r/MedicalScienceLiaison

I’ve been a CTL for 3+ years in neuro/neuropsych, investigator prior to that, have a terminal degree, and have been trying to transition to an MSL role since my second year.

I’ve made it to two final/presentation rounds with contract MSL companies but wasn’t selected, mainly due to candidates with more direct MSL experience. The last one was frustrating because several of the KOLs/authors were investigators at my current sites, and I already had strong relationships with them.

When I apply directly to pharma/biotech, I rarely get interviews.

I know I need to keep trying, but for anyone who successfully transitioned from a CTL/similar role to MSL: what helped you finally break in? Any advice on positioning my experience, networking, or getting past the “no prior MSL experience” barrier would be appreciated. Thank you so much.

I sense someone on my team is - never seen by the reps, and even the speakers haven’t seen him. I don’t know how he is perceived by the managers, but our team overall thinks he is a nice guy. I‘m not jealous of him, but I”m curious how he gets away with it. I‘m getting burned out, having logged consecutive 60 hour work weeks, including conferences during the weekend. I’m thinking of “quiet coasting”, being seen and present, but focusing on just doing a good job locally seeing my HCPs and not volunteering for massive projects or being a conference lead. Right now I’m involved in managing one of the year’s two biggest conferences with literally thousands of posters to comb through…

I’m a PharmD clinical pharmacist trying to decide whether to stay in my current role or accept my first MSL position.

Current role:

• ~$165K base with historically 5–7% annual raises (3rd year in this role)
• ~$273K federal student loans
• 50 qualifying PSLF payments, with potential buyback months (42 month remaining)
• If everything works as expected, could potentially complete PSLF around 2030
• Accepted into a 100% employer-funded MBA program worth ~$70–80K
• MBA is 1.5 years + 2-year employment commitment afterward
• Decent PTO and job security
• I know I don’t want to stay in clinical pharmacy long term

MSL offer:

• $175K base
• 15% target bonus
• $15K sign-on
• Company car/gas/insurance
• Home-based/field position
• Strong holiday/time-off package
• Good opportunity for launch experience and career advancement
• Would give me ~3.5 years of industry experience by the time I could otherwise finish PSLF/MBA

I’m not 100% sure Medical Affairs is my forever career, but I know clinical pharmacy isn’t.

So essentially:

Stay: potentially finish around 2030 with an MBA + ~$273K loans largely forgiven, then try to break into industry.

Leave: give up a potentially huge financial benefit but start my industry career now and have ~3.5 years of MSL experience by 2030.

For those who made the clinical → MSL transition, would you take the financial win and wait, or take the MSL opportunity now?

I'm an MBBS final year student from Pakistan really interested in becoming an MSL. I know it's pretty impossible to land an MSL job without any prior field experience. They say good entry points would be CRA, CRO and other adjacent roles that could later pivot into MSL with enough experience. What I want to ask: Is MBBS a good background for the MSL, CRA and such positions or is it just of the "it'll do" sort? And how are fresh MBBS graduates supposed to enter the market right after final year, especially internationally?

Hello all. I am curious if you changed your job profile when moving to a new company or did you wait until you passed certification? How many didn’t pass certification?

I am a clinical provider looking to pivot to MSL role but my contract wants 120 days notice if I quit my job or, if my notice is less than this they can require me to pay back my licensing and malpractice premiums back. I think it would be worth it to break the 120 day notice for an MSL position but could I ask for a sign on bonus to help me get out of that clinical position that could be around 5k in penalties? If so, what amount of sign on bonus is reasonable to ask for?

Hello!

I am in preliminary interviews for a promising MSL role (no previous industry experience as an MSL). The company I'm interviewing with sounds great and aligned with my experience. The role seems like it would be a good fit, however I discovered that the PTO policy is 2 weeks (excluding sick leave and paid holidays). I find that to be incredibly low compared to the PTO policy at my current position (I currently work in a clinical position). You have the potential to earn more the more tenure you acquire, and up to 40 hours does rollover to the next year.

Does the initial PTO sound low to you guys? Unlike salary, this isn't something that can be negotiated (at least to my knowledge) so I am not sure how far I should get invested in this process. I do typically take more than 14 vacation days a year, though not all at once.

I have been an MSL for a little while now, and I can honestly and proudly say that I have never lied about having an interaction or falsely documenting something for the sake of hitting a metric. As I have gotten to know my colleagues a little better, I have realized that many of them are not actually seeing as many customers as they say they are. This feels unfair to me when I spend so much time away from home and really try to work hard and have impact. I am not going to do anything about it, but I just wanted to see if I have a few rotten apples on my team or if this just happens a lot more than I realize?

