I am stuck in a career rut

In My Humble Opinion
1

So I graduated with a BS in biochemistry in 2007, thinking that with the rapid growth in medicine and biology the coming decades would be full of biotechnology jobs the way the 90s were full of IT jobs. But so far that hasn’t panned out.

Part of it is location, I live in the midwest in Indiana which is not a good career point for science and biology. But I spent some time in San Diego (which is considered the no. 1 city in the US for biotechnology, although the SF area has 3 cities in the top 10. Oakland, SF proper and San Jose) and ran into the same problems I’m running into here.

For one thing, most jobs are temp jobs. Not necessarily temp to hire, just temp jobs. No benefits, no seniority, no real future. And I don’t want to do that my whole life. I don’t know if employers are just taking advantage of the bad market and keeping people as temps, or if in better times they’d still just be temp jobs. But right now they are not careers, just jobs.

The best parts of the country for science and biotech are the SF bay area, San Diego, DC, Boston, Research triangle in NC, Seattle, etc. But I don’t want to move w/o a job, but I can’t find a job before I move. In fact even here I run into that conundrum. I apply for a job in a larger city that is 80 miles away, but they tell me they want someone who already lives in that city (I’ve run into that problem at least a half dozen times). So I don’t know how I can find a job in NC or San Diego w/o living there first. But even if I do live there (like I did in SD for a few months) the jobs there may all be temp jobs too.

I save a lot of my money, so I could afford to quit my job, move to SF or NC and live off savings for a while while looking for a job. But I don’t want to quit my job and deplete my savings in these messed up economic times since I don’t know how long it’ll take to find another job. I could end up far worse off than I am now. At least where I am now my savings are going up, not down. I have no idea how long this mild depression (as opposed to the great depression) will last, it has already been 4 years and could be 5 or more on top of that.

I’m considering another field, but don’t know what, or if it would even be better. I don’t want to have done 4 years of college, then end up doing a 1 year certificate or 2 year AS degree. That seems like I am moving backwards. Hell nursing was once considered a golden ticket to a middle class life, and is supposedly being filled with unemployed nurses who can’t find jobs nowadays. If an in demand field like that is struggling, maybe retraining is pointless. Why retrain if there are no jobs in the new field either?

Or am I being oversensitive because these are tough economic times and every field is suffering?

2

Every field is suffering in some way. Sometimes it’s the economy, sometimes it’s over-specialization. But from what I can gather, a BS in biochemistry is barely a qualification. All the biochemists I know in successful career paths have doctorates or are working toward one. And I don’t know anyone who has reasonable expectations of long term security in a job. It’s the 21st century, all jobs are temp jobs now.

3

What TriPolar said. A degree in med lab science would’ve served you better if you want to do lab work. They’re also seriously short lab techs all across the US.

Link to an 'Ask the Medical Lab Tech" thread started by Antigen.

4

I am in H/R and yes employers are taking advantage. What can you do? My company has had about 5 full time job openings since 2008 but tons and I mean tons of part time jobs.

If you like your field and want to move, simply get an mail address service and phone number in the city you want to live in. Use that number and that mailbox on your resume.

Then apply for work. See if you get responses to your resume. If so plan to go on interviews in that city. You may have to take temp work. I recommend it, if you want to move to a city.

You really have to decided what is right for you. If you just want a job and don’t care where you live, try the Dakotas or Iowa or Nebraska. If you want to live in a special city like San Diego, then look there.

The nice thing is you don’t seem like you’re in a hurry. So take your time, put out feelers with the phone number and mail forwarding. UPS stores forward mail and Google gives out free phone numbers.

Just start and let us know how it goes. Importantly don’t give up, but do something, anything.

5

In Kansas City we have the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. Here are the current openings. It appears you may qualify for the Research Technician position.

It looks like a permanent position. Stowers has people from all over the world, so I’d be surprised (shocked, actually) if they expect you to live here first. From what I hear, it’s a great place to work.

6

While you are (wisely) digging into your career options as the basis of considering Big Change (and yes, the economy is dragging everything down and making job hunting an employer’s market right now) what you are really asking is: should I contemplate Big Change?

As Miles said to Joel in Risky Business: Sometimes you’ve gotta say “What the Fuck.” and just take the risk.

You are looking for change. You are young and have few obligations and have saved money. If you are going to consider Big Change, could there be a better time for you?

Please hear me - just because I am painting it that way does NOT mean you should be goaded into jumping when you don’t want to. It may not make sense for reasons I can’t fully appreciate via a message board thread. BUT - I do think it makes sense to re-cast your question from a job-change to a life-change type of question…

Hope this helps.

7

Respect your rut, wait for better times then move. I lost my rut and wish I had it back.

8

This is good advice, I think. Think life, not just work.

