Hive Health

There’s no doubt about it, at the moment, Hive is a busy, busy place. Everyone working hard on projects as diverse as event management and brand building in Respiratory disease to digital training tools in Hepatitis B. As we continue to grow and develop as a company, more and more we will be looking for graduates to join us and learn about the wonderful world of healthcare communications. The problem for us is; how do we find the right graduates? We know that the talent is out there, but how do we get to people?

One of the main issues is that science graduates are, currently, rarely given advice on careers outside of the Laboratory or the City. I know I certainly had no idea what my options were, which is why I went to wash dishes and ski in the Alps for six months after I graduated. I think if I didn’t happen to have already had friends within healthcare comms, including Hive’s own Clare Ross, it would’ve taken me a lot longer to stumble into the industry.

Anyway, I digress. Last week, Helen and I went along to the KCL Campus at Guy’s to take part in their Life Sciences Careers Forum. Before we went on, we took the time to listen to speakers from Deloitte, PwC and FFW, admittedly all representing the ‘City’ end of the careers spectrum, but my lord…what a boring selection of possible careers. I mean, if it doesn’t sound like the company representatives enjoy their jobs, how are new graduates supposed to get excited about working in finance, law or strategic consultancy?!

After all that, we came on and gave our spiel about what Hive and healthcare comms is and does (including a couple of failed attempts at audience participation, which we’re chalking up to student apathy as opposed to poor presentation technique!) and talked through how we got here (more chat in the Pub than four stage online and offline interview process). Although, in all honesty, came out thinking that maybe we were going about this in the wrong way.

Both Helen and I said that we would never have gone to anything so formal when we were in our final year at University and yet here we are, working in an industry that suits us down to a T. So, how did we land here and how can we harness our previous thoughts to find people just like us, without spend a horrendous amount of money on recruitment consultants?  And, as well as communicating with students, I think there is also must be a task to communicate with Careers Advisors. The majority have become so used to offering the same options to all graduates, that when someone asks for something different, they often draw a blank.

Our graduate pack development has been on the back burner for a while as client deadlines loom large, but we’re hoping to bring it back to the fore over the next few months, as well as dipping our toe into the ocean of social media possibilities.  In the meantime, if you think that work in a busy agency with patient-centricity at heart, dealing with global pharmaceutical brands across many disease areas may be for you, get in touch, drop in for a coffee, we’d love to talk to you.