This is a firsthand account of my experience working as an intern in the pharmaceutical industry while in graduate school. As always, these are my experiences and timeline, but there are many ways to enter the workforce from academia. I recommend an internship to anyone who is interested in working in pharmaceuticals but has never tried before, wants to network and meet people in industry, or who wants to learn a new skill than their graduate studies provides.
Applying
Since I have been a student for most of my life, I’m accustomed to the fall cycle of applications: undergraduate schools, graduate schools, fellowships, and now internships follow this pattern. For this reason, I started researching and consolidating a list of potential summer internships during August-October. My graduate school colleagues have had varying success applying throughout the calendar year, but most formal summer internship programs in large pharmaceutical companies are posted at the end of August. Most of my applications involved a scientific resumé, cover letter, and general information about my personal and work history. A few more technical internships asked for specific examples of my work, for instance any internship involving academic writing asked for writing samples. My strategy for resumé and cover letter writing is to prepare a general outline or framework for each type of job that you will be applying to. This can be tailored by listing your accomplishments and experiences that are most relevant to a certain job type and focusing on the impact they had. Then, in response to each application, fill in the appropriate company and position that you are interested in and add 1-2 sentences that are specific to your research about that company. This helps keep things centered around you while also showing genuine interest in each opportunity. For a more formal outline, refer to Stanford’s resumé and cover letter formats.
Interviewing
Once the application has been submitted, a company may take anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 months to get back to you. This is the benefit of applying to many internships at once: you will hear back from only a few. An interview opportunity will be extended likely on a rolling basis, and some may come before others. The interview process was, in my opinion, more about my professional experience and background than about specific science questions. I had a total of two interviews before the company hired me, and each were virtual with 2-3 people. Their questions were mainly centered around my problem solving skills and reactions to professional situations, which larger companies will tell you are the most important qualities that they check for in candidates coming from academia. I interviewed in December and received an offer shortly thereafter to start in the following June.
Informing your PI
My goal for graduate school has always been to work in the pharmaceutical industry. I was very open and up-front about this to my PI when I first started working, and my PI was open to this mindset. When I received an offer for a summer internship, I informed my PI after I had already accepted. To be fair, things had been difficult in my lab for many months and I applied without informing him because an internship was important to my career goals. My PI was not as supportive as I would have hoped when I brought up the internship offer. He asked if it could be deferred, and when I replied that I had accepted, he took a different approach. Without going into too many details, it was implied that I was not experienced enough or adequately prepared for a job in the industry, and that not only were my skills lacking but that I lacked something fundamental that would reveal itself when I started working and couldn’t make it far past a technical position. This was a very discouraging experience for me, especially since I had another 6 months to work in the lab before I left. Thankfully, I had a good network of support of other mentors and friends, and my graduate program was supportive and made the process of leaving for a short period very easy. I would advise anyone hoping to do an internship to talk to their PI well in advance and continue to ask about their feelings on the subject. While my PI’s reaction was unwarranted, it could have been avoided had I forewarned him when I started applying.
Working as an Intern
Every internship experience is different, from the size of the company to the types of projects to the area that the company resides. In my experience, larger companies usually have a well-defined internship program, including formal managers and mentors, a series of workshops and science talks to attend, meetings with groups and 1-on-1, an established project and the expectation of a presentation of one’s work. Smaller companies may have a less-defined project outlined, and it may be more open for the individual to experience different tasks and aspects of the company. It is also general knowledge within the company that the interns themselves are interested in working in that industry following graduation, and the employees are usually very open about their experiences and career advice. This was my experience as an intern at a large pharmaceutical company: there were meetings that I was expected to attend, meetings and 1-on-1s that I could facilitate myself, and a clear outlined project to work on with an experienced manager. Since I had a lot of experience in the area that I was working in, my manager took a more hands-off approach where I had a weekly check-in and could ask her questions but I mainly conducted experiments on my own. I took advantage of every networking opportunity I could, talking to people across different departments and job titles to get a full picture of how a pharmaceutical company operates. This gave me a better understanding of my goals as an employee once I graduate, and knowledge that there are other career paths beyond lab bench science.
Final Thoughts
My experience as a summer intern at a large pharmaceutical company was overall a very positive one. I felt welcomed and validated as my work was taken seriously and I could easily perform tasks. Through my time as a graduate student, I felt adequately prepared for the scientific workload. The biggest difference between academic and industrial labs is the amount of meetings and collaboration that occurs within a company. Since everyone has a very defined role in a project, it is important to meet and discuss progress early and often. It is also not uncommon for a project to be stalled or stopped altogether, and industrial companies value “failing quickly” or determining if something is not worth pursuing early in the process. This was very different from my experience as a graduate student, where it is expected that projects are followed through until the end and the student is responsible for all aspects without much outside help. This change of role was encouraging to me, as I felt that my knowledge and experiences were utilized and I could understand the contributions of the other departments. It was difficult to return to my academic lab after this internship, but the strategies and skills that I developed while there helped to progress my project once I returned. I am very grateful for my time as an intern, and I highly recommend this experience to anyone who may be interested. If you have any additional questions about the process, please feel free to reach out, and good luck with any internship opportunities!