Life after pharma

Discussion in 'GlaxoSmithKline' started by Anonymous, May 27, 2014 at 8:04 PM.

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  1. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Not a hater, just trying to start a discussion about alternatives to help some of my old friends still at GSK. I left over a year ago, 15 years in, did well out of the company, but always had a plan B. I grew up poor, was the first in my family to go to college, and somehow thought that this life was too good to last. I saved and studied part time and invested. Now I run my own business. Small, but enough to live on comfortably and I love my work. Modest plans for growth. Some of the people I worked with since the 90s went into different things too. We got out before shit like Patient First started driving everyone insane. I know the jokes about pizza delivery and MacD's, but here are some serious suggestions from personal experience.

    Still selling, but devices, software, diagnostics, chemicals, lab equipment and real estate.
    Marketing, PR or ad agencies for the creatives, who moved into broader healthcare.
    Insurance companies, like Humana, Aetna, UH.
    People who trained as RMs or pharmacists working for ACOs.
    People who went into sports, work as coaches or personal trainers, for a chain but with their own sideline.
    People like me (sure you can laugh, but it's fun) running a restaurant or bar or hotel or holiday business. I sure catered enough lunches to know how to run events and I re-trained as a chef and partnered with a guy who does front of house.
    Teaching high school or college.
    Unusual choices: running a riding school, setting up a photography business, becoming a sculptor and one guy who runs a car wash and valet.

    Not all of these things pay as well or have the same perks but you wake up every day without the sense of dread and paranoia from death by spreadsheet and micromanagement by jerks.

    So what are your plans?
     

  2. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Congrats on getting out successfully. Happy for you that you love your new work, we can all only hope to be as happy. Some great suggestions.
     
  3. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Life after pharma is HARD!! Plain and simple and don't let this clown or anyone else tell you different.. "Device, diagnostics , lab equipment, soft wear " they are all 10 times more difficult than pharma and have many of the same problems. They have a ton of competition and the doctors simply don't want to be bothered.. You will work much harder and maybe make a little more than what you can make in pharma .. Don't let anyone tell you life is better outside pharma because it's not)! Life is hard and although pharma had many issues it's a pretty good living..
    I'm the envy of all my friends and family.. Not because of what my job is but for the fact that I can pretty much work a few hours a week and make a pretty damn good living.. Play golf to to the beach sleep in when you want.. While the rest of the people i know are punching a clock from 9-5... And have very little job satisfaction.. I'm not defined by my job it's simply a means to an end .. I will suck it up and deal with the Bs check the boxes and do the dance with my manager once a month.. The other 29 days of the month is mine to do as I please.. Once you figure the job out and accept it for what it is life is pretty good..
    I'm not looking for my job to give me satisfaction or purpose I will determine that for myself.. So do to tell me that opening up a subway sandwhich shop or becoming a real estate agent or selling lab equipment is easy or fulfilling because it's not!! Go speak to 20 different people and ask them about their jobs what they make and how many hours they work.. I'm sure once you do you will realize things I. Pharma are not that bad
     
  4. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    No joke. I was given the boot from pharma at 46 and was out of work for 3 years. I sold everything and down sized my life. I work for Costco and work the door a couple time a week. I actually love my job and new life. I am far happier today than I ever was in the sham job known as pharma
     
  5. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    do you wear a fake beard or mask ?
     
  6. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Thanks for the positive reinforcement. I've been out of work for 3 months after 11 years in pharmaceuticals. I've had a few pharma interviews but the positions haven't panned out and frankly, my heart is just not in it anymore! I just had a second interview selling digital media for a major news organization plus my best friend wants me to be her business partner for her catering and event planning business. I'm learning to change with the tide and I'm very excited about the new opportunities ahead! I might get to actually meet and talk to interesting people during the day now!
     
  7. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    You bet pharma is great job, pay and easy lifestyle..gotta a nasty DM, docs and offices aren't easy to see and rude sometimes, bitchy backstabbing counterparts? Stupid corporate BS? Well welcome to the real world! You'll find that anywhere you go....moving on from pharma in this economy is tough but doable....good luck.
     
  8. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    OP back. You're right, life isn't easier. It's just different. You seem to have found the right way of dealing with things that works for you. But some people either have a crappy DM or all their offices are closing to access or they're on a PIP or whatever it is that makes someone sick of what they do. Sure, you might say same shit, different day, and yes, every job has it's drawbacks. But everyone has to find what works best for them, if you find yourself in pharma feeling trapped and thinking there isn't anything else you can do, that's not true. It will always be a trade off and there will always be things you miss. You're right on the ball too with being able to sleep in when you want, I don't get that anymore and I sure miss it. But I do like working for myself and being more in charge of what I do and how successful I am instead of whatever lottery HO decides on working out the incentive plan for this year. I personally found it very hard - actually impossible - to do what you describe, suck it up and play the game and make the job work for you. I wanted to find a different way of getting some authenticity in my life. You've done that because from your post it reads like you haven't let the job define you. It did me, and I didn't know what else to do apart from leave and do something totally different. It's not just about money, it's how you feel on a Sunday night when you have a whole week stretching in front of you. And my biggest fear was because I had got so comfortable with moaning about the BS but still taking the pay packet, I started worrying about what was happening to the industry. Could I do this for another 10+ years til I retired? Would pharma even be the same place? I'm not smart or well educated and I couldn't re-train to do some cool job. So I just decided to do something I enjoyed, and work hard to make it successful. I'm glad you found a way of dealing with life in pharma, I'm not trying to diss anyone who sticks with it, or suggest that hey, the world is full of fantastic opportunities if you just get off your butt - the thing that swung it for me was seeing a guy I worked for when I first started (back in the 90s when the job was a lot more fun), interviewing for a crappy Publicis job we would have laughed at a few years ago. I thought my God, what if that happens to me? Reports happen all the time, there's a lot you can't control and that's what made me decide I wanted to control my future. It just felt like the life was too good to last and I had no plan or clue what to do. So I started thinking and here I am. Good luck to you whatever you do, stay or go.
     
