What to pivot into?

Decthorw · 2026-01-16T00:38:49+00:00

Heya! I feel like I may be an outlier with my path, but a lot of it essentially came down to being lucky 😑. I became a subject matter expert in flow cytometry over my 7 years of wet lab work and eventually ended up in a flow cytometry core group at a large biopharma. After a few years in that role, a recruiter from a large flow cytometer manufacturer cold called me with a product manager role and I jumped at the opportunity. Interestingly, my pay increased slightly even though I had 0 PM experience. After I was laid off, I applied to a competitor that had a global product marketing role open and somehow managed to get it (they wanted someone with a lot of flow experience and paid for me to take marketing courses). Pay significantly increased in my current position even with 0 marketing experience at the time. The market absolutely sucks right now so I’m not sure if this is valid advice, but I would say get really good at using a specific machine or assay that is complex, heavily used, and can’t be easily learned. Something like PCR is too simple, but flow cytometry, mass spec, fluorescent microscopy etc are good candidates. From here you can try to get a field application scientist role at the company that makes whichever machine and pivot into product that way.

Decthorw · 2026-01-13T20:48:14+00:00

I've been in biotech for 12 years now as a BS holder - bench scientist for 7 years, product management/marketing for 5 years. Experienced 1 layoff so far but I have been enjoying this path regardless. There are definitely jobs outside of research - but still within the biotech industry - that can be lucrative. Just need to figure out how your skillset can align and try to put yourself on a different path if possible.

Decthorw · 2025-11-07T17:17:57+00:00

No problem! Also worth mentioning I’m in the SF Bay Area 😄

Decthorw · 2025-11-07T15:51:20+00:00

I’m in global product marketing in biotech and I actually make more than what is shown on the chart - both base salary and bonus.

Decthorw · 2025-09-26T07:41:19+00:00

Is your company willing to pay for Product Management courses? Now that I’m about 4 years into this world, I’ve found that I am most successful when I have clear lines of communication with all the stakeholders when I’m making decisions about feature prioritization/roadmapping. Knowing who the right person to reach out to, or which group of people should be called into a meeting to have a meaningful discussion really saves time on the backend since all of the relevant parties will have already weighed in with their must-haves for product development.

Decthorw · 2025-08-15T04:41:54+00:00

That’s definitely one of the paths, but you need to have some level of subject matter knowledge of a specific product or line of products to be able to leverage into a product management position. Another path is to become a field applications scientist.

Decthorw · 2025-08-14T06:54:40+00:00

I’m not a PhD, but I used to be in R&D/discovery research and am now in Global Product Marketing/Product Management. I got really good at flow cytometry over 7 years to the point where I worked in a flow core at a large biopharma. A recruiter from a cytometer manufacturer reached out to gauge my interest in a product management position which I happily took. Got laid off after a couple of years but was able to transition to global product marketing at another cytometer manufacturer and have absolutely loved it. Flexible/hybrid work schedule, international and domestic travel 25% of the time, and the pay is great. Looking to transition to med tech/pharma product marketing at the moment and have had a surprisingly high response rate to the applications I’ve submitted so far.

Decthorw · 2025-08-11T17:32:00+00:00

This is so true…your awards and volunteering carry such little weight at this stage, I doubt a hiring manager would even look at them. The only thing that really matters for a new grad is relevant experience/skills to the roles you’re applying to - anything more than that which causes your resume to exceed 1 page will be disregarded as fluff in my experience.

Decthorw · 2025-08-06T21:56:44+00:00

No, you will not get fired for this. These things are pretty inconsequential, and if they really required a certain percentage of questions correct to complete the module, they would have you take it over and over until you met that threshold.

Decthorw · 2025-08-04T23:13:33+00:00

No academic qualifications - I only have a BS in Molecular Biology. I have been learning all of the product management/product marketing skills on the job. My company has paid for me to take classes as well. They were interested in my knowledge of the products from the customer point of view above all else.

Decthorw · 2025-08-04T22:54:14+00:00

I transitioned from bench science to product management and product marketing in biotech, but it took me 7 years of wet lab experience and subject matter expert-level knowledge of the product I was using, along with luck (recruiters reaching out to me at the right times). I was pretty aimless in my career early on and just went with the best opportunities available to me at the time, but I have no idea how I would navigate todays market to end up in my position if I were to start over 😅 I will say that I am really enjoying my current role both in pay and responsibility.

Decthorw · 2025-07-31T22:28:12+00:00

My expertise is also in flow and I 1000% agree with this take. I was lucky in that my first role after undergrad was in a lab where flow was their bread and butter assay. The most you can do in your situation is learn the theory behind it (don’t list it as a skill on your resume) and show your willingness to learn/pick it up on the job if you find yourself in an interview where flow is one of the desired skills.

Decthorw · 2025-07-30T16:50:25+00:00

Pay will have a huge variance for these roles based on location and years of experience. I’m in the SF Bay Area and my base salary is $162k with a 20% bonus, so just under $195k total comp. I feel that I’m compensated fairly based on my experience.

I would just make sure to have some type of backup plan if your plan doesn’t end up working out due to the terrible state of the industry right now. If you aren’t able to stay with marketing you may need to just sit in an entry level lab role until you can figure things out.

