Life Sciences marketing plays a crucial role in supporting the vision of the organization, to make the world a safer, cleaner and healthier place.

Aishwarya Devareddy, our next pathbreaker, Market Development Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific (California), runs their marketing strategies and programs for their Molecular Biology business.

Aishwarya talks to Shyam Krishnamurthy from The Interview Portal about always wanting to merge her passion for biology with her interests in business strategy, and opting for a career in Biotech marketing !

For students, every product you sell in the life sciences industry, helps those industries and the many lives impacted by them.

Aishwarya,  can you tell us about your background?

My background is rooted in my interest and passion for biological sciences- growing up, biology, physics and mathematics were my most favorite subjects. These topics were easy to observe in surrounding environments and to understand from an application perspective. Having had the curiosity for how things work in everything that I saw around me, I was clear about continuing my future studies in the sciences field. 

Decision making, however for me, took an “elimination” route where I weeded out options that I was sure I wouldn’t want to pursue- I would often reach out to family members, older friends and seniors in different career paths and try to understand what made their field of work interesting. Asking questions and learning from the experience of others seemed to be insightful in helping me navigate my career. 

As far as extracurriculars go, my parents enrolled me early on in a lot of different classes – you name it! Karate classes, classical music, swimming lessons. But I’m grateful, because a lot of these sports and arts allow for an appreciation that there is more to the world than a 9-5 job. As adults, a lot of the discipline, and respect for your capabilities comes from being involved in these activities. Just like in sports, as a sportspersons work on improving their skill and continuing to polish their game, we continue to learn and collaborate with our teammates and the people around us. The learning never stops 😊

What did you do for graduation/post graduation?

I went to Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology, Bangalore for a B.E in Biotechnology – my passion for biology and strong preference to do something other than medicine drove this decision. Topics such as Molecular Biology, Immunology, Biochemistry, and several committed teachers kept deepening my urge to continue in this field. 

However, research wasn’t my cup of tea- while reading and understanding science was great, I wasn’t cut out for the patience, grit and determination that lab science needed. So, I chose to move to the US for a Masters in Biotechnology Management from University of California, Irvine. It was a hybrid program with equal emphasis on Molecular Biology, Biochemistry and an MBA. This choice opened up the doors for jobs like product management, project management, marketing and sales, but still within the product area or domain of my interest – biotechnology.

What were some of the drivers that led you to such an offbeat, unconventional and unique career?

I have always reached out to my seniors in school and college to understand what they were doing and why- connecting earlier on in the process helped me understand what I wanted and more importantly what I didn’t want. Ask somebody in that line of work –“what does a day in your job look like?” Also just reading up about programs, understanding if that aligns with your interests, what is the scope of the program, what kind of career options does a certain program or course open up for you?

Tell us about your career path

I did an internship with AstraZeneca with their Quality team – getting an exposure to the work/ organizational environment helped in growing my soft skills early on – how to communicate with your superiors at work, establishing what you want to learn, networking with other teams etc. Using the breaks between school and engineering semesters were a great time to get hands-on experience in the areas of work you enjoy. 

During my Masters program, I completed another internship with Quidel, a molecular diagnostics company in marketing for their diagnostics product which solidified my interest in this function- marketing, but within the lifesciences industry. 

Another part that helped me solidify my interests was utilizing the projects that came with the Biotechnology Management program at UC Irvine – analyzing and strategizing a digital solution development for Molina Healthcare in real time gave me the real world experience of working with teams, problem solving for a client and optimizing solutions based on their needs or constraints.

UC Irvine’s MS in Biotechnology Management program also lays an equal emphasis on the research projects on the science side – I worked on a microfluidics filtration system along with a PhD candidate and it translated a lot of the theoretical coursework into application development and imbibed the discipline, attention to detail and experimental design and reporting that research needs. Today, this helps me understand what my customers need from our products on the bench. 

How did you get your first break?

Networking with seniors from engineering and my masters program allowed me to learn about open roles, applications where referrals where needed to apply and the interview process in different companies. It’s as simple as writing out to somebody on LinkedIn – introducing yourself, what you’re studying and what you’re currently trying to seek out – an internship, a job or just more information about their role. 

Personally I’ve had seniors from my Masters program who have constantly guided me, help prepare for interviews and provided referrals in their companies for roles I was interested in. Developing those relationships are important as a student, but also beyond that realm. I was able to land my role at Thermo Fisher Scientific from networking and through a senior who I had a chance of connecting with during an alumni panel during my Masters program. Understanding whether certain companies sponsor visas helps as an international student to navigate those waters.

What were some of the challenges you faced? How did you address them?

I had a couple of challenges during my high school and engineering days – first was that I was an introvert. I was scared to speak up and showcase my work and my interests. I always stayed within my comfort zone. Luckily for me, I had professors and teachers who saw potential in me. They encouraged me to give more presentations at school, join public speaking sessions, and drove me to face the challenge and seek out the underlying opportunity. Today, I’m still scared to address a crowd, but it gets better with practice, knowing your talking points and being kind to yourself in those moments of anxiety. 

Second was being undermined by grades- not saying grades are not important- they definitely are, but after having gone through a whole bunch of competitive exams, interviews and tests, I can say that grit and determination pay off, with whatever grades you may have. Staying true to your goals, working on improving everyday and trusting the process is important. Don’t let one bad test score or result take your spirits down- we’re all much more than just those numbers. 

Where do you work now? What problems do you solve?

I currently work as a Marketing Manager for Thermo Fisher Scientific – running their marketing strategies and programs for their Molecular Biology business. In my role, I am responsible for the downstream marketing – product pricing, customer facing marketing programs, promotions and sales enablement. 

For this role, understanding the basics of marketing, customer journey, what our customers value and need from the products, are all key. My foundation in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry allows me to position the products we sell to our customers, while the strategy to do so comes from my Masters and the internships I had a chance to work on. 

Influencing consumer behavior is the favorite part of my role. By consumer behavior, I mean understanding pain points/ needs of a customer and not just addressing those with the customers, but also adding incentives to influence their purchasing behaviors. Apart from that, I get to work with scientific products and with researchers who buy from us- which keeps me close to my passion. Marketing also brings a great deal of analysis of revenue, program performance and forecasting. That means basics of statistics, navigating through excel and being able to clearly present your thoughts and ideas supported by data comes handy.

Marketing as a function is transferable across many different industries – the basics are the same – who are your customers, where are they and what do they need?

How does your work benefit society? 

The mission of this organization is to ‘Make the world safer, cleaner and healthier.’ We support researchers in their product innovation in improving the quality of life through work like vaccine development, diagnostic testing and drug manufacturing. Every product we sell, helps those industries and the many lives impacted by them.

Future Plans?

I feel grateful for the opportunities that have come my way so far – including the mentorship I’ve received. I plan on continuing to work and grow in the life sciences industry to impact human lives and also build teams that are enabled to support this work with passion. On the personal front, I would love to continue to pay forward the mentorship and guidance I’ve received, to students who are interested in pursuing similar careers/ paths in life!