Questions to Ask a Pharmaceutical Company
Questions to ask a pharmaceutical company when you are the candidate: at an interview, on a site visit or at a careers fair, for a research, clinical, quality, regulatory or field post. They work at a biotech interview with a clinical-stage company as well as at a large manufacturer, and one group is for a pharmaceutical sales interview or a medical affairs post. The others cover the company and its pipeline, the role itself, science and compliance, culture, and the offer and the career after it, including what to ask after the interview and before you accept.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Company and Pipeline
What is in the pipeline at the moment, and what phase is each programme in?
Why ask it
Most of this is public for a listed company, so asking lets you check the version you are given against the version in the annual report. A recruiter who cannot describe the pipeline is not close enough to the science to tell you what the job involves.
Which therapeutic areas is the company putting its money into over the next few years?
Why ask it
Stated priorities and funded priorities are not always the same, so ask where headcount has grown lately. If the role you are discussing sits in an area nobody mentions, raise that before the interview ends.
What is the hardest problem the company has to solve in the next two or three years?
Why ask it
A patent expiry, a thin late-stage pipeline, a manufacturing remediation and a pricing reform make for four very different places to work. Listen for whether the person names one without hesitating, and whether the job in front of you is part of the answer to it.
What does this company do better than the others I am likely to be talking to?
Why ask it
It is the polite form of a question about competitors, and it lets the interviewer talk about their own house instead of someone else's compound. Answers about a platform, a way of running trials or a manufacturing strength are worth more than answers about values.
Where does the programme I would be working on sit among the company's priorities?
Why ask it
This is the askable version of which project would be cut first. Listen for whether the work belongs to a product the company describes to investors or to one still waiting on its next data, then see how much space the programme gets in the latest results presentation.
Which of your products carries the revenue now, and when does its exclusivity end?
Why ask it
A company leaning on one product that is close to losing exclusivity is planning for a drop in income, and budgets and hiring tend to tighten before the date arrives. Listed companies discuss the expected timing in their reports, so read that first and notice how openly the interviewer talks about it.
How much of the science here is internal, and how much is in-licensed?
Why ask it
Companies that mainly acquire and develop assets offer very different careers from those that discover them, with more work on trials, regulatory submissions and diligence, and less at the bench. Neither is the worse employer. The point is to know which one you are joining before you arrive.
What is the next big readout or regulatory decision, and how much of this team's work depends on it?
Why ask it
The dates are usually in investor presentations, so you are asking about the plan and not about a secret. If most of the group's work hangs on one result, the follow-up is what the group would move on to afterwards. Do not press for a view on how the data will look: nobody in the room is allowed to give one.
How is the company funded, and how far does the current money reach?
Why ask it
At a clinical-stage company this can decide whether the job still exists in a couple of years, and a serious employer will describe its cash runway in plain terms. At a large one, the equivalent is whether the budget for this unit has been rising or falling.
Is the company built on a platform, or on one lead medicine?
Why ask it
It is the first thing to settle at a small biotech. A platform can be pointed at another target when a programme fails, while a single-asset company is, in effect, its lead trial. Ask what the second programme is and how far behind the first it runs.
Who are the main investors, and have they put money in more than once?
Why ask it
At a private company, the people who funded the last round have a large say in whether there is another. Investors who returned for a later round have seen the data twice and stayed. Funding announcements are public, so read them beforehand and ask only about what they leave out.
Is the lead programme partnered with a larger company, and who decides what happens to it?
Why ask it
Licensing and co-development deals are usually announced, so read the press release first. Where the partner controls development, your team works to its timetable and can lose the programme to a change of priorities in someone else's building. Where the smaller company keeps control, ask what it has to deliver, and by when, to keep the partner paying.
Has this site been through a restructuring in the last few years, and what changed afterwards?
Why ask it
Closures and relocations are decided far above a hiring manager, who cannot tell you what is coming, so keep to what has already happened. Which functions moved, who stayed and whether the site gained or lost work are matters of record, and you can set the account beside recent news and filings.
