What it does: Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is an American multinational corporation that manufactures pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and health-related consumer goods.
Mission: We believe our first responsibility is to the patients, doctors and nurses, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services.
Best known for: Listerine, Tylenol, Band-Aid, and other healthcare consumer brands.
Size & presence: Around 130,000 people working across 60 countries.
The good bits: One of the top pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and worldwide, and is considered the world’s best employer by Glassdoor’s 2022 survey.
The not-so-good bits: Highly bureaucratic, and thus are not agile enough to accommodate sudden changes.
Johnson & Johnson’s beginnings started when the three brothers established their own pharmaceutical company in 1886. Their first product was surgical dressings—something that the company still sells to this day. A remnant of their past that also survives to the 21st century is their logo—which isn’t too dissimilar to that of their first one.
As time goes by, the company continues to grow, partly through the continued acquisition of other healthcare companies across the world. Today, Johnson & Johnson’s main business sectors are three major business sectors: pharmaceuticals, med-tech, and consumer health, with a 2020 annual report stating that their biggest revenue came from their pharmaceutical product sales.
Johnson & Johnson sums up what it’s like working there in their own words: “Your day might start with a virtual meditation session with your workgroup, or a brainstorm with global teammates in a tech-enabled collaboration space. If you’re working on-campus for the day, you might grab lunch with a colleague to chat about your latest breakthrough, then find a quiet spot to do some research and respond to emails. If you’re on-site at an industry-leading manufacturing facility, lab, or innovation center, you might collect samples for testing, make adjustments to a surgical robot, or carve out some time for personalized professional development to help you reach your future career goals. You might close out your afternoon presenting your latest findings with your team or following up with a patient or consumer.”
Johnson & Johnson offers several career pathways for both students and recent university graduates. For students, Johnson & Johnson opens up several internship positions each year in nearly every department. It requires the applicant to have a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0, plus several other skills and experiences depending on the position.
As for recent university graduates, Johnson & Johnson has a leadership development program for Bachelor’s, Master’s, or even Ph.D. degree holders, spanning through various departments.
Interested individuals can apply to their site and receive an invitation to Shine, where they can use the company’s candidate portal to track the status of their application in real time. All interviews are being conducted digitally nowadays, so you can have the option to either pre-record it or do a live video interview.
Internship salaries in Johnson & Johnson average at around $50,000-$60,000 across different departments. While the internship compensation does not differ much between differing fields, the same cannot be said for its leadership development programs—with the range for basic pay spanning from $70,000-$150,000.
Aside from its handsome pay, Johnson & Johnson also offers other benefits such as extended volunteer leave, college coaching for employees’ children, and multiple medical benefits.
As a healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson’s philanthropic initiatives are mostly focused on “improving access and affordability, creating healthier communities, and putting a healthy mind, body, and environment within reach of everyone, everywhere”.
The company does this through several programs including giving access to treatment for HIV, schizophrenia, and tuberculosis to underserved communities.
Johnson & Johnson recently served several lawsuits relating to its role in the opioid epidemic in the U.S. through a substance called fentanyl, marketed to their customer as Duragesic. In January 2022, Johnson & Johnson, alongside other pharmaceutical companies, had to pay up to $5 billion as part of a $26 billion settlement after several U.S. states filed a suit against them, including Ohio and Oklahoma.