A member asked:

With my background in clinical research/trials and as a foreign MD looking to break into MSL career, can I give the names of the principal investigators/co-investigators I have worked with as my referees? My concern is that some of them might not know what MSL is all about. Do I inform them?

What should the reference letter look like?

If not how do I get a MSL to give me reference letter since shadowing one might be difficult?

If you coach me, would you give me one?

There are several questions in this and I’ll answer them in order.

But first, let me explain the purpose of a reference letter.

A reference letter should come from someone who knows well your professional contribution (work) and/or personal contribution (character).

Often with a job application, you prefer to get references from people who are very familiar with your work and your contribution as a professional. This is the reason why reference letters usually come from your former supervisors or coworkers who have worked closely with you, and they can speak in good detail what you are like as a professional.

…can I give the names of the principal investigators/co-investigators I have worked with as my referees?

If you have worked closely with clinical investigators who know you well and are willing to serve as your references, then you can list them as references.

You can ask for references by saying that you are applying for opportunities within the pharmaceutical industry, and whether you could list them as a reference. You want to make sure that each person you list as a reference:

1) is willing to serve as your reference. Sometimes people have a hard time saying “no”, so you need to ask the question in a way that will not make them feel bad about saying “no”. You do NOT want to have someone who is not willing to be your reference, on your reference list.

2) is capable of describing your contribution or work. This is why you only ask people who have worked with you and therefore have first-hand experience about you or your character to serve as a reference.

My concern is that some of them might not know what MSL is all about. Do I inform them?

You can tell them in general terms that you are applying for a MSL position and this is a field-medical affairs position. For the most part, you can tell them some of the important characteristics for MSL professionals, such as communication skills and high degree of self-motivation/self-direction. This way they can be prepared to talk about their experience observing your communication skills or level of self-motivation.

What should the reference letter look like?

Most of the time you don’t need to include a reference letter. You only need to include the contact information of the person willing to serve as a reference. The employer’s human resources will then contact that person to ask him or her questions about you.

A reference contact may look like this on your résumé:

REFERENCE
Dr. John Doe, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, XYZ University
TEL [123] 456-7890
Email drjohndoe@xyzuniversity.edu

If not how do I get a MSL to give me reference letter since shadowing one might be difficult?

I think you may be interpreting “reference” as “recommendation”, which are two different things. Again, a reference must be a person who is very familiar with your work and / or your personal character [this is also called "a character reference" and should only be used if you do not have enough work experience to have work references.]

It is unlikely that any MSL would write a letter of recommendation or reference for a candidate – if the candidate is a great one – the MSL would personally refer that person to the employer.

If you coach me, would you give me one?

No, because this would be a conflict of interest. Here’s why: you have purchased my MSL career program, and already we have a business relationship where you are the customer. Even if you pay me a coaching fee, the same financial / business relationship exists, and the same conflict of interest exists.

Furthermore, a reference is useful when the person is very familiar with your work – and for the most part – I will not have the same level of knowledge and experience about your work as someone who has actually worked with you, either as a supervisor or as a coworker.

I have served as references for former MSL colleagues and MSL directors
So I can tell you from personal experience what your references can expect when they are contacted. They will likely be contacted by the employer’s HR (human resource) office, or a third party background check company. The person will tell your reference why he is calling, and whether he could ask your reference some questions about you.

The reference will probably be asked questions like:
- How long have you known {candidate}?
- In what capacity did you work together with {candidate}?
- What would you say is the {candidate’s} strengths?
- What would you say is the {candidate’s} weakness?

As you can see, you want on your reference list people who can answer the above questions, and you want to know that their answers will be helpful to you as a candidate. If you are not confident about a reference’s ability to answer these questions, you may not want that person as a reference.

This is a great question – I know there are others who may find this information on references useful! Thank you for asking and good luck!

Jane

Behavioral-based interviews are very popular with MSL managers. You may be familiar with questions like, “tell me a time when you dealt with conflict.”

STAR is a way of answering behavioral interview questions.

S = situation

T = tasks required of the situation

A = actions you took

R = results

It is very likely that hiring managers are trying to fit pieces of your answer into a STAR format, which is why you want to answer the question systematically. Make it easy for the hiring manager to fill in the STAR from your answer.

Now is the perfect time to apply the STAR method to as many questions on the big list of interview questions as you can.

Not all of the questions may fit the STAR approach (for example, “tell me about yourself”), but for the questions that do fit, write out your STAR response. You’ll get the hang of it by the fifth response you write!