The Role
Why is this position open: is it a new post, or did someone leave?
Why ask it
A new post tied to a programme lasts as long as the programme does, so ask which one. If it is a replacement, ask where the last person went. A move elsewhere inside the company is the answer you are hoping for.
What does a typical week look like in this job, and how much of it is documentation and meetings?
Why ask it
Regulated work produces a great deal of writing, and the share can surprise someone coming from a university laboratory. A rough split between bench or clinic time, documents and meetings is enough. If the person cannot give one, have them walk you through last Tuesday.
What would you want me to have delivered by the end of the first year?
Why ask it
Timelines in this industry are long, and a year may cover one study report or one stage of a submission. A named deliverable shows the manager has thought about where you fit; a list of adjectives shows they have not. Write the answer down, because it is the fairest thing to hold your first review up against.
How will my performance be measured, and who writes the review?
Why ask it
In a project matrix the person who sees your work every day is often a programme lead, while the review comes from a line manager in your own function. Find out how the two compare notes. It also helps to know whether your goals hang on milestones you cannot control, such as trial recruitment or a regulator's timetable.
Who would I report to, and how many people does that person already manage?
Why ask it
A manager with a very large group has little time to look at any one person's work, whatever the induction slides promise. If you have not met them by the final round, say you would like to, and notice whether that is hard to arrange.
Would I be on one programme, or moved between them?
Why ask it
One programme gives depth, and the risk that the project ends under you. Rotation gives breadth and less ownership of any result. For a single project, the natural next question is how far it is from its next decision point.
What happens to a team when its compound fails in phase two?
Why ask it
Attrition is normal in drug development and the honest answer describes redeployment, a defined transition period, or in some cases redundancy. A company that has never thought about it, or that implies failure does not happen here, is telling you something about how candid the place is.
What decisions could I make without escalating them?
Why ask it
This is the practical measure of seniority, more reliable than a title or a grade. Ask for two examples of decisions someone at your level took last month, and note whether the examples are about the science or about scheduling.
Which other functions would I work with most, and where do the handovers tend to go wrong?
Why ask it
Drug development is a relay between research, clinical, regulatory, manufacturing and commercial teams, and a lot of delay happens where the baton changes hands. Someone who can name the awkward handover knows the work. If you hear that everything runs smoothly, try the question on a second person.
How much of the work is outsourced, and would managing contract organisations be part of my job?
Why ask it
A lot of preclinical and clinical work is placed with contract research organisations, so a job with a scientific title can turn out to be vendor oversight. That is a real skill and a fair career, but it should be something you choose and not something you find out in the first month.
At a company this size, what would I be doing that is not in the job description?
Why ask it
In a small biotech one person may run the assay, manage the contract laboratory and draft a section of a regulatory document in the same month. That breadth is the reason some people go to one, and the reason others leave. Ask what the last person in the post ended up covering.
What does training look like in the first three months, and how much of it is reading procedures?
Why ask it
Most regulated roles begin with a stack of standard operating procedures to read and sign, which is necessary and is not the same thing as being trained. The useful detail is who shows you the actual work, and how long it is before new starters do it unsupervised.
What equipment and systems would I be using, and when were they last updated?
Why ask it
In a laboratory this is about instruments and whether you queue for them; in clinical or regulatory work it is the trial and document systems you will live in. Old validated systems are common because replacing them is expensive, so the useful part is whether there is a plan and a budget.
Is the role on site every day, or can some of it be done from home?
Why ask it
Bench and plant work has to happen where the equipment is, while writing and analysis often does not. Ask what the team does in practice and whether the rule has changed in the past year, since the policy on a careers page can lag behind what managers now expect.
How much travel is there, and where to?
Why ask it
Trial sites, contract laboratories, manufacturing plants and congresses can add up to a lot of nights away that the advertisement calls occasional travel. Someone doing the job can give you last year's rough count, and tell you whether weekend travel is given back as time off.
What are the hours really like around a submission or a database lock?
