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Advice You - My First Job
People always remember their firsts: first day in school, first day in college, first day in university, first job, first love, first kiss etc. For me it is my first job which is very memorable.
But before that some history about myself. I came to USA for doing Ph.D in physics which I completed in 1993. After that I worked as a post-doctoral research associate for two years in Norman, OK. But when the funding ran out and it turned out I am not quite the Einstein I thought to be, I was left with no choice but to find a job outside of academia.
Some people said with my background in physics and with Ph.D from a well known university and also an MSc from one of I.I.T's in India, I can eas
But before that some history about myself. I came to USA for doing Ph.D in physics which I completed in 1993. After that I worked as a post-doctoral research associate for two years in Norman, OK. But when the funding ran out and it turned out I am not quite the Einstein I thought to be, I was left with no choice but to find a job outside of academia.
Some people said with my background in physics and with Ph.D from a well known university and also an MSc from one of I.I.T's in India, I can eas
According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product
ily get a job
in industry in companies like Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Applied Materials etc.
However, my job search did not turn up any results in two months. Even though I
got some job in India, I was not willing to go back and wanted to explore further what uncle Sam might have in store for me.
But no job, no job. Then someone suggested I could look for job in the software industry which was beginning to boom. I had done lot computing as part of my research. So I thought it is not a bad idea. So I started applying to software companies in the internet. But most companies kept rejecting by saying I don't have any relevant experience. Some will talk to me for a few days and then ev
But no job, no job. Then someone suggested I could look for job in the software industry which was beginning to boom. I had done lot computing as part of my research. So I thought it is not a bad idea. So I started applying to software companies in the internet. But most companies kept rejecting by saying I don't have any relevant experience. Some will talk to me for a few days and then ev
; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.
Examples of combination products may in
Examples of combination products may in
entually it will not go anywhere after that.
While I was doing that, I started learning about C programming language. Before then I have done programming in Fortran language only. So I started learning about pointers, memory allocation, etc. I also started learning about C++ which was gaining popularity at that time. I kept on learning. Encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism. I liked the idea of inheritance and polymorphism very much. While the university had no funds to pay me anymore, I could still use their computing and other resources, e.g. phone, fax, internet etc. This turned out to be a great service for me.
But I was still not having any luck in finding a job. Everybody
While I was doing that, I started learning about C programming language. Before then I have done programming in Fortran language only. So I started learning about pointers, memory allocation, etc. I also started learning about C++ which was gaining popularity at that time. I kept on learning. Encapsulation, inheritance, polymorphism. I liked the idea of inheritance and polymorphism very much. While the university had no funds to pay me anymore, I could still use their computing and other resources, e.g. phone, fax, internet etc. This turned out to be a great service for me.
But I was still not having any luck in finding a job. Everybody
lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.
said they need industry
experience which I lacked. Almost a whole month went by, and still no luck.
In fact, a time came when I gave the hope of getting a job and almost about to head back home. But before leaving I gave a call to one of companies I was dealing with. I had talked with them before. This time, the president of the company himself took the call. When he learned about my story, he decided to give me a chance. He offered me to come there and stay in their guest house and learn more programming and they will look for projects for me. At that time, it sounded like a gift from heaven to me.
So I packed all my stuff, vacated my apartment, bid final good bye to the academic world
In fact, a time came when I gave the hope of getting a job and almost about to head back home. But before leaving I gave a call to one of companies I was dealing with. I had talked with them before. This time, the president of the company himself took the call. When he learned about my story, he decided to give me a chance. He offered me to come there and stay in their guest house and learn more programming and they will look for projects for me. At that time, it sounded like a gift from heaven to me.
So I packed all my stuff, vacated my apartment, bid final good bye to the academic world
here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe
and headed for New Jersey.
New Jersey
It was a small infotec company in New Jersey. They had a two bedroom apartment which they used as their guest house.
They also urged me to learn visual C++ and I started learning it. However, they had only one computer for use and sometime there will be competition over who will get to it first.
The company had probably 50-60 employees and most of them were at their client site working on various assignments. There were only four people in the office. In fact, most people were recruited over phone and never even came to the home office.
They had rented a two bedroom apartment which they called the guest house. This was going to my addre
New Jersey
It was a small infotec company in New Jersey. They had a two bedroom apartment which they used as their guest house.