Is 20K stock options higher than the industry average? (Not RSUs).

Has anyone had experience receiving sign on bonuses upwards of $30k? I had a great opportunity arise but they would want me to start soon and I’d be walking away from my bonus and RSUs that vest early next year. I’m anticipating around $38k in annual bonus and $20k in RSUs that would be vesting.

Would it be unheard of to ask for $30k? Does anyone have any experience negotiating a large sign on bonus?

Edit: annual bonus is gross pay

Hi everyone! I’m hoping to get some advice from people who are already MSLs or have been through the process of breaking into their first MSL role.

I recently finished my PhD in Experimental Therapeutics. My background is mainly pharmacology, toxicology, neuroscience, and drug development. I’ve also been working at a CRO for about a year and a half supporting a clinical trial, where I’ve gotten experience with clinical data review, medical/scientific writing, regulatory and quality work, and working with physicians, surgeons, investigators, and other members of the clinical team. I’ve also analyzed clinical data and turned that into scientific presentations.

I know I don’t have previous MSL experience, so I’ve been trying to focus on positions that seem more open to PhDs with relevant clinical/scientific experience instead of applying to everything that says MSL.

The part I’m having the hardest time with is networking. Everyone says that networking is one of the most important things you can do to break into Medical Affairs, but I feel like I’m not getting anywhere with it.

I’ve been reaching out to MSLs and people in Medical Affairs on LinkedIn, especially at companies where I see a position I’m interested in. I’m really trying not to make my messages sound like “Hi, can you get me a job?” I usually introduce myself, explain that I’m trying to transition into Medical Affairs, and say that I’d love to connect or hear about their experience/advice.

I’ve gotten very few responses.

I completely understand that people are busy and nobody is obligated to respond to a random person on LinkedIn, but it has me wondering if I’m going about this the wrong way.

For those of you who are MSLs, what kind of message would you actually respond to? Is it better to reach out to MSLs, MSL managers, medical directors, or recruiters? Should I be asking a specific question instead of just asking to connect/learn about their experience? And is it better to do this when there’s a job posted, or should I be trying to build these relationships before there’s an opening?

I’d also be curious whether my background sounds reasonable for someone trying to land their first MSL role, or if there’s another Medical Affairs position I should be targeting first.

I really am trying to learn from people in the field and build genuine connections rather than message strangers asking for referrals, so any advice on what worked for you would be really appreciated!

I was a practicing optometrist for about 10 years and genuinely enjoyed seeing patients, but I eventually became overwhelmed by the long hours, productivity metrics, and overall demands of clinical practice. I decided to pursue an MSL role, which definitely wasn’t easy. Now I’ve been in the role for about 4-5 months, and I’ve realized that I truly, deeply miss patient care. I also don’t feel like this role has given me the work-life balance I expected. Even when I’m technically off, I’m thinking about whether I’ve scheduled enough encounters, whether certain doctors have responded, and what I still need to accomplish. I feel like I’m either working or worrying about work.

The lack of structure has also been harder for me than I anticipated. I knew the schedule would be very self-directed, but knowing that and actually living it are two different things. I’m realizing I may just function better with defined work hours and a clearer separation between work and personal life. I’ve also struggled with how blurry the line between sales and Medical Affairs can feel, and I find myself constantly reminding people that I’m an OD and not a sales rep.

I know clinical practice had its own problems, and I don’t want to romanticize it, but this experience has made me realize how much I value structure, direct patient interaction, and feeling like I actually helped someone that day. Part of me wonders if I should stick it out for a year, but another part of me feels like the things I dislike are fundamental parts of the role and probably won’t change.
For those who have been in Medical Affairs longer, did you eventually adjust, or did you know pretty early on that it wasn’t for you? Has anyone left after only 4-5 months? Is it terrible to leave this early, especially after the company has invested so much time and energy into training you?

Hi everyone,

I have been working as an MSL for just over a year now.

So far my experience has not been that great. Although I have enjoyed the flexible role I just don’t feel like the tasks I do are tangible or impactful enough to be rewarding. I find myself getting bored. I gather a lot of insights that I receive good feedback on and have been able to increase local access to therapy but I honestly feel like that latter point could have been achieved by the commercial rep and this was not too specific to the MSL role.

I am open to moving to the commercial side if the job seems right - just wondering what pivots have you seen MSLs do in the head office roles that you are curious about. If you have pivoted do you have any regrets? I do try and network within my company and learn about other roles but I figured I’d also ask Reddit.

