Does training have a real impact on your career?

The course gave me the confidence to tackle my new role head on. It was well tailored and covered many aspects which I needed to understand straight away.

In this short series of articles we look at how useful training can be in progressing the career of marketers. This month Ali Sale, a Product Manager at Cephalon Ltd, talks of her experience when she attended the PM Society’s PriMe three-day core module – Essentials of Pharmaceutical Marketing, in 2007.

What did you aim to achieve by attending the PriMe core module?
As a new Product Manager I was concerned that I’d be inefficient if I had to experiment to find out how to do things, rather than simply adopt accepted practices that established marketers knew how to do! I chose this course as I wanted to understand the basic theories and principles around pharmaceutical marketing and learn how to put these into effect for my brand.

What did you personally gain from the course?
The course gave me exactly what I needed for my first year in the job. The three days were structured around a realistic case study in manageable chunks and we learnt the theory, applying it to ‘our product’ in small groups. It was also a fantastic chance to network with product and account managers from a wide selection of other Pharma companies and agencies.

How useful was the course in applying what you learnt to your everyday role?
The course gave me the confidence to tackle my new role head on. It was well tailored and covered many aspects which I needed to understand straight away. Ideas for my own brand were being sparked throughout and the follow-up assignment ensured that there was consolidation of the learning post-course.

I was delighted to find a high quality, reasonably priced training course that was specifically designed to cover elements for a pharmaceutical marketing role.

How can this type of course be of benefit to the industry?
I was delighted to find a high quality, reasonably priced training course that was specifically designed to cover elements for a pharmaceutical marketing role. I have a training background so am naturally an advocate of developing people at each stage of their career and, in my opinion, this course couldn’t have been improved. It’s also an opportunity to share ideas, opinions and experiences across the industry which must help to drive standards up.

What were the key points you took away with you?
I think it gave me the fundamentals and the groundwork for being able to appraise my product and then create a comprehensive plan from a strategic to operational view. Knowing exactly what you wanted to achieve, challenging yourself to put tight measures in place and considering ROI at each step were key points for me.

How do you think the course can be of use in furthering your career?
I’m sure it helped me become more effective within a shorter space of time! I did the course when I was about 3 months into my new role and I’d recommend attending it any time within say the first 12 months of your job. There are also plenty of other optional PriMe modules that cover more advanced subjects, such as forecasting, giving you the option to go into specific areas in more depth later on.
 

This article first appeared in the October 2008 issue of Pharmafocus.