You’ll find that by doing this exercise, you will not only increase your confidence in your ability to answer the question, but you may also be surprised by just how much transferable experience you have.

To your success!
Jane

An aspiring MSL has been trying to get into the MSL career for at least 2 years. He knew someone who became a MSL without prior MSL experience, so he knew it was possible.

He applied to several positions over the course of the past 24 months. Early on in the game, when the job market was still flush, he once made it to the interview round before being rejected.

Trying to break into this career is tough. I’m not kidding about the below 1% admission rate in this job. Let me put it in perspective: the admission rate to Harvard Medical School is under 3%.

Becoming a MSL is tougher than trying to get into an ivy league med school.

But then again, you pay Harvard 6 figures to get your education.
Pharma companies pay YOU 6 figures to make use of your education.

Back to this aspiring MSL. The deep disappointment of being rejected when he came so close – compounded by the continual rejection to his application afterward – made him frustrated.

And bitter.

What’s worse: these rejections began to color his attitude, and it comes across in his communication approach.

It got to the point where I’d much rather this person said NOTHING in his email and just included the resume and cover letter!

But there’s a difference between this aspiring MSL, and you. You feel just as strongly about your conviction to become a MSL, but you did something different.

You actually INVESTED in the tools you need to improve your application package. If you get a rejection – you will not walk away wondering “is it something I did? Is it something I didn’t do, but should have?”

This person, on the other hand, believed that it was luck. Pure luck.

Hence he thinks he knows all there is no know about how to get a MSL job.

(…..He doesn’t, because I’ve seen his resume and cover letter; both needs a lot of work.)

He’s partly right: the first time when he got close to getting the job, it was probably luck, because the MSL job market hadn’t plummeted as hard as it did over the past couple of years. Now, luck is rarely in the picture for MSL jobs.

I will give luck where credit’s due, I don’t believe in pure luck because then nothing I would do, would make a difference.

You probably have heard the saying (or some version of it), “chance (or luck) favors the prepared”. This is why you’re here, reading this, and working my program. When luck comes around, you will be ready.

And because you are taking control of the elements in this application process that you CAN control, you are less likely to be controlled by the bitterness pill!

To your success!
Jane

You probably have heard the saying “job search is itself a full time job”. This is true especially for breaking into the MSL career. Once you learn about the MSL career and decide that you want to become a MSL, your journey has just begun.

Next comes the research and education for you to make sure that you know as much about the MSL career as you can. Since you’re in my program, you are getting higher quality information that is immediately relevant to you. If you faithfully do all the tasks that I’ve asked you to do, then you’ve put yourself a good distance apart from your competitors who think they know it all or rely mostly on luck.

Pacing is important.

You may hear something soon after you apply, or it may be a few weeks or even months before you get a response. Whatever the result, you don’t want to burn yourself out too quickly, and be vulnerable to more stress than you already have from searching for jobs.

This is why routines can save your sanity. Commit a certain time each day – the same time if possible – to work on the MSL job search. If you tend to work in “sprints” (like me) rather than as a “marathon”, that’s OK too – as long as you give yourself boundaries for a “hard-stop” to rest. Otherwise you risk over-fatiguing your mental muscles.

Persistence is important.

Ask any MSL who have fought hard to get her job, and she’ll tell you that she got the job by persisting. It is very easy to give up and be discouraged, and frankly, it’s a very normal reaction to rejection.

Being rejected sucks and it hurts! I know because I’ve been rejected several times when trying for MSL positions back when I worked in the industry. Each time I feel like the wind was knocked out of my sails, and I’d have to muster a lot of strength and courage to put on a smile and tackle the next job application.

Hiring managers have said that the interview process is a bit like dating. If this is true – then persistence is key to you surviving this dating game. You may have experiences where you felt like you’ve been kissing frogs for months.

But it takes only ONE.

One “yes!” to get you on the path to the MSL career.

Pace yourself and persist for that one “yes!”

To your success!
Jane

If you want to improve the odds of breaking into the MSL career, you would be spending most of your free time doing the preparative work needed to make yourself stand out as a serious candidate.

What classes you’ve taken and even what associations or professional organizations you’ve joined are not important at this point. Candidates who list so-called “relevant” coursework are wasting precious resume real estate, because these do not show actual transferable skills. Joining an association does not automatically grant a person transferable skills, either.

Resumes and cover letters are important, but they are only as good as what you can truthfully communicate through them.

This is why, in addition to the exercises you are doing in my program, you want to be doing information interviews.