They also urged me to learn visual C++ and I started learning it. However, they had only one computer for use and sometime there will be competition over who will get to it first.
The company had probably 50-60 employees and most of them were at their client site working on various assignments. There were only four people in the office. In fact, most people were recruited over phone and never even came to the home office.
They had rented a two bedroom apartment which they called the guest house. This was going to my addre
d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.
Combination pro
Combination pro
ss for a while.
Life in the Guest House
At a times, their guest house really got crowded. People were coming from India. Some got placed pretty much immediately but some had to wait a while.
Sometime the mood got very festive. People talking, joking, playing. One day, someone was cooking while some other people having a hearty adda (chit chat). So he also joined in the party. But he forgot to switch off the cooking burner. He was having so much fun, he didn't realize the oil had gotten over heated and started burning. It caught our attention only there were smoke all over the living room. Immediately we ran to the kitchen and switched off the gas. But the oil was st
Life in the Guest House
At a times, their guest house really got crowded. People were coming from India. Some got placed pretty much immediately but some had to wait a while.
Sometime the mood got very festive. People talking, joking, playing. One day, someone was cooking while some other people having a hearty adda (chit chat). So he also joined in the party. But he forgot to switch off the cooking burner. He was having so much fun, he didn't realize the oil had gotten over heated and started burning. It caught our attention only there were smoke all over the living room. Immediately we ran to the kitchen and switched off the gas. But the oil was st
ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc
ill burning and so much smoke came out that it triggered the smoke
alarm. We quickly opened the windows and tried to fan the smoke out with some newspapers. At one point we were worried if police or fire brigade
will come and what they will think when they find so many foreigners in a single
apartment. So someone suggested most of us could hide in the bathroom. Then
someone pointed out the closet which was a walk-in close and could fit 5-6 people easily. But no police or fire brigade ever came and the smoke cleared in an hour.
In another day, someone put a hot cooking pot containing lentil right onto the carpet. No one seemed to notice what happened until we finished eating. The pot ha
In another day, someone put a hot cooking pot containing lentil right onto the carpet. No one seemed to notice what happened until we finished eating. The pot ha
easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi
burned the carpet it was sitting on, we discovered when the pot was lifted.
Everybody was very nervous. Weeks later, it will a subject of obscene joke : an black round spot exactly in the middle of the apartment.
Also people will forget one or another sometime : may be switching off light or the air conditioning, one someone even forgot to turn off the cooking gas, it kept burning the whole day. It was very fortunate that the whole apartment was not burned down. But every time the company president knew about it, he would start yelling, and the blame game will start.
Hopeless quest for job
As I was learning visual C++, they would try sending my resume for review to some compan
Also people will forget one or another sometime : may be switching off light or the air conditioning, one someone even forgot to turn off the cooking gas, it kept burning the whole day. It was very fortunate that the whole apartment was not burned down. But every time the company president knew about it, he would start yelling, and the blame game will start.
Hopeless quest for job
As I was learning visual C++, they would try sending my resume for review to some compan
nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically
ies. In all cases, it will be completely ignored. Sometime the marketing person will talk to someone mentioning my impressive educational
background. But only response he would get from the other end was in the form of
a question : how much industry experience does he have? Answer was, of course, ZERO! It was getting more and more frustrating.
In one instance, he almost yelled at them saying : 'he has written thousand lines of code'! To this day, the desparateness, frustration and poignance still
rings in my ear.
I was also getting sick of learning visual C++. I know I can write program that can fetch data and display it on the screen, but what all is there to learn? One can not memori
I was also getting sick of learning visual C++. I know I can write program that can fetch data and display it on the screen, but what all is there to learn? One can not memori
and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ
ze the whole windows api.