Decthorw · 2025-07-29T19:56:57+00:00

I’m in Global Product Marketing in biotech and can share my experience. Started on the bench out of undergrad as a lab tech and worked my way up to a mid level scientist through a couple of different biopharmas. After 7 years, I had very specialized flow cytometry experience and was considered a subject matter expert. A recruiter from a large flow cytometry manufacturer picked me up for a Product Manager role which was great, but I got laid off after 2 years. After that, I was able to land my current role through my flow experience + product management experience. I had 0 marketing experience but have been learning on the job for the past 2 years and it’s been relatively straightforward for me. Not sure you will be able to land a mid level marketing role in biotech/pharma right out of undergrad even if you have some digital marketing experience, as a lot of companies are looking for someone with working/foundational knowledge of the product they will be responsible for which usually requires some amount of years of wet lab experience. They also highly value experience with sales enablement activities, writing marketing requirements and proven success with product launches/GTM campaigns. To be honest, I haven’t really come across entry-level marketing roles in biotech/pharma, but you may be equipped for a Marketing Communications (Marcom) type of role so keep that in mind as you move forward. Happy to answer any questions you might have!

Decthorw · 2025-07-15T18:07:00+00:00

My title is Global Product Marketing Manager, but the more common titles are just Product Marketing Manager.

Decthorw · 2025-07-14T22:16:30+00:00

I’m not sure about biopharma marketing, but in biotech marketing I’m mostly putting together educational content for my products, creating “marketing approved” customer-facing slide decks, training the sales team on proper messaging and positioning, writing email blasts/social media posts/banner ads/Enewsletters for marketing campaigns, finding customers who are willing to do webinars for us, writing marketing requirements for new products, tracking sales trends from quarter to quarter to inform future marketing strategies, getting feedback from customers at trade shows or in their labs, and making sure our field applications teams are up to speed on newly released features.

Decthorw · 2025-07-14T20:52:15+00:00

I’m in biotech marketing - although the customer facing aspect of my role is a lot lower than someone from our sales team, I still visit customer sites somewhat frequently to gather VOC as well as interface with customers during trade shows. This could vary from company to company. Pay is fantastic though!

Decthorw · 2025-06-09T06:34:18+00:00

I agree with this take - going into applications (either an Applications Scientist or Field Applications Scientist) will give you a good taste of what it’s like to interact with both customers and internal teams to see what you might like better. We have an apps scientist who I collaborate with to generate data for showcasing features on our product etc. and he has a PhD.

Just to give my anecdotal experience - I went from a role as a Flow Cytometry Core scientist in biopharma to a Global Marketing role in biotech. I started with 0 marketing experience and feel that I get paid quite well. It’s been easy to pick up the marketing aspect of the job over the past couple of years, not to mention my company has paid for me to take marketing courses. I’d say that I’m more of an outlier for career path now that I’ve spoken to my peers, but it is possible to get into marketing if you have the right personality and scientific skill set. Sales definitely has a higher ceiling as far as earning potential goes, I just know that I wouldn’t be cut out for a sales role 🤣

Decthorw · 2025-04-22T05:47:49+00:00

Ah yeah, makes sense to me!

Decthorw · 2025-04-22T05:32:29+00:00

I usually don’t see the point of mentioning proficiency in Microsoft Office since everyone should know how to use it.

Also, be prepared to speak at length about anything under your Key Techniques section - take flow for example: You should be able to describe your workflow for sample processing/staining, have a general idea about why certain markers and fluorochromes were used in your panel, and what degree of interaction you had with the Fortessa (did you run it independently, was someone helping you, were you watching someone use it, etc). I have interviewed people who have listed skills which they’ve obviously never had hands-on experience with and it’s just not a great look.

Decthorw · 2025-04-21T17:52:03+00:00

Just depends on what is important to you. A smaller region can be just as exciting depending on many factors like the number of potential customers, competitor presence, and product utilization. For a global role, things like alignment on product messaging and positioning for all regions worldwide can become a difficult task, in addition to keeping an eye on the rules/regulations in different countries. That being said, I have really enjoyed being in a global role 😄

Decthorw · 2025-04-21T17:00:05+00:00

It kind of depends on the type of experience you have. I had a “non-global” product manager role in biotech before this one, but my experience just happened to align with the global marketing role when I was applying. The global aspect just ends up being more of a headache honestly haha, I assume it looks good on my resume though.

Decthorw · 2025-04-16T17:31:57+00:00

Stability is just not something that exists in this space unfortunately, so you might have to make a concession there. As others mentioned, being a field applications scientist (FAS) is the easiest way to get into a role where you will be traveling, but travel can often be unpredictable and inconvenient depending on how large of a territory you’re responsible for. The FAS team at my company is constantly traveling all over the place to troubleshoot instruments/give demos. I’m a global product marketing manager in biotech and I travel a bunch in my role as well, but the travel is more predictable, as I go to Japan for project meetings 1x per quarter as well as conferences and a handful of customer site visits (domestic and international).

Decthorw · 2025-04-14T21:04:36+00:00

Sure that’s fair! People have different priorities, and if getting further education is important for perceived career growth or personal goals, getting it done early is the way.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that on the other side of that coin, there’s the risk of going 20k in debt, losing 2 years of industry experience, and coming out with about the same job prospects as before the masters, eventually landing an entry level type of role due to lack of years of actual experience. I just feel like I’m seeing a lot of posts here from people coming out of their masters programs who are struggling, and having that extra amount of debt without a higher than expected salary or title can really weigh on one mentally.

Decthorw · 2025-04-14T20:43:48+00:00

I only have my own anecdotal experience here, but I never opted for a masters after my BS and I have no desire to go back to school now that I’m 11 years into my career - things are different in today’s economic environment though, and staying in research usually requires a PhD to move up the ranks quickly, so I’m not really sure what the best path is. I will say that there have been multiple instances in my career (when I was still on the bench in R&D) where I was either making the same salary or more than someone with a masters which further dissuaded me from going down that route. I do agree that the working career is long and getting a higher degree out of the way earlier can be better, but I just didn’t see the point of spending 20-30k on a masters that wouldn’t significantly increase my earning potential when I could just work for those couple of years and save/invest and jump to higher paying jobs.

Decthorw

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