From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Albert Bourla on the importance of liking what you do

From the course: Career Advice from Some of the Biggest Names in Business

Albert Bourla on the importance of liking what you do

- Can you just talk about how that, a little bit about your path and then how that has impacted how you think about either your work or how you've guided your career? - Yes, I think first of all, your early days and your academic studies, usually they are stamping your personality. They are building your character there. These are the years that you develop values about life. So clearly that made me who I am. And then when I joined Pfizer, I joined the animal health group, and I did two things, which were not that common. One, it is that I worked in many different places. So I relocated and lived with my family in eight different cities of five different countries. So that gave me a very good understanding of how different cultures operate, but I found it a useful once you do it, eight times, you can do it 150 times. So it's something you learn how to recognize the differences and respect different cultures. That helped me a lot in my career. I did a lot of different jobs. So I moved from department to department that helped me a lot in my career or from my 28 years now at the Pfizer approximately. I did 17 in the animal health, and 11 in the human health. So the first 17 were in the animal health. I find it also that very helpful because the animal health was a small division within Pfizer. It was never the focus of the attention and never the receiver of a lot of resources. As a result we learned over there. One, to navigate the Pfizer bureaucracy, because we didn't have the power to instill things. We are the animal health, do it, who you are, the animal health. And the second thing was that we learned to be creative and to work with less resources. I remember when I moved from the animal health to the human health, I was surprised by two things. One, how many resources they had and how much they were brand focused, rather than the customer focus, which was the exact opposite of us in the animal health. This helped me because I came from a different division from one hand to see things differently, but also from the same company. So to know how to navigate the difficulty. So I think it helped me a lot, actually. - So, when you are giving advice to people on how they should navigate their own careers, is this what you recommend? Do you recommend going to, you're trying a bunch of different jobs of being in smaller parts of big companies, or is your path not the path that you tell people to go down? - The standard advise that I give, it is that what worked me doesn't mean that necessarily will work for others. But, clearly I never planned my career, which is not what we are teaching. When we do career development here at Pfizer, HR would tell us, you need to plan thing. What would be the next step? I never thought like that. Secondly, it is that don't be very picky for the new jobs. I mean, if they offer you one, take the chance and the opportunity if you like, but if you feel that you don't like it don't ever go there, because I have seen multiple times people that they like things and they are not very successful, but I have never seen anyone successful, but he or she doesn't like what they do. So it's very important part that you like what you do. And the third, if you want to be long-term, try to do good job today. Try to focus on how can you maximize what you have right now. And people will see you and people will select you and you will progress.

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