In conversation with recent graduate and Account Executive Milan Aszalai from Open Health Communications

From finishing his degree to jumping into the world of advertising for pharmaceuticals, Milan Aszalai took some time out to talk to HAT Collective about his experiences during his studies, his career and how to break into pharmaceutical communications.   

Q1. Please introduce yourself.

Hi, my name is Milan and I’m an account executive for Open Health, which I joined in April 2021. Before my current role, I worked at WPP Sudler in London, now known as VMLY&Rx, as a Junior Account Executive. At Open Health, I specialise in medical pharmaceutical communications and advertising on the accounts side.

Q2. What was your favourite module during your studies, and why?

For me, it’s probably a tie between ‘Consumer Behaviour’ and ‘Research, Data and Insight’. I tend to see things from an analytical point of view, and this is also how I approach projects. I enjoy looking into the strategy side of things, such as target audience planning and media planning, and how this affects a brand’s communication needs.

Q3. Please tell us more about your first job after graduation.

It was a three-month junior role comprising project management, resource handling and pharma advertising at Sudler London. Pharma advertising has stricter regulatory rules in terms of how we can reach out to patients or healthcare professionals with our materials. Each country or region has their own set of regulations, featuring either minor or major differences; in the UK, we call this set of rule the ABPI code. While the regulations might make our work a little bit harder compared to the rest of the industry, these rules are there to protect both the patients’ and health care providers’ interests.

A simple example would be the requirement that drugs that are still in trial must always have a visible black triangle on their packaging and promotional materials. It can impede your brand’s design sometimes, but it’s compulsory.

That’s just one example, and there are so many others—I had to familiarise myself with a lot of this.

Check out a great collection of health adverts here.

Q4. How did you find taking your first step in your career?

Finding my first job was a tough process. However, it was also the most rewarding, eye-opening and constructive process that I ever needed to go through! It was a journey. Any rejection was an opportunity to shape my CV, phone interview skills and how I presented myself in the individual interview stages. My advice to students: see every interview as a chance for industry feedback. After some time on my application journey, I knew exactly how to land my job. It might be hard, but if you follow through, it will be rewarding!

Q5. Was your first job where you wanted to go?

When I applied for jobs, I was determined to be a junior strategist. After a few rejections—most places want you to have some agency experience already—I applied for pharma. It was kind of a lucky coincidence for me. I had never considered pharma as an option really. I didn’t know much about it, to be honest. But I do remember that when I read the job description, I realised that it featured many transferable skills for strategy. And I thought that moving from an accounts role into strategy might be easier in the long run. For now, I am very happy where I am!

Q6. How did you know that this was the right job for you?

I think, it was three to four months into the role that I realised I’m really enjoying what I am doing. To be honest, I was nervous initially, but I wanted to give it my all. With time, I noticed how my role fits in with my multi-faceted passion for biology, English and advertising.

Q7. Please tell us about one of your greatest achievements in your career so far. 

At WPP Sudler, I was taught how to manage reference linking and how to do this properly in-house. These references are for medical and scientific publications, which are related to a specific disease/treatment. This is required, because all medical comms material must be linked to existing research, studies, clinical books/publications that support the claims in our comms. After doing this for three months or so, I had gained enough experience that I was able to provide some insight into how we could improve the process in-house, and how to speed it up whilst still ensuring accuracy.  

Now, I try to integrate these ideas into my new workplace, which I think, would be beneficial to Open Health too.  

Q8. What’s the most useful advice you were given?

‘Let’s cross that bridge when we get to it’.

As a planner or strategist, I always try to be ten steps ahead. In my final semester at university, I was planning on overhauling my CV …but I had so many things going on. You should concentrate on what you’re working on at the time, rather than pile on additional things; otherwise, you’ll overload yourself. My best advice is truly that: focus on where you are in that moment, and when you finish one thing, start focusing on what’s next.

Q9. If someone were interested in going into pharma like you did, how would you recommend they go about that?

It depends on your personal interest. I’d suggest, accounts first if you’re unsure. This way, you’ll experience copy writing, as well as input into layout design. In fact, you’ll touch base on pretty much every single element of comms material before it goes live. Also, there are a lot of transferable skills that you can take away from the role.

Find your passion within healthcare and maybe try some designing, campaigning or rebranding—specifically rebranding, as you can showcase both your strategic skills and your creativity. Put the research in. If you are a creative writer for instance, find pieces, articles, press releases that you can rewrite, or, if you cannot find any pre-existing ones, mock-up a few.

Q10. What are your top resources that you regularly use for your day-to-day life in industry?

LinkedIn, first and foremost! LinkedIn has lots of agencies that post big stories and recruitment drives, too. I’d highly suggest creating a professional profile there, familiarising yourself with the platform and improving your relationships! I also regularly read headlines of Campaign magazine to get a good overview of what is going on in our ever-changing industry.

Milan Aszalai graduated in 2019 from the University of West London with a degree in BA (Hons) Advertising and PR.

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