The wait is over; our big surprise is finally here! We’re moving to Chicago! Or at least Adrianna, our Business Development Manager, is. We are so happy to announce that in October, Adrianna Forgione will be heading to the Windy City to live and work and make lasting connections with candidates and clients in the area. I sat down with Adrianna to ask her a few questions about her move and why she thought this was the best next step for not only the company but her career as well.
How long have you been with Pharmaceutical Strategies? What has your path been like here?
It will be two years in November. I was looking to leave my job at a company in Boston, I was selling travel, and I was horrible at it, I couldn’t relate to the customers at all. I was a referral here [Pharmaceutical Strategies] and I actually interviewed for the open receptionist position and I had a phone interview with Elisa Ciardiello, our CEO, and after that conversation, she told me I wasn’t going to be the receptionist, that I was going to be a recruiter. So I started off as a recruiter in November 2016, and I was picking it up super fast. I hit my personal goal in October, which was less than a year of being at the company. Then in May 2018, I transferred into sales, now I do business development. I’m still recruiting too, you name it I do it.What made you want to transition from recruiting to sales?
I knew I always wanted to travel for work, I just knew I wanted to get into these big companies and find out their career paths. Even if I message someone about working with them and they aren’t interested, I just want to talk to them and know how they got on the career path that they are on.Was there anything specific that inspired your decision to make the move to Chicago?
No, not really. I had gone to the AANP conference with our recruiting manager Diana Munoz, in Colorado, and I was just amazed. Obviously I know there is so much more to the world than Massachusetts, but that’s where I’ve lived for almost 26 years, and getting to travel for work opened up my eyes to all of these different experiences. Whether it was meeting new companies or going to different places, site seeing, I just knew when I came back that I couldn’t do this, I was bored. I want to be out meeting clients, and outreaching to them without LinkedIn. Because at the end of the day, right now, I’m just another person on LinkedIn and until I can get in front of these clients we’re not going to gain their business. I didn’t talk about it with my family, I asked our Operations Manager, I was like ‘Daniela, do you think I can do this?’ and she said ‘I think you can.’ I called Elisa, our CEO on July 5th, and asked if I could be the one to start the office, and she said yes.You’ve lived in Boston you’re entire life, what are you most excited about to move to a new state, a new city, a new section of the country?
I think the best part, and the part that I’m most excited for is to get to go out there and show [clients] what I’m made of and get to sit down and hopefully get some sort of meeting with my target accounts. If that means driving to Minnesota every week, which is a 5 hour drive, I’ll do it. Getting to connect with other people, and just exploring a new city.Do you have any major goals for while you’re in Chicago, professionally or personally?
Professionally my goals are to get into my target accounts, meet new contacts, and to grow professionally. That’s honestly my main reason for moving, to try and grow our company in the Midwest. Our company has been around since 2004, and our corporate office is in Boston, and we’ve done really well here, and I think it’s time to explore the bigger picture and move into the Midwest. I also want to learn more about the Pharmacy industry obviously I am not a pharmacist by trade, and I’m sure people can tell by speaking with me that I’m not in pharmacy. But I try to absorb everything that I can, and meet new people, and hopefully connect with new companies to learn more. There are a lot of great companies out there that are sort of untouched, and I want to learn more about them and meet with them.Personally, I come from a very small family. My mom my dad and my family are my life, being half Italian, half Irish, growing up with a single mom, I’m very attached, so I think that at the end of the day this will be a personal experience, and show that I can actually be an adult. And as my mom always says, you can do it, as long as you set your mind to it. I am scared, but I think I can do it, and I think that I can set my mind to anything.
What do you like most about your job?
Getting to learn about people, learning about their different backgrounds and how they got to where they are. At the end of the day, I remember seeing all these big companies and thinking “whoa they’re the CEO!” and to me that they held such a high place, almost as if they were a prince or something of that nature. Getting to know their journeys and that they’re just like all of us, and they have struggles, and I think that’s the realest part of my job. That’s where I want to be, and I want to follow in their footsteps any way that I can.The question everyone is dying to ask; when are you moving? When will you be backtowork?
I am moving Friday October 12th, as soon as I get back from the San Diego NHCA/ACAL conference, and I will start working the following Friday. It is a 14 hour drive, and me and my lovely mother will be driving out there, so that will be an adventure by itself. But regardless, I will be back at work on Friday October 19th, so please call me if your business has a hiring need!