P1 to Medical Education: A Career Path No One Mentioned in Pharmacy School

Author: Ravi Rana, PharmD

Views are my own and do not reflect my employer.

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As you’re approaching graduation, everyone always asks, “So are you going into retail, hospital, or industry?” Most assume all PharmDs fall into those 3 categories, but there are plenty of options beyond them. I’m in one of them, and I hadn’t heard of it until my P3 year.

What an Educational Strategist Does

I was always more drawn to the science behind a therapy than to dispensing it, and I wanted a role where reading clinical data was the job. Currently, I am an Educational Strategist with Physicians’ Education Resource® (PER®), one of the largest oncology-focused CME providers in the United States.

I build programs that keep oncologists up to date on treatments that are changing faster than anyone can track alone. My day-to-day is highly research-oriented, as I constantly review clinical pipelines, trial designs, and data readouts to identify gaps between the data and what clinicians are actually doing.

My counterparts in industry sit in medical affairs, so our conversations focus on trial design and endpoints. My training at EMSOP enables me to translate a phase 3 readout into learning objectives and program agendas.

Other Paths I Explored

Working in medical education is just 1 of many “non-traditional” roles pharmacy students can pursue. In my journey, I also explored life science consulting and pharma sales. Neither became my path, but learning what didn’t fit helped as much as learning what did.

Connect With People, and Listen

I think the most important advice I heard throughout this process was “Connect with as many people as possible.” I stress the importance of networking, too, but when I pass this advice on, I like to say, “Listen to as many people as possible.” A connection gets you the meeting, but listening tells you whether you actually want the career on the other side.

Starting in my P3 year, I made it a goal to actually talk to the people I was adding on LinkedIn. I would set up 1:1s and come prepared with specific questions about their day-to day work, not just their title. I left some conversations excited to learn more and others thinking the role wasn’t for me. Both were useful because each helped me narrow things down.

Start Early, and Never Stop

With that said, I wasn’t the perfect example. One thing I missed was starting early. It’s never too early to start networking, and starting sooner gives you more time to pursue internships and find mentors in roles you’re interested in.

It also doesn’t stop at graduation. Pharma is a small world. Much of my year is now spent at oncology congresses, and the value rarely comes from the sessions. It’s in hallway conversations and dinners with our industry partners and the key opinion leaders who teach in our programs. The 1:1s I set up as a P3 turned out to be practice for the job.

You don’t need an answer to that question yet. You just need to start asking people who already have it. I’m happy to be one of them!