Overview – Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology

Though job opportunities in pharma and biotech largely mirror each other, there are notable differences between the two. Because many biotech firms are still developing their initial products, they are much more focused on research. This means jobs for nonscientists are scarcer in biotech than in pharma. Biotech firms tend to expand their marketing and sales forces when—and if—a viable product nears FDA approval. And it’s become common for small companies to seek alliances with larger companies that already have the requisite infrastructure in place for these functions.

Recruiting practices vary widely from company to company. In general, on-campus recruiting accounts for a very small part of the industry’s overall recruiting activity. Companies normally recruit at a few target schools, and only for selected positions. The target schools might include a core set of business schools for positions in marketing and finance and a core set of colleges for BS and MS scientists and engineers.

Several big pharmaceutical, insurance and medical products companies offer rotational programs from top candidates graduating from business school. These programs move participants through 12-18-month assignments at a variety of organizational functions like sales, marketing, finance, operation and serve as an institutional fast track for top management prospects. A summer job between the first and second years of business school often serves as a tryout for a company’s rotational program.

But most MBA’s aren’t hired into rotational programs: they’re more likely to find jobs in marketing and finance. MBA’s looking for jobs in business development may have to wait a couple for years until they acquire a few years of industry experience.

Culture

Biotech companies tent to be more casual and less stereotypically businesslike than pharmaceutical companies. Across the biotech-pharma spectrum, industry culture tends to be rather brainy, a function of the fact that it is an industry driven by a highly intellectual research process. In addition, most people in these industries really believe in what their company does and genuinely feel they are helping to make the world better.

Lifestyle

Midsize and large companies offer the accoutrements of top-company corporate life: a comfortable salary, full benefits, and a well-funded work environment that often provided things like fancy subsidized cafeterias and plush in-house gyms. Indeed, most established companies in pharama and biotech are known for offering top-flight benefits, everything from on-site day care and generous family leave to tuition reimbursement and excellent professional development programs. Most insiders report tolerable work schedules that allow them to have a personal life.

Source: WetFeet

Overview - Healthcare Services

The industry is made up of a variety of providers of patient care, including hospitals, nursing homes, and physicians’ offices, as well as those who help coordinate, manage, and pay for that care, like HMOs and other health insurers. It’s no secret that the sector is a volatile one. Despite making up nearly 15 percent of the nation’s GDP, with U.S. health care spending at $1.6 trillion in 2002, the industry has had a tough time figuring out how to turn healthy profits in a way that benefits both providers and patients.

Other Industry Facts:

• By the year 2050, seniors will outnumber children for the first time in world history.
• People aged 50 and older are the fastest-growing demographic group in the nation.
• In early 2004, almost 44 million Americans (about 15 percent of the population) were uninsured.
• Private health insurance companies paid for 35 percent of the total health expenditures in the U.S. in 2002, nearly $550 billion.
• Technology and evidence-based medicine is emerging in an effort to improve quality and address the estimated 44,000 to 98,000 patient deaths per year said to be caused by provider errors.

Job Opportunities

 MBAs with a strong interest in developing health care experience should seek out opportunities as internal analysts or administrators for managed care companies, hospital or corporate health benefits offices. Other routes include finding work in the marketing offices of large pharmaceutical companies and physician groups.

MBAs with previous health care experience have a range of options working in the health care industry or in related service industries such as consulting and public relations. Consulting firms often hire these individuals exclusively to work and develop new business among health care clients. McKinsey & Company hires individuals with substantial health care experience (either in consulting or industry) as “practice experts,” a track separate from the more the general business analyst and associate tracks.

Depending on the nature of their previous experience, MBAs with previous health care experience join hospitals or hospital systems as junior administrators with the option of staying and rising through the ranks of the institution’s administrative hierarchy. MBAs with clinical experience as physicians have the most lucrative opportunities: Many of these individuals are called on to oversee and manage the intersection of financial and clinical processes as hospital quality administrators or managed care medical directors.

