Why Biopharma Feels So Different, And What You Need to Shift to Thrive

Sian Kneller
Jul 10
4 min read

For anyone breaking into corporate biopharma from agency, CRO, academia, or clinical practice, here’s what it actually feels like on the inside.

So You’re Breaking In… Now What?

You’ve landed your first job in corporate biopharma, maybe in medical affairs, clinical development, regulatory, or commercial. You’re excited (and you should be). But once you’re in, things feel… different.

Not bad. Not disorganized. Just structured in a completely different way than what you’re used to.

The thing no one tells you is that pharma isn’t just a new industry, it’s a whole new operating system. If you’re coming from an agency, CRO, academia, or a clinical setting, you’re not just doing different work, you’re working differently.

What Work Feels Like in Each World

Role	What Work Feels Like	Requests Come From	Team Vibe
Agency/CRO	Group project with a client driving the brief	One main external client	Tight-knit, collaborative
Biopharma	You’re the hub, everyone sends you requests	Internal + external stakeholders	Depends on the org setup
Academia	You vs The Problem — self-paced, solo focus	Yourself, supervisor, or funding body	Isolated but self-directed
Clinical practice	Structured workflow with clear escalation paths	Patients, protocols, senior clinicians	Hierarchical, team-based

1. From Agency to Pharma: You Lose the Buffer, Gain Autonomy

What you’re used to: A small, collaborative team. One client defines the work. Everyone’s aligned, and there’s usually someone to catch overflow. Workloads are shared, and you have visibility over the team’s tasks.

What’s different in pharma: You’re still delivering — but now, requests come from every direction. Commercial. Medical. Regulatory. Legal. Market Access. Agencies. Everyone needs something, and only you know how much is too much.

What you need to shift:

Say “not now” early and often, or you’ll burn out fast.
Own your workload: don’t expect someone else to see it.
Build your own informal team: collaboration won’t be automatically built in.

2. From CRO to Pharma: You Lose the Brief, Gain Strategic Voice

What you’re used to: You execute against a scope. Timelines are set. You know what “done” looks like, and your job is to deliver.

What’s different in pharma: There’s no formal brief. You’re part of the system now — expected to think strategically, influence others, and contribute to decisions, not just deliverables.

What you need to shift:

Ask for clarity, but don’t wait for permission.
Think upstream, not “What do I need to do?” but “What are we trying to solve?”
Get comfortable being visible: you’re not just behind-the-scenes anymore.

3. From Academia to Pharma: You Lose Control, But Gain Collaboration

What you’re used to: You’re in control of your time and your project. You might work alone or with a small group, but your focus is deep and long-term. You’re judged on the quality of your thinking.

What’s different in pharma:Your time is shared. Your project is shared. Your outcomes are shared. You’ll spend more time aligning than researching. It’s less about perfection, more about collaboration and clarity.

What you need to shift:

Time-block ruthlessly: meetings will take over otherwise.
Let go of perfectionism: “done and aligned” beats “deep and flawless.”
See collaboration as momentum, not a disruption.

4. From Clinical Practice to Pharma: You Lose the Protocol, Gain Flexibility

What you’re used to: Structured schedules. Clear hierarchies. Decisions made quickly, with clear escalation. You follow guidelines, manage patients, and get immediate feedback from outcomes.

What’s different in pharma: It’s slower. More layered. You won’t always have immediate impact or feedback loops. Success looks like stakeholder alignment, long-term planning, and influencing behind the scenes — not just fast decision-making or interventions.

What you need to shift:

Be patient with pace: things move slower but on a bigger scale.
Rethink impact: your “patients” are now systems, not individuals.
Learn the language of business: it matters just as much as clinical accuracy.

Why It’s Hard to Imagine from the Outside

Because pharma looks structured. It’s polished. Branded. Strategic. On paper, it’s clear.

But once you're inside, the structure is flatter, more networked, and less linear than most people expect. There’s less top-down direction and more cross-functional influence. You need to be proactive, diplomatic, and assertive — all at once.

It’s not messy. It’s just not hierarchical.

So if you're used to having a supervisor, a process, and a finish line — the adjustment is real.But 100% possible.

What You’re Actually Being Hired to Do:

You’re not just being hired to do “the work.”You’re being hired to navigate complexity, manage priorities, build relationships, and help teams move forward — even when it’s unclear how.

That’s what makes pharma different.And it’s also what makes it full of opportunity, once you figure it out.

TL;DR — The Career Shift in 4 Moves

Coming From...	What You’re Used To	What You’ll Need to Shift	What You’ll Gain
Agency	Team buffer + clear client scope	Self-prioritization + cross-functional comms	Autonomy + strategic growth
CRO	Scope + protocol-based delivery	Influence + ambiguity tolerance	Broader impact + visibility
Academia	Deep solo work + full control	Collaboration + speed over perfection	Team momentum + wider reach
Clinical practice	Clear workflows + defined roles	Patience + systems-thinking	Strategic influence + scale