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Pharma Career Transition Question 30 Oct 2016, 20:46
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Hello - I'm hoping someone here could help me with some MBA essay advise. I currently work for a Pharma company as a researcher in drug development and I'm planning to apply to B-school this year. My short term goal is to transition into a career in pharma brand management, but I'm worried about calling that out in the essay because research and brand management are orthogonal careers, even though they are in the same domain. To compound this, I don't have a good way to connect these two careers together as I've never professionally worked in brand management, and I'm choosing this career path because my mentor for several years has advised me to transition into brand management. My mentor works for a big pharma company as a brand manager and I've worked with him for some time to get a feel of what the profession is like, so it's not like I'm arbitrarily making this decision, but I'm worried that career changes make AdComs jittery, so I'm unsure if this is the right way to go.

The flip side of this is that this is a clear gap in my skillset, and what is an MBA for if not for helping me develop new skills and act as a bridge to a new career?

Any help is much appreciated - I basically have two essays written right now, one for brand management, and one for operations as a long term goal and I'm stressing over which one to post.

Thanks!
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mbaMissionKate
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Pharma Career Transition Question 31 Oct 2016, 12:12
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Hi there!

This is a great question and one that's similar to what a lot of applicants face. First of all, do you want to do brand management?? Remember that you need to passionately sell your career goals and reasons for an MBA to the admissions committee, so if you're not excited about it, nor able to speak credibly to it in an interview, then I'd pick the other option.

Secondly, I would not be too worried about the career changing aspect...brand management seems plausible to me for you to switch to after your MBA. You've got the industry experience and exposure to the role via your mentor to make it a less risky career change than if you were changing function and industry.

Hope this helps!
Kate

tejaswiyvs
Hello - I'm hoping someone here could help me with some MBA essay advise. I currently work for a Pharma company as a researcher in drug development and I'm planning to apply to B-school this year. My short term goal is to transition into a career in pharma brand management, but I'm worried about calling that out in the essay because research and brand management are orthogonal careers, even though they are in the same domain. To compound this, I don't have a good way to connect these two careers together as I've never professionally worked in brand management, and I'm choosing this career path because my mentor for several years has advised me to transition into brand management. My mentor works for a big pharma company as a brand manager and I've worked with him for some time to get a feel of what the profession is like, so it's not like I'm arbitrarily making this decision, but I'm worried that career changes make AdComs jittery, so I'm unsure if this is the right way to go.

The flip side of this is that this is a clear gap in my skillset, and what is an MBA for if not for helping me develop new skills and act as a bridge to a new career?

Any help is much appreciated - I basically have two essays written right now, one for brand management, and one for operations as a long term goal and I'm stressing over which one to post.

Thanks!
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Pharma Career Transition Question 31 Oct 2016, 19:54
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Thanks much Kate! You make good points about the interview, I'll just plan to be safe in my essays and go for the Ops role and think harder about my transition if / when I get accepted to B-school.
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Pharma Career Transition Question 17 Nov 2016, 13:52
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Sounds good, good luck! :)

tejaswiyvs
Thanks much Kate! You make good points about the interview, I'll just plan to be safe in my essays and go for the Ops role and think harder about my transition if / when I get accepted to B-school.
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