  9. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Two Nice Posts, OP, Thanks. I am probably on the verge of being shown the door by GSk, kids going to college, trying to see how I can go back to school while I am trying to send my kids to school. I should have planned better, knowing that this really can't last, but I didn't. I am trying to figure it all out. Pharma is a great job, but I have felt more and more like I am not earning my keep with how they want us to do our job now. I am not complaining, it is THEIR HOUSE, and I am a guest that can leave anytime I want. I am looking at other options, but they really have you buy the short hair...However, I let them grab me. I let a bit of laziness and passive aggressiveness in, and it is hard to get them to leave.

    I have not been happy and that is my fault. Your post has enboldened me to get a move on...thank you.
     
  10. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Thanks, that is the most honest, down to earth post in a long, long time. Retired gray hair here....in RTP.
     
  11. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    "Looking for Authenticity" in your life.... An excellent way to frame this conversation. Well done.
     
  12. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Nice string of authentic posts. I congratulate you all!
     
  13. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Great insight - One of the challenges for some is that they never planned for the day when the golden handcuffs were finally taken off! After 20+ years in the business - you are either well on your way to a great retirement and perhaps a more rewarding encore career, or your frantically trying to replace the salary, car, etc....because of the lifestyle you chose to live.

    44 and $650,000 K in retirement and a house that has $200,000 in equity and feeling blessed to be healthy and out of pharma.... Great ride though.
     
  14. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    LOVED IT-RETIRED AT 48-INDEP WEALTHY-NO WIFE & KIDS GROWN-NO PAYMENTS OR LOANS-MERCEDES-LOVING LIFE
    THINKING BACK I MADE MORE PER HOUR (I MEAN 10 TIMES MORE PER HOUR THAN OUR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES) 3 HRS MAX A DAY IN MY HOME OFFICE AS A NAM--TAKD 3 HRS PER DAY AND FIGURE IT OUT AT ABOUT 215K PER-UNREAL
     
  15. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    There is a better life after pharma. Left pharma for devices. Yes, more work, but the challenge is rewarding...both professionally and financially. I only wish I would have made the move sooner. Made decent money at GSK and met some good people. Everything is better after GSK work wise. There are better companies out there where you are treated like a professional and an adult. Anybody that says otherwise is pulling your chain.
     
  16. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Worked? @ Glaxo 20 years. I always had a second/third source of income. Investments and other jobs, no one ever caught on. Had peers that went to graduate/law school on Glaxo time, more power to them. They/I have laughed all the way to the bank. There are more satisfying careers than pharma and much better paying opportunities. You are not going to make any real money @ Glaxo until you reach the VP level, most of you have no chance of doing that. Wake up and cover your butt.
     
  17. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    Fixed with the truth detector.
     
  18. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    There are many career alternatives to pharma that are just as, if not more, lucrative as pharma...if making a lot money is your main objective. Otherwise, your options are almost limitless. You can find some of those options, as well as advice on how to transition out of pharma, at Get Off the Pharm.
     
  19. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    VP level.
    lol.
    you have to be a psychopath to become a VP level executive. it has nothing to do with intelligence or results...
    at least in this industry.
    stick with selling for a small, private, company...

    you dummies!
     
  20. Anonymous

    Anonymous Guest

    You should qualify your claims. I have many friends and former competitors that were 12-17 year industry vets that were let go at various companies (including this one), and they've have yet to make their old pharma salary/benefits. Yes, if you've been here for less than 12 years, there may be many options for you that pay as well. But once you crack that 110K plus range, you will find that is is EXCEEDINGLY difficult to get hired on by…almost anyone. We pharma folks have a bad reputation as spoiled, sample dropping caterers. Thanks to all of the CI agreements out there (thank you Pfizer, and thank you, GSK and GW predecessors), there's little that we can say or do thats not heavily scripted. And then when you add on all of these redundant counterparts….let's just say that I have been told horror stories out there about how we're viewed.

    Based on my n of about 15 or so, I think the best bet is to save as much moolah as possible, and be prepared to start anew in a lower paying job. About half of the people I know ended up in contract pharma sales. Some hate it, some deal with it. But none of them like it. The others are smattered between being true salespeople (low salary, decent to high bonus potential), and being cube dwellers.