GRACE’S INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCE
May 1, 2025
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE SCIENCE: UCHE NWAOBASI
April 25, 2025
Curious to know more about Verve’s internship programme? In our latest blog post, Grace shares her personal experiences of being an intern account executive at Verve, and what it means working for a Soho based health communications agency.
When I first began looking for jobs after University related to my Chemistry degree, as many graduates are, I was drawn to working in pharmaceuticals and healthcare.
There are so many different ways to enter the industry, either working in-house or joining a pharma agency. When I discovered the world of healthcare communications, it stood out to me as an opportunity to combine my scientific knowledge with creativity, whilst learning marketing and communication strategies.
During my interview, I was drawn to Verve because of their passion, culture and the buzzing office atmosphere. Before offering me the role, they even changed which team I was going to be a part of, in order to align more to my interests and strengths. From the get-go, this made me feel like Verve really wanted me to succeed.
I immediately got ‘stuck in’, working mostly on campaigns for a prescription medicine treating Parkinson’s Disease, an autoimmune kidney disease and iron deficiency.
Working at a smaller agency offers the chance to work on a wide range of projects and drugs, rather than being confined to a single client and one brand, and this has been very beneficial for my understanding of the pharmaceutical industry as a whole, early on in my career.
In my first six months I’ve worked with 4 client accounts on 8 different products (mixing prescription medicines, OTC consumer health and even a rare disease charity campaign!), including:
I received training on the regulatory environment surrounding medical marketing, such as ABPI, PAGB and Veeva, (the training was, honestly, a lot more interesting than that sounds!) with interactive in-person and online sessions.
My industry knowledge and understanding of the commercial side of healthcare continues to grow with each new material I work on, and although it can sometimes be difficult balancing so many different projects at once, the fast-paced nature of agency life is one of the parts I enjoy the most – 2 days are never the same!
During the first few weeks of my internship, I received a really warm welcome from the team. Being part of a small agency means I can understand everyone’s roles more clearly and I get to know people in different teams well. The whole team works in the same room so you can always pop over to shadow how other people are completing their part of the project.
The welcoming spirit of Verve continues outside of work – over these past six months, I’ve enjoyed many of the social events with everyone – from dressing up for Halloween at the office to our two-day Christmas party! I’ve joined the social committee too, and I’m excited to contribute to the team culture and see what we plan for the rest of 2025.
Verve makes a big effort to continue with in-person meetings after the pandemic, so I have met nearly all of my major clients, which strengthens our relationships and makes working with them all the more enjoyable.
Every time there is a new business opportunity, everyone in the team is super enthusiastic, which creates a really motivating and exciting working environment. What really struck me was how much my opinion mattered from day one: the senior members are always looking for fresh ideas and perspectives from everyone in the team.
I am very excited to be joining Verve full time as an Account Executive.
Looking forward, I want to grow into the role and take more ownership of projects and become involved in campaign planning now that I have begun to develop the foundations of health communications strategy.
This 6 months at Verve has been fantastic and I have managed to find a career I truly enjoy – I would really recommend the industry to anyone who has a passion for science or marketing/communications, and Verve has been a brilliant place to learn.
May 1, 2025
April 25, 2025