In medical school, would doing work for a cancer biotech company help?

[forsparta]

In medical school, would doing work for a cancer biotech company help get a better residency and fellowship in Onc?

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[forsparta]

Bump

 

[gutonc]

In medical school, would doing work for a cancer biotech company help get a better residency and fellowship in Onc?

Doing what? For which company? Over what period of time?

What really helps with respect to research experience in a residency application is (in order of importance):
- A PhD (you're not getting that here)
- Publications (preferably first author...also unlikely to happen which I'll get to later)
- LoRs from big names in the field
- Being able to put 3 months of research experience on your CV

As far as pubs go, pound for pound, pharma researchers tend to publish less than their academic counterparts. This is primarily because the work they are doing is usually in service to the product pipeline or the bottom line rather than the academic "publish or perish" needs. This is changing a little with the increasing number of academic/pharma collaborations though. The biggest issue (and this will be true of any research) is that you either need to get on a project that's just about to go to publication and needs somebody to do one last set of experiments, or you need to stick with it for 2-4 years.

As for LoRs, if you're going to go work for Dan VonHoff @ TGen or Fred deSauvage at Genentech and get a letter from them, those names are probably going to work in your favor. In general however, the ivory tower folks (and I count myself among that group in general) tend to look down on those who escaped academia and are pharma "sell outs" (I personally don't really care one way or the other what other people do) and may not respect a letter from them as much as from an academic researcher.

So, the answer to your question is "not really." But that's frankly true for any research you do, academic or industry. Research will not make up for a bad Step 1 or a poor (i.e. not Honors) grade in your chosen specialty or any number of perceived failings in your CV. It will make you stand out over another identical candidate without that research but it's relatively low on the list, especially without publications.

 

[forsparta]

Doing what? For which company? Over what period of time?

What really helps with respect to research experience in a residency application is (in order of importance):
- A PhD (you're not getting that here)
- Publications (preferably first author...also unlikely to happen which I'll get to later)
- LoRs from big names in the field
- Being able to put 3 months of research experience on your CV

As far as pubs go, pound for pound, pharma researchers tend to publish less than their academic counterparts. This is primarily because the work they are doing is usually in service to the product pipeline or the bottom line rather than the academic "publish or perish" needs. This is changing a little with the increasing number of academic/pharma collaborations though. The biggest issue (and this will be true of any research) is that you either need to get on a project that's just about to go to publication and needs somebody to do one last set of experiments, or you need to stick with it for 2-4 years.

As for LoRs, if you're going to go work for Dan VonHoff @ TGen or Fred deSauvage at Genentech and get a letter from them, those names are probably going to work in your favor. In general however, the ivory tower folks (and I count myself among that group in general) tend to look down on those who escaped academia and are pharma "sell outs" (I personally don't really care one way or the other what other people do) and may not respect a letter from them as much as from an academic researcher.

So, the answer to your question is "not really." But that's frankly true for any research you do, academic or industry. Research will not make up for a bad Step 1 or a poor (i.e. not Honors) grade in your chosen specialty or any number of perceived failings in your CV. It will make you stand out over another identical candidate without that research but it's relatively low on the list, especially without publications.

This is exactly what I was looking for - thanks.

It is work where I will run gels and get maybe a publication, but rather a fuller understanding of the industry side - I thought that might help

 

[gutonc]

This is exactly what I was looking for - thanks.

It is work where I will run gels and get maybe a publication, but rather a fuller understanding of the industry side - I thought that might help

Will it help you 10-15 years down the road? Maybe.

Will it help you pay the rent? Hopefully.

Will it help you get a residency/fellowship spot? No.