Career Circles Live Episode 4: Pharmaceutical Frontiers Takeaway

In Episode 4 of Career Circles Live, Devashish Sharma, Founder & President- Taggd, interacted with industry veteran- Namrata Gill, Vice President-Human Resources at Dr. Reddy’s to get detailed insights into the hiring trends and job landscape in the pharma industry.

This blog summarizes the key insights from the session, including what the leading pharmaceutical companies are looking for in professionals and how one can successfully build a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

While discussing the various roles in the pharma sector, Namrata provided input on the eligibility criteria adopted at Dr. Reddy’s and other leading pharmaceutical companies. Through our discussion, we discovered that jobs in pharmaceutical companies could broadly be categorized into four segments: Sales, Manufacturing, R&D, and IT. Let us further explore their eligibility criteria.

• For entry-level sales roles, leading companies like Dr. Reddy’s prefer onboarding freshers with an academic background in B.Sc or B. Pharma.
• To hire manufacturing talent, recruiters hire talent from top engineering colleges and professionals with a Master’s in Pharmaceutical Science.
• While hiring for the R&D division, recruiters prefer candidates with Masters in Pharmaceutical Science and Master of Science from government-led institutes, such as ISER and IIT-BHU.
• During IT hiring, companies choose candidates with a Computer Science background and preferably an MBA from a premier institute, such as IIMs.

For hiring mid-senior level employees, pharma companies choose business leaders who do not compromise on ethics and integrity. To ensure this, companies conduct rigorous interviews with questions reflecting the individual’s consistency levels. Global companies, like Dr. Reddy’s, also pursue thorough background and reference checks.

In-demand technical skills for the pharmaceutical industry; some of these are:

• Data Science
• Data Engineering
• Machine learning
• Supply chain management analytics

Another essential requisite for pharmaceutical professionals is to be digital savvy. With leading pharmaceutical companies running operations digitally, professionals must be adept at digital skills. Besides having the subject knowledge and required technical skills, pharmaceutical companies prefer candidates with a high moral code of ethics coupled with a growth-driven mentality.

The pharmaceutical job market for professionals irrefutably looks promising. With the Indian pharmaceutical industry accounting for the manufacturing of 20% of the world’s medicines, the industry is bound to create many opportunities for pharmaceutical professionals.

According to data, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is set to grow 160% year on year, and by 2025 the industry is expected to add around sixty thousand jobs.

Watch the full session here!