has anyone applied to work at merck?

[hopefulM.D.]

I am wondering if it would be possible to work at Merck if things didn't work out with the waitlists and stuff. Does working at a top-notch pharmaceutical company require more than a B.A. degree if one wishes to do research (biomed) there? If not, would it be better for me to look for a job in a major research hospital affiliated with a med school? I am sort of clueless here, so please if u can, help me!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Shredder]

go for the big pharma, sounds like a viable option. though why merck ha, there are lots of others. pfizer is the king. maybe you could get a position in coordinating clinical trials? something related to medicine to make you look better if you reapply. BA hmm isnt that for high school teachers, well maybe for something less bench oriented it might be ok vs a BS for the research slaves. but if you have some research experience i think you could tout that and get a position, though it wouldnt be glamorous or well paying. still, its something, and maybe you could learn a lot. im sure connections would help a lot as in all aspects of life.

i think you will get more real world experience in a corporate setting compared to a research hospital/school setting. so yeah, im for the former. im hoping to do a pharma or biotech internship myself sometime, maybe summer after graduating.

 

[KitEKatEli]

I don't know which option would be "better" for your chances. What's probably most important, though, is to get some good experience @ a job you enjoy. If it's science, that should include as much self-directed research as you are capable of, hopefully leading to publication. If you're looking @ pharma, though, my experience has been that the opportunities for publication are much more slim b/c of intellectual property issues.

Maybe it's b/c they rejected me , so I'm a bit biased, but I'm just curious why you assume that Merck is a top-notch pharma company. Though their dominance in the '90s is unquestioned, I feel they've used that attitude to justify a bit of, shall we say, snootiness in their hiring that is no longer warranted given Vioxx & the uncertainty in their pipeline. They definitely do hire BAs, though.

Don't know what part of the country you're from, but the universities in NYC like Columbia & Rockefeller are very open to hiring recent graduates for biomedical research, knowing that you're thinking of going back to school. Anyway, lots of luck!

 

[kgoods5]

My major was Pharmaceutical Product Development...so I have a lot of friends who got in at major pharma companies with just a B.S. I also did a lot of internships at different companies, so I'm pretty familiar with the industry. You can definitely get a job there with just a B.S. They also like to take aspiring future doctors b/c it would be good for them in the future. There's a lot you can do, if you want to do research that's cool but I'd look into the Clinical area as well. As was mentioned, Pfizer is a good one, Merck just took a huge hit with the whole Vioxx thing, Astra Zeneca is good, and Johnson & Johnson has a few companies (including biotech). I worked for J&J at a biotech company and absolutely loved it. They are a fantastic company to work for.

 

[nne97080]

I am wondering if it would be possible to work at Merck if things didn't work out with the waitlists and stuff. Does working at a top-notch pharmaceutical company require more than a B.A. degree if one wishes to do research (biomed) there? If not, would it be better for me to look for a job in a major research hospital affiliated with a med school? I am sort of clueless here, so please if u can, help me!

With a bachelors alone it would be difficult without prior work experience but not to discourage you. One of my mentors an MD is the VP at glaxo and we talk all the time. However, Go for it you have nothing to lose

 

[Shredder]

They also like to take aspiring future doctors b/c it would be good for them in the future.

yes, just hint that you will push their prescriptions in the future and youre set

 

[tigress]

With a bachelors alone it would be difficult without prior work experience but not to discourage you. One of my mentors an MD is the VP at glaxo and we talk all the time. However, Go for it you have nothing to lose

I actually know a few people who work at pharmaceutical companies with only a BA or BS.

Shredder: the difference between a BA and a BS is small. My college only offered a BA. I think the difference is just a few math or upper level science courses. I think I actually qualified for a BS with my undergrad program, but the school only offered a BA. Although it does seem strange to have a Bachelor of Arts in Biology, as opposed to a Bachelor of Science, in the end the two degrees are probably almost identical.

 

[drat]

^^ Those are some long answers for a simple question! Yeah, definitely possible to work in pharma w/ just a B.A. in chem or bio. The hardest part might be getting your foot in the door. Networking is key.

As another poster pointed out: true the # of publications will be limited -- my group goes after patents rather than publications in journals. Got to protect the IP...That's the company's main concern.

 

[Shredder]

as far as publications go, the private sector cares about the bottom line, not discovery and dissemination of information, unless it will help the business. i love it!

 

[SallyFlo]

BA hmm isnt that for high school teachers, well maybe for something less bench oriented it might be ok vs a BS for the research slaves.

Lets not forget that a BA is equivalent to a BS. Lots of schools, including the small liberal arts college I attended, only awards BAs. And, I haven't found that having a BA, rather than a BS, has closed any doors in the pharmaceutical industry.

In my experience there are lots of pharmaceutical opportunities for someone with a BA, it just depends on what is interesting to you and getting your foot in the door.

I would also like to suggest Wyeth as an alternative to the other big pharma companies. In addition to small molecules, Wyeth is very involved with protein derived drugs which, in my opinion anyway, are the future of pharmaceuticals.

 

[Kateroni18]

I am wondering if it would be possible to work at Merck if things didn't work out with the waitlists and stuff. Does working at a top-notch pharmaceutical company require more than a B.A. degree if one wishes to do research (biomed) there? If not, would it be better for me to look for a job in a major research hospital affiliated with a med school? I am sort of clueless here, so please if u can, help me!

It may be possible, but getting a job at a big company like Merck isn't exactly easy either so I wouldn't necessarily consider it a "backup plan". My sister interviewed there for a research position two years ago...she has a BS in chemical engineering. They had several interview days with ~50 people each which then got narrowed down to 12 people from each day (she made it into the 12 from her day) which then went through a second round of interviews. From there they hired 3 people. My sis didn't get a job, but at least she got a lot of free stuff in the process.

I know the med school admissions process is competitive, but people need to remember that getting a job is also competitive...

 

[sfbear]

It might be a bit tough to get a job right now, but an entry level RA position at a big (or small) pharma shouldn't be too bad. and I definitely second what an earlier poster said - it's great to get some real-life corporate experience before heading back to school. Where are you located? If you're in one of the hotspots (check out www.biospace.com), it shouldn't be too bad.

 

[hwong14]

Merck may be #3, but they are well-known for having high integrity (they pulled Vioxx voluntarily, unlike Pfizer, which stubbornly held their ground until ordered to pull Bextra by the FDA) and are very employee-oriented (for example, compared with GSK -- this I know from a coworker). People at Merck LIKE Merck.

It's possible to work in research/clinical with a bachelor's. A great way to get in is through their Summer Intern Program -- lots of people start out as interns and end up with the company after graduation. It's too late for summer 2005, but keep it in mind.