I work at Danone Nutrition as a junior medical affairs manager in the ‘Conditions of Aging’ department, specifically in the memory team. Danone has three main pillars: water, dairy, and specialized nutrition. Specialized nutrition is mostly known to us as Nutricia, which was a Dutch company that was bought by Danone some years ago. Nutricia makes food for special medical purposes (FSMP). For example for cancer patients, ICU patients, or baby formulas.

In my department, the product that we have is called Souvenaid. It's a medical food designed for people with mild cognitive impairment. It’s a mix of nutrients that Richard Wurtman developed at MIT. He was a researcher who found that this combination of nutrients was the perfect combination for synapse support.

My function as medical affairs is to be the bridge between science and marketing. People in marketing don't have a scientific background, which makes it difficult for them to interpret what's in the scientific articles and what the science says about the product. What we do as medical affairs is breach this gap because we have both a scientific background and we also have the skills to communicate with the marketing people. We provide scientific content and generate insights from our scientific knowledge to the marketing team or other teams. We also address neuroscientific and nutritional questions related to the product and we provide overviews and analysis of what the evidence is in the literature. If there's a launch of the product in a new country, we support this country with the content and the insights. I think it's very important for medical affairs to have a lot of networking skills because what we do a lot as well is to keep connections with key opinion leaders and patient organizations.

My day-to-day is very office-based, I can choose whenever I go to the office. I like to go to the office because I like to have meetings in person, to have more interactions with your team and other colleagues. But my day-to-day is nine to five. It can vary a little bit, I can stay for longer some days and some other days I start earlier or I start later. It is also a mix between meetings and doing my own work. Currently, I’m doing a literature search for some specific things. I’m also preparing the content for a congress that we're attending in March.

My core team is always the same and it’s a small team. However, the company is super big with multiple departments. We also have a broader team with all the medical affairs from the other target audiences. For example, I am working in the memory team (Alzheimer's disease). But there's also a team of oncology, there's a team of tube feeding (ICU patients), and there's a team of stroke. With this big team, we only get together about once every two months.

It was a really big change to step into the industry because research was, what I experienced, quite lonely. But here, I like that it's all about meetings. It's always a project. You're always with a team. You work on your own stuff, but the projects you share with other people. What I like, and what I missed from the lab, is that you see the results impacting people's lives, and in a relatively short period of time, rather than waiting five years for a publication or something like that. I also like the connections and the networking. I’m a social person and I enjoy having new connections and meeting new people. That is possible in a company like Danone.

But what I realized is that if you want to escalate or work with other teams, the connections are really, really, really important. It’s also important that you do your job well, that you deliver, but I think it’s as important to have good connections and to be in touch with the right people. One of the best advice that I got from my manager is that whenever there are some drinks or a party or a cake, you join. You just ask, what are we celebrating? And you make new connections because in the end, in those informal settings is where a lot of the business discussions happen.

Most of the people in my team are seniors. They're older than me and most of them have been in the company for a long time. Sometimes I feel like I am missing some expertise that I could use. But I think that you can only learn as you go. It's challenging coming from research in the company because everything is business-oriented. They look into the numbers a lot and what the end point is, is making money. So I find that challenging as well because I follow a more scientific view. 

What can also be challenging is that,  in the end, it's very competitive. I've been very lucky in my team but I know that colleagues in other departments are more competitive. Remember you're working for someone else. Each person looks for their own interest at the end of the day, even though they're very open to share their experiences and expertise. You do still need to prove you're valuable for your team. And again, if you want to be promoted or change teams, I would say make sure to have the right connections, and of course do your work well.

In the master that I did, I was missing some courses in something related to the industry. But the master is research-oriented so the course is made to train the students to have a successful career in research. While I was going through the master's, I realized I wanted to go into the industry. I was not going to change and do another master at that time but I wish I gained some skills related to business. But I wouldn't say that you are not able to join the industry. In the end, what is asked of me is to know the scientific background. It's a plus if you know about business or management but what I realized is that everything you need to know to work in a specific company, you will learn in that company.

Yes, they do have training. You get an onboarding at first and once you are part of your team, they are very supportive and in the beginning, they don't expect you to know everything. Danone also has an online training platform. We also have several regular training sessions; on scientific topics, on ways of working, and on business. They have a lot of resources that you can make use of.

I was on LinkedIn basically every day, multiple times a day looking for internship positions. If I couldn't find any, I looked up pharmaceutical companies in the Netherlands and just looked at the list and went one by one, going to their website, and checking the available positions that were open for internships. If there were not any available, then I would just send a general e-mail saying I was interested in applying for any internship positions that they may have in the field of science. I applied for Danone and they called me for an interview. A day later, they offered me the position. I think that the application process was quite smooth. Still overall I think it's difficult because I did send a lot of emails and I got a lot of no replies. I think that if you make an effort and working in the industry is what you want to do, it might take some time, but you will eventually make it.

My boss already told me from the beginning of my internship, that there was a possibility to hire me as an external with a temporary contract. It’s really difficult to hire new people in Danone unless someone leaves. But there is always a lot of work to do in my department. My manager already told me that they wanted to try to keep me. He spoke to HR and we managed to get me a contract for six months, but I just got the news that I will be extended for the rest of the year. Then we'll see what happens. I think that I got lucky but I guess I do my job well.

How I prepared for a job application in the industry was by submitting my CV and my cover letter, just a normal cover letter, and I tried to make it as personal as possible. What I also did, and I think that everyone does the same, is look up online on the website of the company, check their values, what they do, where they're based, some history of the company, and what the people are like in the company. Just have some background about the company because they will ask you, and it's also good to show the recruiter that you've done some research about it and are interested in it. I also looked into the job posting on LinkedIn. They have the requirements part so you can read the requirements or the job functions and adapt your speech or your cover letter to it so that it matches.

In the interview, I try to be as natural as possible because, in the end, I also want to join a company that fits how I am and how I work. If you are yourself, then the recruiter or the HR person will feel whether you are a match or not. Be as natural as possible and be yourself. We've had some workshops here in the company with some HR people to give us advice on how to ace an interview, and they always say: ask questions like, "Why am I filling this position?" "Who was in this position before?" "Why did they leave?" Just be curious. Ask about the current projects the department is working on. Be curious and ask questions as much as possible.

As general advice, if you're in my master's program and you think you would like to go into the industry, go for it. What do you have to lose? Nothing, because if you want to do a PhD, you can do it afterwards, or if you want to do a PhD now and try the industry afterwards, that also works. Do what feels right for you, and trust your intuition. There are so many different opportunities in the industry. It's not just one box. Once you're in the industry or in a company, it's super easy to escalate or move within the company, so you can try many different things.

Contact info: juliatolra@gmail.com