Display/ Mentor/ Jobshadow

For the display part of my project, we are told to look around the school for objects or anything that might be useful for us to use. For my project, I don't really need many big materials that I will need to ask for permission for. One thing that I was thinking about calling for my own is the big rolling backdrops for plays and such. All I would have to do to make this work for my display would be to cover it up with some material and use it for my backdrop, for whatever I may want to put on it. Also, I will be using the outline of a computer program that my mentor uses (through her company) as a representation of what an actual pharm. representative does.


After meeting with my mentor yesterday and jobshadowing her for the day, it has become more clear to me what needs to be done on my project, and how I am going to accomplish it. A flexible schedule that we have come up with for the next few months is this:

Complete my PRODUCT ("fake drug") by the end of February.
Complete my DISPLAY by the end of March.
Complete my SPEECH by the end of April.

This will all be accomplished by emailing back and forth with my mentor each week, discussing what else needs to be done and what I have gotten done so far.

JOBSHADOWING:
To begin my jobshadow, I met my mentor in St. Johnsbury and dropped off my car and went with her. We visited surrounding doctors offices in nearby towns. For a general idea of what Pharm. Reps do, is they visit doctors offices on a regular basis- some more frequently than others. They try to talk to the doctors themselves to tell more about the drugs that they are representing, but alot of times they only talk to the receptionists, who then tell them which samples they need. Andrea (my aunt/mentor) stressed to me when we kept talking to receptionists, that this area is a really hard one to talk to doctors in. Alot of family doctors that live in more rural areas are not as accepting to reps- not because of their personilitys, but mostly just the idea of them. Before and after each visit, Andrea has to get out her laptop and access this program that gives her information on the doctor she is visiting. It is information that her company buys through a third party- that gives (usually older) facts about how much of each drug they are prescribing, out of how many prescriptions they COULD have given. It is all pretty confusing, but the point of it is to give the representative an idea of what they need to target in order to sell their drug. Anyways, the jobshadow really helped give me more of an idea of what representatives actually DO during a weekday. Because this area is not a fair representation of what she does on a daily basis, however, I will be going to a bigger area (Burlington, surrounding areas) to jobshadow on a different day in the future. Also, my mentor is setting up a lunch meeting with a specialist practioner where I will be able to interview her about her thoughts on representatives.

That is my latest update on what I'm doing now.

Future Visions: Product, Presentation, Exhibit

As far as how I see my product, display, and exhibit turning out, I have a lot of brainstorming to do. Thus far I have not gotten as much work done as what needs to be done. I have a job shadow scheduled for mid January, but until then I won't be able to meet with my mentor about deadlines and getting things done.

As said in my letter of intent, my product is planned to be a made- up "drug" that I will try to use sales skills learned to sell. Hopefully, I will have a solid outline of this product by the end of February. With this product, I intent to include an in-depth description of the drug, what type of recipients it will need, a list of side effects, a list of good effects (in which I will use in selling to "doctors"), as well as other details I have not planned out yet.

In my exhibit, I will have some sort of diagram about "Sales Skills" which I will explain in my presentation. I also see sample products in my exhibit of both my "fake drug" as well as (hopefully) some products of a real drug company. Also in my exhibit, I plan to have a diagram of the sales skills necessary to be successful in the branch of sales (particularly in pharmaceutical sales). I hope to begin panning out and starting my exhibit after my job shadow later this month.

Some concepts I plan to include in my presentation would be for one, explaining all of my exhibit. I will thoroughly go through the sales skills necessary to be successful, which is one of my main focal points. I will also introduce my fake drug and all of the concepts included with that. Included in my presentation, I will include my mentor, Andrea DelaBruere, and what different ideas she taught to me, how they work for her, and why she was so important in my project. I will start panning out the details to my exhibit after I have a solid beginning to my product, which will hopefully be beginning March.

Overall, these are just some ideas about how I see my project turning out in May. Hopefully within the next few months, I will have many more ideas to include in both my product and my presentation/ exhibit.