Flat Earth, Denver International Airport, IPhO.
Have you not yet joined the GenZ Industry Global Impact Discord Server?!? You paid IPhO dues but didn’t join the free Discord server?!? @global_impact_ is going to very upset with you: https://discord.gg/5Q48st8JjR
This blog is a continuation/expansion of a roast sesh we had on the above server. You should’ve been there for the fireworks. We’ll catch you at the next show.
Say something nice about Industry Pharmacists Organization (IPhO).
See below for the limited value that IPhO provides:
Fellowship database: The Industry Fellowship Catalog as they like to call it is a very useful tool for PharmD candidates during their recruitment cycle. Worth the price of admission to source programs in your desired functional area nationally. Heads up though, you only need this tool during your 4th year of school.
Local chapters may provide a stepping stone for PharmD candidates to learn the game/possibilities: Joining the local IPhO chapter at your pharmacy school, in conjunction with other local student organizations (AMCP, ASHP, etc.), is a great place to get your feet wet. Local chapters typically provide services like CV reviews, mock interviews, and functional area lectures. These services have high utility for 1st-year students, a lower utility for 2nd-year students, and no utility beyond that. Keep reading to understand why the value specifically ends for IPhO membership.
Local chapters may be a place for alumni to connect with current students: Just as above, other local student organizations provide this function, so it’s not unique to IPhO. Plus, it takes 30 seconds to ask to connect with alumni over LinkedIn.
NOTE: If you, a PharmD candidate with aspirations to work in the pharmaceutical industry, lack the capacity to send someone three sentences on LinkedIn asking for a half-hour phone call, I am 100% certain that you have a 0% chance of success in the corporate world. For those without experience working at a pharmaceutical company, these are MASSIVE entities. Nothing gets done in your specific niche project without connecting with others. Your entire day is literally built around networking and collaborating. Thus, if you can’t get a newly minted fellow who is DYING to pass along his/her story to chat with you, you gotta find a new dream.
James Alexander dunks on all IPhO members.
Jimmy, if you’re reading this, please know it’s a love letter to you and only an attack on all your plebeian followers. Have you read my C.R.E.A.M. blog? I dream of the cash you’ve accumulated. Hope to catch you at your favorite country club. - Love, PharmaJon
Take note of the fact that, in the above list, the value of IPhO mostly resides in leveraging free local chapter resources. Regardless of this fact, the IPhO leadership team continues to whip up the best Kool-Aid on the block, as students flock to pay hundreds of dollars a year for…honestly who knows what.
Nationally, IPhO charges for materials and insights that fellows, professionals, and companies already publish for free public consumption. Companies release fellowship brochures every year, recruitment webinars are always free and open access, and again, reaching out to current professionals and fellows is the easiest and least time-consuming way to gain valuable insights.
🚨PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT🚨 Because of this resource called the internet you don’t need a paid membership to an organization for literally anything. You are in GRADUATE SCHOOL. Can you not (1) be resourceful and (2) spot sleazy sales tactics from miles away? IPhO’s pitch of being some sort of gateway for tapping into the pharmaceutical industry during/post PharmD education is fake news. If you’re a believer in what IPhO sells, I ask you to do two things:
Continue reading this blog to challenge your train of thought
Understand that you are a very uninformed consumer. To me, every time you pay your yearly membership dues, you look like a yuppie undergrad who just landed in Prague for their study abroad semester. You hop off the plane, smile as you drag too much luggage out of the airport, and then proceed to pay 10x the rate for the cab to take you to your hostel. You’re just ignorant of how the game works.
How far will the IPhO leadership team go to maximize their revenues? Check out this cost-cutting initiative. IPhO doesn’t even own the URL for www.ipho.com … genius.
IPhO does not foster true professional development.
IPhO’s mission of covering every…single…industry functional area is useless for professionals and too broad in scope to actually learn anything of true value. Hence, IPhO serves no utility after you understand the basics. Also, keep in mind that pharmaceutical companies structure their organizations in unique ways, so the blanket definition you learned to define “market access” doesn’t apply as broadly as you may think. Check out this scenario of a mechanic hiring a new employee to help out around the shop:
Interviewee: I learned all the definitions of all the different parts of the car.
Hiring Mechanic: Great! So tell me about the last car you fixed. How’d you go about diagnosing and then solving the issue with the vehicle?
Interviewee: I’ve never worked on a car. But, I do know all the definitions of all the different parts.
Hiring Mechanic: You sound like you’re an IPhO member.
Case in point, IPhO is a decent place to start, but a terrible place to land. After learning about the various career verticals in year 1 of their IPhO membership, and then potentially stepping up to a leadership position for their local chapter in year 2, IPhO members are notorious for completely ignoring the fact that they need to actually apply their insights and obtain legitimate work experience. Instead, they stay locked into the P&Ls of their bake sales and then act surprised when they walk away without any fellowship offers.
