Science Meets Business: A Recap of ITCS Career Seminar on Market Access and Consulting
LSCDS organizes an Industry Team Case Study (ITCS) program each year to provide trainees with an exciting opportunity to undertake a 4-month project which stimulates what working in the pharmaceutical industry looks like. After the success of the launch event last month, the ITCS team collaborated with the Career Seminars team to host a seminar on the Market Access and Consulting sectors. This virtual event hosted a panel of four professional guests with around thirty attendees.
All the professional guests were excited to share their insights and knowledge of their sector through short presentations on their career trajectory, their day-to-day roles and an overview of their fields followed by Q&A discussions. The professional guests include:
Yuti Patel, Market Access Lead at Sanofi
Sarah Ashton, Associate Healthcare Consultant at Coactuate
Michelle Sweeny, Senior Consultant at IQVIA
Careers in market access and healthcare/ life-science consulting share a common foundation of examining scientific aspects through a business-oriented lens. A market access role involves coupling your research skills - for market research and evaluating clinical data - with business skills - for the economic modelling of a product and developing health technology assessment (HTA). Conversely, a consulting role primarily involves collaborating closely with clients to address specific business challenges, with the nature and breadth of challenges varying based on the chosen consulting specialization (management, strategic, healthcare, etc.). While the guests at this seminar had diverse academic and career backgrounds, they shared overlapping career insights and advice. We will highlight some of the key topics discussed in this recap.
Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses. When choosing their career paths, most of the professional guests began by reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses and what they wanted in a career. This self-reflection allowed them to narrow down their current career paths. Notably, both market access professionals highly valued witnessing the direct impact of their work in the healthcare sector, influencing their choice to enter the market access domain. Similarly, the consulting professionals wanted to apply their strong interpersonal and analytical skills in a fast-paced environment, which led them to the consulting domain. The guests also emphasized that the diverse roles in the pharmaceutical industry can cater to both our interests and strengths, and highly encouraged the trainees to also engage in self-reflection.
Expand your professional network. Following self-reflection and career shortlisting, the next big step is expanding your professional network. All the guests stressed the significance of targeted networking to establish a foothold in the industry and gain insights into various potential roles. Participating in LSCDS's events, such as the upcoming Networking Reception or LSCE, will provide an excellent opportunity to cultivate these connections!
Market the transferable skills you gained in graduate school. Regarding the process of job applications and interviews, the guests shared valuable insights on what interviewers seek and how to distinguish yourself from other applicants. In both consulting and market access, most technical skills are often learned on the job. As such, interviewers do not necessarily expect previous experience. Instead, they focus on assessing your transferable skills, such as analytical skills, critical thinking or collaboration capabilities, which are pivotal for excelling in the respective roles.
Overall, this industry career seminar gave trainees an incredible opportunity to gain insights into what a market access or consulting career looks like and how to break into these sectors. If you want to hear about more LSCDS events, please follow us on our social media – LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter! Stay tuned for upcoming career seminars this semester to learn about careers beyond academia and expand your professional networks!
