Talent Spotlight: Emma’s Journey at Meet Life Sciences

Emma Burt is a recruitment consultant based on the East Coast. She joined us here at Meet in October last year – and despite being relatively new to the industry (and the 360 world of recruiting), last month saw her place a total of seven deals!  

Let’s hear more about her journey and where she aims to progress to in the next couple of years... 

Emma’s background 

Emma is originally from a small town in Tennessee, where she lived and worked as a professional cake baker and bartender before moving to New York City in pursuit of the ‘American Dream’.  

After moving to the big city (with her ‘gorgeous, beautiful, sassy cat’) she started her career as a recruiter, which she began to enjoy pretty much straight away. 

Her role at Meet Life Sciences 

Having previously worked for a recruitment company which was very broad, Emma was drawn to Meet Life Sciences because ‘it was a little bit more niche and was an opportunity to be an expert in your specific market'.  

Since joining us in October, she’s been working in the regulatory affairs space. In her own words: 

‘In regulatory affairs, they often bring on consultants or contractors to move a project forward – so they’re actually in direct communication with the FDA, or whichever health authority they’re working with. They move the clinical data and communicate the results with health authorities so that products are passed through the drug life cycle.’ 

Essentially, Emma places the people who make sure that drugs comply with rules and regulations and can be safely brought to market.  

New skills and initial challenges 

When Emma first joined Meet, overcoming rejections was one of the first challenges she had to tackle. While she knew it was part of the job, it was difficult (initially) to keep up the positive mindset and resilience.  

‘Yeah... I definitely had doubts in the beginning, but I knew pretty much that if I keep going, keep connecting with people... eventually things will work out.’ 

Emma also commented that working at Meet ‘definitely strengthened [her] communication skills’. As she hadn’t previously worked both a client and candidate facing role, taking on a 360 approach has had a positive impact – from being an advisory partner to clients to also making sure candidates are the right technical and cultural fit for the role. 

Greatest achievements  

When asked about her greatest achievements, Emma responded ‘you never forget your first placement, so I’m definitely proud of that’.  

But having only been here for half a year, her last month was particularly impressive – Emma completed seven deals! ‘I set up a lot of these relationships back in December, and it was great seeing them come to fruition’.  

When asked how she achieved this, Emma responded ‘I love chasing goals... they’re really rewarding, and they drive me to keep going’. Whether that’s the number of placements within a month, or number of conversations within a week – having a goal in mind and meeting it (or exceeding it!) is one of the most fulfilling parts of the job.  

‘Connecting professionals with opportunities is what gives me purpose... and having positive check-ins with both candidates and clients is the best feeling. It’s why I do what I do.’  

Life Sciences  

So, what drew Emma to Life Sciences specifically? In her words:  

‘I’ve always had an interest in science and the different diseases being targeted by Life Sciences companies. There are so many unmet needs in the world – and learning about the people who actually work to meet those needs is super fascinating to me. Life Sciences is also an evolving landscape that moves quickly, it never stands still.’  

And when it comes to Emma’s impact on the industry, she places regulatory affairs specialists that help companies obtain the necessary approvals from regulatory agencies in order to bring their products to market. ‘These are the people catering to those with unmet needs, such as people with rare diseases’.  

Aside from regulatory affairs – her growing area of expertise – Emma has also found bio statistics and clinical operations particularly interesting, due to their hands-on nature in clinical trials. In the future, she would like to specialize in these sectors too. 

Advice and aspirations 

To anyone looking to start a career in recruitment, Emma’s advice would be: ‘it’s not a matter of if you’re going to be successful, it’s a matter of when’. Essentially, if you’re putting in the work, you’re going to eventually see results. 

‘Just keep pushing through. You’re going to set up those relationships that in return will equal results.’  

And when it comes to the future, Emma wants to ‘keep on strengthening [her] relationships with amazing clients and candidates and continue learning more about [her] specific market’. Having gained a ton of knowledge in the first six months of her career here, she can only imagine how much more she’ll learn once she’s completed a year here at Meet.

Final fun facts 

Aside from being an ex-professional at cake decorating, Emma’s fun fact is that, when she used to bartend, she would serve drinks balanced on her head! – ‘very much entertaining people while serving them at the same time’.  

Stay tuned for the next instalment of our Talent Spotlight series. We’ll be interviewing people from all across the company and we're looking forward to sharing their exciting stories and journeys!