Ten Simple Rules for Internship in a Pharmaceutical Company

Students have to choose between industry and academia at the end of their formal education. One great opportunity to assess their ability in industry is to intern in a company during their academic training [1]. Many pharmaceutical companies often offer a 10to 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. Depending on the particular project and student performance, interns should be able to accomplish one or more short scientific projects. Some interns may be able to present the results of their work in the form of scientific papers or conference talks or even land a job through the training. This short-term working experience in pharmaceutical companies will help students better understand the pharmaceutical industry, learn the process of drug discovery and development, and build a strong network with experts and fellows in the pharmaceutical field, which can positively contribute to future career development. In addition, it will help students to identify if they really enjoy working in industry and help them in choosing a future career after school. Thus, it is of extreme importance to make full use of this rare opportunity to explore the pharmaceutical field, to nurture yourself, and to prepare for a career after school. Many students often manage to have one or even more internship trainings during their school years. For those who are planning to do an internship, I would like to tell you about my five internship experiences in three big pharmaceutical companies (namely, Novartis, Pfizer, and Merck) during graduate school at Indiana University, Bloomington. The rules and advice also come from my former intern fellows, mentors, and colleagues from pharmaceutical companies. Besides computational biology and chemistry, many of these rules may be applied to other industrial fields as well. Rule 1: Start Preparing for an Internship Early