Why ask it
The average week tells you little; the weeks before a filing or a lock are the ones people remember. Useful follow-up: how often those periods came round last year, and whether anyone saw them coming.
Science and Compliance
How is an unwelcome result handled here?
Why ask it
The best reply is a story: a time the data did not support a programme, who said so, and what happened to them and to the project. A long silence, or an answer made only of process documents, is not encouraging.
What happens when someone raises a safety or compliance concern?
Why ask it
Any company of this kind has a written procedure and a reporting line, so the procedure is not the answer you are after. Ask about the last time someone on this team used it, and whether they would go to their manager first. Hesitation over that second part says more than the policy does.
When a deviation or a mistake is found, what is the first thing that happens?
Why ask it
You are listening for whether the first move is to find out what went wrong in the process or to find out who did it. Where people are blamed, errors get reported late, and in a regulated plant or laboratory the late report is the bigger problem. A recent example with the names left out is a fair thing to request.
When was this site last inspected by a regulator, and what came out of it?
Why ask it
Some regulators publish inspection outcomes and warning letters, so look before the interview and compare. A site working through a long list of findings is not necessarily one to avoid, but the job will be remediation for a while, and you should hear that from them and not discover it in your second month.
What is the publication policy for work I do here?
Why ask it
This matters most if you may want to go back to a university one day. The details to get are who signs off a paper, how long that review takes, whether negative results are ever published, and whether you can present at a conference under your own name.
Who owns the intellectual property from my work, and are inventors recognised in any way?
Why ask it
An employment contract will normally assign inventions to the company, and that is expected. What differs by employer and by country is whether inventors are named on filings, whether an award or payment scheme exists and how disclosures are handled, so ask how it works where you would be based and read the clause itself.
Where do patients come into the work of this team?
Why ask it
Some groups sit down with patient advisers when they design a trial or write its materials, and some never meet anyone who takes the medicine. Neither answer rules a job out. It shows whether the patient focus on the careers page is a way of working or a line of copy.
How are automation and AI changing the work in this group?
Why ask it
Ask what is in daily use, not what is being piloted. The practical follow-up is who checks the output, because someone still has to sign for the result. A vague answer is common and harmless; an answer about shrinking the team you are applying to join is worth hearing now.
Field Roles
How is the territory or account list drawn up, and what state did the last person leave it in?
Why ask it
For a sales or medical liaison post the patch matters as much as the product. Ask how many accounts it holds, how far apart they are and how long it has been vacant, because relationships left unattended for months take a long time to rebuild.
Would I be employed by the manufacturer, or by a contract sales organisation working for it?
Why ask it
Worth raising early in a pharmaceutical sales interview, because the advertisement does not always say. A contract post lasts as long as the client's contract, so ask when that runs to and what happened to the team when the last one ended. Some people take these posts as a way into the manufacturer, so ask how many have made that move.
How are sales targets set, and how many of the team reached theirs last year?
Why ask it
A target that only a small part of the team reaches is a pay cut written as an incentive. Two details finish the picture: whether targets move in the middle of the year, and what happens to them when a competitor launches or supply runs short.
Where do the sales figures I would be paid on come from, and how late do they arrive?
Why ask it
In many markets a representative never takes an order, and sales are credited from prescription or wholesaler data the company buys in. That data can run weeks behind and can miss some pharmacies or hospitals, so ask what happens when you think your territory's number is wrong. It varies by country and by product, so ask how it works for this one.
What product and disease-area training would I get before my first call?
Why ask it
You will be talking to people who treat the condition every day, so this decides whether your first visits are useful or awkward. Find out how long the initial training runs, whether there is a test at the end, and whether a manager rides along in the early weeks. Some countries require representatives to pass an industry exam, so check whether one applies where you would work.
What am I allowed to say to a prescriber about the product, and who approves the materials?
Why ask it
Promotion of medicines is tightly regulated and the rules differ by country, so ask how it works where you would be based. The answer you want includes a review process and a clear route for questions you may not answer yourself. Be wary of any hint that good representatives find a way round it.
