Insights

Updated August 23, 2026By Rebecca Henninger, career strategist, executive resume writer, and personal branding expert Moving from Director to VP in pharma, biotech, or life sciences is not simply a matter of taking on more. VP-level candidates need to show how they set direction, make tradeoffs, align functions, influence decisions, and shape portfolio or enterprise […]

Updated August 22, 2026By Rebecca Henninger, career strategist, executive resume writer, and personal branding expert A Director or executive-level pharma, biotech, or life sciences resume must do more than document therapeutic areas, functions, teams, and programs. It should show the decisions you owned, the direction you established, the functions you aligned, and the business or […]

For a lot of people, summer becomes the unofficial pause button. The kids are in different schedules. Work feels slower in some places and chaotic in others. People are away. Calendars are strange. It is easy to tell yourself, “I’ll get serious after Labor Day.” And sometimes, that makes sense. But if you are thinking […]

Career positioning is the process of defining where you fit, what you offer, and how your experience should be understood by the market. It clarifies four things before you begin writing a resume or updating LinkedIn: Resume writing communicates that strategy. Career positioning creates it. This distinction matters because many experienced professionals do not have […]

Your Elevator Pitch Is Not a Mini Resume One of the biggest mistakes professionals make is trying to fit their entire career into an elevator pitch. They mention every function.Every industry.Every strength.Every possible direction.Every version of what they could do next. But an elevator pitch is not supposed to summarize everything. It is supposed to […]

A lot of market access resumes sound like the person was near the strategy, not shaping it. The experience is there. The scope is there. The cross-functional exposure is there. But the resume reads like a list of responsibilities: “Supported payer strategy.”“Partnered with cross-functional teams.”“Managed payer marketing materials.”“Led access planning.”“Collaborated with HEOR, medical, marketing, and […]

Many Senior Directors in pharma believe the next move to VP requires one more launch, one more year, or one more major win. Sometimes that is true. But often, the real blocker is simpler: Your resume still sounds like a Senior Director resume. That does not mean it is weak.It means it is framed at […]

Why Pharma Resumes Are Different Careers in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry follow a different trajectory than most corporate roles. As a result, the resumes and CVs used to pursue positions in pharma need to communicate a different set of signals. Hiring managers in pharmaceutical companies are not simply reviewing responsibilities or years of […]

Why Pharma Resumes Are Different Pharma resumes are not evaluated the same way as resumes in most industries. Pharmaceutical companies operate in a highly regulated, matrixed environment where hiring managers are looking for signals beyond execution. They want to understand how you operate within complex cross-functional structures, how you influence outcomes, and how your work […]

Why Pharma Resumes Require a Different Approach Many of the professionals I work with come through my specialized work as a pharma and life sciences resume writer, where positioning senior leaders correctly is often the difference between interviews and silence. Most pharma resumes I review aren’t weak. They’re just positioned at the wrong level. Someone […]