A good place to start in BioPharma
Pros
Since Lonza Biologics is a CMO and there are always new projects, you get exposed to many different techniques and systems. You also get a lot of exposure to the client systems. If you are project-oriented, this is a great place to work. If you want something that provides a more steady work environment, this is probably not the place for you. Benefits were good, but were getting steadily worse every year. I can not say enough wonderful things about my coworkers - they were the reason I stayed as long as I did. Many projects have travel, and that does allow for cross-site interaction with colleagues elsewhere in the US, Europe (UK, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland), and Asia (Singapore, China).
Cons
Constant firefighting. Stress. Portsmouth site has high turnover. Expectation of 60+hour weeks in many departments. Lots of politics which impact lower levels. There is far less upward movement and opportunity now than there used to be. Most of the management is relatively young and will not be moving on anytime soon. Pay in Portsmouth is purposely about 20% less than comparable jobs in Boston. Ladies, make sure your salary is the same as what they might offer a male candidate--while I know of nowhere that has complete pay parity between genders, Lonza can be worse than most (a friend and his wife applied for comparable positions; they offered her almost half of what they offered him despite the fact that she had more education and experience)
