Ever Wonder Why Brilliant Pharma Professionals Get Overlooked by Recruiters?

It's not their experience. It's not their skills.

It's often the bloody acronyms.

Pop quiz: What's a HEOR professional?

• A) Someone who saves the day in pharma marketing
• B) Health Economics and Outcomes Research specialist
• C) A candidate your ATS just ghosted

If you picked C, you're absolutely right.

After 16 years in pharmaceutical recruitment — 8 at Bayer and 5 in global CROs — I've seen exceptional candidates become invisible because their profiles read like alphabet soup.

It's not that they lack skills. It's that their profiles look like a game of Scrabble gone wrong.

"Experienced in MAA submissions via CTD format for EMA approval."

Sounds impressive, right? But here's the problem: many recruiters (especially those newer to pharma) and not all ATS algorithms speak fluent acronyms.

Translation for humans — and quite a few algorithms: "Experienced in Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) submissions via Common Technical Document (CTD) format for European Medicines Agency (EMA) approval."

This way you avoid your profile being skipped. Not because you're not qualified — but because you're hidden behind industry shorthand.

This affects everyone

• Junior professionals trying to break into pharma
• Mid-career specialists switching therapeutic areas
• Senior leaders whose decades of GxP, ICH, and ALCOA expertise goes unrecognised

The fix is simple

Spell it out the first time, then use the acronym.

"Managed Clinical Research Organisation (CRO) partnerships for Phase III trials" beats "Managed CRO partnerships for PIII trials" every single time.

Your expertise deserves to be found. Don't let jargon be the gatekeeper.

Your mum probably doesn't know what CMC, GMP, or ICH stands for. Neither does half the recruiting world. And even some AI scanning your profile at 3am might have trouble too.

Spell it out once. Use the acronym after. Everyone wins.

Unless you want to remain pharma's best-kept secret?