As I was learning visual C++ and sometime visual basic, I also had another task to take care of. This was to drive people around. Even though most people found jobs without too much effort, there were few who took some time. They will have interviews here and there. Since they just came from India, they didn't know driving and my ability to drive a car came very handy to them. So I would drive them to places. In one incident, I drove one guy to some place in North Jersey and I got lost. Cell phone were available at that time, but almost no one had them. I stopped at a lonely gas station and made a call. It was so lonely and time was around 11 pm, I got real
As I was learning visual C++ and sometime visual basic, I also had another task to take care of. This was to drive people around. Even though most people found jobs without too much effort, there were few who took some time. They will have interviews here and there. Since they just came from India, they didn't know driving and my ability to drive a car came very handy to them. So I would drive them to places. In one incident, I drove one guy to some place in North Jersey and I got lost. Cell phone were available at that time, but almost no one had them. I stopped at a lonely gas station and made a call. It was so lonely and time was around 11 pm, I got real
ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi
y scared. In another instance, I was
supposed to bring back a guy from some town in philadelphia who got rolled off
from the project just after a week. This time also I got lost and found myself
driving on a very narrow road. There was no way to turn back. Finally I stopped
on the shoulder which was grass. There was a car coming from behind, so I waited
until it passed. But to my surprise, the car stopped just by my car. I was very
scared. But when the windows rolled down, I saw an old lady instead of a someone
pointing gun at me who asked if I was alright and needed any help. I was so
touched by this gesture. So I smiled and said no. I turned back and eventually
found the guy and h
ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.
Following aspects would a
Following aspects would a
eaded back to the guest house.
The fight with Lawyer
The first thing they had do was to get an H1B approval for me. But the lawyer was very much against me. One day the president of the company got in phone with him and an entertaining conversation followed.
Lawyer: How can you be sure he can do this job?
President: I know his background, he can easily learn this.
Lawyer: Okay, but his degree is in physics it will be very difficult to get H1B approval for him.
President: He has done lot of programming as part of this research, it should not be any problem.
Lawyer: Okay, but this is still a very complicated case and lot of extra work needs to done, it would cost XXXX dollars.
The fight with Lawyer
The first thing they had do was to get an H1B approval for me. But the lawyer was very much against me. One day the president of the company got in phone with him and an entertaining conversation followed.
Lawyer: How can you be sure he can do this job?
President: I know his background, he can easily learn this.
Lawyer: Okay, but his degree is in physics it will be very difficult to get H1B approval for him.
President: He has done lot of programming as part of this research, it should not be any problem.
Lawyer: Okay, but this is still a very complicated case and lot of extra work needs to done, it would cost XXXX dollars.
dd to the challenges in developing combination products:
Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
President: Oh my god! Etna mat bolo. Hamara seva karo. (Don't quote so much, serve me well).
Lawyer: No man, it can not be any lower than that.
President: Kar do bhaiya! Main to garib admi hun. (Please do it, we are too poor!)
Lawyer: I am giving you the lowest price! Others will charge you a whole lot. (Meaning he would suck the last drop of blood from you if he could.)
And the coversation continued for a while. It ended like this.
President: Okay, we will get all paperwork ready. Please start working on this as soon as possible.
Lawyer: Don't worry. As long as it is in my hand everything will go smoothly (meaning he didn't have a clue what he was talking about).
cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
Return to India
At some point, I decided to go home and stay there until get a project; the chance of which was getting slimmer and slimmer each day. So I bought a one-way ticket to India and headed home. There was very good chance that I will not return back to USA. At home, my parent pestered me so much to get married. So I decided to get married even though I did not have a job. This is partly because I was not having much luck with girls. I did have chances though, but I blew them all. But this is not relevant in the context of this story. May be later.
But right after getting married, guess what, phone started ringing from USA. The infotec company has finally found s
At some point, I decided to go home and stay there until get a project; the chance of which was getting slimmer and slimmer each day. So I bought a one-way ticket to India and headed home. There was very good chance that I will not return back to USA. At home, my parent pestered me so much to get married. So I decided to get married even though I did not have a job. This is partly because I was not having much luck with girls. I did have chances though, but I blew them all. But this is not relevant in the context of this story. May be later.
But right after getting married, guess what, phone started ringing from USA. The infotec company has finally found s
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
meone who was interested in my resume
and an phone interview was scheduled quickly. The interview was not as great as
I thought! But one hour later, I got a call back saying I was selected for the
job. Take that! I got a job.