9

I spent this past summer at a biotech (Human Genome Sciences) though I was on the commercial side. I’m staying in healthcare but I’m going full time at a JnJ healthcare sub-brand. I’m a JD and will finish my MBA in May.

It seems to me like the field got bumpy/complicated by the fact that a lot of the big pharma companies are hitting patent cliffs next year, a lot of their biotech drugs are mid pipeline and some of the independent biotechs like HGS and Dendreon had, ah, rough starts saleswise.

A couple of things I’d say about this field if you want to stay in it

a) Emerging markets are huge for these companies: have you thought about gaining some form of international experience?

b) I have not had too much trouble recruiting on the commercial side: when you say work in biotech, are you just talking about the science side? A few of my cousins who graduated this year with the same background as you all slid into pharma/device sales.

c) I genuinely think that if you want to stay on the pharma side you’re going to need more than a B.S.

Best of luck.

10

The big thing I’ve learned in my career is to take jobs that do the things that you want to do. Not every job is going to tick every box, but try to keep getting jobs with the experiences that you want long-term.

So, that said, take a temp job if the work is of interest and you can pay the bills. Once that job ends, you now have experience in the things you want to do. The next temp job should hopefully be closer to your ‘bull’s eye’.

Eventually (hopefully sooner rather than later) you’ll have the experience needed to do your ‘dream job’.

11

Have you considered Minneapolis/St Paul? In terms of biotech they’ve got Medtronic, St Jude, and Boston Scientific.

Send me a PM if you want an in at any of those.

ETA 3M is also there, and I know a few people there as well. General Mills too.

12

Thank you for the offers to help me out and the advice.

However I do not want to pursue a PhD. I had trouble academically with the BS program. My grades in my higher level science lecture classes were usually B/B-. Some Cs, some As, but mostly a 2.7-3.0 GPA for 300 and 400 level science courses. That puts me at about the 50-60% of my class (meaning 50-60% did better than me with grades and academics). I am under the impression you need to be more of the A-/B+ kind of student to survive a graduate program.

Another issue is career is just a way to fund my life, and the people who get into PhD programs seem to have them more or less overtake their life while they do it. I enjoy having a good work/life balance and will take that even if it means I make less money. I am fairly frugal and am single, so that is not an issue for me. I’d rather make 40k a year in a job I (reasonably) enjoy that gives a good work/life balance than 70k in a job that overtakes my life and that is full of stress. That may change if I decide to have kids, but I don’t think I’ll change my mind on that issue.

Plus it is my understanding the PhD market is glutted. People go in and think they will become professors, only to find that academia is incredibly hard to break into. So they go into industry, glutting the field. Plus with the economy so sour I’m sure a lot of people who might otherwise quit at the bachelor level are going to grad school so they can avoid the working world and all the chronic unemployment/underemployment going on. I think the same thing happened in Vietnam, tons of people wanted to avoid the war so they went to grad school to avoid the draft. It was all well and good, but 5+ years down the road the market was oversaturated.

There are jobs at the BS level though. You can be a lab technician, chemist (analytical, organic, biochemist), microbiologist, etc.

As far as getting overseas experience, have looked into teaching english in east asia (Taiwan or South Korea). Those countries are also major hubs of biotechnology, so if I did that for a year and became fairly proficient with the language and culture that could help me out if I ever decided to move to one of those areas.

The idea of getting a phone number or PO box in a city I want to work in is a good one. Will employers consider it disingenuous if I imply I already live there when I do not?

13

If you can get into the the clinical trials side of the pharmaceutical industry you can make your 70k and have a decent work/life balance. You won’t be in a lab but companies are always looking for people with some sort of bio degree (I have a BA in music but had a psych research job in college that got my foot in the door). People generally start out in data or study management and work their way up (or not). It is yet another sector with heavy outsourcing and inhales and exhales thousands of contractors (temps) a year but there’s always work, especially at CROs (contract/clinical research organization) like PPD, Covalent, Parexel, and so on. It’s not free from ruts, stress, uncertainty, and occasional misery but there are worse things out there. Plus there’s an embarrassment of smart attractive women if you’re into that sort of thing.

14

Any updates?

15

Got a new job in a new city that pays double (well, the old job was 25-30 hours a week and this is full time at 40 hours. But it also pays more per hour so with the longer hours and higher pay it comes out to double. Plus I get bennies now). Its a good job and my coworkers are decent. I consider myself lucky to have gotten this new position considering the economic times we are in. But I find myself getting lonely living in a new city further from all my family and old coworkers. I never thought that would happen. I love my autonomy, but I have no sense of community yet.

16

Congrats! Which city are you in?

Things are definitely picking up. I just spoke to a engineering professor at UConn and he said that all his students are getting multiple offers.

17

So where did you end up moving to?

18

Indianapolis. Not far from where I was, but still a nice city.