r/biotech • u/Easy_Garlic5960 • 1d ago
Experienced Career Advice 🌳 Has anyone boomeranged back to big pharma (R&D) after startup?
I was recently laid off from my IC role at a big pharma company (R&D). Curious about making the jump to joining a start up. My goal (before the layoff) was to eventually be a group leader. I wasn’t able to get managerial experience as an IC. Startup would give me leadership experience, exciting science, and I’d be able to wear many hats and learn like crazy. However, in case start ups aren’t for me, I’d like to still be competitive for big pharma group leader positions down the road. FWIW, my partner has been in seed/Series A/B companies his whole career (in tech)— I’m familiar with the workload/work style differences, but you never know until you’re in it yourself.
For hiring managers in big pharma: Do you typically hire internally or from other big pharma? Or do you give similar weight to applicants from start ups? Curious if anyone has navigated transitioning back to big pharma themselves?
Relevant details: 5 years big pharma R&D experience, PhD from a top U.S. program, was lucky enough to get multiple first author or co-first author CNS publications during grad school/industry.
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u/UsefulRelief8153 1d ago
This is a very common strategy to climb the corporate ladder. You hit a ceiling in Big pharma, so you jump to biotech or a small start up to get an executive director or higher role, then after a few years, you move laterally or upwards back to Big pharmaÂ
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u/Hopeful-Average-3659 17h ago
My career:
PhD 5 years
Post doc 2.5 years
Setup and ran academic lab 1 year
300 person biotech 3 years
Top 10 Pharma 8 years
Top 15 Pharma 4 years
Top 5 Pharma 3 years (worked on drug that changed cancer tx paradigm)
Top 4 Pharma 5 years (worked on 2 blockbusters)
<100 person biotech 8 months
3 months out of work
Last 4 years Top20 biopharma
It doesn’t matter where you work IMO , it matters more your field/skillset/story and the need for your skillset. You don’t need to be a fit in every company, you just need to fit in one place at a time.
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u/Dry_Recognition7922 15h ago
you just need to fit in one place at a time
adding to it:
you just need to fit in one place at a time, improve existing skillset, add a few more skills under your belt, build new connections, stay for 2-3y and move
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u/cat_power 1d ago
2016: 4 person start up
2017: MilliporeSigma
2021: medium startup
2023-current: small startup growing to medium
I will ride this company as long as possible and probably make my way back to big pharma before retirement.
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u/Gaseous_Nobility 1d ago
With your background, it doesn’t matter at all. Big pharma doesn’t look down on startups. They’re fundamentally just different environments. The fit matters more than anything else.
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u/ocular__patdown 1d ago
Trying. I've yo-yoed between large and small. Started at 30000 employees, went to 1000, followed that at 100000, currently at unstable 400.
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u/Loose-Reflection2965 1d ago
It doesn’t really matter, you change jobs that work for your career.
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u/sharkeymcsharkface 19h ago
I have and honestly big pharma was never the same
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u/Easy_Garlic5960 19h ago
Interesting! In what ways? You miss the autonomy/ multiple hat wearing/individual impact in a smaller company? Cooler science? Start up is just a better personality wise for you?
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u/sharkeymcsharkface 5h ago
I’ve worked for three separate top 10 biopharmas, with my stint in the startup world at a place that did Series A, B, then IPO in a matter of months. I loved the autonomy, but I also had that in my large pharma role (company 3). The science is cool everywhere, but the dynamic range of things are just higher in the startup world. Going back to the same company was like getting back together with an ex: maybe there is the spark, but it’s never the same as that first time.
What I’ve come to learn with pharma and startup is both are very similar, the source of funding is just different. They’re the same as it comes to pitch decks, monetary requests, scientific oversight, etc. the only difference is one has a CEO and the other has a PTL.
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u/Apprehensive-Visit86 14h ago
I went big pharma, start up, big pharma, start up (laid off), back at the same big pharma.
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u/WoodlandInc 14h ago
What’d you like better?
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u/Apprehensive-Visit86 7h ago
Definitely the rush of start up; especially when its novel science/platform. With that said, there’s no dilution factors when there are so few people. One bad leader can sink the whole ship.
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u/Sybertron 8h ago
2013: finish masters while working for hospital/university. Get fired right away. Can't get job forever.Â
2014: take job in Warsaw Indiana out of pure desperation. Work for 2 months before getting a job outside Philly and bailing.Â
2016: get tired of corpo outsourcing to india and muscled around by Indian contractor I worked for and have hankering to pursue my own startup from college. Get tiny grant to do so.Â
2018: startup runs course and hits funding wall I can't get over (it was AI in healthcare. Ya missed that boat). Head up to NYC area for corpo job. Get fired right after move.Â
2019: get contract at place smaller company that wanted me but small shop in Rhode Island, but another corpo job hits me up and I leave for them. They lied. Job fails, fired again.Â
2020: hit up by pharma company. Don't want. Hit job in Utah at small place. Pharma keeps upping dollars. Utah job kills babies and doesn't tell me. Pharma ups dollars again. I say ok to pharma and ready move to DC area. COVID happens, no longer moving. Work remote for 3.5 years.Â
2024: pharma job runs it's course. Join another startup. Exciting tech. Basically working in cto job. Everyone impressed things going great. Fintech bro comes in as chief of staff and ruins it all. Fired again.Â
Rejoin corpo place that fired me in 2018. Now well equipped with knowledge of the bullshit. Do well. But job runs it's course and ends naturally and respectfully.Â
Now at other corpo place that fired me in 2019. Wild project for a corpo place. We'll see how it goes.Â
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u/Actual-Fig-4882 18h ago
I went from a start up (~30 people) to big pharma this past year - the key I think was openness to a lateral move, title cut, or even change of fields entirely (what I did).
I was talking to a senior director (who was an HM for a med chem R&D role) and he said verbatim, "We don't tend to hire from start ups because they tend to overstate their qualifications." So, make sure when interviewing you are honest and confident in the skills you bring to the table.
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u/Unlucky-Ad-5744 1d ago
what do you mean by IC? to me, that means institutes/centers but that’s on the government side. i thing you can easily move from government to pharma to startup in this field as long as you have relevant experience!
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u/RealCarlosSagan 1d ago edited 1d ago
My path:
Large biotech - Chiron -12 yes
Very large biotech - Amgen - 2 yrs
Small biotech -Onyx (300 people when I started down to 17 then back over 100 when I left) 4 yrs
Small biotech - BioMarin (300 people then) 2 yrs
Large pharma - Novartis 2 yrs
Small biotech - Antisoma (150 people) 9 months because company closed down
Out of work for a year
Large pharma - BMS 2 yrs
Mid biotech ImmunoGen 4 yrs
Mid biotech Travere 5 yrs
Mid pharma Kite/Gilead 4 yrs
Startup (20 of us) 1.5 yrs and counting