What to expect as a fellow in pharma

PharmaFellow- I will be starting a fellowship in medical affairs at a large pharma company this coming summer. Any past or current fellows around who can share their experience of what the two years typically look like and especially things that surprised them once they started and after they interviewed?\r\n\r\nI have an idea from the discussions to date and I get the role medical affairs plays, but still not completely sure what to expect

RPF- Great question! First, I’d say that you are most certainly not the only fellow-to-be who feels that way. It is very common to not know what to expect until you actually get to the job unless you have worked in a similar space before.\r\n\r\nI’ll start with a higher level description of what a typical fellowship usually looks like over the 2 years:\r\nTypically, you will spend the first six months really getting acclimated to the company, the team, and what exactly your function does on a day-to-day basis. Take time to meet with as many people as you can, learn how things work, etc. You will probably also spend a portion of this time preparing for the Midyear recruitment assuming your fellowship will be recruiting that year.\r\n\r\nFollowing the holiday break, is really the period when you start to get more projects and can start running with things a bit more (in my experience; of course it varies by functional area too). For the next year, try to get as much experience as you can and try to figure out a bit more about where you might see your career going. Also, in line with that see what entry level roles that you may be interested in post-fellowship are looking for by searching job descriptions, etc. and at minimum try to familiarize yourself with what they look for.\r\n\r\nFollowing the second holiday break, start to plan for transition and networking with recruiters, etc. as you look for jobs and apply.\r\n\r\nSome things that fellows don’t expect include that they have a lot to learn and usually most preceptors should understand this and be patient with you as you develop while also giving you stretch opportunities to do so. Feeling a bit lost in early months in completely normal. Learning about corporate politics is something that may surprise you too- it is how the sausage gets made.\r\n\r\nNow specific to med affairs, assuming this is a broad med affairs strategy role, you will likely get exposure to discussions on ongoing and planned clinical trial design, how to leverage past data especially in decks that MSLs can use, how to allocate resources between various sub-functions, how strategy is determined and tactics under it, the importance and mechanisms of KOL engagement, congress planning and execution, etc.