Mission Accomplished: I Made It Off the Pharm!!!

Wow!  What a journey.  First, please accept my apologies for being gone so long.  I finally took my own advice and got off the pharm.  I pursued a role as a Physician Liaison and started my new job in July of 2011.  So, here I am over 18 months later and I am still enjoying my "new" job.  As you can imagine, making the transition required me to take a hiatus (although longer than expected) from writing this blog.  But, rest assured, I am back...hopefully to stay.

I would like to share my experience and the specific steps I took to get off the pharm to hopefully encourage someone who is still trying to do the same.

Step 1:  I made a decision about the type of job I wanted.  I decided to search for Physician Liaison jobs.

Step 2:  After finding the job I wanted, instead of applying online like all the other 200+ candidates probably did, I Googled the company to find out where it was located in my city, as well to find out more about its leadership.  While searching on the company website I came across the profiles of 2 people who I thought might be instrumental in my pursuit of this opportunity...the Director of Human Resources and the Director of Marketing (whom I figured must be the hiring manager for the job since it was considered a marketing position).

Step 3:  I went "old school" and took a hard copy of my resume and cover letter to the company headquarters, one set addressed to the Director of HR and one set addressed to the Director of Marketing.

Step 4: I waited...but not for long.  I got a phone call from the Director of Marketing the next day.  WOW!!!

Steps 5-10:  I was off to the races.  I had a phone screen, a face-to-face with the Dir. of Marketing, a face-to-face with Executive Leadership and an offer within one month.  And get this...I never even applied for the job.  I didn't fill out an application until I already had the offer.

Moral of the story: In order to land a new opportunity in this job market, you have to go about your job search in a different way.  You can't do what all other applicants are doing (ie. applying for jobs online).  You have to "think outside the box" and do what you have been trained so well to do: SELL!!!

If you would like to know more about my experience or would like me to help you do what I did, please reach out to me at:  getoffthepharm@gmail.com.