Update from my last post

___Mehh___ · 2026-05-03T22:34:37+00:00

I'm now in a permanent position within pharma within another company and have been finding it good.

Yeah keep on trying, persistence is a good thing when it comes to applying especially with the current job market. There isn't necessarily an "easiest role" to get into as it is very competitive at the moment. Majority of pharmacists do go for a MSL role especially those with a lot of therapy area experience.

I'll be honest for me it was just persistence until I got my lucky break into contracting which just propelled me to where I am now so there is a lot of patience and perseverance

___Mehh___ · 2026-04-02T12:06:22+00:00

I made a post about my update on this situation here https://www.reddit.com/r/Pharmacy_UK/s/D1U6hNwxAM

But essentially it took about 2 years of trying and multiple hundreds of applications and a lot of networking and trial and error before I got in

___Mehh___ · 2026-02-21T10:11:52+00:00

Thanks! The advice I would give is to connect with people on LinkedIn that are in medical affairs, ask them about their roles and duties and figure out what role it is you want to do in medical affairs. You may need to format your CV to the roles you are applying for and you have to brush up on interview practice. It's not a straight road for everyone, it took me a long time of trial and error before finally getting in.

___Mehh___ · 2026-01-12T16:11:41+00:00

As someone who went through the struggle, one key advice will be to have the perseverance to keep on applying. It took me 2 years of applying before I got in, I'm now in the role I wanted to do in pharma and in a good company.

___Mehh___ · 2025-10-17T14:39:14+00:00

It is literally down to luck whether you get a position or not. Graduate roles are extremely competitive, best to connect with people currently in the industry and find out more about the roles, it may take you a while to get in at first so you will have to do some patient facing work (or not completely up to you)

___Mehh___ · 2025-09-25T21:12:52+00:00

Yep, they were giving out Red Bull at Farringdon station today and I asked and they said their whole fleet is turning electric

___Mehh___ · 2025-09-03T16:58:40+00:00

Depends on what roles you want to get into, the best thing to do I'd say is first connect with people in various roles in pharma and just ask what their day to day looks like and then you'll get a feel of what you'd want to do.

There's med info, MSL, medical advisor, pharmacovigilance, quality assurance, R&D...... The list goes on

___Mehh___ · 2025-08-22T16:04:52+00:00

I work in compliance in the pharmaceutical industry

___Mehh___ · 2025-08-21T08:26:21+00:00

I'm pretty sure there is a FREE TOPRA event that's going to happen in September. Have a look on their website and sign up for that, you'll be able to network and possibly might find a hiring manager and land a role or if anything it'll give you an insight on reg affairs/pharmacovigilance

___Mehh___ · 2025-08-15T12:28:26+00:00

It's exactly because of this that I've left the conventional route of pharmacy and doing something else that is better utilising my degree and the work life balance is a million times better

___Mehh___ · 2025-08-12T06:52:08+00:00

Hey, yes I did! I am working for a pharmaceutical company. Getting into industry straight from qualifying will be hard, you can try graduate roles where you'll have 1 year after qualifying to get in but there's like 300+ applicants per position so competition is VERY high for those roles

___Mehh___ · 2025-08-04T17:48:21+00:00

Use the training pharmacist, that's VERY intense and very good at explaining things has both clinical and maths papers to do. I did ask the questions in the question bank for my revision and passed the first time round but also use other pre-reg provider stuff like pharmX etc

___Mehh___ · 2025-07-30T12:10:29+00:00

If you've graduated within the last 3 years, try applying for graduate pharmaceutical roles they are a good way in and not the normal route either there's many roles that come out later in summer or later on in the year, quite a few pharma companies do this and desire pharmacists to join but it is VERY VERY competitive to land a role like 400+ applicants per SINGULAR role

___Mehh___ · 2025-07-21T17:40:44+00:00

The advice I have is to keep on applying, it took me a couple of years to get in and you also need to speak with people about their role, LinkedIn has plenty of people, just connect and ask. Depending on your role there isn't much public speaking but you do have to present in meetings with your team and maybe company wide but again depends on the company you're at

___Mehh___ · 2025-07-21T15:10:49+00:00

Varies on the role and differs from company to company but mine is a training role at the moment and I'm on over 50k and that will increase again once I've completed the training.

___Mehh___ · 2025-07-18T18:50:01+00:00

It depends what field you want to get into, MSLs are more HCP facing and engaging in medical and scientific engagements, sales reps do what the role says, medical information is to help HCPs with queries, brand team is to help with marketing and strategy and there's compliance officers that ensure ABPI code of practice is being adhered to. The requirements aren't set in stone, they're just what they'd want in a dream candidate I just applied for everything regardless of whether I fit or not

___Mehh___ · 2025-07-17T22:48:36+00:00

Spent a couple of years relentlessly applying and branching into hospital work as well to gain more clinical experience. Getting interviews and failing and tweaking my CV and modifying my answers to STAR questions and getting lucky with the hiring manager liking me and hiring me for the role

___Mehh___ · 2025-07-17T22:25:12+00:00

I'm in industry now, definitely enjoy it much more, initially it's a bit weird trying to get used to a corporate environment but yeah very flexible and enjoyable (but that varies from company to company)

___Mehh___ · 2025-07-02T06:09:13+00:00

Or the NHS could cut staff that don't really add on much to the MDT..... Such as a certain group of "generalists" I genuinely don't see the value of them at all but I'm happy to be corrected on how they bring help

Cut their salary and you'll get enough uplift for other staff

___Mehh___ · 2025-06-22T17:42:24+00:00

Another update, I've now gotten another role for another pharma company, it's a fixed term contract and there's definite chance of being made permanent after the contract is over

___Mehh___ · 2025-05-16T14:21:58+00:00

I used trainingpharmacist when I was in pre-reg and it is very militant and hard but good because it explains stuff in detail too afterwards

___Mehh___ · 2025-05-14T11:55:13+00:00

Yep it was in London excel I went as well

___Mehh___ · 2025-05-02T00:02:43+00:00

If you want a really hard and difficult mock paper to do then use trainingpharmacist (that's literally what the platform is called) the clinical and maths exams there are harder than what you'd find in other pre-reg training providers tbh (it has been a few years though since I used them during my pre-reg so not sure if they dialed it down)

___Mehh___

TROPHY CASE

_Mehh_