After that everything was arranged with lightening speed. The plane ticket was booked and I headed back to US. But even this part was not without kinks. They booked a ticket on Tower airlines! I was supposed to fly out of Mumbai. I was to collect the ticket from the Tower office in Mumbai. When I tried to find their office in the largest city of India, I had troubles. The taxi driver took me around the city (probably twice) and when finally located the
After that everything was arranged with lightening speed. The plane ticket was booked and I headed back to US. But even this part was not without kinks. They booked a ticket on Tower airlines! I was supposed to fly out of Mumbai. I was to collect the ticket from the Tower office in Mumbai. When I tried to find their office in the largest city of India, I had troubles. The taxi driver took me around the city (probably twice) and when finally located the
t?
As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel
office, they said I simply
had to pick it up from their counter in the airport itself. Well the taxi raced
back to the airport and dropped me there. He demanded about thousand rupees (or
fifteen hundred, I don't remember today).
But everything went smoothly after that! In the airport in New York, two people
from the office came to meet me! It was so touching.
My professional career
In the first job, I performed really well. I guess having some good education really makes a difference. After a few months, everyone was talking about my programming style as if I had been doing programming for years!
One year later, I decided to look for another job and I got one this time in th
My professional career
In the first job, I performed really well. I guess having some good education really makes a difference. After a few months, everyone was talking about my programming style as if I had been doing programming for years!
One year later, I decided to look for another job and I got one this time in th
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.
Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
e
company called Sabre group, a spin off company from the American Airlines.
This was a difficult decision to take, to quit the company which helped me land
my first job. But I thought I have served them enough even though I am pretty thankful for what they did for me.
In the second job also I did really well and although there were twists now and then, I was employed long enough to get my green card.
In my first job I did mainly C programming, then move to C++ and java and then J2EE. Ironically I never used visual C++ or visual basic.
At this place I also got to know about stock market. I saw lot of colleagues surfing the finance sites (e.g. Yahoo finance) during office hours and
In the second job also I did really well and although there were twists now and then, I was employed long enough to get my green card.
In my first job I did mainly C programming, then move to C++ and java and then J2EE. Ironically I never used visual C++ or visual basic.
At this place I also got to know about stock market. I saw lot of colleagues surfing the finance sites (e.g. Yahoo finance) during office hours and
y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
lso doing stock
trading in their brokerage account. I did not know anything about stock market
until that time. So I looked for some information and
decided to get in
this game: a decision I very soon learned to regret. Almost all my trades
ended up in loss! Those early days of investing is described in in my web site: http://www.stock-article.com/.
After a year I had lost almost half of my money! But then came the internet bubble. I made good money by trading first Ebay and then Amazon. I continued trading until March of 2000 when my account value was almost at stone's throw away from the million dollar mark! But as the internet bubble burst, so did my account. It quickly los
After a year I had lost almost half of my money! But then came the internet bubble. I made good money by trading first Ebay and then Amazon. I continued trading until March of 2000 when my account value was almost at stone's throw away from the million dollar mark! But as the internet bubble burst, so did my account. It quickly los
.
As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de
t half of its value, and then three-fourth, and so on. But it didn't go down
to zero! In fact, I never held onto any stock for a long time. Even though some
stocks went to zero, my losses were limited. But I would try to recover the loss
from another stock which would also go down. And the losses added up. I guess
some people never learn. But slowly my trading activities stopped and I have to
be content with my account balance which is now only fraction its peak value.
On the job front, having spent almost decade in industry, I feel I am at the square one again sometime. I find it difficult to find jobs. Probably I will not find any job at a time when all jobs will be lost to outsourc
On the job front, having spent almost decade in industry, I feel I am at the square one again sometime. I find it difficult to find jobs. Probably I will not find any job at a time when all jobs will be lost to outsourc
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.
Companies that provide selfless information through particip
Companies that provide selfless information through particip
ing. But I will not go hungry, I have
enough to live in India happily. I also think of starting a company with my ideas. If some angel investor or venture capital will give some money, may be I
will do just that. I also write occasionally. Having written a few poems, short
stories and articles like this I sometime feel like writing a full length novel
and become a writer full time.
Who knows what I will be doing in future? But whatever I
end up doing, I will never forget the way I landed my first job and the chain
of events surrounding it and the few months I lived in the company apartment (the guest house). Hope you enjoyed reading it.
Copyright © 2005 Gautam Dev. All rights reserve
Copyright © 2005 Gautam Dev. All rights reserve
tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products
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