Expanding your horizons: A grad student's guide on how to find your niche industry
Bhagya Chandani (he/him) is a Master of Management Sciences student. He speaks about how he approached co-op when he already had more than three years of work experience across various industries.
Bhagya’s co-op journey:
Work terms one and two: Bhagya’s current co-op is with Sanofi as a Digital Strategic Partnerships Intern. He works in the Digital Strategy and Operations department where he helps facilitate partnerships and mergers. His role also includes hiring companies with specific expertise for Sanofi.
Q&A with Bhagya:
What was the most useful skill you’ve learned at your current co-op?
“Sanofi is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, which has allowed me to encounter a wide range of experiences in the industry.”
“I’m grateful I got this experience, as my previous work experience has always been with consulting companies, this is the first product company that I have ever worked with. The work culture in North America is also different from what I’m used to but it’s a good different.”
“Overall, I think the most rewarding part has been getting experience with strategy and consulting. I used to tend to think about things from a technical, analytical perspective. I defaulted to math and numbers, but in this role, I learned that the world goes beyond numbers, facts and objectives.”
“To fulfill your goals, you cannot work alone. Every company, big or small, needs alliances. They need support and partnerships to reach their objectives. Learning how to make partnerships, negotiate with stakeholders and talk to leadership in different companies has been very rewarding.”
“I have also been able to speak with people who have over 40 years of experience in this field and get advice on my career if I decide to remain in this industry.”
Has being a graduate student given you unique insight into co-op or affected how you approached your job?
“The graduate student co-op structure and undergraduate co-op structure are similar, but we have two work terms instead of four-six.”
“Also, my preference was to get a single eight-month consecutive co-op rather than two four-month terms.”
“Since I've worked in pharmaceuticals before, I was aiming for a management, techno-managerial or analytics/strategy role but as a graduate student I found some challenges. There weren’t many of those higher-level jobs available.”
“My advice for other graduate students would be to increase the quality of your applications instead of applying for hundreds of jobs.”
“Take time to customize your applications to the job so you have a higher chance of landing a good co-op.”
“Also, only apply to jobs you’re capable of doing that way it is easier to prove to the interviewer that you’re worth selecting. Getting a job that you don’t have the skills to perform well is not going to help you.”
How did you learn the soft skills you needed for your co-op?
“The senior students in my program were a big help. We could always book a coffee chat with them and get more informal advice on things.”
“There was also a very good orientation at my company and many great workshops offered by consulting companies. They covered how to present yourself and how to handle multiple clients and multiple vendors.”
As someone with past work experience, did you find it difficult to get a job that wasn’t a step down from your previous positions?
“I already had three and a half years of work experience in India and in one of my past positions I used to lead a team of six co-op students.”
“It’s been difficult to go back to being a co-op student myself again. My life is going in a full circle and I had to stay humble, be grounded and basically start from scratch. Still, this experience has taught me a lot of useful skills. I’ve had to learn how to present myself to senior leadership and CEOs. I’ve also gotten more insight into the pharmaceuticals industry.”
“While I think school can teach you a lot of things, especially if you participate in clubs or societies, there’s still things that you can only really learn on the job.”
Do you have any advice for other students?
“Explore multiple horizons and don't be afraid if you feel like you’re going in circles.”
“I used to work in oil and gas data analytics, then I somehow went into pharmaceutical sales data analytics and right now I'm in pharmaceuticals digital strategy. I don't know where the world will take me next, maybe I'll go into the airline industry.”
“So be open to multiple domains.”
“One more piece of advice is that while technical knowledge and soft skills are important, it’s also important to invest time in building domain expertise.”
The sector and domain expertise will give you a lot of options beyond your degree. For example, someone with a communication degree can work for one of the Big Five banks for one term, get banking domain experience and suddenly have the entire banking industry as a career option.
“Work in multiple industries though co-op and try to find your niche early in your career.”
What's next for you?
“I’m currently on my eight-month work term and I’m very excited to be here!”
“After this, I have one more academic term and then I’ll be looking for full-time opportunities in pharmaceuticals at companies like Pfizer and Janssen.”
“There are a lot of pharmaceutical companies in Canada and North America but I'm very open to other industries as well.”
“I'm also looking forward to the study term, sometimes work terms make me miss going to classes and studying. This winter 2025 is going to be the last study term of my life.”