This theme of lacking true professional development is most evident when looking through the agenda of IPhO’s yearly student conference, The IPhO Annual Meeting. (btw - peep the $50 archive charge - love it Jimmy). These poor kids spend all year shoving functional area definition PowerPoints down their local member’s throats, and then travel to a conference to learn the same thing..? This is what I imagine networking looks like at this sh*t show:
IPhO Member 1: OMG I’m so interested in clinical development!
IPhO Member 2: I’m so interested in HEOR!
IPhO Member 3: I’m so undecided, I just love impacting 1 billion patients!
IPhO Member 1: OMG it’s Jimmy A! brb, need a pic!
For those who haven’t had the opportunity, please do take the time to attend a legitimate professional pharmacy conference. Examples include: AMCP NEXUS, AMCP Annual, ASHP Midyear, ACCP Annual, etc. Notice the difference between these conferences and whatever IPhO puts on. At these meetings, there are industry thought leaders presenting progressive research, in addition to break-out programming for student-specific learnings and networking. Attending these meetings plugs you into the pulse of what’s happening and what’s changing in the industry of your choice. Ask yourself what sounds better during an interview:
Talking about all the students you met at the IPhO conference who have the same perspective as you
Asking those interviewing you their perspective on a presentation you sat through where a member of their company was explaining XYZ
There’s only one option that gives future you any leverage. IPhO has no pulse on what’s actually relevant for PharmDs aiming to break into the biopharma sector, and the below two sections highlight this point very clearly.
The hilarity of the IPhO internship program.
Remember that IPhO is, at its bare bones, just a fellowship database. It is very, very, very far away from being a pharmaceutical company. Yet, fellowship hopefuls continue to flex their IPhO internship like they have legitimate working experience. These IPhO interns might be the simplest of all simps, being directly synonymous with the high school classmates that fill your Instagram feed with their third MLM shampoo selling go-around. The anecdotal stories that I’ve heard through my network of intern projects for IPhO are so absurdly not related to being a professional in the pharmaceutical industry that it’s truly sad that students have this as their only “job experience”. They were probably better off just doing nothing.
Most recently, this fact was highlighted through multiple sources of mine, when IPhO spammed the world with their Analysis of Direct-To-Industry Jobs Among 2020 PharmD Graduates. Here’s the insider scoop - multiple people on that report were never IPhO members during pharmacy school and have never given IPhO any contact information. Inherently, this implies, that a pharmacy intern spent their time scouring LinkedIn for recent graduates that got jobs without starting out as a fellow….lol, sick project.
What’s even better? Compare to the IPhO internship opportunity to the very legit AMCP Foundation Internships. Which opportunity would you rather have?
Hey boomer, ever heard of a meme?
Why are IPhO interns better off just doing nothing? Because not all press is good press in the world of job recruiting. The last mile of proof that IPhO has no pulse on young professionals post-fellowship and that die-hard IPhO members are completely unplugged from what happens inside biopharma is that IPhO is mocked across pharmaceutical industry circles. In this day and age, if you’re oblivious to the meme culture, how can you consider yourself an insider?
IPhO has no precedent for keeping pharmacy graduates engaged with the organization. Why? Because it serves no purpose after graduating (aka no professional development). Additionally, when I see a resume, and IPhO is listed as a top work experience, I cringe. Red flags begin to fly off the page as I assume all of the above. General membership in IPhO is whatever, but being super pro-IPhO is absolutely a large negative when it comes to recruitment, IMO.
Don’t agree with my assumptions? Ask the most pro-IPhO person you know to help you with building a slide deck on an emerging asset’s market size, or ask them their opinion on the most recent biopharma merger, or ask them if they know what VLOOKUP means. You might even shock yourself with the answers they give you. And these people want to work in the pharmaceutical industry? You sweet summer children, the big bad world is just waiting to gobble up you and your dreams.
Where to turn to avoid paying the IPhO toll.
www.a27p.com —> this may be the best free, self-empowering, and complete resource on breaking into the pharmaceutical industry for PharmDs
Global Impact —> the truth (with a twist of humor and satire) is continuously offered up for free consumption
Also, check out the Global Impact Substack for longer-form content
Join non-industry and non-pharmacy student organizations at your University that translate well into pharma (e.g. entrepreneurs clubs, consulting clubs, etc.)
Network, network again, and then network some more
Conclusion.
As stated very elegantly by one of the Discord members (@Mckinsey Purdue Account Manager):
The answer is very simple for any student here. Use IPhO for all it’s worth, just don’t let them use you.
Like what you’re reading? Be sure to catch up on my past blogs: