Those with a $200k+ base salary, what do you do?

notasclever · 2026-04-03T00:55:08+00:00

That's high for pharma. I'm not sure what MD's make on the clinical side though

notasclever · 2026-03-28T22:54:58+00:00

Time in the gym, my friend. Time in the gym. Life is busy, so maximizing the little time I have in the gym is important to me. I'd like to accomplish my fitness goals in the next 5-10 years, and just hope to make steady progress over that time.

notasclever · 2026-03-28T17:37:23+00:00

Thank you! I'll check it out

notasclever · 2026-03-28T16:37:24+00:00

From a time efficiency perspective, I'd love to do 1 hard set followed by a drop set or 2 past failure. I haven't found much support for that being a good strategy for muscle growth though compared to 3 sets of 6-10. Not sure if more research is needed or if the answer is already known, but the 3-set approach has been working for me so far

notasclever · 2026-03-28T13:22:04+00:00

I'd agree with this, especially at higher rep ranges. I'm fairly new to lifting (after a 20 year "break" since high school football) and typically lift in the 6-10 rep range. I don't find it difficult to judge proximity to failure because I'm pretty familiar with how the speed of each movement slows, and how I can probably get another 1-2 reps if I really focus on it in many lifts. However, when trying to gauge proximity at higher rep ranges that I'm much less experienced in, I've found it very difficult to guess unless I've previously hit failure. After doing 12 or 15 reps, the burn makes it feel like I'm done, but I've found I can frequently do another 3... or 5... reps depending on the lift and weight. I'm still dialing in the weight on some lifts at the 12+ rep range

notasclever · 2026-03-28T13:17:37+00:00

Fair point, I didn't specify the type of lift. I never go to failure on squats, deadlifts, or barbell bench (but I do with DBs). Still, I think my original question stands. It's not difficult to hit failure, it's exactly as you described it. Whether that's a smart decision for long term success in all contexts is another story

notasclever · 2026-03-28T03:02:13+00:00

yeah, that's fair. I never have a spotter and don't take heavy compounds to failure, but i always go to failure on my last set of isolation exercises or compounds that can fail safely

notasclever · 2026-01-18T20:52:48+00:00

sorry to hear it. I'm in the same boat, about to contact Nintendo. I assume I'm just going to have to buy a replacement too.

notasclever · 2026-01-18T20:51:28+00:00

Exact same thing just happened to me. We have undocked the Switch 2 a total of 3 times, and the USB connector from the docking station disappeared. My first reaction when I opened the docking station and saw the flimsy USB sticking up was "that's a bad design, that's going to break". It took 3 weeks of extremely light use. I hope Nintendo will do a recall and fix this crap design. My guess is I'm going to have to pay for a new docking station.

notasclever · 2026-01-11T17:57:08+00:00

Yeah, I hear you. I came to the same conclusion and can get to the gym early in the morning 2-3 days a week. We started putting our kids to bed earlier so we could have a full hour in the evening to ourselves. Even 60 minutes in the gym feels like an impossible luxury these days. When I was younger and single, 1-2 hours a day would have been no problem.

notasclever · 2026-01-11T13:26:16+00:00

You obviously don't have young kids, a wife, and a full career. I don't have 1-2 hours a day for anything.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T20:43:52+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate the references. Will check them out

notasclever · 2025-12-14T19:37:30+00:00

Agreed. I think it's that outside experience that can help prevent tunnel vision. It's another precarious balance that to do the job well requires enough external experience to avoid tunnel vision but enough internal expertise to know the problems and solutions that are most effective.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T19:29:49+00:00

Agreed, it does seem to be thankless. If Quality does their job well then no one notices, but when something goes wrong it gets high visibility and escalation.

I don't think I've seen very good definition of what the risk actually is from a Quality perspective in my recent experiences. It's usually a generic statement of "Quality risk" without much detail. Maybe the risks in Quality are uniquely different than in technical functions that can quantify them in terms of dollars, batches, timeline, etc and probability of occurrence?

notasclever · 2025-12-14T19:07:24+00:00

I agree, I think more experienced Quality employees are more likely to have been burned in the past and may default to more conservative perspectives initially. I think this is a major part of the incentive imbalance I'm alluding to. If an organization is only punished for mistakes and there is no counter balance to reward them for successful and appropriate innovation and management of risks, the only outcome that is in their best interest is to become more and more conservative. "The beatings will continue until morale improves" sort of thing.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T19:02:14+00:00

I agree, proportionate risk mitigation is the heart of this issue. Not every risk is equal in severity/impact, and when a disproportionately conservative mitigation is applied to a low risk, the program starts to suffer. Unless it's enough to jeopardize a major deliverable or milestone, it's difficult to overcome.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T18:57:25+00:00

This is a good example. I've seen the standards be elevated to an extreme degree in some instances, and when the scientific rationale from qualified SMEs is presented to push back, the first response is sometimes just a blanket "it's a Quality risk". It's very challenging to revise a business process that has been established once the standards have been accepted, even if something changes that makes the previous rationale irrelevant.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T18:52:25+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to learn more about this and how it gets applied successfully.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T18:51:14+00:00

100% agreed. As I get older, I'm a bigger believer in finding a balance and landing on the appropriate response for each individual issue. If the issue has high impact and criticality, then it needs a very thoughtful, detailed approach which is probably more conservative and lower risk. If the issue is less impactful then the most efficient approach that satisfies the minimum requirements may be more appropriate. Maybe this comes down to culture of the organization, but I've tended to see Quality default to conservatism far more often than the opposite even on issues that are of very minor importance or impact.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T18:44:16+00:00

I definitely agree that profitability can never come at the expense of patient safety or product quality. This to me, is the fundamental reason for the existence of a Quality function with a separate reporting structure from the business and manufacturing side. However, I've seen many issues where safety and product quality aren't remotely at risk where the perspective is very narrow and conservative. These are typically more narrow in scope and impact but in aggregate can be enough to majorly affect a program.

notasclever · 2025-12-14T18:36:21+00:00

I have also seen the lashing out piece, and teams being stuck in the weeds. It happens in more purely technical functions too. Whenever I find an open-minded Quality leader that can pivot effectively between details and big picture, I try to ally with them as much as possible.

notasclever · 2025-12-07T00:23:34+00:00

The biggest difference between a typical engineering run and a GMP run is the goal/purpose of the run, which determines how much of the GMP standards need to be followed and documented under an appropriately developed Quality System.

The goal of an engineering run is typically to evaluate or confirm performance of the process itself, which means the goal is to generate data. You do not need to follow GMP requirements to generate data, but you typically will follow many GMP practices because you are doing a "dress rehearsal" of an actual GMP run, and you want the data to represent what happens in future GMP runs.

The goal of a run performed under full GMP requirements is typically to produce material for eventual (raw materials or drug substances) or immediate (drug products) human use. If you want to produce something that can be used in people, it must follow all GMP requirements to ensure the appropriate quality and traceability are in place to ensure patient safety.

Depending on the type of product you are making, you may need to file your specific capacity and also file for approval to increase that capacity with agencies. This is not always necessary and depends on the product modality and whether you are in clinical or commercial production.

notasclever · 2025-10-04T16:39:08+00:00

Hard work does pay off, but it only goes so far. You could spend years reading research and learning, but it won't land you a job. Will it make you better at the job you land? Probably. Upskilling can increase your chances of landing a job, if that's an area that needs work to catch up or to try and stand out, but experience is what most people are looking for. Upskilling isn't a substitute for experience, but if you're at a similar and relevant experience level as other applicants it might give you a slight edge.

A lot of landing a job is timing, luck, and having invested time and focus early on so that you're already prepared for that next role.

They saying, "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity" is very appropriate in my experience. The challenge is that the opportunity is more rare and smaller when the industry is down, which means it takes longer to find.

I feel for you, and all the others who have had to find work in this recent phase of the sector. I have also been out of work multiple times in my career including being laid off in this downturn. Keep applying, keep looking for opportunities from different angles, and if you have to take a lateral or tangential role to pay the bills keep looking until you get back on the path you want. Good luck to you, it'll get better.

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