Ben Jones reports.
My job, primarily, is to manage the relationship that wholesaler Phoenix has with the big pharmaceutical companies, so it's a bit of an end-to-end job. So we get about kind of prospecting for deals, then negotiating the details of any deal that is done, and taking that through to manage the ongoing relationship.
This was a very new department when I joined in January 2009; it had only existed for six to nine months. My job is very, very varied - a lot of my time is spent out of the office meeting with my pharmaceutical manufacturer customers. Some meetings are done by teleconference but a lot are face-to-face, because it's about relationships and the opportunity to develop them.
I get up at 6am and I don't do breakfast because that would mean I would have to get up even earlier. If the commute is reasonable I can get to work in an hour. I'm normally in the office by 7.50am.
For lunch, I usually grab a sandwich. In fact, that gives great amusement to my colleagues because they think I should be able to make a sandwich myself.
I'm contracted to leave work at 5.15pm and I like to try and leave by 5.30pm, but it depends what is going on here.
We spend quite a lot of time developing documents for clients in terms of the tender process and the information that they might need for that. We also do a fair bit of actual analysis on the results of the relationships we already have in place, to make sure they are working for both parties.
My favourite thing that I enjoy is responsibility and the strategic needs of the job; the negotiations we are involved in affect the direction of the organisation, if that makes sense.
I'm motivated by success and seeing the results of good efforts. This is the job I enjoy most of all the jobs I've done. I enjoy the diversity of the job, and I'm proud of the progression I've made to get here.
I used to be a pharmacist and I do miss the contact with patients. I've got my MUR certification and I really do enjoy MURs, so that's probably what I miss most about being a coalface pharmacist. I'd never say never, but I don't see myself going back to it.
I used to help out my dad at his pharmacy in Scotland, but I couldn't decide whether to do medicine or pharmacy because I had a place to do both. In the end, I plumped for pharmacy and I enjoy what I do now so I suppose it was the right decision. I studied at Strathclyde and did my pre-reg in Hamilton.
I've been married to Melanie, a pharmacist with Blackpool PCT, for just over 11 years and we have an 11-week-old daughter, Eve. It's our first child and it's been a shock to me quite how tired you can be, so you can guess what keeps me awake
at night!
I don't have any regrets about my career so far. You can always look back and think, "What if I did this?" or, "What if I did that?" but, overall, you make the best decisions that you see at the time. If you didn't do that, you wouldn't do other things, so there's always a stage in your career where you find yourself doing a job which you think is less enjoyable than other jobs, but that leads to something else.
I certainly aspire to a more senior management role. I enjoy working for the organisation that I'm with just now so it would be good if that role was here. I suppose years ago I had very clear plans for what I wanted to do for the next five years, but my experience has told me that actually there's very little point in making those because you can't predict what is going to happen in the next five years.