Second last day...today is the last day in our own IPEP room. Tomorrow will be in the big meeting room for the whole time. Everything seems give that nostalgic feeling...like today's session is the last "lecture learning" session, which we were taught on the Training Department in pharma companies.
Not all pharma companies invest in training of staffs, and MSD is well known to churn out thoroughly-trained sales reps and department associates. The training starts on the first day of the job and last up to a month, ranging from basic sciences up to reading clinical papers. There are some cases that new staffs undergo training and then "jumps" to another company, in other words, taking advantage on MSD's hard effort. Product specialists do get paid on their first month, even if it was purely training and no work yet! See how ethical MSD is?
Basically, the training is from theory, and then assessment. Written examinations! But not essay questions, just short-answer questions. Passing mark is 80% though, so no short-cuts, product specialists have to memorize thoroughly the whole Package Insert!
The training syllabus not only covers customer-centric approach (how to deal with a particular customer), it also covers micromarketing, which is how to deal with a certain group of customers. A lot of role play and discussion among reps are carried out in order to bring out new ideas. Training here is not so much one-way spoonfeeding, but more towards facilitating the development of one's soft skills. Many companies will just throw you into the swimming pool and see how fast you can learn to swim (or to see whether you have learned how to swim already and try to retain you in the company), and if you drown, that's your problem. But MSD welcomes anyone who has the attitude to learn and strive hard, so they teach you science, even if you came from a non-science background.
Today wasn't that heavy a day. Our mentors reviewed our slides for the presentation tomorrow. And we got free lunch from office caterers! There was also another training session in another department, and since we were also being "trained" about training by trainers from the training department, we get to train our taste buds too! XD
Chicken rice, better than any of those kopitiam downstairs! Thank you MSD!
We get to have free MIMS! Yay!
My final mug of afternoon coffee with crackers....=/
Time flies while we were having fun...
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