Post · bonfire.cafe

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

Still attempting to pivot out of academia and into a pharma consulting, real-world evidence, outcomes research, medical writing or data science role

It's not a crisis right now, but the job I'm in won't last forever, it turns out

I'm actually hoping to get a job with a big pharma company, so if anyone here lives in that world or can help me get in, would appreciate very much

:boost_requested:

Also, :NoAt: no need to reply if you're going to tell me about how bad big pharma is

51 Replies

16 Boosts

@noodlemaz@mstdn.games 2 wk. ago

@researchfairy have you heard of/tried Prime Global?
I was referred to them by a group leader at my old labs, got pretty far with it but got a charity job instead. Not sure how they are with remote tho, I was going to be based in Ldn https://primeglobalpeople.com/

Prime | A trusted, world-leading partner in life science communications

Prime is a trusted, world-leading partner in life science communications, engagement and value optimization for the bio‑pharmaceutical industry.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 wk. ago

@noodlemaz Checking my spreadsheet, I've applied there three times for jobs I saw on Linkedin (med comms and med writer jobs) but no luck hearing back yet

I'll add them to my daily check though, thanks for reminding me about them

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 wk. ago

@noodlemaz Btw, if you know anyone who works there and you could connect me, I'd love to say hi :)

@gnomon@mastodon.social 2 mo. ago

@researchfairy hmm @jakobpunkt dost thou know of anyplace currently hiring..?

Helga Secures All the Things

@bluetea@ioc.exchange 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy as an aside, I have a friend who works in a secure government role dealing with fraudulent pharma claims (ie stopping snake oil imports/sales/advertising). Pretty interesting. I suppose you know about that field of work but just in case.

Smart move getting out of academia, it f*ing sucks.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

I've got enough applications and rejections that I can do a Kaplan-Meier survival analysis

Long-rank test p-value is 0.035, indicating that the curves are different overall

HR for rejection in applications to non-Medical Science Liaison (MSL) roles compared to MSL as baseline is 3.65 (95% CI 1.02 to 13.16, p=0.047), indicating faster rejection

@drwho@masto.hackers.town 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy Thank you for posting this - this will make my disclosure/disclosed nothing analysis much easier, I think.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

If I stratify my job applications by company type ("Big Pharma" vs Other), there seems to be no difference in the rate at which I am rejected by these types of companies

A Kaplan-Meier survival curve with a red curve for Big Pharma and a cyan curve for Other; they cross each other several times, and the marked p-value is 0.94, indicating that there is no reason to think there is a difference between them

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

Curiously, if you put all my applications together, the rejections all seem to happen either right away (just after 0 days) or right around the 1-month mark or the 2-month mark

A single red Kaplan-Meier curve for all my job applications survival (time until rejection)

The curve goes down just after 0, right around 30 days and right around 60 days, staying steady in between and after — A single red Kaplan-Meier curve for all my job applications survival (time until rejection) The curve goes down just after 0, right around 30 days and right around 60 days, staying steady in between and after

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 3 mo. ago

Definitions:

- MSL: Field-based Medical Science Liaison roles focused on scientific exchange with healthcare professionals.
- RWE: Real-world evidence, HEOR, epidemiology, and safety surveillance research roles.
- Trials: Clinical research and CRO roles involved in study execution and trial coordination.
- Other: Roles that don't fit neatly elsewhere, including patient engagement, science communications, and medical education.

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for four categories: Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 24 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. Each other category has 6 applications. There have been no RWE rejections yet, but I've only been applying to those jobs the last week. Other and Trials jobs tend to get rejected FAST.

1+ more replies

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 3 mo. ago

Job search milestone: sent out 50 applications as of today

(I started censoring applications at the 90-day mark, assuming that 90 days with no word is a quiet rejection)

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for four categories: Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 24 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. Each other category has 6 applications. There has been one RWE rejection, and so that curve dips only slightly below the MSL curve. Other and Trials jobs tend to get rejected FAST.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 3 mo. ago

55 applications sent out so far

A histogram showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 21

The plot his mostly purple (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of cyan "other" roles and green "trials" jobs and then a big spike of red RWE jobs at the end — A histogram showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 21 The plot his mostly purple (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of cyan "other" roles and green "trials" jobs and then a big spike of red RWE jobs at the end

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 3 mo. ago

65 applications sent out so far (the graph looks different now because I changed the graph's week bins to start on Monday. I had messed them up before and they were starting on Thursday or something.)

I have had 2 job interviews this week, and I'm feeling optimistic

A histogram showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 22

The plot his mostly purple (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of cyan "other" roles and green "trials" jobs and then a big spike of yellow RWE jobs and a few Medical Writer jobs at the end — A histogram showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 22 The plot his mostly purple (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of cyan "other" roles and green "trials" jobs and then a big spike of yellow RWE jobs and a few Medical Writer jobs at the end

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 3 mo. ago

The job application survival curves have progressed a bit

The MSL, Trials and Other curves look more or less the same

Medical Writer jobs is fresh, so there's no rejections yet

New is the RWE rejections, which seem to come a bit faster than the bulk of the rejections in the MSL curve

It's still the type of job that seems like the best fit for me

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for five categories: Medical Writer, Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 30 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. There are 5 Medical Writer applications, none of which have been rejected yet. There are 9 Other applications, and those tend to get rejected faster than MSL. There's 13 RWE job applications, and those tend to start being rejected after a week, but the data haven't matured enough yet to make conclusions. Finally, there's 8 Trials jobs, and those get rejected FAST.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 mo. ago

I just got rejected after the second round of interviews :/

Back to square one

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 mo. ago

Sent out a few more applications, up to 70 now

Playing the numbers game

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for five categories: Medical Writer, Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 30 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. There are 6 Medical Writer applications, none of which have been rejected yet. There are 10 Other applications, and those tend to get rejected faster than MSL. There's 16 RWE job applications, and those tend to start being rejected after a week, but the data haven't matured enough yet to make conclusions. Finally, there's 8 Trials jobs, and those get rejected FAST.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 mo. ago

75 applications sent out now

A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 24

The plot his mostly purple (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of cyan "other" roles and green "trials" jobs and then a big spike of yellow RWE jobs and a few Medical Writer jobs at the end

There's a gap for W23, and then in W24, a spike, 10 applications sent out, 4 for writer jobs, 5 for RWE jobs and 1 "other" — A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 24 The plot his mostly purple (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of cyan "other" roles and green "trials" jobs and then a big spike of yellow RWE jobs and a few Medical Writer jobs at the end There's a gap for W23, and then in W24, a spike, 10 applications sent out, 4 for writer jobs, 5 for RWE jobs and 1 "other"

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 mo. ago

I applied for a data sci job a month ago

Got an interview for it a week later

The interview was ~ 5 min and 1 question long:

Interviewer: Oh, you're in Montréal. Can you move to Ottawa? No? Pity.

So we parted ways

The job showed up in my Linkedin alerts today because it was posted again under "Greater Montreal Metropolitan Area"

Same company, same job, word-for-word

(Deepsigh)

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 mo. ago

Got a job interview

But not with a human

It's with some video AI thing

I hate this timeline so much

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 mo. ago

Anyway, that makes a 15% first-interview rate for RWE jobs, and a 5% first-interview rate overall out of 81 applications sent so far

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 2 mo. ago

82 applications so far

Doing my best

3 media files

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for five categories: Medical Writer, Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 31 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. There are 13 Medical Writer applications, only a few of which have been rejected yet. There are 10 Other applications, and those tend to get rejected faster than MSL. There's 20 RWE job applications, and those tend to start being rejected after a week, but the data haven't matured enough yet to make conclusions. Finally, there's 8 Trials jobs, and those got rejected FAST.

A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 25

The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end

There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out, 5 for writer jobs, 7 for RWE jobs, 1 MSL and 1 "other" — A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 25 The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out, 5 for writer jobs, 7 for RWE jobs, 1 MSL and 1 "other"

Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview

MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%)

RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/20 (15%)

Other categories are empty — Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%) RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/20 (15%) Other categories are empty

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social last mo.

88 applications sent

Playing the numbers game 🎲 🤞

Send help 🆘

3 media files

A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 27

The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end

There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out

Since then, 3 jobs per week, alternating between RWE and medical writer jobs — A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 27 The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out Since then, 3 jobs per week, alternating between RWE and medical writer jobs

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for five categories: Medical Writer, Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 31 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. There are 16 Medical Writer applications, only a few of which have been rejected yet. There are 10 Other applications, and those tend to get rejected faster than MSL. There's 23 RWE job applications, and those tend to start being rejected after a week, but the data haven't matured enough yet to make conclusions. Finally, there's 8 Trials jobs, and those got rejected FAST.

Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview

MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%)

RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/23 (13%)

Other categories are empty — Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%) RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/23 (13%) Other categories are empty

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social last mo.

Glaxo always sends a survey link after you apply for a job

"How was it like to apply?"

They're all multiple choice questions like "What made you want to apply?" with several options provided

There is no way to give them my actual feedback: that the application form requires me to choose my degree from a list of possible degrees that does not have mine, or a reasonable equivalent, or an "other" or the option of typing my own

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social last mo.

95 applications sent out now

Still at it

Attempting to pivot out of academia and into a pharma consulting, real-world evidence, outcomes research, medical writing or data science role

I'm actually hoping to get a job with a big pharma company, so if anyone here lives in that world or can help me get in, would appreciate very much

No need to reply if you're going to tell me about how bad big pharma is

3 media files

A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 27

The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end

There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out

Since then, 3-10 jobs per week, all RWE and medical writer jobs — A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 27 The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out Since then, 3-10 jobs per week, all RWE and medical writer jobs

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for five categories: Medical Writer, Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 31 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. There are 20 Medical Writer applications, only a few of which have been rejected yet. There are 10 Other applications, and those tend to get rejected faster than MSL. There's 26 RWE job applications, and those tend to start being rejected after a week, but the data haven't matured enough yet to make conclusions. Finally, there's 8 Trials jobs, and those got rejected FAST.

Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview

MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%)

RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/26 (11%)

Other categories are empty — Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%) RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/26 (11%) Other categories are empty

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social last mo.

Now at 97

A couple people with industry jobs I talked to, said to expect to send 100-200 before getting a job so—

Three more and I'm done right?

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social last mo.

Landmark: 100 applications sent out as of today

Still trying to get an industry job, put about 6 months into it, did 4 job interviews

If you have any leads or if you're already in the world of pharma, or if you know someone who can help me out, please get in touch!

3 media files

A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 27

The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end

There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out

Since then, 3-10 jobs per week, all RWE and medical writer jobs — A stacked bar chart showing weekly counts of the number of job applications I've sent out starting in week 03 of 2026 and going until week 27 The plot his mostly gold (MSL) until mid-March, then there's a trickle of green "other" roles and purple "trials" jobs and then a big spike of blue RWE jobs and a few red Medical Writer jobs at the end There's gaps at W06, W12, W23 and then in W24, a spike, 14 applications sent out Since then, 3-10 jobs per week, all RWE and medical writer jobs

Kaplan-Meier survival curves for five categories: Medical Writer, Real-world evidence, Medical science liaison, Other and Trials, in descending order of the speed at which they are rejected. There are 31 MSL applications on the plot, and they're a slow burn of rejection mostly starting around the 1 month mark. There are 24 Medical Writer applications, only a few of which have been rejected yet. There are 10 Other applications, and those tend to get rejected faster than MSL. There's 27 RWE job applications, and those tend to start being rejected after a week, but the data haven't matured enough yet to make conclusions. Finally, there's 8 Trials jobs, and those got rejected FAST.

Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview

MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%)

RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/27 (11%)

Other categories are empty — Horizontal bar charts indicating the rates at which job categories result in a first interview MSL has a first-interview rate of 1/31 (~3%) RWE has a first-interview rate of 3/27 (11%) Other categories are empty

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social last mo.

Up to 105 as of today

I have a list of "Careers" pages for different companies that I'm gunning for

I go through it before 0800 every morning

Sometimes Linkedin also emails me about a new job that I already found there

I score a point against Linkedin if I have already identified and applied to a job via the company's Careers page before Linkedin tells me about it

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social last mo.

I'm tired, friends

lower-value human capital

@sennoma@chaos.social last mo.

@researchfairy I'm sorry you're going through this. It's fuckin' rough out there.

@vxo@digipres.club 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy That actually seems to match the pattern I've seen with the applications I've been throwing around. A few will reject within hours but if I haven't heard back in a week it doesn't happen for several weeks.

bookandswordblog

@bookandswordblog@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy congratulations on finding 30 (!) jobs that use your skills and training to apply to!

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@bookandswordblog Oh there's lots of jobs out there, unfortunately it's still very competitive

I talked to a guy who works at a job similar to the kind I want, and he said he applied to ~200 jobs before he got the one he's at

Which is much better than looking for academic jobs

1 more reply

@tstruthers@ioc.exchange 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy I work for UCB in Belgium, they are really good org and have lots of offices around the world, dm me

@climbertobby@chaos.social 4 mo. ago

Just out of curiosity, do you also consider jobs in regulatory agencies?

(No idea where you are looking geographically, I guess FDA is not the most attractive employer currently)

In industry I heard quite pessimistic things about the job market in the short term but I guess this will pass.

Regulators of course don't pay as well as industry, but I really enjoy the work

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@climbertobby I'd be open to it, but Health Canada is cutting back at the moment :/

Mx Amber Alex (she/it)

@amberage@eldritch.cafe 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy good luck! Crossing all fingers for you

Adam Jacobs 🇺🇦

@statsguy@mas.to 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy I'm kind of adjacent to that world. Feel free to ping me some questions and/or send me a LinkedIn invitation (link in my profile).

In the meantime, maybe this is of interest?
https://emwa.org/career/getting-into-medical-writing/

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@statsguy Thanks! I sent a connect request on Linkedin :)

@SRLevine@neuromatch.social 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy I know someone who does medical science communication for a big pharma company, though he went directly to that (via a few other smaller companies) after PhD I think. In New York so I don't know how helpful it would be, but I can send a message to him and ask if he'd be open to questions if you'd like?

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@SRLevine That would be lovely, thanks!

@SRLevine@neuromatch.social 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy I sent a message, I'll let you know if I hear back.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@SRLevine Thanks!

James R.B. Eastwood

@jrbe@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy almost all my big pharma contacts are computational chemists / CADD scientists. But I'll keep an ear to the ground.

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@jrbe Thanks for thinking of me!

@eldersea@expressional.social 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy I know someone who just started a job at one of the big ones, not sure how much they know about other positions available there yet but they do manage stuff so in time, they might be able to point you in the right direction?

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@eldersea Well I'd love to say hi to them if it's appropriate and welcome :)

@eldersea@expressional.social 4 mo. ago

@researchfairy
I can check! They started this past week so not sure what they can offer at this moment, but happy to see what they say!

Unnamed TNG skant beefcake

@researchfairy@scholar.social 4 mo. ago

@eldersea Thanks so much

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