Pharmaceutical Internships for Undergraduates: A Comprehensive Guide

For undergraduate students aspiring to a career in the pharmaceutical industry, internships are invaluable stepping stones. These programs provide hands-on experience, a holistic view of the industry, and opportunities to build a strong professional network. This article provides a comprehensive guide to pharmaceutical internships for undergraduates, covering the benefits, requirements, application process, and strategies for success.

The Value of Pharmaceutical Internships

Internships offer numerous benefits for undergraduate students interested in the pharmaceutical field.

Hands-on Experience: Internships provide the opportunity to gain invaluable hands-on work experience in an area related to your academic field of study or interest. Summer interns not only gain hands-on experience, but also acquire a holistic view of the pharmaceutical industry from clinical trials to manufacturing to product launch into the market.
Industry Exposure: Many pharmaceutical companies often offer a 10- to 12-week summer internship program for undergraduate and graduate students. During this program, interns have an opportunity to work with dedicated mentors from the company on real-world industrial problems related to drug discovery and development as well as to participate in other training activities organized by the internship program office.
Skill Development: Whether you already know what your dream job is or you are still figuring it out, there are numerous skills you should focus on refining during school and internship practice in order to be successful in the pharma sector. For starters, you should focus on your project-planning skills and strategic thinking. Professional communication and other transferable skills is also beneficial for interns in any job sector, not just pharmaceuticals.

Types of Internships Available

The biopharmaceutical industry encompasses a wide range of positions, and internships are available in various areas, including:

Research and Development
Diagnostics
Communications
Clinical Trials
Vaccines
Immunotherapeutics
Medical and pharmaceutical sales

Finding Internship Opportunities

Networking: Networking within your life sciences community is a great place to start when it comes to finding the best intern opportunity for you. Attending poster sessions or any other research-focused presentations is a great place to meet active members of the community.
Online Job Boards: You can also take the search into your own hands by searching on online job sites like BioSpace, a job board exclusively for jobs in the life sciences, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. If you’re interested in the sales sector, you can utilize MedReps, a job board exclusively for job seekers interested in medical and pharmaceutical sales.
University Programs: Some universities with a large biopharma focus will even fund internship programs through the college. The University of Buffalo is among those colleges, as well as Arizona State University, George Washington University and several others.
Location: Alternatively, there’s what’s known as a “life sciences supercluster” in the northeastern United States, where several research facilities, clinical trials and biopharma focal points are located. Cities like Boston, Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City will all have numerous internship opportunities through the biotech companies located there. For example, InternBio is a biopharma hub exclusively for internship opportunities based out of Boston.
NSF Opportunities: If you’re interested in the research route, you can look for a National Science Foundation (NSF) opportunity. NSF funds research opportunities for undergraduate students through the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. You can search for specific internships based on topic or location, then apply directly to the individual program.

Eligibility and Requirements

Internships and co-ops are available at all degree levels: associate's, bachelor’s, master’s, MBA, MD, JD, PharmD and Ph.D. based on project assignments.

Student Status: Our student programs are currently designed for postsecondary students and as such, high school students are not eligible.
Recent Graduates: Recent graduates are not eligible for interships or co-ops unless they are returning to school following their internship or co-op assignment (i.e., a student completed their undergraduate degree and will be starting a graduate program upon completion of their co-op assignment).

Application Process and Timeline

Early Preparation: You need to start looking for internship postings and consulting seniors as early as possible. Submissions of internship applications usually start in December, and an offer is typically issued in March of the next year (the dates vary widely among companies). If you are enrolled in a Master of Science (MS) program and planning to intern in the first summer, you should start preparing right after orientation.
Application Deadlines: Our internship and co-op postings will include any applicable deadlines. For most of our openings, we accept applications on a rolling basis and encourage you to apply sooner rather than later.
Notification: Yes, you will receive a notification from us about your application if an opening you applied to has been filled.
Internship Duration: Our internships run in the summer months. Interns start the first week of June and work through the third week of August.

