AstraZeneca reviews

Used to be proud to say I work for AZ, but in recent years the work culture seems to have changed. You need to be their kind of person to advance - not necessarily whether you perform the role to the expected standard, but your ‘face’ and a bullish attitude is most important. Everything in the nice new building keeps breaking down.

Matrix working environment means that Postdocs are at the same career level as graduates, Master and PhD students - Postdocs are not undervalued! Not much effort gets out into reviewing project proposals that eventually get funded - especially regarding resources, budget, novelty of the project. More ideas are based on ill-planned pilot studies. Zero opportunity to get any training on the industry experience - immense pressure to publish while not actually providing ample support. Postdoc projects are disconnected from what the rest of the team does - often making the 3 years very arduous and an isolating experience. The programme does not encourage feedback - good or bad. Always criticized when you challenge the status quo. There is far more value towards career progression when you leave the company, than when you are actually there. Establishing confidentiality agreements with academic collaborators can take up to a year - because Postdoc projects do not fall under any tier / project prioritization, slowing down the entire process. The programme is definitely oversold during the interview and doesn't live up to those expectations once you are actually hired. Extreme limitations and restrictions on attending conferences - often being denied of the opportunity. Sign-on bonuses are team-specific. People have gotten 5k to move from London to Cambridge. But nothing when moving from abroad - goes on to show the overall lack of standardization. Payscale, although better than academia, is very arbitrary - prior experiences don't seem to count towards anything. Little to no power to negotiate starting pay.