Alumni Interview: Colleen O’Neill

Colleen O’Neill is a former President of the GBCC, and graduated from UNC in 2016 with a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry. She was interviewed by Jedediah Seltzer in February 2020 when she was a Business Insights Lead at Tagrisso, a subunit of AstraZeneca.

What does your current job at AstraZeneca entail?

At AstraZeneca, I work as a business insight lead for the Tagrisso drug unit. My role is to develop market insights for this specific therapeutic unit that allows us to develop and optimize marketing strategies for the product. We use primary market research, interviewing physicians, patients and nurses, as well as secondary analytics, to make informed decisions for Tagrisso. I am part of the development team as well and help translates the insights into strategy moving forward.

What is your day to day like at work?

In my day to day I have three main areas of work that can take place at any time. These functions are:

1. Initiate manage and optimize any research projects reviewing discussion material, meeting with vendors, and developing key insights for the product portfolio.
2. Performance tracking of Tagrisso, such as monitoring the opinion of physicians and tracking sales.
3. Work with the brand team performing product diagnostics and working to align internal stakeholders.

How did you find your current job?

While I was at IQVIA this type of position was on my radar as a potential career step and was a natural career trajectory from consulting rule. I found this position through my network.

What excites you about your work?

In my role, I can bridge the gap between internal and external departments to make a functional unit and move our product forward. Being able to translate insights into an impact that influences the brand is exciting. I appreciate the exposure to cross-functional business partners which allows me to see how the big picture.

How did the GBCC help launch your career?

I give the GBCC credit for landing a consulting job. I was able to figure out what consulting was and what it looked like in life sciences, with a Ph.D. The GBCC also provided networking opportunities and helped me obtain information interviews to build opportunities. The GBCC allowed me to develop softer skills and concrete examples of outside of lab experiences that I could use in my interviews.

What is one piece of career advice you would give to current GBCC members?

The first answer is to network. The second answer is don’t think your first job out of graduate school is all there is and stress about it locking your life in a certain trajectory. The focus of transition out of grad school should be on the skills you want to develop at your next position. You can always pivot careers and use your first position as a building block.