Does the job involve handling samples, and what records go with them?
Why ask it
Rules on medicine samples differ widely by country, and some companies have stopped giving them out, so ask how it works where you would be based. Where samples are used, storing them, collecting signatures and reconciling stock are part of the week, and a discrepancy is treated as a compliance matter and not as a clerical slip.
How much time do representatives in this area actually get with prescribers now?
Why ask it
Access to clinics and hospitals varies a great deal by region and institution, and some see no representatives at all. A description of a normal week of calls, and of how much contact is by video or email, tells you whether the job is conversations or logistics.
How many products would I be detailing, and which one comes first in the call?
Why ask it
The time a prescriber gives a representative is short, so whatever is presented first gets most of it. The order is normally set by the brand teams, and it shows which product the company is counting on. Check that it is also the one your incentive leans on.
How is the medical affairs team kept apart from sales targets?
Why ask it
One for medical science liaison and medical information posts. Ask who the team reports to and what it is measured on: scientific exchange and insights gathered are normal answers, prescription volume is not. Codes of practice differ by country, so ask which one the company works to.
Is there a launch coming, and where would I be in it?
Why ask it
Joining ahead of a launch usually means long hours, a great deal of training and a line on a CV that is hard to get any other way. Joining a product a few years from loss of exclusivity is a job of defending ground. Both can be good posts for different people, so find out which this is.
Culture
What made you join, and has it turned out the way you expected?
Why ask it
The second half is where the answer is. People describe the gap between the offer and the reality quite readily when asked this way, and a pause followed by a careful sentence about the science is an answer too.
How many people have joined this group in the last two years, and how many have left?
Why ask it
Put the two numbers side by side. A group that has hired a lot and lost a lot deserves a follow-up about where the leavers went: to other teams in the company, to competitors, or out of the industry. Mergers and site moves drive departures too, so find out what was going on at the time before you read much into it.
How do people who came here from academia find the change?
Why ask it
If you are leaving a university laboratory, ask to hear from one of them directly. The usual adjustments are giving up a project when the company decides, writing for a file instead of a journal, and working to someone else's timeline. Several former academics still in post after a few years is the evidence you want.
When the scientific view and the commercial view disagree, who usually wins?
Why ask it
Every company says the science leads. Ask for a case where a commercially attractive programme was stopped on the data, or one that was kept alive against the scientists' advice. Being told there has never been a disagreement would be the worrying reply.
What kind of person has not done well in this team?
Why ask it
Easier to answer honestly than a question about who succeeds, and more specific. If the description is of someone who questioned things, set it beside whatever you were told about how unwelcome results are received.
How often do people in this group see senior leadership, and when were they last on site?
Why ask it
In a company spread over several countries, a site that leaders rarely visit tends to hear about decisions after they are made. A recent visit, with real questions taken from the floor, is a good sign for the site's standing as well as for the culture.
How is credit shared when a programme reaches a milestone?
Why ask it
A great many people touch a medicine before it is approved, and most are never named anywhere. Ask who was thanked, and how, the last time something was filed or approved. It is a small thing that shows whether the people below the project leader are seen.
How do people here talk about drug pricing and access when it comes up?
Why ask it
Friends and relatives will put this to you once you work in the industry, so it is fair to hear how the company puts it to itself. A considered answer, with an access programme or a pricing decision it can point to, is a good sign. Save it for a senior interviewer: a laboratory head may reasonably have no view.
What would you change about working here if you could?
Why ask it
Put it to everyone you meet, separately, and compare. The same real irritation from three people suggests an honest place with a known problem. Nothing but praise from all of them is harder to read, and is a reason to seek one more conversation with someone who does the job.
Offer and Career
What is the salary range for this grade, and where in it would an offer to me sit?
Why ask it
Most large companies work to grades with set bands, so a range usually exists even when the recruiter would prefer not to say it. Whether an employer has to disclose it depends on where you are, so check the local rule. The band also tells you how much room is left before you would need a promotion to earn more.
