Dr. Vardhini Vijaykumar – Beating the odds and breaking conventions as a young aspiring leader at a leading pharma company –An important lesson on seeing the big picture

Just like anybody, i was also one of those aspiring student who studied real hard to get into medicine. But again like the regular story, I had to choose dentistry due to family expectations as they wanted someone from medical background to bloom. The best part is I had shifted from a biotechnology course to dentistry in spite of doing some basic research about dental as a profession.

Not to my surprise, dentistry was quite a challenging journey and to top it I had graduated with a master's degree too, which sums up altogether my 8 year fun and frustrations.

My career did not pick up well until i got promoted in my organization to a different role which encompasses clinical work and learning the business aspects of dentistry too.

That's when i started developing a liking towards the job as it opened up a new dimension of learning to me.

There have been challenges in terms of the financial outcome indeed as dentistry is one of the least paid jobs in India when compared with the other fields (probably engineering). There is saturation everywhere and dentistry is definitely topping the charts.

This made me realise and also the urge to have a successful career always kept me looking out for opportunities in other areas apart from dentistry. With the constant networking and searching, i had landed myself in a pharmaceutical company and thoroughly enjoying my current role.

I would suggest first to have our goals set clear and know what you want in life. Budding dentists must explore new avenues and trust me the world out there is much vast than what we have been studying during our BDS . Somehow we get engulfed in a stereotypical environment.

But it's time we inspire ourselves to turn into something big and different.

Dr. Vardhini Vijaykumar
Regional Medical advisor, MANKIND PHARMA LTD
Former Deputy zonal head, Clove dental, Chennai