JobsFair.ie

Olive Murphy recruits key personnel for medical departments and the role involves bringing medics form the healthcare sector into the industry.

Olive Murphy - Head of Pharma Scientific and Medical Division at Recruitment Plus

Being a specialised consultation for pharmaceutical medical departments in Dublin means I juggle many balls in the air. Every day presents a challenge.

I identify and recruit key personnel for medical departments and the role involves bringing medics form the healthcare sector into the industry. I’m one of very few people in the country with this responsibility and considering many of out clients are major players in the industry, I can’t afford to get it wrong.

Our agency operates slightly differently in that we concentrate mainly on recruitment for the commercial, scientific, healthcare and medical sectors, where as other will be much more manufacturing and production –focused.

The most important thing in my job is the relationship that I build with a client and a job candidate. Every company has a different chemistry and culture, so the key is to find the right match for a particular job and make sure that a personality and a company culture fit.

I spend a lot of time with each job candidate, which involves sitting down with them to assess what their needs and skills are. During the recruitment process they also have to do a presentation so I help them with that as well.

From a commercial point of view, I have seen a shift in the recruitment needs of Irish medical departments. Two years ago, I would have primarily recruited clinical, regulatory and pharmacovigilance personnel mostly form the private sector. Now I’m regularly approached to recruit the likes of medical advisors, medical affairs specialists, health economists and nurse advisors. Fifty per cent of these come from healthcare and academic sectors.

Pharmaceutical companies are governed commercially by a sales and marketing function and previously would have recruited people such as business development consultants with sales background. Now they want to complement that sales and marketing side of things with science and medical expertise.

For example, if a company is trying to recruit an oncology expert, they’ll look to a nurse who specialized in the area, a medic in an oncology hospital or an academic that has done a lot of research in the area. You’re looking for a very strong medical nurse of doctor who is also commercially aware, so it’s about marrying in expertise patient care with a commercial understanding.

A typical day includes maintaining my profile and keeping track of different candidates who may be at different stages with various companies. Someone may be having their second interview; another might be getting their references checked. I’m also constantly trying to identify the right candidates for my clients and locating medical staff.

Other days I might be dealing with an advertising scenario, getting in touch with people on our database that I haven’t spoken to in a while or attending to a conference to increase my awareness. The biggest challenge at the moment is trying to locate types of people who can move from one to the other. A lot of people don’t want to mice into industry, so it’s about making people aware of those opportunities.

I like to think that recruitment found me rather than the other way round. Since I took up this role four years ago, 99 per cent of people I have placed with an organisation are still enjoying a career there. Having worked as a scientist for many years, it helps that I can talk the language of the sector as companies like dealing with someone who has already been there.

Overall, I like balancing people skills with business development. Whether it’s a different type of person looking for a job, or a different type of job looking for a person, every week is different.

Article courtesy of Recruitment Plus www.recruitmentplus.ie