Four executives with collective decades spent at BMS, Roche, Astellas, Eli Lilly and more gave their insights on navigating a biopharma career during a Monday DIA panel in San Diego.
Speaking to a full room on day one of the DIA 2024 Global Annual Meeting in San Diego, four seasoned executives shared their advice on how entry- and mid-level professionals can chart their paths to fulfilling, successful careers. BioSpace attended and shares their top tips here.
Build Relationships
Leslie Sam, president of Leslie Sam & Associates, described a pivotal moment during her time at Eli Lilly when she realized that building relationships was critical to success.
“I realized very early on in my career, I can’t do it by myself,” she said.
Keeping her head down and just doing the work was not enough. It was important to get to know people and build relationships that would set her up for long-term success.
Building and maintaining relationships is just as critical as a manager, Sam noted: People want to feel like they know you.
Cultivate Mentorship and Feedback
One relationship highlighted as critical to career development was that of mentee and mentor. The panel touched on several ways a mentor’s feedback and advice can benefit your development. Mentors can:
- Provide honest, critical feedback on when you’ve made a mistake and how you can do things differently next time.
- Offer guidance on how you can manage up or relate to leadership.
- Help you identify opportunities you don’t necessarily see for yourself.
For the relationship to work, there needs to be trust, Sam said. She also shared it’s important to listen to what’s being said.
“They’re going to tell you some things about yourself that maybe you’ve never heard from anyone else…it’s really about listening and being prepared to take on those gifts,” Sam said.
David Fryrear, executive vice president and head of quality assurance at Astellas, was keen to point out that a mentor and a manager are different roles.
“Your manager is never your mentor. Your mentor is who you go to when you think your manager’s crazy,” he joked.
Speak Up and Share Your Work
Paula Walker, global head of risk based quality management at Roche, talked about the importance of sharing your work, both your own and the work of your team. It’s important to not just get the work finished, but also to lift your head up and share what you’ve done within and outside of your organization.
“Talk about it, and that’s how you build those connections and connect those dots,” Walker said.
Similarly, Fryrear attributed some of his success to being willing to speak up and say when things can be done differently.
“That really helps you stand out, helps build your brand…it’s being willing to say something,” he said. “I think that that is a big differentiator.”
Learn to Address Mistakes
The panel also highlighted the inevitability of mistakes and failures, and the necessity of learning how to address and learn from them. How you handle a mistake is often more significant than the mistake itself.
Identifying the mistake, owning it and acting quickly is usually the best course of action. Giving an example of an error made when she was in a fairly new role, Walker advised talking about it and immediately saying “What can I do to solve this problem?”, even if you’re the one that created the problem.
“If you go through that process, it works out because you do speak to the people you need to speak to,” she said.
The failure is often not as egregious as you believe it to be. Walker advised not thinking “That’s the end of my career” because it probably won’t be.
Be Motivated
Panelists cited being motivated to learn, find solutions and overcome barriers as very desirable attributes that leaders look for in others and potential mentees—attributes that have helped they themselves be successful.
Fryrear discussed how his willingness to do things others were not willing to do and to learn new things helped him get ahead.
“Leaders approach and say, ‘We need you to do this,’ and you say, ‘Well, I don’t know how to do that.’ And they’re like, ‘Well, figure it out,’” he said, then emphasized the importance of being willing to do just that.
Staying motivated to learn and overcome challenges gets noticed and will encourage more opportunities to come your way.
“Keep an open mind, because somebody else may have an idea for you or see something that you don’t see in yourself,” Fryrear said.
In fact, he shared, “I honestly have not sought out a job since 1990. They have all found me.”
Jeremy Jokinen, vice president and head of safety evidence and sciences at Bristol Myers Squibb, said he looks for solutions-oriented people.
“Those are the people that I love to work with because they really want to make an impact for the right reasons—“Can we make this better?”—but have struggled to navigate through the organization that they’re in. For me, that’s the kind of individual that I really want to work with.”
Have a Plan and Define Success
All panelists described the importance of having a career development plan and taking ownership of it. Keep in mind, the plan is something within your control, as opposed to planning your advancement, such as a promotion, which is not in your control.
In addition, understanding what makes you happy, and how you choose to define your success, is the best thing you can do for yourself to navigate your career journey.
Chantal Dresner is the vice president of marketing at BioSpace. She analyzes and reports on industry trends including jobs and hiring, diversity, equity and inclusion, and compensation benchmarking. You can reach her at chantal.dresner@biospace.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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