Yesterday I went for a walk with Josh Neiman, a former Genentech colleague whom I hadn't seen in many years. He reminded me of a story that I think is useful to share. In 2005, I was a young leader at Genentech leading the commercialization of Herceptin Adjuvant. The company ran a centralized MBA summer intern process, and as the hottest biotech company with the highest market cap per employee of any company in the world at that time, we had a lot of interest. A small group selected applicants from 100s of resumes and invited them on-site for interviews. I and a group of ~25 or so others interviewed about 8 interns each in one day and then met in a room to rank and essentially draft these interns into our teams. It was a little chaotic, but it had worked well for many years. The problem was, when my pick came up, there weren't any interns in the pool who I wanted to work for me. So I took my own path. I gave up my intern pick and instead dove back into the pool of rejected resumes, found someone who looked great, called and interviewed him, and managed to get him approved and hired. Josh joined us a few months later for the summer and worked on three critical projects for the Herceptin marketing team. At the end of the summer, the interns each presented to a group of senior leaders and were again ranked. Josh was ranked #1 in the class. He joined Genentech full time a few months later and has gone on to a great career at Genentech and beyond with senior roles including Chief Commercial Officer at a large biotech. The funny thing is I was also rejected by Genentech - twice. Once for the intern program, and once for full-time MBA hiring. But I didn't give up. I found ways to continue meeting people at the company until I found a manager (thank you Rhonda Farnum!) who believed in me and gave me a job. The point, if not already obvious, is to do what you know is right. Focus on your goals, have confidence in yourself, and do the next right thing regardless of the odds, the score, the naysayers, or the rules of the established system. Never give up.
Steve Lo
2w
I agree Matt Eggers--Josh Neiman was a key driver in the success of Herceptin's launch in the adjuvant setting and was an absolutely amazing person to work with!
Blake Wise
1w
Matt Eggers Josh Neiman I still can’t believe we let you two jokers in. What were we thinking? I mean, you’ve both gone on to do so little of value. Hah! Great story, GNE was lucky to have persistent people like you. Hope you’re both well.
Josh Neiman
2w
Couldn’t agree more Matt Eggers! Thanks for taking a chance on me :) I’m forever grateful.
Lance Bell
1w
I love this post and message….thanks for sharing.
Matt Eggers: I was also rejected by the Genentech MBA interview process so I very much resonate with this story. I ultimately found my way to Genentech through Roche and thrived there for 15 years. Love your takeaways here. I'd add that the interview process for most companies could use a complete overhaul!
Sunil Joshi
2w
Great story. I didn't know this back story, but had a chance to work with Josh at Onyx and I can attest to the fact that Josh was one of the smartest and hard working executives in the company. No wonder he has done so well in his career.
Good to hear. Josh was In Herceptin Marketing when I met him. Believe in yourself!
I remember this situation so well! And both Matt Eggers and Josh Neiman — you are both stellar and strategic leaders who I am so happy I had the opportunity to work beside! Those were fun fun times — almost 20 years ago!!