The PM Society Careers event was back for its 5th year on the 21st of February at the Royal Society of Medicine, London.
With a great line-up of influential industry experts from both pharmaceutical companies and agencies, the day offered lots of advice on how to get into the industry and the roles available, as well as personal experiences from their own careers.
Session two was a new segment for this year’s Careers event, with a live podcast recording for the PM Talk podcast and The Black Sherpa podcast. This was hosted by Nyambe Sumbwanyambe with special guest Pascal Phillips.
Nyambe delved into Pascal’s journey in his career, what things along the way may have influenced his journey, professional boundaries and personal boundaries when having a career, the signs of a good employer, and more.
Here are some of the key moments from this year’s second session:
Session 2 – So many roles – where to start?
Pascal’s career
Pascal’s journey began at university, where he then discovered Eli Lilly in a case study during his degree. He applied for a role and progressed up to a senior manager for central marketing and the rest is history.
Why is equity of opportunity so essential?
We are here to serve patients and make life better for those who need the medications and the treatments, Pascal tells the audience. When we look at equity of opportunity, we fall into a stumbling block if we look at our teams and they do not match the patients we serve, then those ideas and lived experiences aren’t able to be brought into the value-driven campaigns.
He continues to say that if we do not open the doors for those people to come in and feel like they belong and feel nurtured, we will always go around in lack of innovations and accuracy.
What are the three truths that you’ve learned that would have helped you if you’d learned them earlier in your career?
- Applying crucial conversations in your early career and later on in life – Have the important but uncomfortable conversations that you may not want to have as they are usually beneficial. They can save you time and strengthen your relationships in the long run.
- Do not ask a question if it can be researched before asking it.
- You own your own career development.
The audience for this session learned some great tips and tricks to carry into their own career paths and to support them in their interviews based on Pascal’s own story. They discovered more about the industry and how to succeed in not only their careers in healthcare comms but also balancing their personal life alongside this.
For more information on healthcare comms careers, please visit our healthcomms.careers website.