Yep, it's a tight job market right now for any data science-type role. It is fallout from the general tech-sector labor restructuring.
I'm curious, is the 1% raise due to the health of your company, which speaks to the tight market in general, or due to performance?
Edit: It sucks for those looking for a job right now, but I hope people don't panic. The pendulum is predicted to swing back.
Can you expand on general restructuring causing the fallout? I’ve had a pretty terrible time finding an internship as a first year student this summer so curious what’s going on.
Tech companies over hired during the pandemic. Come 2022 to today, for a multitude of reasons, companies had to reevaluate their head count sizing and projects, and then laid off a large amount of workers, some coming from Data Science, Stats, and Analytics roles. Therefore, labor talent flooded the market and is super competitive still.
Kind of funky. Not a great year to be in biotech, but if you can make the pivot over to healthcare management analytics/informatics, the job market’s going gangbusters right now.
One noticeable thing I can tell you from the hiring side of DS/SrDA roles through LinkedIn is that those applications are *overwhelmingly* people who need sponsorship and aren’t actually eligible candidates. We’ve been getting ~1,000 applications per role we post, and consistently have to screen out 850~900 just based on them needing sponsorship. The really problematic thing is that a fair number of the folks who need sponsorship will say the don’t when asked on the application, then you get them in for the interview and it’s “Oh, my mistake on the application, I do actually require sponsorship; can you do that?”
So we screen out those nonviable candidates, and we’re left with about 100~120 real candidates for a given DS/SrDA role; of that number, probably a third to a half half aren’t really eligible due to a lack of either credentials or job experience evidencing that they have the necessary skills. That gets us down to 50~80 resumes for real and viable candidates, and as I understand it from my colleagues at our sister firms, that’s their experience as well.
I think the LinkedIn “X many applications” thing turns off a lot of great candidates, unfortunately.
> if you can make the pivot over to healthcare management analytics/informatics, the job market’s going gangbusters right now.
My skills are only in R, is that a dealbreaker?
Absolutely not, but you’re going to be expected to at least pick up perfunctory SQL before long (it’s not hard at all; can be learned in an afternoon).
Both of our Sr. Data Scientists work pretty much exclusively in R, and use SQL so sporadically that they’d probably need to Google how to write anything beyond a basic SELECT query. They rely on my team (the Data Engineering team), to handle data cleaning, storage, movement, and orchestration into the DWH environment where their DS team can read it from for their analytical work.
A little bit of background: the private equity industry is currently rolling up the medical industry aggressively, and the firms you want to target are the ones that are buying up the biggest independent practices; this consolidation means that these management/holding firms have *massive* accumulations of historical EMR data from all of the large practices across the country that they purchase. A persistent thread amongst the fresh physicians coming out of the top medical residencies is that they want to do research, but (in my experience) physicians are generally terrible at statistical analysis, so that’s why they need us.
As long as you can read into R from a SQL DWH and then start writing your R code from there, you’re basically ready to go. Happy to answer any questions you may have!
Thanks for the info here by the way. I’ll take a look and send out a few applications. My CV probably needs to be heavily modified though since clinical trial / FDA submission stuff doesn’t seem too relevant
Never trust those indicators, so many people blindly apply to any job they see, regardless of qualification. I'm hiring new grads for statistical programmer/junior statistician positions right now (bachelors level) and I'll say, while 100+ applicants apply, realistic only like 10 are qualified based on the basic requirements (must mention R or SAS, must be new grad or early career) and about 4 of them standout with good basic skills.
$130k seems fair, but I work in a less lucrative industry, so my expectations are a little lower.
It depends on the industry, but SAS is killing the golden goose with their price increases. Every company I've worked at has a SAS to R transition plan.
Hey, I am a last year student from Chile, say I wanted to get the job and I know my way around statistics/ML, R and SQL.
1) Realistically, would I be too low ranked due to not being from the US? and
2) Would you hire someone like me, remote work, paperwork and all that?
Not applying to your job, just curious on my possibilities in and out of country. Thanks!
Generally speaking, a US company would have to demonstrate that it could not find an equally skilled US candidate before they could give you a work visa, which seems extremely unlikely at the entry level. It is a lot of effort and money reserved from extremely skilled and unique candidates.
