Pros
The experience I have gotten this summer at Matchstick is like no other. Growing their team is a top priority and they go above and beyond to set and meet high expectations. My time in the Early Career Experience (ECE) program started with the ECE Accelerator, a two week case-based program where we learned by doing: client discovery, brainstorming, frameworks for organizing information, facilitating meetings and workshops, and creating compelling presentations through storytelling. We delivered numerous presentations, ran meetings, and got feedback from the team…all in two weeks! I got to apply the skills I learned in the Accelerator right away as I worked on projects to advance our user research capabilities and build our recruiting and campus outreach strategies. Additional learning and development took place through our Speaker Series and our Clinical Curriculum. Matchstick invites top pharmaceutical and medical device executives to share what they do, how they progressed to where they are and to offer career advice. It was amazing to have close and personal access to top executives in an informal setting. The Clinical Curriculum was developed and is taught in-house by our Clinical Analysts. It lives on the Matchstick internal wiki and focuses on pharmacokinetics, disease states, patient life, and medications. Through our CAs, we learned about drugs and diseases and the implications on device development. The expectation is that with all this development and learning, you are going to actively contribute at a high level at the company. I was prepared to make a client facing presentation on my first project, work with the team cohesively to meet deadlines and expectations, contribute to a publication, and run brainstorms and workshops for the company.
Cons
I have to go back to school. Matchstick’s devotion to its team means an equally as serious commitment from the people on it. This is not a 9-5 job, there will be late nights and early mornings full of brainstorms, meetings, and client projects. The training curriculum is as rigorous as any class, and requires serious prep and study time. However, what you give to Matchstick, Matchstick will give back tenfold. If you make a serious commitment, you will find abundant opportunities and experiences as well.