Vault’s Verdict

Lifescience Dynamics provides great opportunities for entry-level graduates, with early exposure to a wide roster of well-known clients. The firm prides itself as a leading provider of competitive intelligence in the pharma space, providing learning opportunities and responsibilities that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

LSD insiders cite a positive work culture and friendly team atmosphere as key differentiators as life at the firm. However, that quality of life may be impacted by long hours and lack of work-life balance during crunch periods—with few formal structures in place to prevent overwork. While base pay may not be on par with competitors, generous bonuses and promotion opportunities help to make up for this, with rapid pay progression for those making the upward journey through the ranks. 

Firm Culture

“Apart from working with big players in the industry and being highly competitive, the work culture at LSD is very attractive and the people at the firm are really kind and helpful.”

“Great opportunity for entry-level graduates, and great exposure to clients, not sustainable in longer term due to poor work life balance.”

“If you are looking for a place where you can quickly develop new skills, become a project manager within 1.5 years and keep growing and being promoted yearly while working with a fantastic, friendly and intelligent team - this is a great place for you.”

“The best competitive intelligence consulting firm or I should say we are the number 1 CI consulting company for the pharmaceutical companies.”

“You will be given learning opportunities and responsibilities that I think would be hard to find elsewhere, as long as you're willing to put in the hard work.”

Quality of Life

“Company culture is supportive on a day-to-day basis, however company does not have structures in place to prevent routine overworking of employee base.”

“Hours are horribly long, expectation for you to always be available on evenings and weekends. Annual leave allowance is very small.”

“The holiday is very small (20 days + 2 half days), the hours are long and the office is quite far from my house so travel takes up most time. However we are hybrid so we can work from home most days which improves this.”

“The people that work in this company are definitely the firm's strongest attribute. There is so much diversity in people's backgrounds, educations and cultures, which I love. Everyone that works here is incredibly intelligent and hardworking and they all provide such a strong support network for each other. I think the analysts are given significant workloads and so it sometimes feels stressful to take time off or detach from work.”

“We constantly struggle with lack of resources. Once people leave the company, it takes a long time to hire new people that can replace them. What usually happens is that people who perform well and are efficient need to pick up even more work, which often leads to burn out.”

Compensation

“Best aspect is the bonus structure which has a fixed and a variable component. Fixed component increases every year for first 5 years with tenure. Bonus payment schedule is individualized and tied to each employee's tenure rather than bonuses being paid to all employees at a fixed date each year. Additionally, there are provisions to cash in additional days worked, unused leave and a birthday bonus scheme that gives cash +/- paid time off increasing with tenure. On the other hand, base pay is somewhat low compared to larger consulting companies.”

“Given the rising cost of living, and the expenses associated with living in London, I think the company could be doing more to provide competitive salaries, but we receive thoughtful gifts and bonuses throughout the year.”

“Salary is slightly below industry standard, but promotion can happen quite quickly. However, salary not at all in line with all the extra hours spent (real hourly salary is likely very low).”

“The benefits don’t appear to start until 12 months in the role which is quite a long period.”

“Variable bonus is generous. Base salary is significantly lower compared to competitors.”

Career Development

“Best aspects include a dynamic growing environment and potential to cross pollinate ideas between practices.”

“Great mentorship from project managers. Lack of formal trainings, lack of opportunities to expand into other practice areas.”

“High frequency promotion cycles, objectives for progressing clearly defined, training opportunities available but development limited by project opportunities that are won.”

“I think this job has played a very important role of the first stage in my career progression. I have been exposed to a variety of different workstreams, disease areas and worked with a multitude of different biotech and pharma companies. I have been given responsibilities that I don't think I would have had the opportunity to undertake in bigger companies. I feel like I've learnt so much in just a year.”

“You can progress through the consulting role very quickly; however, the business support roles are very fixed / not much career progression.”

Community Engagement

“Diversity is definitely a perk of this company, no discrimination based on ethnicity or gender.”

“I feel everyone has equal opportunities and there is a lot of diversity.”

“I feel that there is room for improvement in D&I area. We are very inclusive when it comes to gender and LGBTQ+, however other aspects should be improved.”

“The firm is truly very diverse and no attribute other than one's ability to do the kind of work we do is considered when hiring and promoting. We have 15 different languages being spoken between all our 80 odd staff and we celebrate all major religious festivals and receive individualised festival gifts and vouchers in addition to catered lunch in the office.”

“We are an incredibly diverse company and the company makes a huge effort to celebrate holidays from all different cultures and embrace everyone's differences.”

Business Outlook

"Good efforts in terms of diversifying away from competitive intelligence.”

“The business is strong and there is no shortage of demand for our work given our high quality and excellent track record. On the supply side there is a bit to be desired as we are trying to build up the capacity needed to satisfy this demand while competing with larger, more well-known firms for high calibre talent and our reluctance to lower our hiring standards.”

“The leadership team is very new - but they have the potential based on their previous professional experience. For the company's outlook to improve they should revisit the base salary or other aspects that make good people leave the company prematurely."

“The only thing I feel that sets us back is that our competitors are always on the lookout to poach our team members which leads to a lot of people resigning for just a little more money, it disrupts everything like our projects and puts pressures on our resources.”

“Very short term focused do not look at long term plans, employee morale is usually high but affected by lots of people leaving recently which has increased workload.”

Hiring Process

“Great recruitment process but sometimes they need more people in the HR team and recruitment team needs more people to process all the applicants.”

“Looking for fresh PhD life science degree students with drive to work in a fast paced environment.”

“LSD has a very smooth recruitment process and callback process is quite quick.”

“[Ideal candidate is] someone who can learn quickly on the job, is hard-working and is aligned with the company morals and values.”

“Very lengthy process; the ideal candidate will bring consulting experience or will have graduated from a top-ranked university.”

Interview Questions

“A lot of interviews and case studies which a lot of applicants fail.”

“Case studies based on real project examples. Which points from your CV are you the most proud of and why? What do you feel will be the most challenging in the new role?”

“Outline a specific market landscape. Maths, English and PowerPoint tests.”

“We ask about the candidate's understanding of the pharma industry and regulatory processes/ disease areas. We expect a comprehensive knowledge of the field.”

“What do you know about the life science consulting industry?”