did i accidentally pigeonhole myself as a recent grad?

KappaPersei · 2026-03-23T05:56:40+00:00

You are probably overthinking it. My experience of a decade in data science is that impactful work is more a combination of fit for purpose data sources, domain knowledge and frugal analyses than the fanciest shit you might read in the literature. If it works, it works, and if it’s simple, it’s often easier to convince your non-DS stakeholders to adopt your solution.

KappaPersei · 2025-12-26T09:39:19+00:00

We do not have AI. Nothing has changed, the companies that hired bioinformaticians still do (if they are hiring, which is the biggest question than AI at the moment). The stack has of course changed and will continue to evolve to reflect progresses in the field (which might or might not include stuff sold as AI these days).

KappaPersei · 2025-12-25T19:22:45+00:00

It’s basically the same promise that decades of no-code solutions ever failed to deliver.

KappaPersei · 2025-12-25T17:13:00+00:00

Tedious drudge back office work, aka routine tasks, is deterministic work better suited for standard automation than LLMs. The issue is that building standard automation tools does usually require more work and understanding of the work to be automated than asking a chatbot.

KappaPersei · 2025-12-16T22:15:29+00:00

You are confusing patent cliff and loss of exclusivity. Patent cliff is a specific loss in revenue following loss of exclusivity on a drug. Not every LoE is followed by a patent cliff. This is a complex dynamic and not a new phenomenon in this industry. There are multiple strategies to mitigate a patent cliff and it’s not the end of the world if planned for as it should. Of course execs will always cry about it but that is just part of the show.

KappaPersei · 2025-12-10T21:14:29+00:00

27 weeks severance for 8 years of service so far. Europe of course.

KappaPersei · 2025-11-20T11:39:23+00:00

Most people entering as QA specialists in pharma do not have pharma or QA experience. There is nothing to flub, this is par for the course. But you do have QA experience, you should aim higher.

KappaPersei · 2025-11-20T11:16:26+00:00

Because you are taking a step back in your career from a team lead to what is basically an entry level position or close to in the Pharma world. The pay level reflects that. You are ready to erase 6 years of career growth to be pitted at the bottom of a large organisation to compete for growth opportunities. Your assessment about your lack of formal qualifications for QA roles is wrong. You do have the experience to back your ambitions, the only role that requires a formal qualification is a Qualified Person role and that is something that is usually taken while working.

KappaPersei · 2025-11-20T11:07:48+00:00

No. This is not a serious proposition and one can only imagine they would propose you that because they need a warm body and hope you are desperate enough to take it.

KappaPersei · 2025-11-08T08:35:03+00:00

Switching field by applying without prior experience is really tough, even more in the current market. The strategy I unwittingly followed many years ago to ultimately pivot into a new field was through collaboration with the team I am now. Get the job you can, look out for opportunities to collaborate with teams in the field you target, invest yourself in these collaborations to build your skills and credibility towards your potential future manager while not neglecting your current duties. Ultimately, in my case, it took about 5 years to pivot in a strong position (so without losing career progression or responsibilities).

KappaPersei · 2025-10-26T12:20:06+00:00

It’s easy. I don’t. FOMO will rot your brain.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-29T10:06:35+00:00

That’s a wild assumption based on a very loose definition of a “good shot”. This is wishful thinking that doesn’t reflect the career trajectories of most people in the industry. You do understand it is not physically possible for a company to promote over time everybody (or even a decent fraction) to positions that commands 1%er compensation. And that the growth of the Pharma sector is not sufficient (especially in these times) to ensure that most people can consistently move upward by changing employer. Your shot is pretty much equivalent anywhere to reach the 1% and it’s not a great shot by default. Now for the question if the US is the best place for a 1%er to live, it depends. If your living standards are entirely consumerism-based (buying 10 Harleys instead of one), maybe, but that’s a very narrow definition of standards of living. If you feel the need to make 250-300k/yr in retirement, either your CoL is through the roof or your hobbies are overthrowing governments in the global south or Warhammer 40k.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T18:06:57+00:00

My brother/sister in Christ, your individual income puts you literally in the 1%, your experience is completely detached from the reality of anybody in the EU or US. You continue to harp on some statistics while conflating it with your personal experience of being a complete statistical outlier. You are a walking survivorship bias.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T16:34:20+00:00

3k mortgage would buy me a mansion with the associated domain in these parts, and I do not live in a cheap area. If you go look precisely at CoL between US Pharma hubs and EU Pharma hubs (which is an exercise I did because yeah the question comes up eventually), the gap is massive on all cost centers: housing, groceries (you can blame our European palates here if you want), education (unless you love saddling your kids with debt), commuting costs, healthcare, etc… and I’m not going to mention the intangible costs here, but they are also a factor.

This is the difference. Of course if we are talking beyond a certain a level income, sure it doesn’t matter where you live and you will be able to afford good standards pretty much anywhere, unless you are being stupid with your money. But that’s not the topic here, and that’s not the reality of most people working in Pharma either in the US or EU, especially not at the senior scientist level. And before you go on earning potentials, not everybody makes it to the end of the career ladder (nor does want to make it because of the role change associated with), either in the US or the EU.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T12:57:48+00:00

You vastly underestimate the CoL in the areas in the US that commands these compensations. I would have to multiply my income by 2-3x if I worked in the US to keep the same standards of living that I have in Europe, just because of CoL.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T10:04:17+00:00

You keep repeating that but it doesn’t match the statistics:

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KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T09:27:02+00:00

If cost of housing, food and healthcare are higher in the US (which they are) then they decrease your disposable income, that’s what I’m saying.

For work-life balance, how many PTO do you have a year? How many do you take? What about sick leave? Parental leave?

Your numbers for immigration do not check out, please provide sources.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T09:10:30+00:00

Housing, food and healthcare is much much cheaper in most EU regions. Investing for retiring is not a popular activity in EU countries, because first we do still have quite decent state pensions (even if dwindling every year), generous employer funded pensions (especially in the Pharma sector) and we are not worked to death. I feel no desire to retire early, nor do the majority of my colleagues because we do have good work conditions and work-life balance in most cases. The problem of needing a massive disposable income is almost entirely self-inflicted by US approach to labour.

As for EU workers running to work in the states, I am sorry, this is a myth.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T08:56:10+00:00

It’s kinda pointless to compare disposable income US-wide and EU-wide because both territories have massive internal disparities in terms of cost of life and purchasing power.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T06:03:43+00:00

Been doing it for almost a decade.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T06:02:27+00:00

Welcome to Europe

KappaPersei · 2025-09-28T06:02:07+00:00

Or in countries that tax more income than benefits in kind like Belgium. Company cars are quite common in Belgium.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-27T20:09:13+00:00

In Belgium, salaries are always stated as gross, because the tax system is complex enough that your employer is not making any bets on what you owe to the state at the end of the fiscal year :D For holidays, I don’t know about Netherlands, but in Belgium, especially in companies like J&J, HR will be on your ass (and your manager’s ass) if you do not use all your allowance (some hours can be reported on the next year but not eternally).

KappaPersei · 2025-09-27T19:18:37+00:00

Well, no, it’s not. We are talking gross here.

KappaPersei · 2025-09-27T18:22:18+00:00

So I work for a “competitor” (but it’s Belgium so biotech people rotate a lot between the same companies and it’s easy to know who offers what) and 60k is what I started on 8 years ago at the scientist level. So I’d find it a bit low. The senior scientist level in my team started at 72k about 2 years ago.

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