The Jagged Line: Why the Best Careers Never Run Straight

As a senior leader at a biopharma company, I am often asked to speak to young professionals about careers in healthcare and, specifically, my career journey. I love these opportunities to chat with people earlier in their careers – not because I hold the keys to success or can share a step-by-step playbook, but because I think it’s important for leaders to speak openly about their journeys, highs and lows included. One of the most important learnings I share is this: career development is not a steady, uninterrupted ascent, or even a predictable one. It’s a jagged line, with ups and downs, a mix of achievements and setbacks. I learned this lesson in 2017 – the hard way. I had spent four years at my first job in biopharma building something I genuinely believed in: a vision that causal human biology coupled with the right therapeutic modality and a clear path to clinical proof-of-concept could fundamentally change how new medicines are invented. We were making good progress as a team,…