If you're not an MBA or PharmD, your promotion prospects are limited. Your work will be directed by people that don't value your opinion and unless you are in lock-step you'll be singled out as negative or not a "team-player".Some senior management/division heads clearly don't understand the market environment they are working in and don't want to listen to other opinions. You will have to keep chapstik around for all the butts you will have to kiss to get anywhere.
I had no background in PBM and was looking for training. I got virtually none. My first immediate Manager was a nice guy, but was too busy dealing with the fallout from the acquisition of his former company by ESI to train me. I was basically thrown in the deep end and only got about 4 total days of training. Even after almost 2 years I was still trying to learn about the business. Don't expect to learn much - they do not like to share info about how the PBM business works, unless a) they like you or b) you are an "insider" from one of the companies ESI acquired. Neither applied to me.
Sales are told to make all kinds of promises to prospects but ESI's overburdened IT platform cannot handle the processes. They are heavily dependent on IT and it takes forever to get things fixed, incurring the wrath of the client. The PA Tool (OASIS) was developed by an acquired company. Didn't translate into ESI's platform and they spent months trying to get it to work, but also laid off all the Program Developers who knew the code for the program. When it became clear they made a big mistake, they threw Millions at IT Consultants, trying to backwards engineer the app to get the source codes.
The company seems happy to spend a couple of Million $ on a company function, but nickel and dime the employees when it comes to raises.
Not a lot of info sharing between departments and it's clear there is resentment between recently acquired company employees and the old ESI folks. Account Management and Sales are always at odds as the AM's rarely visit the clients but the Sales folks get the brunt of the problems that the AM's are supposed to fix, but cannot because the IT issues keep happening. Vicious cycle of the same old problems.
You will be basically an Employee Number to all but your immediate Manager. I got a new Director and he never spoke with me once in 4 months. I was laid off so won't get the chance.
