I am from the City of Joy Kolkata and had my schooling there only. In my plus 2, I had science as my stream. Since the subjects of life science have always been interesting to me, I decided to do pharmacy instead of going for engineering. When I joined college for pharmacy, it was not popular but recently a lot of people are pursuing it, which is a good thing for our country. My subjects in college revolved around core topics of pharmacy and lots and lots of lab practicals. In my free time, I am into reading and also enjoy writing sometimes. Writing has always fascinated me and it's something I really enjoy.
Since IQVIA is your second company you are working full time after Wipro, what has been the process of the transition? Tell us the story behind joining IQVIA and the process of how you got hired at IQVIA?
The first job of an individual is always special and something similar was also with me. At Wipro, I was in a very comfortable and homely environment since it was a campus placement. Most of my colleagues were from college and in my city Kolkata only. After I got my hands well over the job and was confident to shift to the next job, I applied to IQVIA to take a more challenging role and away from home. The process of transition has been great and the decision turns out to be right as now I am part of the domain in which I feel interested and also IQVIA is a Clinical Research Organisation that is preferred among pharmacy graduates.
Tell us about your current roles and responsibilities as a Safety associate at IQVIA?
My current roles and responsibilities circle around what my domain suggests. I am responsible for taking care of the feedback, maintaining a directory of reports and samples and doing documentation once a drug or medicine is released on the market. Like there are multiple things that need to be done before producing a medicine, similarly, there are many assessments and documentation required to be maintained after the market release. So my current job is related to post-market release activities.
How has been your overall experience as an employee at IQVIA?
One of the main purposes to join IQVIA was to move to a new city but due to covid that didn’t work, I am glad that I have got my hands on a virtual way of working. At IQVIA I learned about team bonding virtually and handling the situation from my seniors. Everyone connects so beautifully from different sites on a single platform to work, it's just amazing. To sum up, I would say the overall experience has been nice till now.
You have worked at Wipro as a fresher for Drug Safety Domain, how was that experience, and how did it help you secure a job at IQVIA?
I think everyone experiences a great shift from college to the corporate world. Adapting to a sense of professionalism becomes very important. In college, you behave like a student and might not be attentive sometimes but here in the corporate world, it doesn’t work like that. I took care of all my pieces of training very well and was focused on learning and adapting to the environment. So yes definitely the hands-on experience that I gained at my first job helped me a lot and was an important factor behind securing a full-time role at IQVIA.
How do you see the importance of doing internships for freshers and college students?
I did 2 internships in my college days but I would encourage anyone who is in college to do multiple internships as many as possible because internships are really an opportunity to find your interest and provide some key learnings before entering the professional world. My internship was not directly related to what I pursued in my college but I still did experience my interest in writing. I might have learned the smallest things during those internships but there were many things that are still helping me that I learnt in those internships.
What skills are required to be good at a job like yours?
The companies do require you to be proactive since they do help you by creating a very protective environment when you are a fresher but that is for a positive effect on you. You have to be eager to learn new things and be an engaging person at your job with your team or manager. Sometimes you might have to take up challenging roles for which you should prepare yourself. The right attitude to learn things and a general combination of soft and hardcore skills in the domain is something these companies look for. One more thing here to add is don’t avoid your academics completely because it really matters at many stages and helps you shine.
What would be your suggestions to someone who has recently graduated or is in college?
To anyone who is looking for an internship or job, I just wanted to tell you to be calm and wait for it as it will. You just have to stay relevant and keep on enhancing your skills. Don’t be easily influenced by opportunities that might not look good on your C.V. Learn and unlearn the things which make you ready for a professional world and make the best use of resources be it college, Google, Youtube etc. to be good at things you really enjoy to do and want to make a career in that.