Doing information interviews requires you get some time with the other person so that you can learn as much as you can about what you need to know in the short time that you have. You’d want to interview:

- current and / or former MSLs – this can include laid off MSLs who are actively looking

This seems the most obvious, but unless you have colleagues who became MSLs, finding MSLs to talk with you may take some legwork and persistence. You may want to start out in the next group first, and make MSL contacts from there:

- healthcare professionals that MSLs are likely to interact with.

If you work at a research institution or in the clinical setting, you have an opportunity to get to know some of the people who may be considered “thought leaders” by MSLs. If any of them work with pharmaceutical companies, you may be able to get a referral to the company’s sales rep or the MSL.

You don’t have to become friends with thought leaders, but at least know who they are, how they work, and find an opportunity to interact with them. It will go a long way later on.

- MSL recruiters and / or employers

Many recruiters and employers are now on social networks and you may come across a specialty recruiter who focuses on MSLs. These people make money from bona fide hires, and they are constantly working the phones and their networks to build contacts that provide value to them. Thus, if you can find someone who is willing to talk to you, great – but if not – don’t take it personally.

As you can imagine, most people are comfortable doing the research part of it – sleuthing out names – but not what comes after finding out names. It takes interpersonal skills and courage to approach people and create rapport so they will want to talk to you. This is also a good indicator for how comfortable you will feel in the early days of your MSL job!

To your success!
Jane

With rare exceptions, every single MSL including experienced MSLs have to deliver an interview presentation as part of the interview process.

In the past, candidates can pick their presentations. These days some employers prefer to give candidates the same presentation topic so they have a way to gauge each person’s presentation skills. If you’re given a presentation topic, you may be asked to give a presentation using a clinical reprint that the employer has selected.

However the presentation topic comes along for you, you want to start creating a presentation plan right now.

You want to look at these factors when creating your plan:

- how much time is allotted?

- how many people will attend, and who are these people?

- what would they be looking to sense from me or about me through this presentation?

Some people get 10 minutes (rare, but I’ve heard this happen once), others get 30 minutes to an hour. I actually think having only 10 minutes is a much harder presentation to prepare than a 60 minute presentation, because you have to be very careful what you choose to include in the presentation and make sure you don’t go over time.

You want to also make sure, no matter how long or how short your presentation is, to include information on “application”.

In other words, don’t focus only entirely on the science – talk about how the science affects patient care. You don’t have to have direct patient care experience to speak intelligently about this. But you have to care about patient care.

To your success!
Jane

The wonderful thing about the web 2.0 world is that you get to become visible in more ways than before. This accessibility and visibility also make social networking sites and social media sites dangerous.

Not long ago, on one of the many medical affairs LinkedIn groups, one of the members asked a question about a MSL program practice. One of the MSL members in the group gave a helpful answer, but then deleted the answer a short time afterward because he saw that almost all activities he conducted on LinkedIn was clearly branded with his name – and since he had filled out his employment history as expected by LinkedIn – his current company name was also displayed. His picture and name and affiliation remained in display next to the flag, “Message deleted”.

Companies are beginning to create policies for their employees related to social media, but they will generally blanket this under “Internet” or “Web” policies for employees. For the most part, companies won’t try to stop you from providing personal opinions on the internet, or have a problem if you put up a personal homepage. They’re more worried about you leaking what may be considered trade secrets (now what may be considered trade secret may be vague and open to interpretation) or putting the company at risk because you decided to give advice that may be interpreted as the company’s stance because of your employment.

I’ve seen some excellent use of social media and social networking tools both from the employer/employee side. Companies are increasingly adopting social media as part of their “marketing” channels. Employees are also networking more online via major networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. The unemployed or contract employees are leveraging social networks to land a new job.

You probably already know that your boss or coworkers or recruiters may be searching your name on the web, don’t you? (If not, you know now!) The old background checks have become easier to conduct in today’s globally connected web.

The problem is that we can get a bit complacent when we have the illusion that there is a “wall of privacy” for some of the major social networking sites. Facebook for example, recently added many privacy settings that you can adjust. Twitter long gave us the ability to delete tweets we didn’t like… but there’s a catch – your tweet will REMAIN in Twitter search, which means everyone in the world can still see what you’d rather take back (just ask the POTUS and the infamous tweet about his “off the record” remark about Kanye’s outburst).

Just because social media/social networking sites ask “What’s on your mind?” doesn’t require you to literally spout off whatever was on your mind, thinking that you’re safe behind the privacy walls.