How is the bonus determined, and what did it actually pay in the last poor year?
Why ask it
Variable pay in this industry is often tied to company results that no one person can influence. Get the target percentage and what was actually paid over the last few years, and treat the headline figure as a best case until you know how it held up in a year when a trial failed.
Is there a share scheme or equity, and what are the vesting terms?
Why ask it
At a small company equity can be a large part of the offer and may end up worth nothing, so ask for the number of options, the strike price, the vesting schedule and what happens on an acquisition. At a large one it is usually a modest long-term award. Tax treatment differs by country, so take that to an adviser and not to the interviewer.
What does progression look like, and when was someone in this role last promoted?
Why ask it
Career frameworks look generous on a slide. A specific instance, with a date and a timescale, is the only thing that shows the ladder is being climbed rather than displayed.
Is there a scientific ladder as well as a management one?
Why ask it
Many companies describe a route to senior grades for people who want to stay technical. Ask how many people hold the top scientific titles in this function compared with director posts, and whether the pay bands match. If the only way up is to manage people, you want to know that before you have spent five years getting good at the science.
How easy is it to move between functions, say from research into regulatory or medical affairs?
Why ask it
One real advantage of a large pharmaceutical employer is the number of different careers under one roof. Ask for someone who has made the move and how it was arranged: an internal posting, a secondment, or a quiet word with a director.
Does the company pay for further study, conferences or professional registration?
Why ask it
What was approved for this team last year is a better guide than what the policy allows. Funded study sometimes comes with a clause to repay the cost if you leave within a set period, so find out, and get the terms in writing if it does.
What limits would the contract put on where I can work next?
Why ask it
Non-compete and confidentiality terms are routine in this industry, and whether a non-compete can be enforced depends heavily on the country or state. Ask for the wording before you accept, and have someone qualified read it if the next job you can imagine is at a competitor.
Could I talk to someone who does this job now before I give you an answer?
Why ask it
A request for after the interview, once the company has said it wants you. A peer can tell you about the queue for the instrument, the state of the document system or the real call rate, which a manager sees from further away. Half an hour by phone is enough, and for a field post ask for someone on a neighbouring territory.
Can I see where I would be working before I decide: the laboratory, the plant, or a day on territory with a representative?
Why ask it
Interviews happen in meeting rooms, and the bench, the cleanroom corridor or the car is where the job is. Some areas need a confidentiality agreement or gowning, and a day in the field may need clearing with the accounts visited, so ask what can be arranged and allow time for it. A refusal with a reason is fine; a refusal with none deserves a second request.
Which checks have to clear before a start date is fixed?
Why ask it
References, proof of qualifications and a right-to-work check are common, and some posts add occupational health screening, a driving licence check for field staff or a search of regulatory exclusion lists. What is required depends on the country and the role, so ask for the list and how long each item took for recent starters. The slowest one sets the date.
How long would I have to decide once the offer arrives, and is any of it still open to discussion?
Why ask it
At a large company the grade and band are usually settled by the time an offer is written, and the room left is in the start date, relocation help or a sign-on payment. At a small one the number of options may be open as well. Raising it before the offer is drafted is easier than asking for a second version.
Is there anything in my background that makes you hesitate about me for this post?
Why ask it
It takes some nerve, and it gives you the one chance you will get to answer a doubt before it goes into the interview notes. If the concern is a missing technique or no industry experience, say how you would close the gap and by when.
What happens next, and when should I expect to hear?
Why ask it
Hiring at a large company can pass through several approval layers and background checks, so the wait between a final interview and a written offer may be long. Get a date and the name of the person to contact, and wait for the offer in writing before you resign from anything.
Talking to a pharmaceutical employer
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Choosing from a long list
- Nobody gets through the whole list in one interview. The time left for your questions at the end is short, usually enough for four or five asked properly, with follow-ups.
- Company and Pipeline questions go to whoever is closest to the science or the business: a hiring manager, a head of function, a site lead. A recruiter can answer the ones on process, pay bands and working pattern, and will often be relieved to be asked something they know.
