breaking into pharma sector

Ben3333

I have a bsc and msc in environmental science and a few scientific publications. Trying to get into the pharma sector, maybe in quality control. I have had no success to date. Can anyone please offer advice on how to gain that first valuable experience? Will large companies take people on for unpaid internships if they are keen and suitable? Are my scientific publications of any benefit when trying to break into this sector?

Shelga

Don't really have any advice, but I'm trying to break into pharmaceutical manufacturing with 5+ years of other manufacturing experience, and having no luck. It's supposedly a very hard sector to get into due to being so highly regulated.

Advice seems to be network, network, network, but times like these are when it helps to know someone in a company, is my impression. :rolleyes:

syntheticjunk

Networking helps if you targeting management level positions. Manufacturing - it's all about experience. At the beginning forget about BMS, Pfizer, Amgen, MSD, Alexion and others. Start with some small pharma companies, low wages, but you'll gain valuable experience.

newtown13

I think you will need to upskill. Check out the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training website. They run a range of courses in partnership with pharma/biotech companies.
I'm a pharmacist with plenty of lab experience and i tried to get into QC but was struggling to get anywhere.

Lux23

My partner has an engineering degree and he did a Springboard conversion course and secured an entry level position from there. He's been promoted a couple of times and has now moved into a more technical role. It seemed pretty straight forward for him, but maybe its much harder when you're looking to get into higher paid positions.