engineering and got a good job like all my other engineering friends did. Instead I did a PhD in immunology, which has certainly not paid off as of now
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u/Fantastic-Trouble673 8h ago
Why not?
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u/New_Intern7243 8h ago
Well… before I started my PhD, I worked at Regeneron for 2 years. The salary was pretty good but I felt like I’d hit a glass ceiling with just a Bachelors, so I decided to go for a PhD. First big thing was that the PhD stipend was less than half of what I was making at Regeneron. Second big thing was the 50-60 hour workweeks, which only happened at Regeneron during crunch time, and the incentives for doing overtime were pretty awesome ngl. Third thing was the degree took 5 and a half years, though some of that was due to COVID, and I was actually the second fastest person to graduate from our program
During that time, Regeneron and many other companies merged Bachelors, Masters, and PhD career tracts based on experience. If I were to go back to Regeneron, I’d be working under the Bachelors that I had previously worked with, as they were able to advance to principal scientists or beyond due to their experience. All the while, they were making great money, while I was making half of what they made as entry level Bachelors scientists
Add to that the job market, which is brutal. I swallowed my pride and accepted the position with Regeneron, but other people I know from my cohort have been trying to break into industry for 2+ years now. Some took postdocs to tide them over, others have seemingly pivoted into completely unrelated fields, and others are simply unemployed
Meanwhile, my engineer friends came out of the Bachelors making what a senior scientist makes at Regeneron (in lower COL cities, no less), got jobs within 2 months of graduating (some were poached before they even graduated), and since they started working nearly a decade ago, now make substantially more, and have better savings and all that I missed while just trying to stay afloat during the PhD
So yeah, lots of regret on my end. I’m just happy to have a job right now tbh, as that’s seemingly a luxury for recent PhDs these days
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u/Fantastic-Trouble673 7h ago
green grass and would you recomend their intern program?
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u/New_Intern7243 7h ago
Personally I don’t recommend any intern programs but sure they’re about as good as other companies lol
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u/Fantastic-Trouble673 7h ago
I just didn't know if you worked with any is all
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u/New_Intern7243 7h ago
Oh sure. It’s sort of a make the best of the situation as you want to kind of internship. Some interns just sat around or did basic chores because they genuinely didn’t seem to want to learn. Other interns came in, immediately started asking questions, and got a lot out of it imo. We were told to only push the interns as far as they seemed comfortable with, so that meant some interns got exceptional experience, while others just sorta drifted through because they really didn’t seem to want to be there in the first place
Mind you, this was when I was a Bachelors. I’m newly in my post-PhD role so we haven’t had interns since I’ve been here. I don’t know if things have changed a lot or not since then
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u/0naho 9h ago
I'd probably have gone for finance/accounting or instead just full-on majoring in a second language to try to become fluent AF (My university required us to learn a 2nd language as a minor). This way I can focus more on having fun during those years instead of chasing a future that never came.
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u/FutureMedResearcher 7h ago
I would have gone to a school where it is easier to get co-ops/internships in industry. Or at the very least, I would have done more to get experience in industry while an undergrad. Don't get me wrong, working in an academic research laboratory is valuable experience, especially if you want to go to grad school or medical school. Without a graduate degree or industry experience, it's hard to get into an industry position. When I was an undergrad, I didn't even know what a co-op is.
My main goal is still to go to medical school, as I did in undergrad, so I wish I had my shit together back then, like taking an MCAT course to get a good score or taking certificate programs to get a job as a CNA, EMT, medical assistant, etc. Back then, I did not have to worry about paying for my own housing so I would have been okay taking a lower-paying job for experience.
Other stuff goes outside my major: doing more to socialize, developing better study habits, and taking advantage of university resources (tutoring, certifications, etc).