Most healthcare services organizations also require top talent in the areas of finance, marketing, operations, and information technology. See career roadmaps for more information in these functional areas.

Industry Sectors:
Healthcare Consulting
The organizational motivation of most consulting firms includes an unspoken irony – each project implies a strong commitment to a client’s interests without any guarantees of a long-term relationship or of any follow-up beyond the project’s contractual boundary. In this environment the motivations of consultants stem largely from the project’s intellectual challenges. While consultants often “believe” in what they are trying to accomplish for a client on a project, their visceral rise results from the application of intellectual muscle to complex questions.

All in all, health care consultants are expected to have the same skill set as all other consultants, but may be seen as “kinder and gentler” than their counterparts consulting in other industries. For more information, see the Consulting career roadmap

Suppliers (Health Information Technology, Medical Manufacturing, Medical Devices)
This massively growing industry is focused on simultaneously improving quality and access, and controlling costs. Initiatives cover multiple areas within healthcare, including clinical are (electronic health records, e-prescribing, telemedicine, disease management, public health (disaster outbreak, surveillance systems) and administrative efficiency. This industry is highly fragmented and competitive, with new rapidly evolving technology.

Hospital Administration and Medical Care Providers
In 2002, hospital spending increased by 9.5 percent from the year before, to $486.5 billion. Growing demand for hospital services, along with higher rates from private insurers, have led to the fourth straight year of growth in this sector. The industry is perpetually changing due to the cycles of regulation. These lead to fiscal changes and constraints which have spurred the emergence of more for-profit and specialty hospitals. While many MBAs perceive this to be an area difficult to enter, a targeted job search can lead to many opportunities in this growing sector.

Managed Care / Payers
Managed care, which came into prominence in the 1980s and 1990s as a response to rampant inflation in health care costs, has changed the face of the industry. Under these systems, insurers (also known as “payers”) figured out that they could rein in costs by establishing networks of providers who participate in a network, or health maintenance organization (HMO), which in turn covers a host of covered patients’ needs. Private health insurance companies paid for 35 percent of the total health expenditures in the U.S. in 2002, nearly $550 billion.

There has been considerable consolidation in this sector and much of the innovation and membership growth by the largest payers have generally come through mergers and acquisitions of smaller payers and their networks.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), signed by President Clinton, covers both the privacy of medical records and the transmission of claims among payers and providers. Payers (including Medicare/CMS) have gone digital, requiring electronic filing of claims by providers and switching to online systems to provide essential information like updates on Medicare rules.

Government and International Health Policy
The World Health Organization and other international health policy organizations offer positions for MBAs and other graduate interns. A targeted job search can lead to many opportunities. Organizations’ initiatives are often under-funded, but offer an opportunity to influence health at a global level and learn about interacting with governments, building capacity, and the various issues affecting population health.

Nonprofit / Foundations
Opportunities exist for impacting public health at both the advocacy and services levels. Organizations range from local clinics to national organizations focused on research and disease awareness. A targeted job search can lead to many opportunities. For more information, see the Nonprofit career roadmap

Source: Vault Career Library

Careers in Biotech & Pharmaceuticals (WetFeet Insider Guide)

 Plunkett’s Health Care Industry Almanac – Complete profiles on the Health Care 500 Companies and the lasted statistics and trends.

Online Resources

www.wetfeet.com

www.vault.com

Provides Biotech and Pharma lingo http://www.wetfeet.com/asp/article.asp?aid=321&atype=Biotech_and_Pharmaceuticals
The Nature Biotechnology Directory Website is a global information resource listing over 8,000 organizations, product and service providers in the biotechnology industry. http://guide.nature.com/

The Drug Information Association (DIA) develops and delivers, on a global scale, "best in class" educational programs, training courses and curricula in selected professional interest areas to support career development within regulated healthcare industry. A job bank is also available. http://www.diahome.org/docs/index.cfm

Additional Job Search Web Sites - www.som.yale.edu/careers/jswebsites/jswebdefault.asp

Healthcare Career Preparation Timeline