We sat down with Roma Patel, one of our Senior Account Managers, to find out about how her career has developed.
Roma worked for us previously as an Account Executive, Senior Account Executive, and Account Manager. Since our chat, Roma has been promoted to Account Director in Client Services – congrats!
Q. How have you progressed in your career to get to where you are now?
Well, I’ve been in this industry now for about four or five years. I started off studying human sciences at university and had a passion for science, but I know I’m not the kind of person who can work in a lab and I really wasn’t sure about the career trajectories for someone who has done a science degree. All I knew was that I didn’t want to work in a lab!
So, I joined a grad scheme and became a science teacher for a year, I guess that was my first experience of communicating scientific messages to GCSE pupils. I found it really fun looking at how to capture the attention of the pupils and how I could communicate things for them to absorb. However, I felt out of touch with new developments in science and data, so I wanted to re-direct myself.
I then started working at a medical journal in the Client Services department so we would have pharma and agency clients. That is when I got a better idea about Medcomms and the kind of deliverable differences between agency work versus journal work and so it was a natural progression into Medcomms…and I’m here now!
Q. Is the role you have now different from the role you had when you first joined Prime Global?
Actually, yes, the account I’m working on and the actual deliverables that I’m working on are very different. When I was here last time, I was working on a publications account that had a mix of med affairs deliverables and things done in a client specific way.
I’m now in a different team, there are brand new clients and, probably due to COVID-19, there is much more of a virtual focus; there are new things to consider when working with the team and creating new proposals.
It’s so interesting to come back and experience another team as they all have their own vibe and cultures which are unique and exciting.
Q. What are your top three reasons for re-joining Prime Global?
I’d say that the fact that it’s quite scientific. I think agencies do have a niche that either focuses on being more creative or being more scientific, and I think Prime Global hits the middle ground between the two. There are some really scientific publication heavy accounts here, but there’s also consumer care accounts and patient resources and a lot more digital projects within that space as well so, it really is a range of deliverables. There’s also that heritage of scientific, knowledge and expertise too. You feel like as a team, you can tackle any issues the client might have because you have that experience behind you which you won’t find everywhere else.
Other reasons are people, there is a really great welcoming team here and there is camaraderie between the teams and people. It’s a supportive place to work.
Support would be the third reason because you can try and learn things and people are on board with that and support the decisions that you make, and you don’t get that in many places. People know how to work collaboratively and listen to everyone’s input across the team.
Q. What have been the biggest changes you have experienced at Prime Global when re-joining?
Definitely the growth of the company, especially the size of the team in the London office where I was based before, it is really noticeable and an amazing achievement over the past few years.
Q. Describe your day-to-day role to those who may be interested, for their own career?
Every day is different because there are so many deliverables and so many variables. However, there are a few actions that you take that are consistent on a day-to-day basis to make sure you can handle those variants. For example, in my role, I specifically look after the day-to-day client contact with the projects that we work on and check in with the Account Director for any updates or if I have any questions.
Other than that, I would work with the Account Executive on my team making sure that we are prepared for internal and external meetings, keeping on top of timelines and then communicating to writers, editors, designers, PowerPoint teams and freelancers to bring the project together. You become the hub for those projects so that everything runs by you and people come with updates to you. You have to be organised when you are giving out information and taking it in effectively. You have to schedule in time for people to do tasks, looking at resource and of course financial budgets for each project.
You also have to make sure that you are adding value to your client through your day-to-day work to make sure they are having the smoothest service possible and to secure organic growth.
Q. If you could acquire any skill in the world straight away, what would it be and why?
Right now, probably Excel VBA because it could be a good way to enhance regular documents we share with the clients and to help automate the smaller processes that we do on a day-to-day basis. I’m a nerd about making things faster and more efficient!
Q. If you were to have a dinner party, who would be your top three invites and why?
I think of people who do things differently and who are able to share their perspective on how they have achieved their goal. So, I would have Elon Musk because it would be interesting to find out how he got ‘buy in’ from people to make electric cars such a mainstream thing.
I would invite Simon Sinek, he has a presentation on thinking about the ‘why?’ first and has a great approach to problem-solving. He would be a great person to talk to if you have a problem which you need realigning to see it in a different way.
Finally, Ray Dalio; he takes a problem or process that he finds in his company and takes solving it to the next level to ensure as minimal error as possible. For example, for his employees, he assigns a numerical weighting to them towards different experiences or expert knowledge they have for that topic so if he asked the company about that specific topic, he can consider their numerical weight in that topic when he makes his decision. I think his way of thinking is so interesting!
Thanks for your time, Roma!
If you’re interested in working for Prime Global, look at our available roles here: https://primeglobalpeople.com/join-us/
