Consultancy and regulator affairs: how difficult is it when you have children?

[LaCerbiatta]

I have a 20mo old dd and work full time as a scientific researcher in academia. I'm looking for a career change though and regulatory affairs (for pharmaceutical companies)and consultancy are two options I'm looking into. I'm just really really scared of leaving the confort and flexibility of academia and starting a very hard job at which I'll have zero experience. I know consultants work very long hours, are there any moms out there working a strict nine to five and maybe even 4 days a week or so? And regulatory affairs, anyone working in that? What's it like in terms of hours, flexibility, etc?
TIA for any advice!

bump

I'm a management consultant working for a small strategy firm. I manage to do three days a week notionally, but in practice when I'm busy with a client it tends to be much more than that. I tend to work between 8 and 6.30 on my working days if I'm in London, where I live, but my clients can be anywhere and I've had to do a lot of travelling over the last two years. If I'm at a client site, I tend to do a twelve hour day at least - especially as I'm part time. My firm are lovely and really understand about the importance of family and kids, but as an industry in general it's not flexible or family friendly. Clients pay through the nose for us and aren't very interested in childcare problems etc. I totally love my job. It's stimulating, demanding, full of change (in a good way), well paid and high status. It's not an easy one to balance with kids though - and I've got it very lucky because my employers headhunted me knowing I had two children. A nanny is essential - it wouldn't work with any other sort of childcare.

Sorry - long answer! x

I'm a freelance management consultant. Last year I had so much work that I only managed to take a week off (although I worked quite a few four day weeks, though probably full time hours and some weekends / evenings). This year I am finding it much more difficult to get work and am spending loads of time on stuff that I don't get paid for (marketing, networking etc.). Even if you do get lots of work, plan to spend half to a full day unpaid for each paid bit you do.

However, I love not being "owned" by a company, and being able to work from home. I couldn't have managed it though without my parents to step in to have dd when she was ill and not able to go to nursery, because when you are self-employed there are times when you really just cannot phone in sick.

Bekks - i so agree. It's feast or famine. It's either impossible to take hols or you're panicking about where the next bit of work is coming from - and mine is smoother than yours as I still do get a lower rate salary when I'm quiet.

Great job, but not the easiest.

Thanks for your replies. I think Regulatory affairs is a bit less demanding. I don't think I could work 8-6h30... I'm knackered all the time and I work 10-6h.... Maybe academia has spoiled me...

Hello tugamommy

I can't directly answer your question. But another option you might consider is a patent attorney. It's also a job where you continue to use your scientific knowledge but it's a career change from hands-on science. It's the career I chose after doing a PhD and wanting to get away from the lab.

My job tends to be 9-5 and I think that's the case in many private practice firms. However, you do need to do professional exams, so there would be some studying in your own time.

There's a very useful guide here:

www.insidecareers.co.uk/

Let me know if you want more information.

Thanks! I have considered patent law but the long training and exams put me off... I felt I was too old for going back to studying and revisions (I'm 33)
How many years did you have to train for? Were the exams hard? Are you in London?

Hello again

33 isn't too old! Although I went into this job straight after my PhD, plenty of people work in industry/academia for a few years before turning to a career as a patent attorney.

To answer your questions:
I'm 30 and I've been working for 5 years and just have one exam to resit until I'm qualified. However, due to expecting a baby shortly before the exam date, I won't sit that until Oct 2008 and then the results will be in April 2009, so I won't be fully qualified till then.

At most firms you work for a year, then do a course plus exams at Uni for 5 months (when I did it we only had lectures 10-1 each day and then I did two afternoons at work per week and the rest was study time, and you're paid your full salary), then do the 8 advanced exams over the course of the next 3-4 years at your own pace.

The advanced exams are difficult, you get some study days off work but you need to study evenings or weekends as well.

Yes, I work in London. Most private firms are based here, or else in traditional university cities e.g. Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Manchester etc. Big companies e.g. pharma, oil companies, defence, engineering etc. also have jobs in their patent departments and tend to be based where their research sites are. Whereabouts are you?

In a broad sense it's what I do. I am based at home now. I think it's can be very compatible with family life if you're your own boss as others on the thread describe because you decide what work you take on and the hours. However once you've agreed to do something if someone is paying you a massive amount of money to do something rather than £6 an hour peeling potatoes then it is much harder to let them down. It's a bit like a barrister with a day in court paying them £3000 or a surgeon who has a list of patients to see who've waited 10 months - you just can't so easily and morally say my child's sick I wont' turn up instead you're more likely to have back ups of back up, send your children to school under the weather, have emergency nanny agency details tattooed on your arm etc.

What do you do Xenia?

Drcaroline, I'm in Cambridge and don't want to move. I'm not sure I can commit to 5 years of training though. I still have some, very remote hope, of going back to my home country (where unfortunately these careers don't seem to exist...)

Thanks girls

I have recruited people into Regulatory Affairs but I have to say i am not convinced it is a 9 -5 job and the pay won't be as good as Consultancy. Although I suspect easier to get into RA than Consultancy.

RA may be easier to get into but there's so little offer (from what I'e seen in the past month or so) that it feels that consultancy is easier.
You say RA is not a 9-5 job, is taht from your experience with people working on it?

Yes, maybe also just big companies but they did not seem to be able to just leave it.