My Day Job, Part 2

This is a continuation of my earlier post describing in more detail the type of work I do - what my day to day job entails.  For my next post, I'll talk about how to think like a consultant.

What do I do?

I am always working on projects for two different clients at one time.  This is a challenge for time management, but creates a diversity of experiences and opportunities.   50% of my work time goes for project A and 50% goes to project B.  The tasks I do vary by project, but some of the activities I do most frequently include the following.  None of those are things I would do without support and oversight from a more senior person on my project team.  

• Lit review:  Read lots of abstracts and articles in clinical journals and figure out the rate of specific complications for a range of surgical procedures or the precise criteria for when a drug is used.
• Primary research with experts:  Identify key opinion leaders in a field of research, invite them to participate in a one on one phone interview or online survey, create the set of survey or interview questions and then administer the research instrument and synthesize the key findings. 
• Pipeline pull:  Access a database of drugs in development (not yet available to patients on the market to patients) and pull a list of all the drugs currently in clinical development for a specific indication (disease) and prioritize them based on a set of criteria developed by the team or the client
• Make slides.  Lots and lots of PowerPoint slides.  Sometimes with charts and graphs, sometimes with lots of bullet points.  It’s easy to make a slide; it’s hard to make a good slide.

What are examples of projects?

A project is usually 6-12 weeks.  A client enlists us to research and report our recommendations based on a specific question.  Here are some of the scenarios or questions I have worked on:

1. A company that makes tubes used for blood collection wanted to know if hospital pathology labs (where blood and urine and other diagnostic tests are run) were concerned about the volume of wasted blood they had to dispose of (removal and disposal of biologic waste is no small thing).  The company was considering developing a new product – a tube for blood collection that would collect a lot less blood.  We interviewed nurses, phlebotomists (blood-drawers) and pathology lab managers and technicians to understand how big of a problem the excess blood presented and provided a recommendation to our client based on everything we learned about biohazard waste disposal regulation and feedback from healthcare workers.
2. A company that has a compound in late-stage clinical development wanted to acquire another compound that was in earlier stage development.  Drugs take a very long time to develop and if a company does not have multiple drugs in multiple phases of development, they might launch a drug and not have another new drug for a decade.  In that case, if your lead compound – the drug that is farthest along – is submitted to the FDA for review and is rejected, your company is in deep trouble (that’s not the technical term).  Our client wanted to “fill the pipeline” so they could release a new product a few years later instead of 10.  This is a huge trend in pharma and biotech.  They did not have a specific compound or molecule in mind and asked us for recommendations.  We evaluated a bunch of companies and compounds based on specific criteria and the amount of money our client could use to purchase a compound and  prioritized a few targets, i.e., companies that had a compound in early stage development that might be willing to sell it to our client.
3. A company with a drug used in the treatment of an acute condition is considering expanding the patient population which is a candidate for the drug.  Before they undertake the clinical research and time necessary to do so, they asked us to find out how much of a commercial benefit (read: how much more money could they earn) if a wider number of patients were eligible for the drug.  We did a lot of secondary research, meaning I read a ton of clinical literature on the treatment and we did a lot of primary research, meaning we interviewed physicians who treat these patients to see whether they would use the drug in more patients if they could.

My Day Job

Today’s blog post is a description of my day job, based on a reader request.  My next post will elaborate on this topic.

What is a consultant?

I am a consultant.  Generally speaking, consultants work for clients who have questions about their business and the market for their products.  Consulting is a hierarchical field.  My firm has 7 levels from the fresh-out-of-college entry level Analyst role to the top-boss title of Partner.  Each level is defined by a set of expectations and skills and one is not promoted until they can demonstrate competency in a variety of areas such as (for the junior levels) -- interviewing physicians, analyzing data in Excel and SPSS, writing a survey, managing time and communicating with teams.  Consulting is like an apprenticeship – you are constantly seeing what those above you can do and learning from them.  Usually, once you’re good at your job, you get pushed into a new role with new challenges and opportunities.  Consulting is not the type of job when you stay at a level/role for a long time after you’ve mastered it.

Who becomes a consultant?

Consultants tend to be type A overachiever personalities.  As a group, we tend to be extroverted, but that’s not always the case.  It’s probably a similar personality to those who are successful in sales – interpersonal relationships become very important, along with communication and strategic thinking and planning.  To college students, consulting represents a field that “doesn’t close any doors” meaning if you become a consultant upon graduation – as I did – you are not narrowing your options for future jobs but you are gaining valuable skills and an understanding of the business world.  Consulting lets you avoid picking an industry or specific role, it preserves – or appears to college seniors to do so – the attributes of “the generalist” compared to many career or academic options.

Who do you work for?

Because my consulting firm is specialized, we focus only on the healthcare and life science markets.  Our clients are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the makers of medical devices and technologies, and the manufacturers of diagnostic and life science research equipment.  We work for companies that make cutting-edge cancer treatment, catheter tubing and syringes, robots that perform surgery, machines that analyze DNA and many things in between. 

What is the office like?

My office is not the company headquarters –we have about 8 staff in the office.  On a day to day basis, everyone in my small office works on computers in cubicles.  The office – located in a high-rise office building – includes two private offices for senior staff, a few conference rooms and a kitchen stocked with shared snacks and treats.  I’m usually in the office 10-12 hours/day, Monday to Friday and usually have weekends free. 

In Complete Sentences

Starting today…

To me, blogging, or, more accurately -- being a blogger -- is an ongoing process.  Just because you've written a poem once does not make you a poet; taking a few pictures does not make you a photographer.  I don't want to belabor this sentiment, but writing is a process of reflection, of chronicling, and of creating.  It's a process I'd like to initiate and sustain, starting now.  Starting today.

Why now?

There are several reasons I am doing this now:

1. I started this blog this summer and was not able to sustain routine posting, which was my goal.  Now that a big life milestone is out of the way, I’m ‘rebooting’ my efforts at blogging.
2. I work in consulting, a field that emphasizes incomplete sentences over prose; monosyllabic words over colorful narration; and bullets over paragraphs.  I miss using complete sentences in my professional life.  
3. When I emailed a bunch of friends about "should I start a blog?" the reaction was "yes, do it!" so I'm carpe-diem-ing.

 Topics

I will share observations and ideas I have about personal and professional growth, including lessons learned at my job and in my relationships.  I am interested in personal betterment, changing habits, and pivoting perspectives.