Folks in the biotech industry, what do you do and what is it like?

Probably not exactly what you're looking for but I work as a manufacturing technician for a medical device company.

I started out in the field without actually intending on it. I was halfway through a degree in material science, money was getting thin, and I was becoming really burnt out with school. One night after coming back from a part time job, preparing equipment for labs on campus, that I wasn't particularly fond of, I threw out my resume to a ton of random jobs. I got an interview with a staffing agency for something that I didn't even remember applying for. It ended up being a job on an assembly line making batteries for implantable defibrillators. I figured I was going to hate it. But, it paid decently and was a full time position during hours that worked with my school schedule. I ended up loving it. I spent the day sitting, talking with a bunch of interesting people, listening to music or audio books, and doing work I didnt really have to think about. Then I went home and was done with it. That was it. At the end of the semester I didn't apply for classes. I decided I'd take a year off, work some overtime, and actually have some time and money for once. I never went back to school.

Two years later I was moved to a different production line. At the time I was kind of upset that I was moved away from the group of friends that I had become so close with. Once again I came home one night dusted off the old resume and applied to a ton of positions. This time I stuck to medical device companies though. I had grown pretty fond of the industry. It sounds super cliche but it was nice to work doing something that actually helped people. I accepted a position with a new company doing essentially the same job I am now.

As a manufacturing technician I initially primarily worked on production equipment, extruders, injection molders, laser cutters, braiders, etc. Whenever something broke I'd run down to the production floor and get things up and running again. I have moved around within this company from department to department quite a bit now. I still spend some time fixing equipment but more of my time is spent working directly with the engineering group now. I help to create process and document changes in response to quality issues. I design and implement tooling to improve yields. I qualify new equipment. I work with our process development group. It's a fun job with a lot of day to day variety. I'm also lucky enough that my company values time away from work and I still have that feeling I did back when I was sitting on a production line that when i get home I don't need to worry about work.

Good luck to you! If you have any questions about medical manufacturing I'd be happy to try to answer it for you.

I also don't think that this is what you're looking for as a postdoc, but it may be insightful to others with a bio background.

I work in a Quality Control lab at a manufacturing site for a big pharma company, with a focus on computer systems and validation. Health regulatory agencies (e.g. FDA) have a LOT of requirements around the computers and software that are used to generate and store data from analytical lab instruments. My job is an interesting mix of IT (setting up software/hardware, acting as system admin, troubleshooting errors, training users on use of systems), technical writing (creating procedures and various documentation to prove that our systems work and are secure), and project management (overseeing change records for repairs, upgrades, new system installations; collaborating with different departments and external vendors). I make a decent income (low six figures in HCOL) with great benefits, excellent work/life balance, hybrid work schedule, and I would consider my work to have a general positive impact on the world (producing drugs that actually help people). Although dealing with all of the bureaucratic red tape and uncertainty around regulatory/auditor expectations can be very frustrating sometimes.

I have a BS in Biology (Neuroscience) which I originally planned to use for med school. However, I felt pretty burnt out during my senior year and the idea of more school didn't appeal to me. I was pretty lost after graduation and got an entry level QC job while I figured my life out (a pretty common backstory in the QC/QA field). Fortunately, I just happened to fall into a niche validation position at the start of my career and my troubleshooting skills and willingness to learn have taken me very far. I'm more of a computer guy than a lab rat, so it's been a good career for me. I've received offers for actual IT specialist positions based on my experience, so it's also a good potential pathway from Biology to IT for anyone that's interested in making that pivot. Biotech may not pay as well as pure tech, but I personally think there's more job security and I appreciate the slower pace.

The trend that I see in QC (and pharma manufacturing in general) is definitely towards automation and away from hands-on lab work. I've been involved in the implementation of several systems which significantly reduce the workload needed by human analysts. However, there will always be a need for people to set up and maintain these systems, run them, interpret the results, and talk to regulatory auditors.

If anyone has any questions about my experience then feel free to reach out!