WIT and WISDOM: Journeys through Career Transition

Response to Change Makes the Difference

Thousands of jobs were created in the life sciences in the late 1990s and early 2000s as advances in science led to new treatments for conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and diabetes. In order to raise awareness among patients and healthcare providers, as well as provide the needed informational support, pharmaceutical companies expanded their teams in sales, marketing, medical and regulatory. Since then, an economic crisis, political changes and market upheavals such as offshoring of jobs and technological advances have markedly changed the healthcare industry. More than 300,000 jobs were lost in the pharmaceutical industry alone between 2000 and 2010.

After decades spent shaping careers at major pharma companies, tens of thousands of women found themselves among those on the outside trying to find a way back in. In many cases, the career tracks and jobs they had no longer existed. So it’s not surprising that in 2009, a few members of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA), the largest professional organization for women in healthcare, recognized the scale of the job loss among members and decided to do something about it. In response they created the Women-in-Transition (WIT) Group.

In this book, you’ll learn how this group has evolved as an adaptive organization over the five years since its start. Its organizational structure was planned to be flexible through continual change, yet operationally disciplined to assure consistency in execution of its services. While similar organizations such as outplacement groups experience a revolving door of clients who depart upon securing their next job, many WIT participants continue to stay connected.