How will growing regulatory and financial pressures and an increasingly globalized labor market affect career prospects in pharma for life scientists? What key skills are required by people hoping to work in the new and growing field of pharmacogenomics? Is it really possible to create a start-up-style environment in a Big Pharma setting? This section answers these questions and many others with a series of articles outlining the big changes underway in Big Pharma and the effects on hiring within the industry.