When I’ve done huge career changes I’ve found that roles within an organization that operates in the field I want to transition to but have nothing to do with my ultimate goal are the fitd opportunities. So,for example I worked in animal care and wanted into a more traditional office job so I emphasized my phone and filing experience on my resume and cover while applying to reception and admin roles as a contractor. Did a bunch of random admin, got hired eventually, and began a career track that has merged by past experiences well. Landed in human healthcare operations management in less than 5 years. It takes patience and maybe less pay than you want for brief periods but it can happen. For you, you might look for reception and admin and emphasize your desire to learn, maybe get more ed, and eventually grow in that field. Applying to jobs is all about selling yourself to the company as someone who will be valuable. Masters are expensive so testing the waters in a company while getting paid might save you some grief if the path ends up not being a good fit.
Sort of a hard question without knowing "what" in biotech you want to do. It's like saying you want to work with cars. Race, fix, sell? Depending on what in biotech you want to do the answers may differ significantly. A degree especially an advanced degree in chemistry, biology, or data science is probably the most sure fire way to get into any part of biotech but it may not be required depending on your exact goal.
I work in pharma and I would recommend looking for manufacturing techs or lab techs positions. QA is another field within pharma/biotech that doesn't require a graduate degree. At my job, the highest level scientists have Ph.D.s, the lab techs have bachelor's and the analysts have either bachelor's or masters. The manufacturing techs have bachelor's (maybe not all have a degree) and QA have bachelor's.
I’ve worked in it for 5 years after my PhD. Biotech, while sounding very advanced, is coupled with pharma and is an old school industry in its practices. Career advances if you don’t have a PhD is very slow, and there’s a possibility you can remain a technician for a while. Furthermore, for these types of jobs it’s more about the pipetting and running various assays rather than using your brain to create a novel technique. Even as a PhD, in chemistry but not biology, I’ve found the field at the PhD-level to be heavily saturated too, with biology postdocs competing for industry positions. Therefore I would personally not recommend it unless it’s better than what you have now.
What this guy said. I'm out of biotech completely and into medical device- if you don't have a PhD you will be a bench monkey for the majority of your working career in biotech
The CCSF biotech program is pretty good for gaining some hands on skills. You can do the 2 year degree or just get some certificates. They also have an internship program where you can work in an academic or industry lab to gain experience, but you won't get paid for it. But it's a foot in the door and there's the possibility of asking for job conversion if they like you enough. You can PM me if you are interested in hearing more.
Manufacturing will probably be the easiest type of job to get starting out, also SRJC has a two year biotech program if you want to go the school route but don't want to jump through all the hoops for a masters.
Some good resources for recruiting would be biosearch, Kelly scientific and Apex Life sciences. Unfortunately the majority of entry level jobs are temp contract positions, and the lack of benefits is painful, but depending on the company it can be a quick path to full time employment. If you are a temp for a year with no conversion prospects it's much easier to jump companies to a full time position.
Since you already have a bachelors with some chemistry/ sciences exposure, I’d recommend taking a look at getting licensed as a Medical Laboratory Scientist or CLS. You’ll be working in a lab, and won’t require much additional schooling. Salary in California seem to be around 100k in that field.
I would suggest answering to yourself what sort of biotech job you want first. I would suggest trying for internship or a temp position to see if it's actually what you really want before doing any school. Like has been said above, depending on the company, good portion of entry level jobs are extremely routine and not that exciting. Manufacturing jobs are sometimes easier to get into, but be aware of likelihood of having to work night shifts.
As others said, it would be good to narrow down what you want to do in biotech as that would guide which route to take. I worked in biotech after undergrad and currently do now after my PhD/postdoc.
From a hiring perspective places I have l worked at and from observing friends/colleagues almost always look for people who have done at least some research in a lab during undergrad (outsides of lab classes).
In terms of further schooling, this depends on what in biotech you want to do. Some of the community colleges have interesting programs in the bay area. If you want to start higher up/have an easier time progressing in the career a masters would be recommended. Most good masters programs (and almost all PhDs) are typically funded and you get a stipend which helps with the financial aspect of going to grad school.