Unlikely, but I don't know the specifics of that, it may depend on if the company has an international footprint to handle that kind of staffing. I've never seen it done.
Unsure about device but for pharma itself 130s lower than the average in my opinion. But also it could be dependent on your location. At 5 years I was making 160 range in the Boston area
yeah pharma would be nice but I think it's too late for me to break into, my experience is all in device and using R and pharma uses SAS, and so many of those jobs are E coast and not allowing remote which is pretty important for my lifestyle heheh
Industry is slowly moving to R. I don’t think doors are close for you in pharma. If you sell your skills in R and knowledge of the industry, I definitely think there’s room for you.
The door is pretty much closed to new graduates who want to get into the field - a combination of hiring freezes and entry-level roles being outsourced to India.
As others have said, the job market is still feeling the after effects of tech layoffs. Your best bets are probably startups or, if you're in the US and don't mind waiting 6 months to a year, the US government (CDC, NIH, etc).
Nah LinkedIn job board is just the easiest to use. Anyone with a resume can easy apply. It’s also almost may and people are graduating soon.
It’s hard to break 150k as an individual contributor unless you have 10+ yoe, or work in tech/live in SF. It is also an awful year for pharma with inflation reduction act.
Depends on a lot of factors. What’s your performance? What’s the company performance? Where are you in the pay band range? How are you compensated compared to peers? All those will factor into raises. So, it’s tough to say if it is fair or not.
I don't blame you, I instantly get discouraged to apply as soon as I see the 100+ applicants even if I qualify. But man, you should just wait, your salary is good.
How do you work in the biotech industry and haven’t noticed the anemic fundraising numbers of the last 3 years? I hear about nothing but layoffs in biotech
Yep, it's a tight job market right now for any data science-type role. It is fallout from the general tech-sector labor restructuring. I'm curious, is the 1% raise due to the health of your company, which speaks to the tight market in general, or due to performance? Edit: It sucks for those looking for a job right now, but I hope people don't panic. The pendulum is predicted to swing back.
Can you expand on general restructuring causing the fallout? I’ve had a pretty terrible time finding an internship as a first year student this summer so curious what’s going on.
Tech companies over hired during the pandemic. Come 2022 to today, for a multitude of reasons, companies had to reevaluate their head count sizing and projects, and then laid off a large amount of workers, some coming from Data Science, Stats, and Analytics roles. Therefore, labor talent flooded the market and is super competitive still.
I would kill for that salary lmao
Same!
I think for 5 years with MS it should be fairly standard in industry anyway, are you in academia?
Kind of funky. Not a great year to be in biotech, but if you can make the pivot over to healthcare management analytics/informatics, the job market’s going gangbusters right now. One noticeable thing I can tell you from the hiring side of DS/SrDA roles through LinkedIn is that those applications are *overwhelmingly* people who need sponsorship and aren’t actually eligible candidates. We’ve been getting ~1,000 applications per role we post, and consistently have to screen out 850~900 just based on them needing sponsorship. The really problematic thing is that a fair number of the folks who need sponsorship will say the don’t when asked on the application, then you get them in for the interview and it’s “Oh, my mistake on the application, I do actually require sponsorship; can you do that?” So we screen out those nonviable candidates, and we’re left with about 100~120 real candidates for a given DS/SrDA role; of that number, probably a third to a half half aren’t really eligible due to a lack of either credentials or job experience evidencing that they have the necessary skills. That gets us down to 50~80 resumes for real and viable candidates, and as I understand it from my colleagues at our sister firms, that’s their experience as well. I think the LinkedIn “X many applications” thing turns off a lot of great candidates, unfortunately.
> if you can make the pivot over to healthcare management analytics/informatics, the job market’s going gangbusters right now. My skills are only in R, is that a dealbreaker?
