You may follow them on LinkedIn, but who are the Invenia Group team and what are they really like? Get to know the people behind the profiles in our ‘Meet the team’ series.
Christine Sands is the Divisional Director of our Pharmaceuticals team, with over 14 years of recruitment under her belt. You may know that she manages a team of six and supports companies across EMEA and the US with medical affairs and commercial positions; you may not know about her crumpet-eating record…
You can read the whole conversation below:
To start off Christine, can you introduce yourself?
So my name’s Christine and I manage the Pharmaceutical team here at Invenia.
What’s your favourite thing about your job?
I think the best thing about my job is being able to help develop consultants as a manager and progress them through their career. I also love working in the pharmaceutical market because I like the idea of contributing to a company and helping them launch new drug products.
What are your most listened-to artists on Spotify?
I have an ‘oldies but goldies’ playlist so that’s on repeat and it’s Duran Duran, Queen, Rolling Stones – all of the good ones.
What drew you to recruitment?
I think, like many people, I fell into recruitment – I actually thought I was interviewing for a company that did the marketing branding for pharmaceutical products. Luckily, they still gave me the job and, 13 years later, I’m still here.
What’s on your bucket list?
Absolutely loads. I love travelling and my next stop is hopefully a trip to Japan. I’m really obsessed with their culture and want to learn more about it, so I’m hoping to take a trip out there next year.
What do you use the company’s flexible working for?
I use it a LOT. I have a ten year old son and a puppy, so they are quite a lot of hard work and it really helps being able to work from home on Mondays and Fridays and have some flexible hours as well.
If you could write a book about your life what would it be called and why?
It would be called ‘Why I Would Rather Be A Cat’ because they just have the best things going for them.
What’s a work-related accomplishment you’re really proud of?
This year has been particularly positive for the pharmaceutical team. Last quarter we achieved 336% of our target and the two Bens on my team have been promoted three times in the two years they’ve been here. So I’m very proud of them and I’m very proud of how our team has grown.
If you could trade places with someone for a day, who would it be and why?
That would have to be my cat, Luis, because he’s living his best life. He’s very spoiled, so I’d just love to be him for a day.
What’s something people don’t know about you?
I used to work in a scrap metal yard, running the transport across southeast London. It was a lot of fun.
What are your day-to-day tasks?
I start off with some catchups with the team and make sure everyone knows what they’re doing for the day. Then I’ll have a quick check-in with my clients; make sure that they are up to date with the CVs that are sent out, and any interviews that need booking in. I’ll have a chat with some candidates that are active in the market and speak to some passive candidates and then do some coaching and mentoring of the team throughout the day.
How do you like to start your day?
Coffee is absolutely vital, then I’ll have a little walk with the dog, and then I will sit down and tackle my to-do list.
What are your professional goals and how do you hope to achieve them?
So we currently have six consultants on the team but we’re looking at expanding the team, hopefully to at least 20 consultants over the next two years. We are also quite focused on the generics and biosimilars market at the moment, but we’re hoping to move into branded products as well.
What do you have on your toast?
I don’t actually really eat toast, but I bloody love a crumpet! Standard Lurpak does the job, I actually ate 6 crumpets in a row once. That’s my record.
What drew you to the pharma industry?
In pharma you can really see the difference that it makes when contributing to companies being able to launch products. I recently placed a candidate who will assist in launching a product for a really high unmet medical need and it really is a great thing to be able to help companies do that.
What’s the most-used app on your phone?
WhatsApp probably, and second to that is ASOS because I’m just obsessed with clothes.
What advice would you give to an aspiring recruiter?
I would say “the first is the worst”. The first year in recruitment is always the hardest, but once you’ve got that momentum building and you keep going, everything seems to fall into place. So if you are struggling in your first year, just keep at it. It will get easier.
How would you describe yourself in one word?
Well I’ve been called quite a few words in my time, but I would say the most complimentary one would be “tenacious”.
Follow us on LinkedIn to see the rest of this series and – if you’d like to join the Invenia Group team – email your CV to info@inveniagroup.com.
