Industry Transition Spotlight: Julie Dela Cruz-Mulders, PhD

Industry Transition: An interview with Julie Dela Cruz-Mulders, PhD, Medical Science Liaison

What is your name, your full job title, and the name of the company you work for?   

Julie Dela Cruz-Mulders – Medical Science Liaison, Dermatology – Eli Lilly

What is your favorite part about working in industry? 

Collaborating with all my teammates and the flexibility of this job. I am responsible for my own schedule, for the most part

What does a typical day at work look like for you?   

That’s the great thing about this job: It is never boring. I don’t really have a typical day, but a typical week looks more like…

Monday – internal meetings

Tues-Thurs– Meeting with KOLs

Friday- internal meetings and administrative work

How is your current industry position different than your academic postdoc or experience as a graduate student?   

It is so much different! For one, I am no longer in the lab, either work from home, or on the field providing medical information to physicians about dermatology data. Working in industry is much more collaborative and if you don’t know a question, it actually might be more efficient to find someone that does know the answer as opposed to researching it yourself. Relationships with your internal colleagues and KOLs are extremely important.

If you could go back in time (to before you received your job offer) and give yourself one piece of industry transition advice, what would it be?   

Persevere! Every job you don’t get is practice for the interview when you do get a job! I had a lot of practice in my last interview because I had answered the questions in previous interviews.

During your job search, what was the most important thing you did that made your industry transition a success?   

Network, network, network! Try to find all the nice people out there to have great conversations with.

What has been the most memorable moment for you (so far) as a Cheeky Scientist Associate?

This is my second transition, so networking doesn’t stop when you get your job. You can keep networking and using CSA as your career progresses. In fact, I used the modules to help me with my negotiation this time around and was very successful!

What do you see as the next step in your career?   

I have to explore, so possibly a medical director, medical affairs manager, or MSL director. Many many possibilities that can be next.

How can the Association and the Association’s members help you continue to achieve your career goals?   

The CSA has so many associates in industry that I can connect with and can connect with me as my career progresses. As time goes on, there will be even more associates in industry and we can all help each other out!

Now that you’ve spent some time working in industry, what is the biggest piece of advice you’d like to share with those Associates who are still looking to make their own industry transition?

It is very different than academia, but the wait is worth it! There is much better work/life balance in the companies I have worked for and in the end, I feel like that is one of the most important things to strive for.

Ready to make your own industry transition? The Cheeky Scientist Association is the world’s premier PhD-only industry job search training platform and PhD-only industry job referral network. When you become an Associate, you get access to our proven job search blueprint, which includes 200+ training videos, interviews with industry PhDs working in the most popular 100+ careers for PhDs, lifetime access to a private job referral network of 8,000+ PhDs, and much more.

You get instant feedback from our trainers 24/7 on any job search-related question so you can be 100% confident in your decisions about your job search and your overall career. To learn more about how to make your own industry transition, including instant access to our exclusive training videos, case studies, industry insider documents, transition plan, and private online network, get on the waitlist for the Cheeky Scientist Association.