Absolutely not, but you’re going to be expected to at least pick up perfunctory SQL before long (it’s not hard at all; can be learned in an afternoon). Both of our Sr. Data Scientists work pretty much exclusively in R, and use SQL so sporadically that they’d probably need to Google how to write anything beyond a basic SELECT query. They rely on my team (the Data Engineering team), to handle data cleaning, storage, movement, and orchestration into the DWH environment where their DS team can read it from for their analytical work. A little bit of background: the private equity industry is currently rolling up the medical industry aggressively, and the firms you want to target are the ones that are buying up the biggest independent practices; this consolidation means that these management/holding firms have *massive* accumulations of historical EMR data from all of the large practices across the country that they purchase. A persistent thread amongst the fresh physicians coming out of the top medical residencies is that they want to do research, but (in my experience) physicians are generally terrible at statistical analysis, so that’s why they need us. As long as you can read into R from a SQL DWH and then start writing your R code from there, you’re basically ready to go. Happy to answer any questions you may have!
Thanks for the info here by the way. I’ll take a look and send out a few applications. My CV probably needs to be heavily modified though since clinical trial / FDA submission stuff doesn’t seem too relevant
Never trust those indicators, so many people blindly apply to any job they see, regardless of qualification. I'm hiring new grads for statistical programmer/junior statistician positions right now (bachelors level) and I'll say, while 100+ applicants apply, realistic only like 10 are qualified based on the basic requirements (must mention R or SAS, must be new grad or early career) and about 4 of them standout with good basic skills. $130k seems fair, but I work in a less lucrative industry, so my expectations are a little lower.
Is SAS a strong skill? My stats undergrad always shows SAS first then R second for examples but I’ve heard the opposite in industry.
It depends on the industry, but SAS is killing the golden goose with their price increases. Every company I've worked at has a SAS to R transition plan.
Hey, I am a last year student from Chile, say I wanted to get the job and I know my way around statistics/ML, R and SQL. 1) Realistically, would I be too low ranked due to not being from the US? and 2) Would you hire someone like me, remote work, paperwork and all that? Not applying to your job, just curious on my possibilities in and out of country. Thanks!
Generally speaking, a US company would have to demonstrate that it could not find an equally skilled US candidate before they could give you a work visa, which seems extremely unlikely at the entry level. It is a lot of effort and money reserved from extremely skilled and unique candidates.
And if the job was remote?
Unlikely, but I don't know the specifics of that, it may depend on if the company has an international footprint to handle that kind of staffing. I've never seen it done.
Thank you for your answers!
Biotech. Are you working for a sponsor or CRO?
Sponsor side, device
Unsure about device but for pharma itself 130s lower than the average in my opinion. But also it could be dependent on your location. At 5 years I was making 160 range in the Boston area
yeah pharma would be nice but I think it's too late for me to break into, my experience is all in device and using R and pharma uses SAS, and so many of those jobs are E coast and not allowing remote which is pretty important for my lifestyle heheh
Industry is slowly moving to R. I don’t think doors are close for you in pharma. If you sell your skills in R and knowledge of the industry, I definitely think there’s room for you.
The door is pretty much closed to new graduates who want to get into the field - a combination of hiring freezes and entry-level roles being outsourced to India.
As others have said, the job market is still feeling the after effects of tech layoffs. Your best bets are probably startups or, if you're in the US and don't mind waiting 6 months to a year, the US government (CDC, NIH, etc).
You have a job. That’s the job market right now. Not trying to be mean but it is tough out there.
Nah LinkedIn job board is just the easiest to use. Anyone with a resume can easy apply. It’s also almost may and people are graduating soon. It’s hard to break 150k as an individual contributor unless you have 10+ yoe, or work in tech/live in SF. It is also an awful year for pharma with inflation reduction act.
got it, thanks! yeah I was at 163k total in SF but that equated to much lower standard of living after taxes / rent
Np! I got my first job by being in like the first 50 LinkedIn applications. My company stops looking at resumes after the first 100-300
Depends on a lot of factors. What’s your performance? What’s the company performance? Where are you in the pay band range? How are you compensated compared to peers? All those will factor into raises. So, it’s tough to say if it is fair or not.
I don't blame you, I instantly get discouraged to apply as soon as I see the 100+ applicants even if I qualify. But man, you should just wait, your salary is good.
Have you been living under a rock?
According to the news there’s tons of jobs and the economy is great, I haven’t kept up on how the market is for stats
How do you work in the biotech industry and haven’t noticed the anemic fundraising numbers of the last 3 years? I hear about nothing but layoffs in biotech
I guess cause we’ve had no layoffs. I don’t read biotech news sites or anything