What Does the Pharmaceutical Industry Look for in Pharmacology Graduates? A Thematic Analysis of Semi-Structured Interviews With Pharmaceutical Industry Employees on Their Perceptions of Pharmacology Graduates.

The pharmaceutical industry is a major employer of graduates from pharmacology BSc and MSc programs. Understanding its expectations of graduates is therefore important for pharmacology educators. To explore this, interviews were conducted with pharmaceutical industry employees to understand their views on graduate colleagues. Eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with employees of the UK pharmaceutical sector, identified by convenience sampling. The transcripts of the interviews were coded, and the resulting 117 codes were used to generate three themes and nine sub-themes. The first theme concerned how academia should prepare students for industry careers. The subthemes included what academia should focus on in their courses; differences identified by interviewees between industry and academia; educating students about the reality of careers in industry; and highlighting career options outside of academia via industrial placements. The second theme concerned the graduate attributes desired by industry, with the subthemes of knowledge, skills, behaviors and attitudes. Finally, the third theme concerned the behaviors and attributes students should develop to be successful in industry. These findings provide insight into graduate preparation for the workplace and may inform pharmacology program design. Exploring the views of employees in other career destinations of pharmacology graduates would be valuable. Limitations include convenience sampling, the limited number of participants, and the potential for interviewer bias.