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u/IntroductionRare4605 7h ago
Engineering degree instead of neuroscience. They seem to have the fastest career trajectories in pharma
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u/Ok-Biscotti2184 6h ago edited 6h ago
That's true, I got my bachelor's in neuroscience and was really interested in researching about the gut-brain axis, specifically about how changes in the gut microbiome can serve as early biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders, but then I went on to get my PharmD degree, and now I'm working in medical writing so I feel ya! It's been an unconventional path but I'm finding ways to combine my interests 😄.
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u/beaches_with_peaches 10h ago
Gone into project management, I’m a senior and had 3 different biotech internships and still feel no hope for future employment. My most recent internship laughed in my face when I asked about returning, stating I’m too hopeful.
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u/blupengu 8h ago
Would’ve studied CS… all my software engineer friends are making way more than me and buying homes… that they can also wfh in lol
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u/Appropriate-Tutor587 8h ago
Knowing what you know now won’t still make a difference in the past because the past gone 😂😂.
No, I wouldn’t change anything. I am happy with the path I chose.
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u/ParticularBed7891 7h ago
I genuinely couldn't do anything else. I love bio, I love what I do. I'm good at it because I'm obsessive, and endlessly enthusiastic about solving the problems I'm working on. If I had to do something else, I'd probably try to make it as a bio content creator so I could keep talking and thinking about science.
I do have a kid and partner that keep me balanced. Thank god or else I'd probably be extremely one dimensional.
Anyway, if this personality type is you then welcome! You're in the right spot, lol.
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u/chewba236 6h ago
I would have found work before diving straight into a PhD. This era of grinding through degrees is so over its crazy. I would have found a job after graduating undergrad, and depending on the feedback from the industry, I would have done a Masters, and if i went back to graduate school for a PhD I would have made a more strategic choice.
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u/darksalamander 9h ago
Swap to statistics or something that’s more widely applicable. I did a phd in bioinformatics and it’s really pigeonholed me into an area that I’m not even sure hires anymore. I still like big data but would have a much easier time finding a job or getting promoted if I knew how to build models.
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u/AuNanoMan 8h ago
I would have gotten my PhD in statistics instead of chemical engineering. I think there are just more opportunities broadly speaking. Plus, as I dug into statistics, I find that I really like it. Of course I didn’t spend 5 years in grad school doing it so maybe I would feel the same way I do now about it. But generally I think that’s the change I’d make.
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u/AcuteMtnSalsa 4h ago
Been an MD. Maybe a sports or plastic surgeon. Something where I can do real/tangible manual work and still remain cerebrally stimulated without going too far into trauma care. Doing all that while making bank sounds nice.
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u/neurone214 4h ago
I would do the same exact thing again, but I’m not sure if I’d actually be able to replicate it (every transition was so unlikely).Â
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u/Comfortable-Song193 3h ago
I would have transferred to a better university after 2 years at a small college. I loved all the math and science courses, so I majored in chemistry. I didn't find out until my senior year that I was actually better at economics and enjoyed it just as much.
What's done is done and cannot be undone.
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u/pekaboo92 10h ago
Run as far from chemistry as a major as remotely possible.
Even English Literature would have been a better investment for the amount of effort studying chemistry required.
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u/NeuroDissonance 9h ago edited 7h ago
Unless you wanted to go into teaching or academia, English Literature would absolutely not have been a better investment.
Of course, I’m not saying that a chem major is a solid, all-purpose investment either. Both majors are best suited for routes towards academia, which is its own can of worms.
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u/undergroundmusic69 10h ago
I would have dropped out of engineering school and probably went to law school or finance. Engineering got me nothing and I needed grad school. There were more efficient ways to get to my end goal.
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u/taybay462 8h ago
Nothing. I prioritized getting good grades and getting research experience, and both seemed to have helped
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u/RecordingGlum938 10h ago
Lol I love it. Man I wish the /PhD sub would read this. Or rather the undergrad ones. Heed the warning. 30+ year old you will likely care more about enjoying your life outside of work and providing for your family than chasing some mythical research status