Pros
Benefits: Start with 3 weeks of PTO and 10 holidays. Initially, additional PTO days are earned every year then every other years. This aspect is better than many big pharma companies because those big pharma companies only bump PTO days after X years worked (5/10 years). Flexibility: Flexible start time. The facility is open 24/7, so sometimes you can make up hours on the weekends. Many people in the technical departments are new college graduates (under 30), which makes fitting in quite easy. It’s a good place for entry level professionals if you can’t land a job with a pharma right after college. Most of my colleagues I work with on a daily basis are amazing people.
Cons
Benefits: 401k contribution is matched 50% up to 3%. In other words, you contribute 6%, and they match 3%. This is the worst retirement benefit of all of the pharma companies I’ve researched as potential future employers (although Lancaster Labs is a contact research organization, not pharmaceutical). There are no sick days, so you have to use PTO is cover those days. Sometimes the management will allow you to work on the weekend to make up sick days. The pay is not in line with the market. For similar job functions I currently perform, large pharma companies in central and southeast PA would pay $10,000-$20,000 more. In parts of Maryland, Raleigh area North Carolina, Connecticut, and Massachusetts the pay can be $25,000-$35,000 more, but the cost of living in many of those places is higher than Lancaster and the surrounding counties. I have a low opinion of my department ‘s management team. The management team is divided into a clique and everyone else who are not in the clique. There is a lot of finger pointing and not enough ownership taking. There is a lot of work delegation by the management (their responsibilities) to their subordinates who do not have those responsibilities on their (the subordinates) job description. My opinion is that more than half of the management team in my department do not possess leadership qualities required by supervisors/managers. I am still being haunted by my student loans. The pay and the management are equally as important to me. If one or the other is above my expectations, then I would certainly consider making a career here.