For the past 6 months I’ve been applying to Pharma/Biotech jobs and get an email 2 weeks after the final interviews saying that “Due to a recent change in our business needs, we will not be filling this position at this time.” Is this normal? Are they just shutting me down without causing potential liability for them? Or are these companies interviewing and not hiring (ghost job postings)?

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That is strange if you get the same message every time. I don’t think it is normal. How many such responses did you get? They will not have any liability if they just reject you for a different reason. Most emails say while you have impressive credentials we had stronger candidates for this position or something to the like. Hope that helps.

However, there has been a lot of impact for certain functions this year in pharma so if you are applying to one of the functions, it is very possible that they are giving you the right message.

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RD at biotech. Not always. It’s a mix of this email if I get far OR dead silence and after 2 weeks I write back and the manager says the classic other candidate email reply OR I get the generic email. However, this reply is very a common reply…

My best advice is to take a break if you still have a job. The current job market (at least in the US) for bench roles is very saturated with many companies restructuring and laying off people. We get emails every other week about teams merging or reorganizing, so now is not the best time to look for a job. You don’t want to be so desperate that you end up applying to a lower title position (lower pay too) and be not happy for the next few years. Give a general idea - some of the roles we have open now will not even reply to internal applicants/transfers. Things might get better towards the end of the year.

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Sounds like a J&J email…

Do all of our companies use the same rejection format this year?

Our company has an "unofficial" hiring freeze for any role besides sales and engineers. Not uncommon in the pharma/medical field right now.

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