You may control whom you allow into your network, but you don’t – and can’t – control your network’s network. If you believe in a six-degree of separation phenomenon, then your comment may be just a few degrees away from people you really don’t want to be reading your complaint about the stupidity of your company or why a certain employee is clueless. You may be commenting on someone else’s comment, and somehow it evolves into a discussion about how you can take advantage of the company expense account… of course, all in jest – you’re just joking! Surely people can tell you’re joking!

But this is probably a bet you don’t want to make, or be on the losing end of it.

Want to share examples of what to do or what not to do on social networking sites?

I’m connecting with fascinating people in leadership development from all over the world. Recently I had a chance to speak with a retired Master Corporal from the Canadian forces who had served in Afghanistan, and who had been decorated for showing compassion toward his fellow soldiers. As a result of poor response to an incident with his troop, many of this master corporal’s comrades died in front of his eyes when they could have been saved. As a result, after he left the forces, he created a training company that simulates real life combat casualty situations. The fruits of his work will save countless lives in the battle field.

What began as a discussion about personal leadership (self leadership) versus general leadership landed us in a topic about whether someone is a “professional” versus an “amateur” in their vocation. His class talks about this during training, before these medics go out into the field and save soldiers’ lives.

This master corporal said the differentiating factor between a Professional and an Amateur is not one’s education or tenure or even training. A “professional” is marked by a distinct ATTITUDE.

* An amateur usually blames someone else for the problems then complains endlessly about it. A professional takes accountability for problems and without sugar-coating it or denying the problems exist, becomes part of the solution.
* An amateur learns until s/he gets it right. A professional learns until s/he cannot get it wrong. (I had to think about this one!)
* An amateur thinks s/he knows everything and is often arrogant. A professional knows s/he doesn’t know many things and is almost always humble.
* An amateur is comfortable only with black or white. A professional knows how to safely navigate the realities of gray areas.

I was struck by how applicable this above list is to MSLs in the field…. in areas of MSL training, compliance, and crossfunctional collaborations. Yet I also must admit that many MSLs who deem themselves “professionals” often point to their education, tenure, and/or training as the reason why they’re professional and should be treated as such by their companies.

MSLs aren’t working in the battlefield where their true markings as a professional or an amateur would make a difference between saving and losing a human life, but in a profession where making a difference in patients’ lives is frequently cited as the ultimate modus operandi, the same leadership lessons should apply. How would these parameters influence the way MSLs see their status as Professionals?

What do you think?

Want better career prospects? Better coworkers? Better boss?

START WHERE YOU ARE, NOW!

I have come to observe more and more that there is a simple secret to success getting what you want, whether you want to:

- make yourself more attractive as a MSL job candidate

- feel more passionate about your life your career your relationships

- be more successful whatever that definition is for you

… is to MAKE IT HAPPEN WHERE YOU ARE, RIGHT NOW.

If you feel burned out, do something about it NOW, not by escaping to a new job (take it from me, the former job hopper!).

If you feel bitter, do something about it NOW, or bitterness will follow you to the new place/new person/new “life”.

If you want more passion about your life or business or career, deal with whatever is siphoning that passion out of you NOW, or you will get deflated yet again wherever you end up.

It is a big matter of attitude – not so much external circumstances – that we become our own worst enemies. It is so easy to escape as if something external can rescue what is an inherently internal state of mind (or being).

It is the same principle of “want to attract your dream spouse? BECOME a dream spouse”, applied to everything including jobs and life!

Want a better MSL boss? Be the better MSL employee.

Want better MSL coworkers? Be a better MSL team mate.

Want more success? Be grateful for all the success you already have AND find ways to help others be more successful.

I can go on and on… but would love to hear from you!

Since one of the key reasons of not hiring MSLs without prior MSL experience relates to key opinion leader (KOL) relationships – most non-MSLs do not have them – one of the ways you can stand out in the job competition is to show that you at least have the ability to start a connection with a KOL.

If you have listened to my resume course audio and Q&A audio programs you will already have heard me talk about this.

So you are ready to make this happen – but how do you do it?

Well, one of the things you need to do is know what questions you want to ask a physician if he or she is nice enough to give you time. This way you don’t come across like you are wasting their time.

Here is a template I use when speaking with KOLs as an aspiring MSL – you can tailor to your style but you will see the types of questions that you want to ask to help you stand out:

1) What type of information do you value the most when interacting with a biomedical/pharmaceutical company and/or medical affairs/MSLs?

2) Can you tell me your favorite example of what to do or what not to do when interacting with you?

3) Do you have parting words of wisdom for someone like me who is considering an industry transition from clinical practice?

Keep me posted on how you do and if you send me (via email if you prefer – do post it here if you are comfortable) a detailed update on what responses you have received I can give you more detailed feedback.