- The Role and Science and Compliance groups are for the person you would report to and the people who would be your peers. Put the same question to two of them where you can; the difference between the answers is the information.
- Field Roles is for sales, account management and medical affairs posts, and can be skipped for a laboratory, clinical operations or manufacturing job.
- Offer and Career mostly waits for the later rounds. The exceptions are the salary range, which is fair to ask as soon as someone raises money or asks for your expectations, and the last two questions in the group, which close any interview. The four before those, on talking to someone in the job, seeing the workplace, pre-employment checks and the time you have to decide, are for after the interview, once the company has said it wants you.
- Anything a listed company has already published, such as its pipeline and its expected exclusivity dates, should be read first and asked second. The question then becomes whether what you are told matches.
Preparation that changes the conversation
- Read the company's own pipeline page and, if it is listed, the most recent annual report and quarterly results commentary. Both tell you which programmes management is talking about and which have quietly disappeared.
- Search regulatory registers and public trial registries for the programme you would work on. Knowing the phase, the indication and the comparator lets you ask about the science instead of about the company.
- Note any recent approval, rejection, safety label change or acquisition. These drive hiring and reorganisation more than anything on a careers page.
- Look up the people interviewing you and their publication history. It shows whether the group publishes at all, which answers a question you would otherwise have to ask.
- Write down your two or three genuine constraints, location, on-call, travel, laboratory work, and raise them early rather than after an offer.
How the setting changes what to ask
Large established company
Ask about scope of the role, the size of your manager's team, how work is divided with contract organisations, and where decisions get made. The risk is not the company failing, it is being one of dozens of people on a programme with a narrow remit.
Small or clinical-stage biotech
Ask how many months of cash the company has, what the next funding milestone is, and what happens if the current readout is negative. Options are part of pay here, so ask about strike price, vesting and what happens on acquisition. At a biotech interview it is also fair to ask whether the company rests on a platform or one medicine, who its investors are, and whether a partner controls the lead programme.
Generics and manufacturing
The work is quality, process and regulatory rather than discovery. Ask about inspection history, shift patterns, and how deviations and recalls are handled, since those define the job day to day.
Contract research organisation
Ask how many client studies you would carry at once and how utilisation targets are set. Billable hours shape these roles more than most candidates expect, and the subject may not come up in the interview unless you raise it.
Pharmaceutical sales and medical affairs
The employer may be the manufacturer or a contract sales organisation working for one, so ask which, and whose targets and whose training you would be under. Ask about the territory, how targets are set, what the approved materials allow you to say, and how much access to prescribers the area really offers. For a medical science liaison post, ask what the team is measured on and who it reports to.
Careers fair or short conversation
Pick two questions, one about the pipeline and one about what the person actually does all day. Long lists do not survive a five minute queue. Find out first whether you are talking to a recruiter or to someone from a function, since that decides which of the two they can answer.
Questions to leave alone
- Unpublished trial data, interim results or anything a listed company could not say publicly. Asking marks you as someone who does not understand disclosure rules.
- Requests for a view on a competitor's compound or litigation. Nobody can answer, and it makes the rest of the conversation cautious.
- Anything that invites the interviewer to speculate about a merger, a site closure or which programme will be cut. Ask about the site's history and the programme's place in the plan instead, which they can talk about.
- Pay in the first screening call if you have been asked to hold it, though you should ask for the range before a final interview.
- Personal details about staff turnover framed as gossip. Ask about numbers joining and leaving, not about individuals.
After the interview
- Write down the answers the same day, particularly on programme stage, reporting line and variable pay. These are the points that get remembered inaccurately later.
- Ask to speak to someone doing the job now, without their manager present. If that cannot be arranged, it is fair to ask why.
- Check contract terms on notice period, restrictive covenants, publication approval and intellectual property before signing rather than after.
- Compare the offer on base salary rather than on the total headline figure, then treat bonus and equity separately as amounts that may not arrive.