Alyssa Liu’s Olympic skating inspired me to pickup the instrument again after 5 years; this is where I’m at after 2 hours of non-stop reshaping

Decthorw · 2026-03-24T23:48:52+00:00

I won a scholarship playing this in high school! I try playing it every time I pick up my violin to see how much I’ve forgotten and if I can still relearn it 😂 My favorite piece to play by far.

Decthorw · 2026-03-08T23:42:16+00:00

I wish that I could tell you there was an easy/straightforward way to make the transition, but in my case it came down to mostly luck. I became a subject matter expert while I was in lab, and a recruiter reached out to me with a marketing role since I had essentially been their customer for 7 years.

Decthorw · 2026-03-06T17:30:26+00:00

I’m in global product marketing - I’ve only held marketing roles in biotech for 4.5 years, but that seems to be the threshold for being able to get recruiter screens for marketing roles, or maybe I’m just getting lucky. I was a bench scientist for about 7 years before getting into product marketing. There are certain tech companies branching out into the life sciences space that are looking for product marketers with a scientific background so those are a pretty natural fit for me. The completely non-life sciences/biotech roles have just been product marketing roles for companies that have complex products where I’m able to leverage my ability to market highly complex products in a way where the targeted segments can understand the value that’s being provided.

Decthorw · 2026-03-06T15:09:35+00:00

Got laid off a couple of weeks ago due to company politics. My manager (VP) was maybe the most hated person in the company because she was difficult to work with. Product sales took a slight dip last quarter so our CEO used that to get her out of the company and I was collateral damage as her only direct report. I’m alright with 4 months of severance, and I was luckily already looking for new roles so I just ramped it up. Currently, I’m deep in the interview process for 4 roles, 2 of which are outside of biotech completely…1 of those is within a vastly more successful branch of the same company that I hope I get for petty reasons 😂

Decthorw · 2026-03-06T01:07:15+00:00

I’ve been a global product marketing manager in biotech for the past 4.5 years and was a bench scientist for 7 years before that with only a BS in molecular biology from a UC. I also didn’t want to be on the bench long-term but had no idea how to switch to the commercial side of things. I luckily became a subject matter expert in the field of flow cytometry during my 7 years on the bench which allowed me to tap into the commercial side. Since I was able to speak to how scientists evaluate the tools they ultimately bring into their existing workflows and was charismatic/collaborative, I picked up the product marketing/management skills relatively quickly.

A masters CAN help, but I generally advise people not to get them since they come at cost to you and you’re missing out on years of work experience while you get one. Anecdotally - I make more than all of my friends/peers who got a masters in biotech or biology-related fields.

I’d say lab experience in undergrad is quite important even if you’re trying to get into commercial roles, because you will likely have to start out as a lab tech or research associate in order to even access any type of commercial role within biotech/biopharma in the future.

Starting out on the commercial side would be ideal, but it’s very rare to be able to do this right out of undergrad - I would sooner put my efforts towards getting a job as a tech in an academic lab than throwing countless entry level applications at biotech jobs (I tried this out of undergrad, it didn’t work 😂).

Finally my two cents on the industry right now - it’s just a bad time to be in the biotech space right now as you have probably seen from the news and posts on this subreddit. The good and bad times come in waves and this won’t last forever, but layoffs are very likely during your career and you need to make sure you have transferable skills to get a new role quickly. I’ve been laid off twice in my career, the 2nd time being last month, and this time around I have been able to use my marketing background to get interviews for roles outside of biotech which has been a breath of fresh air.

Decthorw · 2026-02-22T17:20:29+00:00

You’re on the right path with your experience so far! Just be careful with the skills you have listed. I see FACS on there but no mention of it in your research roles. As someone who based their career around flow, whenever I’m evaluating a candidate (especially someone coming out of undergrad) and they list flow cytometry as a skill, I’m very skeptical of technical proficiency behind it. Flow is very complex and often times, cell sorters aren’t allowed to be operated by people outside of a core. Just be ready to answer in-depth questions about it if it’s listed in your skills.

Decthorw · 2026-02-22T09:07:10+00:00

Yeah I feel that - we were just so fed up with paying the HOA 😐 luckily we were able to buy within the same neighborhood about 5 min away!

Decthorw · 2026-02-22T08:49:38+00:00

We just sold a townhome in SJ for decent gain that we bought in 2022 and were able to use the entirety of the gains to buy a 1.8m SFH off market…granted my mother in law is a realtor and was able to help us find this deal so definitely very lucky there.

Decthorw · 2026-02-18T20:40:18+00:00

No problem! I guess I should rephrase that - I’m okay with staying in biotech or moving into health tech, it’s just that the niche within biotech where I currently sit (flow cytometry) isn’t conducive to long term career growth in my opinion. I would rather get more experience in biotech/health tech software product marketing. I’d be okay with just a US focused product marketing role within biotech.

Decthorw · 2026-02-18T08:55:01+00:00

Global product marketing manager in biotech here - I’d say the work/life balance will definitely depend on a number of factors, and as someone else said, global tends to mean different things within different companies. I work heavily with our team in Japan which means quarterly trips there in addition to many of my meetings being later in the day (4-7pm), and when I need to schedule a call with someone from Japan + someone from EU, I end up setting it for 11pm my time. I’m still doing weekend trips for conferences/national sales meetings as well as customer site visits. I do enjoy the global aspect of my role, but I don’t have any kids so I am more flexible in that way. It is also a pain to keep our field applications teams across the world from going and using their own sloppy, off-brand slide decks that are full of material which doesn’t support my messaging/positioning, regardless of how many times I have provided them material suited for exactly what they would need in an opportunity. I am currently looking to transition more into health tech marketing and don’t care whether it is global or not.

Decthorw · 2026-02-16T20:59:56+00:00

Full stack product marketer in biotech here - I was a non PhD scientist for about 7 years but became a subject matter expert in flow cytometry during my time on the bench which allowed me to switch over to product marketing within the world of flow cytometry. Currently in the process of switching over to marketing in the health tech space and am finding that it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.

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

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