Role: Senior Director, Market Insight
Company: Almac
Track Record:
Laura Montgomery wanted a career that would allow her to travel and make use of her language skills.
Brief outline of your career to date
I have worked in this position in Almac for the last 20 months and prior to that I worked as a project director for a company called Adelphi who are based in Cheshire in England. They were a market research agency specialising in pharmaceutical market research and it was here that I developed my market research skills and my knowledge of the pharmaceutical industry. After moving to England I hadn’t really planned to move back home to Northern Ireland but when the Senior Market Insight Director job came up in Almac, it was the perfect position in the perfect location.
Favourite subject at school
It was always languages. During school and university I studied French, Germany and Italian. I was always interested in different cultures and countries and wanted to travel as part of my future career – I hoped that learning languages would allow me to do that.
Did you go on to further education etc.
Yes I studied at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. I did International Business and Modern Languages with a focus on Economics and Italian. My course was five years long with a year spent living in Italy where I studied Economics at a university in Rome.
How did you get into your area of work?
I initially joined Adelphi as a graduate. They were looking for students with language capabilities, willing to travel and an interest in healthcare and I felt that the position would be a good fit for me. I was living back in Northern Ireland at the time and the job was based in Cheshire- both my husband and myself wanted to move away for work so this seemed like a good opportunity.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
No – not really! I’m not sure there are many people that end up doing what they always wanted to do (or even knew what they wanted to do in the first place) I knew I wanted to travel and this role gave me the opportunity to do a lot of that. After a year or so I realised that market research can be an interesting and varied role, especially when doing it in the healthcare space, and I decided that I would stick with it.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
A degree was required – a life sciences degree is actually preferred for a lot of roles in pharmaceutical market research but I have found that having marketing knowledge and experience can be more beneficial. This is because you aren’t often required to understand the specifics of the therapy areas you are working in but in a lot of cases you are feeding your findings directly into marketing activities and sales teams.
Are there any alternative routes into the job?
No not really.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
Because you are responsible for providing people with information to make business decisions it is essential that you are a good listener – you really need to ask the right questions and understand people’s needs. In my previous role you had to be quite an outgoing person as a big part of my role was Business Development related and I had sales targets to meet.
What does a typical day entail?
There is no typical day when you work in Market Insights. As we serve all business units across a range of topics, no day is ever the same. My days often involve meetings with either Business Development/Marketing or subject matter experts within each of the business units. I spend time understanding how we can help and provide input that is tailored to their needs.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
I like to see it when my team has delivered something that really brings value to the business. The people in Almac are what make my job enjoyable as everyone has been so supportive and interested in the value a Market Insights team can bring. The only challenge I face in my job is that sometimes it can prove difficult to get everyone involved in a specific project at the same time. Availability and diary organisation can sometimes be a challenge.
Why is what you do important?
The Market Insights team are responsible for developing, delivering and communication actionable market research to assist the business in making truly data driven decisions. The fact that important business decisions are on the back of our research makes our job very important.
What advice would you give to anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
It can seem like very challenging and overwhelming work when you first start out but you really do get out what you put in. Working hard on a particular project can produce results that are extremely useful in helping people make better business decisions and drive performance – give it everything and you will definitely have great job satisfaction.
If you could go back, what is the one piece of advice you would give yourself on your first day?
Although it can be really difficult, try and take in everything people are telling you – sometimes it is easy for things to go over your head in your first day or week but actually you are given many valuable pieces of information at that early stage.
Describe your ideal day off.
A bit of a lie in, time for a nice big breakfast and then a long walk with my dogs.