Chapter 1: Life After Academia: Launching Your Pharma/Biotech Career

Abstract

This chapter will have no references, because it is based on personal experience. After being responsible for a 2-year international Master programme in Medical and Pharmaceutical Research and later Cell and Gene Therapy for 25 years, the author became Director of the Doctoral School of Life Sciences and Medicine of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB, Belgium) in 2008. In this capacity, he became responsible for support and training of ±200 PhD students per academic year. Most of these students had to leave university after graduation to find a job outside academia. We will take a look at the special contextual setting in Europe for starters of a pharma and biotech career and explain why job seekers benefit more from their specific knowledge and preparation when applying for their dream job, than from their academic talents and mark sheets.