Standing Out From the Crowd

Networking: Other than making your profile perfectly match the job description, you can try networking, which is sometimes very helpful in getting an interview.
Consult Your Advisor: The best person to consult is your advisor, who knows you best and has many more connections. Many companies would send the job posting to your advisor and also contact your advisor before they made a decision to hire you. Therefore, do make a good impression on your advisor and tell him/her ahead of time that you would like to apply for an internship.
Contact Company Scientists Directly: Another possible way to get an internship would be to contact company scientists directly if you know their work and it is in an area of your interest or expertise. They may be able to work through the internship office if they see a fit.

Interview Preparation

Phone Interview: The manager or mentor usually conducts the first interview by phone, followed by another phone interview from human resources (HR) if the manager or mentor approves. Therefore, impressing the manager or mentor is key.
Know Your Interviewer: In addition to being familiar with all the job requirements and each point in your curriculum vitae (CV), knowing your interviewer's background in advance can be very helpful.
Show Your Interest: The phone interview is a great chance to learn more about the position and show your interest, curiosity, and excitement about the internship opportunity. Don't be afraid to discuss the projects you will be working on, the sources you may use, or any questions that will demonstrate your interest.

Making the Most of Your Internship

Project Planning: You should take one project first and focus on it. Your mentor may already have a detailed proposal or may only have a general idea. Whatever the situation is, at the beginning you have to sit down with your mentor to discuss your expectations of each other and your objectives and then come out with a practical way to achieve them.
Timeline: A 12-week program can be divided into three phases: 2 weeks, 6 weeks, and 4 weeks. The first 2 weeks would be taken up by the orientation, group introduction, training, and project planning. In the 9th or 10th week, you would start wrapping up your work, and in the following week, a poster session would be kicked off, so you basically only have about 6 weeks to devote to your work. Thus, you have to make a clear timeline at the beginning and note every day what you will do and what you have done so that your work is kept on track.
Communication and Teamwork: Industry greatly values teamwork. Other than your mentor, there may be other colleagues involved in your project, so be ready to communicate with them. Since you basically only have 6 weeks or so to devote to your project, don't waste your time working on something that has been done already.
Networking: Other than communicating with your mentor and coworkers, you should also be active in engaging with other colleagues, either at the lunch table or during casual talk. It is encouraged to make an appointment with other colleagues individually. Just simply say hi to them and inquire whether they have some time to have a chat.
Documentation: Due to the short-term working period, it may happen that you could not finish the project as planned, but you need to document your work in an accessible manner so that your colleagues can continue the work without much effort. Be sure to store the data, analysis, documents, and code as specified several days before leaving so that your colleagues have enough time to look at your work and ask you questions face-to-face.

Developing Essential Skills

Whether you already know what your dream job is or you are still figuring it out, there are numerous skills you should focus on refining during school and internship practice in order to be successful in the pharma sector. These skills will not only make you a great applicant for the internship, but they will carry over to your post-graduation job or entry-level position in the field.

Read also: Gateway to Pharmacy Career

Project-Planning Skills and Strategic Thinking: Whether your internship is for a research writer, a pharmacist or something else, you will need to employ problem-solving strategies from time to time to stay afloat and productive in your position.
Industry Awareness: Staying up to date on industry news and trends is an easy way to stay in the biopharma loop. As an intern, you have an opportunity to learn only as much as you want to learn, which is why it’s important to come into the internship with a baseline knowledge of what to expect.
Professional Communication: Professional communication and other transferable skills is also beneficial for interns in any job sector, not just pharmaceuticals. You’ll need to conduct yourself professionally, ask smart questions and learn from your mistakes along the way.

Internship Programs

Many pharmaceutical companies offer structured internship programs for undergraduates. Here are a few examples:

Johnson & Johnson: Johnson & Johnson is looking for motivated candidates who are ready to make an immediate, measurable impact on the world and bring innovative ideas, products and services to life.
Biogen: Internships at Biogen are 12-week assignments in the summer (June to August). Co-ops at Biogen are six-month assignments: January to June or July to December.
Vertex: The Vertex Summer Intern Program offers students the opportunity to learn about the pharmaceutical industry through a hands-on experience as well as mentoring and coaching from Vertex managers.

Read also: Excelling in Pharma Internships

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