The Easy Switch from Semicon to Pharma

If you’ve spent years (or maybe even decades) building a career in semicon, you might be thinking that it’s the only industry you have skills for.

You’d be wrong.

There’s significant overlap between the skills needed in semicon and those required in pharma.

Both industries demand precision, process control and strict adherence to procedures.

Your experience managing long, integrated manufacturing processes translates directly to pharma’s focus on documentation and end-to-end traceability.

With some targeted training, you can easily convert these skills and find yourself as an ideal candidate for a job in pharma.

As an individual with semicon experience, you’ve got a whole range of skills that are useful across pharma manufacturing:

• You’ve worked within structured systems – you’ve followed SOPs, recorded steps and logged work consistently. Operating under strict controls and maintaining data integrity is already second nature.
• You’re technically proficient – you’re comfortable with complex, high-spec machinery and adapting quickly to new technologies.
• You bring a quality mindset – you know how to follow procedures, spot issues and troubleshoot to keep production on track.
• You’re familiar with cleanroom environments – you understand gowning, contamination control and environmental monitoring. While the specific standards differ, these are all critical in pharma.
• You work with safety and risk in mind – you’re used to following procedures that protect people, processes and products.
• You collaborate well across teams – you’ve worked with multiple departments to keep operations running smoothly.
• You solve problems in automated systems – your experience with fab automation, fault detection and root-cause analysis prepares you for pharma’s data-driven and validation-focused operations.

There are, of course, some obvious differences between semicon manufacturing and pharma manufacturing…

The regulations are different.

Semicon relies on internal protocols and quality standards, but its manufacturing processes are not legally regulated. Pharma is heavily regulated by health authorities such as the FDA or EMA.

The specific manufacturing techniques are different.

Semicon deals with photolithography, deposition and etching processes and nanometre tolerances. It uses some of the most technically advanced and expensive machines in the world. Pharma often involves sterile processes, batch release, and bioreactors.

But perhaps the biggest difference between semicon and pharma manufacturing are the consequences of poor quality.

If something goes wrong in semicon manufacturing, you get a chip that malfunctions. If something goes wrong in the pharmaceutical manufacturing process, somebody could get sick or even die.

Every decision made in pharma impacts patients.

It’s vital, therefore, that everyone involved in the manufacturing process keeps those patients in mind as they navigate their working day.

Developing a patient-centred mindset and applying it to all your decision-making is essential. And that’s probably the biggest change you’d have to make.

But it’s very doable. And once you develop that patient-centred mindset, you’ll have it for life.

As you’ve seen, you’re not starting from scratch.

With so many useful skills already developed, you just need to realign your current systems knowledge to match pharma with some pharma-specific regulation training, and work on developing that patient-centred mindset.

Here at GetReskilled, we offer different courses depending on your current role and background. All our courses are fully online with course materials available 24/7, so whatever your current schedule or commitments, these courses can work for you.

For Operators:

Take our Conversion into Pharma manufacturing course.

Click this link to visit the Conversion into Pharma Manufacturing course page.

For Manufacturing and Process Technicians:

Take our University accredited Level 7 Certificate in eBioPharmaChem.

Click this link to visit the Certificate in eBioPharmaChem course page.

For Facilities and Maintenance Engineers:

Take our Conversion Course into Pharma for Engineers.

Click this link to visit the Conversion Course into Pharma for Engineers course page.

Whichever course you choose, you’ll study part-time and get all you need to make a successful transition from semicon to pharma.