Develop Your Career at Veeva

This video provides an in-depth exploration of early career opportunities and development programs at Veeva, a prominent technology company in the life sciences industry. The webinar, hosted by WayUp, features Sarah Young, Director of Generation Veeva, along with current program participants and alumni, who share insights into Veeva's culture, vision, and the day-to-day experiences within its various development programs. The primary purpose is to attract and inform recent graduates about how they can start and grow a successful career at Veeva, emphasizing the company's commitment to employee development, industry impact, and core values.

The discussion begins with an overview of Veeva's vision: "to build the industry cloud for life sciences." This involves creating great software, leveraging data analytics and insights, and delivering solutions to pharma and biotech customers to enhance their operational efficiency. Founded in 2007 by Peter Gastner, an engineer with experience at IBM, PeopleSoft, and Salesforce, Veeva quickly grew to serve over 900 customers worldwide, including all of the top 20 pharma companies. A key highlight is Veeva's transition in 2021 to become the first public company to convert to a Public Benefit Corporation, legally obligating it to balance shareholder interests with those of its customers, employees, and communities, while striving to make the life sciences industry more productive and create high-quality employment.

The video details Veeva's comprehensive support for the entire drug approval process, from clinical trials to commercialization. Examples include helping pharma companies streamline clinical trials, improve quality and regulatory standards, and enable healthcare providers to get the right drugs to the right patients through software and data analytics. The speakers illustrate this with real-world scenarios, such as pharma reps using Veeva software on iPads and the tracking of marketing analytics for drug advertisements. A significant innovation mentioned is the Veeva Clinical Network, a bold initiative aiming to deliver scalable, paperless, and patient-centric clinical trials by connecting sponsors (like Pfizer and Moderna), clinical research sites, and patients.

The core of the webinar focuses on Veeva's "Generation Veeva" development programs, designed for new college graduates. Four distinct programs are highlighted: the Engineering Development Program (EDP) for associate software, DevOps, and performance engineers; the Consultant Development Program (CDP) for associate consultants who implement Veeva's software for customers; the Analytics Development Program (ADP) which offers technical back-end analytics and front-end customer-facing roles delivering business insights; and the Business Consultant Development Program (BCDP) for generalist consultants who focus on people, process, data, and technology to improve commercial pharma functions. These programs emphasize learning by doing, network building, mentorship, and personalized professional development, equipping participants with technical, analytical, problem-solving, consulting, soft skills, industry knowledge, and Veeva product expertise.

Key Takeaways:

• Veeva's "Industry Cloud for Life Sciences" Vision: Veeva's core mission is to build specialized software, data analytics, and insights solutions tailored for the complex pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, aiming to enhance operational efficiency across the industry.
• Comprehensive Support for Drug Approval Process: Veeva's applications and services span all phases of drug approval, from optimizing clinical trials and ensuring regulatory standards to facilitating drug commercialization and enabling effective interactions between pharma reps and healthcare providers.
• Public Benefit Corporation Status: Veeva's conversion to a Public Benefit Corporation signifies a legal commitment to balance the interests of shareholders with those of customers, employees, and communities, aiming to make the life sciences industry more productive.
• Veeva Clinical Network Innovation: A key initiative is the Veeva Clinical Network, which seeks to revolutionize clinical trials by connecting sponsors, research sites, and patients to accelerate research and deliver scalable, paperless, and patient-centric trials.
• Generation Veeva Development Programs: Veeva offers structured early career programs: EDP (software engineering), CDP (software implementation consulting), ADP (data analytics and insights), and BCDP (strategic business consulting for commercial pharma).
• Hands-on Learning and Responsibility: All development programs emphasize "learning by doing," providing new grads with significant responsibility early on, such as configuring software for customers, interpreting data for clients, or contributing to core engineering projects.
• Mentorship and Network Building: A strong focus is placed on mentorship from subject matter experts, "big buddy" support, and internal networking opportunities, fostering a supportive environment for professional and personal growth.
• Industry vs. Academia Coding: For engineering roles, the transition from college coding (structured assignments) to industry coding (solving problems without clear solutions, navigating complex file systems, continuous learning, using diverse tools) is a significant growth area.
• Importance of Soft Skills: Beyond technical expertise, the programs cultivate critical soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, business acumen, time management, and the ability to collaborate effectively in remote or hybrid environments.
• Tailored Professional Development: Each program offers personalized professional development, allowing individuals to explore different opportunities within Veeva, potentially moving into roles like product management, sales, or solution engineering based on their interests and skills.
• Transparent Interview Process: Veeva's interview process is designed to be transparent, often including hands-on case exercises (e.g., configuring a Veeva product, data analysis) and multiple conversations with team members to ensure a mutual fit between the candidate and the company culture.
• Advice for Job Seekers: Candidates are advised to research company objectives, mission, vision, and values; practice technical fundamentals (e.g., LeetCode for coding); develop strong communication skills; and actively ask questions during interviews to assess if the company is the right fit for their career aspirations and work preferences.

Tools/Resources Mentioned:

• Veeva Vault: A major Veeva product for life science and biotech companies to track studies and progress.
• WayUp: A platform for early career programs and job listings.
• Handshake: A university job board platform.
• LeetCode/HackerRank: Websites for practicing coding algorithms and problems.
• Google Chat/Video Conferencing: Tools for daily collaboration in a remote work environment.

Key Concepts:

• Industry Cloud for Life Sciences: Veeva's strategic focus on building a specialized cloud platform tailored to the unique needs and complexities of the pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors.
• Public Benefit Corporation (PBC): A legal designation for a for-profit corporation that is required to consider the impact of its decisions on society and the environment, in addition to its shareholders.
• Veeva Clinical Network: An innovative initiative by Veeva to connect sponsors, clinical research sites, and patients to streamline and accelerate clinical trials, making them paperless and patient-centric.
• Commercial Operations (Pharma): The business functions within pharmaceutical companies related to sales, marketing, and market access for drugs and medical products.
• Clinical Operations (Pharma): The processes and activities involved in conducting clinical trials, including trial design, patient recruitment, data collection, and regulatory compliance.
• Media Measurement: The process of tracking and analyzing the effectiveness of advertising campaigns, particularly in the context of reaching target audiences for pharmaceutical products.
• Health Data Linkage: The process of connecting media consumption data with health data in a privacy-safe way to understand who advertisements are reaching and optimize marketing efforts for relevant patient populations.

Examples/Case Studies:

• Pharma Reps with iPads: Pharma representatives using Veeva software on iPads to interact with doctors and manage samples, demonstrating Veeva's role in commercial operations.
• COVID-19 Impact on Pharma Interactions: Veeva provided solutions for pharma reps to continue interacting with healthcare providers remotely during the pandemic when hospital access was restricted.
• Drug Ad Marketing Analytics: Veeva software tracks the marketing analytics behind drug advertisements seen on TV, helping companies understand their reach and effectiveness.
• Flu Drug Marketing: An example of how Veeva's analytics helps pharmaceutical companies target advertisements for a flu drug to individuals likely to get the flu or who are health-active.
• Veeva Vault Surveys: An example of an engineering project where customers using Veeva Vault can send surveys to non-users to gather information that aids their clinical operations, with the engineering team working on features like setting expiry dates for survey links.
• Candidate Exercise (CDP): A seven-day interview exercise where candidates are given access to a Veeva product to complete a stripped-down configuration for an imaginary customer, providing a hands-on experience of the day-to-day work.