I'm currently a third year medical student (2 more years of med school left) and am considering not applying to residency to pursue an MSL pathway instead. I did my PhD in Immunology, and I have been working as a consultant for a medical affairs company for ~4 years on an as needed bases. In my consulting role, I have published 12 papers on various indications from heme-onc drugs, melanoma, prostate cancer.

My question is, is it possible to land an MSL role without MSL experience and no residency? Alternatively, is there anything I could do during my final year in medical school to help me prepare for getting an MSL role? I'm pretty open to moving for a position.

Hey all, I’m in MSAT (biopharma) and thinking about pivoting into an MSL role. Has anyone actually done this? Curious what skills translate, what doesn’t, and whether hiring managers even consider MSAT folks for MSL positions.

I have over 10 years in manufacturing , MSAt and current a Product Lifecycle Manager. I have a Masters and looking to pivot to something entirely different

I have a 90 day notice requirement or the option to pay back the days I leave before the 90 days. How likely is it that I would be considered for a role with this stipulation. I feel pretty trapped by this contract but I think that is the intention.

I have worked with the company and have a referral for the position.

Hi!

I’m trying to understand how you guys handle KOL meeting documentation in real life.

After an interaction, what do you usually try to capture so the meeting is useful later, not just "documented" ? Is there typically a structured template in your company, or does each MSL more or less write notes in their own way?

I’m especially curious about what happens weeks/months later. Do those reports help with preparing the next meeting, finding patterns across KOL, surfacing small signals, understanding unmet needs, or supporting Medical Affairs decisions? Or is it hard to reuse that information once it’s inside the CRM, notes, internal docs, … ?

Would really appreciate any perspective from people who’ve done this in practice. I’m less interested in the official process and more in what actually works (for you or for your team in general), what doesn’t, and what information ends up being valuable later.

Hi everyone, I’m PharmD trying to break into Medical Affairs/MSL, and I’d really appreciate some perspective from people currently working as MSLs or hiring for MSL roles.

I’ve hired a career coach with 15+ years of experience in Medical Affairs to mentor me through the process. I recently came across an MSL position at J&J in Immunology that I was interested in. The job posting did not specify the specific product or indication/therapeutic area within the Immunology portfolio.

I showed my coach the CV I had tailored for the position. I had highlighted my relevant immunology experience, including exposure to IBD and rheumatoid arthritis and the pharmacotherapy used for these conditions.

She pointed out that J&J’s Immunology portfolio also includes dermatology/psoriasis, and I told her that I don’t have dermatology experience and that I wouldn’t apply if the position turned out to be primarily dermatology-focused.

She then told me that I shouldn’t “spray and pray” and that I need to do more research to determine what the role is actually going to cover before deciding whether to apply (she seemed pissed at me as she said that which made feel a bit sad because this is my first time going through this and I am trying my best not to be dsicouraged by all the hurdles). I understand her point, and I agree that I don’t want to randomly apply to every MSL position out there just for the sake of applying.

However, the job posting genuinely didn’t identify the product or indication, so I didn’t have enough information initially to determine whether I was actually a fit.

I subsequently reached out to a few people on Linkedin and was able to establish that the role is supporting Tremfya. Tremfya covers psoriasis/PsA but also has indications in IBD, which is where I have relevant experience.

Now I’m unsure how to approach this.

Would you consider this a legitimate targeted application for someone with my background, despite having no dermatology experience? would the lack of dermatology experience make this too much of a gap even if I have relevant IBD experience?

More broadly, how much therapeutic-area overlap do you think an entry-level MSL candidate realistically needs before applying? Is it reasonable to apply when you have strong experience in one indication within a broader portfolio but not another major indication?

And finally, from the perspective of experienced MSLs/hiring managers: what would make you view this as a thoughtful, targeted application rather than “spray and pray”?

I’m trying to be strategic about my applications rather than applying to everything, so I’d really appreciate honest advice.

Has anyone ever had a compliance issue where you felt you were being put in a situation that was definitely crossing a line based on your training but your management didn’t seem to care? How did you handle this? What would you do?

I have done a couple guest lectures for NP programs and hoping to do more of them. I have so far just used a pretty broad approved deck but it isn’t perfect for a student lecture.

For those of you that have done them a few questions:

1. Do you have case presentation included? This is always an ask in my experience but I haven’t done it and honestly not sure on compliance.

2. Are you able to send handout of the slide deck? Again always asked for but haven’t been allowed to so far.

3. Do you do disease state only or do medication also? I was asked specifically to go over my medication but have had some friends question compliance on a large presentation to students not being disease state only.

4. Did you do a special deck or just use an already approved one? My company doesn’t like us altering our decks.

5. Do you include them on your CV?

6. Any other suggestions to best do a guest lectures compliantly?