u/SiddharthaToBuddha

As a soon to be unemployed F2, I don't know where we go from here. The profession has failed us.

UK-based doctor with about a year of previous pharma industry Medical Affairs experience and a few years of clinical training under my belt. I’ll probably remain in clinical training until I secure permanent residency, then consider a full-time MBA in my early 30s.

The goal is to move into the business/commercial side of biopharma: brand or launch strategy, market access, new product planning, portfolio strategy, and eventually P&L responsibility.

I’m open to life sciences consulting as a bridge if it improves the trajectory. I also don’t want to spend six figures on an MBA if returning to pharma first, moving internally, or doing a different degree would be smarter.

For people who know this space, how would you approach the next 3–5 years?

- What experience should I build while I’m still clinical?

- Should I re-enter pharma before the MBA, or is previous Medical Affairs experience enough?

- Direct industry/LDP versus consulting first?

- Which MBA programmes feed these roles in the UK or Europe?

- Is the US route realistic for internationals given pharma sponsorship?

TIA.

This feels like a pause button, not a settlement.

I’m trying not to be knee-jerk about it because some bits are genuinely useful. Exam fees, portfolio fees, LED contracts, more training places, LTFT progression. Fine. I’ll take all of that.

But I don’t understand how we’ve gone from FPR to being asked to seriously consider 6.6% by April 2027 plus some contractual bits.

That is not pay restoration. It is not close.

And a lot of the non-pay stuff is only as good as the enforcement behind it. “LEDs will get proper contracts” sounds great until trusts start doing the usual local interpretation dance. Same with training posts. Are they new posts, or converted service posts? Who supervises them? Where is the capacity coming from?

The competition ratio line also needs a massive asterisk. Ratios improving because there are more posts is good. Ratios improving because fewer people can apply is just rationing dressed up as workforce planning.

I’ll wait for the full pack, but the email has not sold it to me.

It reads like just enough movement to stop next week’s strike, not enough movement to end the dispute.