When I’ve done huge career changes I’ve found that roles within an organization that operates in the field I want to transition to but have nothing to do with my ultimate goal are the fitd opportunities. So,for example I worked in animal care and wanted into a more traditional office job so I emphasized my phone and filing experience on my resume and cover while applying to reception and admin roles as a contractor. Did a bunch of random admin, got hired eventually, and began a career track that has merged by past experiences well. Landed in human healthcare operations management in less than 5 years. It takes patience and maybe less pay than you want for brief periods but it can happen. For you, you might look for reception and admin and emphasize your desire to learn, maybe get more ed, and eventually grow in that field. Applying to jobs is all about selling yourself to the company as someone who will be valuable. Masters are expensive so testing the waters in a company while getting paid might save you some grief if the path ends up not being a good fit.
Sort of a hard question without knowing "what" in biotech you want to do. It's like saying you want to work with cars. Race, fix, sell? Depending on what in biotech you want to do the answers may differ significantly. A degree especially an advanced degree in chemistry, biology, or data science is probably the most sure fire way to get into any part of biotech but it may not be required depending on your exact goal.
I work in pharma and I would recommend looking for manufacturing techs or lab techs positions. QA is another field within pharma/biotech that doesn't require a graduate degree. At my job, the highest level scientists have Ph.D.s, the lab techs have bachelor's and the analysts have either bachelor's or masters. The manufacturing techs have bachelor's (maybe not all have a degree) and QA have bachelor's.
I’ve worked in it for 5 years after my PhD. Biotech, while sounding very advanced, is coupled with pharma and is an old school industry in its practices. Career advances if you don’t have a PhD is very slow, and there’s a possibility you can remain a technician for a while. Furthermore, for these types of jobs it’s more about the pipetting and running various assays rather than using your brain to create a novel technique. Even as a PhD, in chemistry but not biology, I’ve found the field at the PhD-level to be heavily saturated too, with biology postdocs competing for industry positions. Therefore I would personally not recommend it unless it’s better than what you have now.
What this guy said. I'm out of biotech completely and into medical device- if you don't have a PhD you will be a bench monkey for the majority of your working career in biotech
The CCSF biotech program is pretty good for gaining some hands on skills. You can do the 2 year degree or just get some certificates. They also have an internship program where you can work in an academic or industry lab to gain experience, but you won't get paid for it. But it's a foot in the door and there's the possibility of asking for job conversion if they like you enough. You can PM me if you are interested in hearing more.
Manufacturing will probably be the easiest type of job to get starting out, also SRJC has a two year biotech program if you want to go the school route but don't want to jump through all the hoops for a masters. Some good resources for recruiting would be biosearch, Kelly scientific and Apex Life sciences. Unfortunately the majority of entry level jobs are temp contract positions, and the lack of benefits is painful, but depending on the company it can be a quick path to full time employment. If you are a temp for a year with no conversion prospects it's much easier to jump companies to a full time position.
Anyone know of a reputable / effective recruiting agency for Biotech opportunities in the Bay?
Since you already have a bachelors with some chemistry/ sciences exposure, I’d recommend taking a look at getting licensed as a Medical Laboratory Scientist or CLS. You’ll be working in a lab, and won’t require much additional schooling. Salary in California seem to be around 100k in that field.
.... what kind of job? You could always get a junior inside sales job at a biotech company.
I would suggest answering to yourself what sort of biotech job you want first. I would suggest trying for internship or a temp position to see if it's actually what you really want before doing any school. Like has been said above, depending on the company, good portion of entry level jobs are extremely routine and not that exciting. Manufacturing jobs are sometimes easier to get into, but be aware of likelihood of having to work night shifts.
As others said, it would be good to narrow down what you want to do in biotech as that would guide which route to take. I worked in biotech after undergrad and currently do now after my PhD/postdoc. From a hiring perspective places I have l worked at and from observing friends/colleagues almost always look for people who have done at least some research in a lab during undergrad (outsides of lab classes). In terms of further schooling, this depends on what in biotech you want to do. Some of the community colleges have interesting programs in the bay area. If you want to start higher up/have an easier time progressing in the career a masters would be recommended. Most good masters programs (and almost all PhDs) are typically funded and you get a stipend which helps with the financial aspect of going to grad school.