Pros
PPD was my first job out of school, and the management in the group I landed in was phenomenal (the Biopharmaceutical group in Middleton WI). It's a big company, so your mileage may vary. For me, there were ample opportunities for mentorship and I quickly learned the pharmaceutical industry. Management in my group genuinely cared about their reports. They were also very organized, effective, and good at collaborating with other functions. All of these traits made working there a pleasure. There were a lot of other fresh graduates and the group as a whole was very social and outgoing, which was fun.
Cons
Compensation is dismally low. After about a year I accepted an offer at another company for 1.9 times my salary at PPD. This is not atypical for the CRO industry, but being able to double your salary by jumping ship as soon as you have some experience makes it very difficult to justify staying longer than a year or two. HR tightly controls compensation, so there is very little your manager can do for you. With the high turnover rate you can get promoted fast, but your raise in pay will still be laughable compared to the bump you could get by taking a job at a big pharma company. All things considered, the pay is on-par with a post-doctoral position and the experience may be more relevant if you want to go into industry, so I would still recommend the job to new graduates who don't have any other offers.
