Confidence is the most important trait that defines a person’s capability to take on a job. Tom Caravela is an influencer and podcast host for MSL Talk who is on the mission to build confidence in job-seeking Medical Science Liaisons and Medical Affairs professionals in the pharmaceutical industry.
Tom has always been an optimistic person who likes to motivate people to build their careers and find success. After making a successful career as the owner of a leading recruitment firm, The Carolan Group, Tom realized that his knowledge about MSLs and pharmaceuticals could be valuable to people worldwide.
With the increasing popularity of podcasting, he launched his own podcast to help his followers and listeners learn about MSLs to be confident when they enter the job market. Tom says, “I wanted to find a way to communicate best practices and offer professional advice for the medical affairs community. Articles and videos are great, but the podcast is an effective medium for sharing content and broadcasting information to industry professionals as well as those looking to break into industry.”
Confidence building comes from motivational speaking and giving clear advice to people. Belonging to a blue-collar family, Tom chose to major in Communications from Rutgers University to develop his interpersonal communication skills. The success of the podcast also comes from his exceptional non-verbal communication skills. In his podcast, “Career Q&A with Tom Caravela,” Tom explained that his passion for selling something and motivating people led him to pursue his career as a recruiter.
Learning from his previous recruiting experience in the IT business, he applied his knowledge in the pharmaceutical industry. During that time, there was a lack of guidance in the industry for MSLs; Tom took it upon himself to empower them by recruiting them for client companies. He gathered a team of Expert Recruiters, Sourcers, and Account Managers to hire the best MSLs and Medical Affairs professionals in various levels of fields for his clients.
His dedication and passion for pursuing his career gave him the confidence to build a leading Medical Affairs Executive Search Firm specialized for MSLs. In the same podcast episode, Tom said, “ We started out as pharmaceutical recruitment, but an encounter with MSLs shifted our specialization to recruiting Medical Affairs professionals.” Now, he and his team work to hire professionals for big corporations through a detailed screening process and research on the candidate. The goal of The Carolan Group is to provide firms with top talent and potential MSLs in their line of work.
Tom is now helping MSLs build their confidence professionally through his podcast. When asked for the motivation behind the podcast, Tom said, “I specifically developed the podcast for Medical Affairs professionals to go for career advice, trends, medical affairs best practices, and strategies for success.” He sees that MSLs might have relevant skill sets or experience required by clients, but they still lack the confidence to communicate.
MSL Talk invites different MSLs and Medical Affairs leaders guests in every episode to discuss their experience while doing a corporate job or running their own business. Tom talks about industry news, the latest trends, statistics and hiring data, and advice for job seekers new to the pharmaceutical industry. In the recent YouTube podcast episode, “Do What Others Don’t: Opportunity in a Saturated Market,” Tom advises job seekers to work on networking, reach-outs, and ability to understand the markets you are aiming to break into, “Intelligently talk about the company and show excitement for that.” He has 150,000+ listeners from more than 50 countries and plans to grow listeners to 500,000.
Tom is a Certified Speaker, Trainer and Coach. He posts unique and engaging content on his social media platforms to aid in the career development efforts of his listeners. MSLs and Medical Affairs Professionals all over the world have discovered his podcast to be highly effective for their career development and progression. New episodes of the MSL Talk podcasts are released each week on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. Followers can also find episodes regularly on his YouTube channel by searching “MSL Talk”
