Okay, so I wanted to get a handle on the biotech scene in Washington State. I’d heard it was booming, but I wanted to see for myself what companies were out there. I’m thinking about maybe, possibly, someday switching industries, so this was my little fact-finding mission.
First, I started with a broad search. You know, just typing in “biotech companies in Washington State” to see what popped up. Honestly, it was a bit overwhelming at first. Lots of lists, lots of names, lots of websites that looked like they were designed in the 90s.
Digging a Little Deeper
After the initial shock, I started to organize things. I made a simple spreadsheet – nothing fancy, just company names and maybe a website if I could find it easily. I figured I’d focus on companies that looked, well, active. Recent news articles, updated websites, that kind of thing. A company with a blog post from 2015 wasn’t exactly screaming “cutting edge” to me.
I found several sources that helped me narrow it down:
- General company list. It was a massive, but gave me a sense of what the state has to offer.
- Some news article about Washington’s biotech. I skimmed, but it was a bit high-level for what I wanted.
- Life Science Washington association. Seemed credible.
Making Sense of it All
Next, I went to find the “members” page of the association. Boom! A pretty solid list of companies, many with descriptions. Much better than random website surfing!
From that, I was able to pick out a few companies that sounded interesting, based on my completely unscientific criteria (interesting name, cool-sounding mission statement, you get the idea). I’m not going to list them all here, because, honestly, it’s a long list. And my notes are a mess.
Finally, I used some websites like to check out a few of my “shortlist” companies. Saw some employee reviews, got a feel for company size, that sort of thing. It’s all very preliminary, but it gave me a starting point.
My takeaway? There’s a lot going on in Washington biotech. More than I realized. Whether I actually make a career move is a whole other question, but at least now I feel like I have a slightly better grasp of the landscape.
