8 Tips on Starting a Remote Pharma Job

Starting your new pharma job remotely can be daunting, but there are things you can do to make your onboarding process a lot easier, both for you and your colleagues. In this article, we outline 8 tips on starting a new job remotely to help you succeed in this new working environment…

Know Your Tools

Before your first day, try to find out what platforms and tools you’ll be using in your new role, and make yourself as familiar with them as you can. Although you won’t be expected to know everything about them straight away, it will show that you’ve got the self-motivation and proactive mindset that you’ll need to do well in a remote role.

Be Punctual

It might seem obvious, but when you’re working remotely, sitting down at your desk at 9am isn’t the same as starting at 9am. The only way for your manager to see if you’ve started is to see you online, so give yourself time each morning to get everything set up, finish any surprise updates, and get online.

The same goes for meetings. If you’re using a platform like Teams, you can tweak your microphone, video and background settings before each meeting, so give yourself enough time to do this beforehand so you can join on time.

Know Your Main Points of Contact

On your first day, your manager should tell you who your main points of contact are for things like IT problems and HR/payroll queries. If they don’t, make sure this is something you find out as soon as you can, as your manager might not always be around to help, and you’ll need to solve any issues you have independently.

For larger pharma companies, you might also be given a mentor to help you through your first couple of weeks. If you aren’t given one, make sure to ask your manager who you can go to with any questions if they aren’t around to help to cover all bases.

Introduce Yourself

In your first few weeks, make an effort to introduce yourself not only to your team and the rest of your department, but also other people within the company too. When sending an email or joining a meeting with someone new, take a minute to introduce yourself and find out more about the other person, what they do, and where your jobs overlap.

You should also introduce yourself on places like LinkedIn too. Connect with your new colleagues, and get involved in industry discussions to introduce yourself to professionals outside of your company too.

Get to Know Your Colleagues

Similarly, don’t be afraid to reach out to the people in your team and ask for a quick call to introduce yourself, ask them about their role, and better understand the way they work. You can also find out their preferences when it comes to communicating. For example, one colleague might prefer a quick call over a message, whilst another might like everything done in an email. Finding out these preferences will help you to communicate well from the get go, and your colleagues will appreciate you taking the time to find out how they like to work.  

Don’t Hesitate to Ask for Help

When communicating over Teams or email, people tend to be briefer in what they say than they would be verbally if they popped over to your desk to talk about a task or project. If you’re unsure about what someone has asked you to do, don’t be afraid of asking for a quick call to talk about the task and make sure you understand how to complete it most efficiently. Clarifying things early on will help you and them in the long run and will show that you take the work seriously.

Keep Up With Company News

To keep up with company news outside of your department, follow the company on social media and connect with the colleagues that you won’t be working with every day. When working remotely, it can be harder to build relationships with people outside of your team as you won’t be bumping into them in the office and hearing about what they’re working on. Actively reaching out to them and following any updates they share on social media will give you a better idea of what direction the company as a whole is moving in, and the role you play in the bigger picture.

Remember Why You Were Hired…

Starting a new job remotely can be really daunting, especially if it’s not something you’ve done before. You’ll need plenty of self-motivation and self-discipline, but also confidence in your ability to work independently.

It may take you longer to build relationships with your colleagues and to feel like part of the team, but by making the effort to understand the way your colleagues work and taking a proactive approach in your onboarding, you’ll get there a whole lot quicker.

Visit PharmiWeb.Jobs for tips on how to stay motivated when working from home, or to start your pharma job search.