associate director

director

manager

manufacturing associate

quality assurance analyst

Alkermes, Inc.

I was a contract employee at Alkermes.  It was close to home and although it was NOTHING like what they described, it was a good job.  Both the staffing company and the internal management I interviewed with stated it was a lab type job, but it was really a manufacturing-general labor type job that had nothing to do with the degree I received.  Because I was a contract (temporary) employee, I received no vacation or sick days, no benefits, was not allowed to partake in the small raffles (VIP parking spot, vacation day, baskets, etc.), and did NOT receive a shift difference in my pay even though I worked 2nd (afternoon) shift.  I was recently let go because so-called internal moves; this had been planned for a week, yet I was not informed until Saturday, a weekend day we are not scheduled to work, and also informed that my locker would be cleaned out and sent to me.  My supervisor was not consulted in this matter and therefore could not even break the news to me.  Although this may be a great company to work for if you are fortunate enough to be a full time employee, the temporary employee status is definitely not one to recommend, and since 90% of their company is hired through the same staffing company on a temporary basis, I wish every contract employee there the best of luck and hope they do not get what I did not deserve.

The company as a whole is phenomenal. The benefits are wonderful, the products created and company goals make you feel good about the work that you do. The people, in general, are kind and down-to-earth. The only bad experience I have is with management and the QA department. Managers are not focused enough on employee development/individual goals, and are weak in addressing perceived employee issues. Instead of talking to individual employees about specific issues, emails were sent, SOPs created about employee expectations, etc. Management was overly critical of all of the work that analysts did, and not rewarding enough to all of the hard work completed. It created a negative work space and an atmosphere of distrust and parenting between management and employees. I experienced this across departments. The QA department further exacerbated trust issues among departments. The QA manager verbally told employees that they want to operate as a police force to the QC analysts, and follow them to make sure they were documenting everything.

Alkermes can be a great place to work if you have the right mindset to work there. The standards are high! When you’re making medicine that goes into someone’s body, nothing less than 100% accuracy will do. however, working there is like taking an open book test… but you MUST get 100% every time. If you can work under these conditions, they pay well for that level of detail.

Now the downside. If you make mistakes. Even small mistakes, your job is on the line. Bulk manufacturing can be a difficult and long training process. You can often take trainees up to a year to feel proficient at their job, and two years to feel that they have a solid understanding of the process.

Due to the high standards of the job, it is not uncommon for departments to run short staffed. Even short staffed, the workload is not unmanageable. Take caution, a larger work load due to being short staffed is not an excuse for even a single error. 

If you are a consummate professional who can avoid the temptation to lower the quality of the work in order to work faster, then you can make a good career at Alkermes. 



Alkermes has an exceptional work life balance and compensation but very poor leadership at the Director level. The company does not promote collaboration between groups and in fact reprimands employees who desire to learn about and meet other key stakeholders that may affect your work. The company in my experience has inadequate training programs that are job specific and expects you to perform at a high level with zero to no training or guidance regarding your Job. The business has a culture of working in silos with strict restrictions on being able to communicate with other people across the organization. Be aware that when you interview for the company the team sells the opportunity to collaborate and bring new ideas, but when you do they may come at the cost of your continued employment. The company is still developing new process and is still junior in this area.

I was hired as a temp for the potential of being hired full-time.  Worked there for a year and was let go.  Had no verbal or written write-ups from my manager or the department supervisor.  Should have known this was going to happen since there were many temps from different departments not getting hired and all of them suddenly just gone from the facility or never hired after more than two years of working for the company.  The manager was disengaged from the department except for when passing through and only acknowledged certain ones.  Spent most of the day in meetings or running personal errands outside of work.  Supervisor when left in charge did great but when both were together, there was tension.  The manager was somewhat of a control freak and felt that they need to make every decision even though the supervisor was clearly capable of doing all the small issues. 

The employees keeps mentioning culture and how they want to maintain their unique and positive culture.  I must be in the wrong department.  It is nothing but that.  Directors fight and the people under them are stuck in the fighting.  There is serious office politics and it is so frustrating to get job done.  Lots of my colleagues kiss up and kick down.  They protect themselves by currying favor with people in power and exploiting those who have none.  It’s an exhausting and demoralizing culture.  To add to the mayhem, half the people are gone.  I wish there was a background reference check system in directors and managers and find out how they managed in the past.  Because interview goes both ways.

The people/team I was on was wonderful. We all helped each other and cracked jokes. Overall fun and supportive group/atmosphere. 

However, the company's procedures/training basically set you up to fail. So many little unwritten rules and counter-intuitive instructions. No decisive way data is to be processed and reported leading to confusion and disagreements on what the method 'intends'. Recently a new manager came in and started changing everything with the mentality of 'I know best' and the classic 'my way is the only right way'. 

I was a QC contractor for 9 months. My supervisor was complementing me and trying to get me on full time. Despite the "Deep Compassion" it the company motto, they terminated my contract via an email to my contractor group. They wouldn't even let me know themselves.

I learned a lot about Quality & Regulatory Compliance while working for Alkermes. 

The pay was great for the area, but the work culture was rather poor. Management tended overlook, if not outright ignore, open nepotism. If you "got in good" with a high level manager, your ticket was golden. Professional development was promoted as a company value, but if someone in management didn't like you - forget it. 

There was also the twice yearly threat that you would be layed off, and that was used as a fear tactic to get people to put in excessive hours and work well outside of their required job function to ensure job security. 

That being said - when it was your turn to get the axe, the severance package was pretty decent.

I went through a temp agency for this position and was only there for 3 months when they made plans to shut down my line of work to add on to it so they had to get rid of people and was fired without any notice. I got the call after working hours on the Friday before Christmas, I was in the middle of watching my family open Christmas presents at the time. I did not have background in the field so everything was new to me. I tried so hard to learn everything I could and nobody seemed willing to help and many other temps also felt this way as well. They were extremely unorganized and very unprofessional. I don't even know why they would've hired me along with other people if they knew they wouldn't need us three months down the road.

I knew going in that it was a temporary position. The job was supposed to be only 6 months which ended up being almost 3 years. I learned how to achieve accurate and timely goals as well as getting myself involved in other studies that where taken place. The company was great to work with. Just a few people where a little bit harder to deal with but came around with time. Everyone there became like family to me. In an environment like that sometimes it is hard to get to know people on a personal level. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Associate director 4 salaries reported	$170,000 per year
Director 4 salaries reported	$212,250 per year
Manager 3 salaries reported	$139,000 per year
Manufacturing associate 3 salaries reported	$40,467 per year
Quality assurance analyst 4 salaries reported	$89,500 per year

Working at Alkermes, Inc.: Company Overview and Reviews

Alkermes, Inc.

Alkermes, Inc. Ratings

Popular jobs at Alkermes, Inc.

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected