A day in the life of a Learning and Development, Senior Account Director

We asked Jessamy Lowe to give us an insight into her role as a Senior Account Director at OPEN Health.

Briefly describe a typical working day

There is really no such thing as a typical day in the L&D team. We are evolving quickly as a Center of Excellence, and there are so many new projects (both internal and external), which means that every day is different.

Overall, my days usually involve a mixture of catch-up calls with colleagues and current clients on how projects are progressing. They also involve working with the team to move things forward, continuing with the development of new aspects of L&D’s service provision to expand our capabilities, and working on pitches and proposals for new project opportunities.

The attitude in the L&D team is that everyone gets stuck in with everything, so I often find myself working on multiple projects a day.

What aspect of your day/role do you enjoy most?

The variety – I can be working on an oncology eLearning module in the morning and then have a training event briefing call with an immunology professor in the afternoon. Of course, there are the usual financial and administrative tasks to do (although I secretly find balancing a spreadsheet very satisfying). Being involved in the development of new service offerings is also really exciting, seeing all the different ways in which the L&D team could develop in the future.

What challenges do you typically have to manage?

Balancing multiple accounts and time management are some of the main challenges I face. I find having a notes tab for each client, multiple Excel trackers, and, most importantly, lots of communication with the rest of the team work best for me!

What makes working at OPEN Health great? What’s different about working here?

It may be clichéd, but I would say it is the people who make OPEN Health great. I started at OPEN Health the day before we all moved to working from home back in March 2020 and so, despite having been here nearly a year, I have yet to meet many of my team members in person. Regardless of this, I feel like I know them very well; everyone is great at supporting each other, and there is always someone to make you laugh or help when work gets busy.

Do you have any advice for those considering a career as a Senior Account Director?

Mainly just to be proactive – if there is something that you think looks interesting, ask to get involved, grab opportunities to stretch yourself, and think about how you can really add value to an account by thinking beyond the project level to building the client relationship.

What career path led to your current role?

Like many people, I had little idea that medical communications existed as an industry before falling into it. I knew I always wanted to work in health care but was not sure about medical school (not really a career path to choose if you are not sure!). When I heard about medical communications, it seemed like a perfect fit. I started on a graduate scheme at another medical communications agency and worked my way up. During this time, I worked on a lot of L&D projects that led me to establishing a small L&D team. Therefore, when the role became available at OPEN Health, it seemed like a natural move!

To find out more about what it's like to work in our Learning & Development Team, please get in touch