Background: i've spent my whole career in nonprofits and public health. Got a recruiter reach-out for a Patient Access & Advocacy Manager role and the recruiter said the loop is heavily behavioral.
My concern is that all my examples are from nonprofits. grant-funded programs, community health workers, state agency stakeholders. nothing that screams pharma or corporate. the recruiter said it was fine but she also needs to fill the role, so.
does lilly actually care where your STAR examples come from or do they penalize nonprofit/gov experience? anyone else made this kind of jump into a pharma commercial role?
3 replies
recruiter_rita
for a patient access and advocacy role, nonprofit and public health experience is genuinely relevant. that team interfaces with patient advocacy groups, government payers, and community orgs. your background isn't a weakness for this specific function, it might actually be differentiated. frame your examples around navigating multiple stakeholders with different incentives. that maps directly.
careerveteran
agreed with rita. the competency they're probing for is the same regardless of sector. 'tell me about a time you influenced without authority' doesn't care if the authority was a VP or a county health commissioner. the STAR structure matters more than the logo.
hardware_hugo
i'll push back slightly. the pharma-specific context does matter once you're in the role. i'd study how patient access teams interact with PBMs and specialty pharmacy before the panel, even just surface-level. it shows you've done the homework and it avoids the deer-in-headlights moment if someone asks a follow-up about formulary access.