On January 31st, our “Connect with Gilead” event reached full capacity! At the USC Ray R. Irani Hall, 70 enthusiastic attendees came with polished resumes and participated in small group discussions with Dr. Roshy Pakdaman from Gilead Sciences and Ms. Quynh Nguyen from KitePharma.
Dr. Pakdaman introduced Gilead’s inspirational journey from an anti-viral drug innovator to a leader in therapeutic areas of cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases, hematology, and inflammation/respiratory diseases over the past three decades. After the recent acquisition of KitePharma, Gilead has gained the frontrunner spot in oncology. Regarding strategies for job searching, Dr. Pakdaman encouraged PhD-level job seekers to expand their search to different research areas from the ones they have been working on, since the great advantage of a PhD degree is the problem-solving skills developed that can be transferred to many other positions.
Ms. Nguyen elaborated on how experts at KitePharma, engineer T cells and deliver them to patients with fast turnaround times, using state of the art technology. She emphasized that it is Kite’s corporate culture, where patients come first, that brings all employees together. They now have nearly 900 employees, and this number will continue to grow substantially.
BCLA’s goal for this event was to bring talent and companies together and create an opportunity for advanced degree job hunters to connect with experienced industry recruiters personally.
Best of luck to all of those currently on the job market! If you missed out on this great event, don’t worry – BCLA is planning more events like this in the future! As always, feel free to contact us for any suggestions at team@bc-la.org.
