MBA Recruiter Interview: Mike Crocker, Bayer

While Bayer is best known for aspirin and Aleve, not all of its MBA job opportunities involve over-the-counter painkillers. In addition to the being the world’s second-largest consumer care company, Bayer is also home to a medium-sized pharmaceutical group, a crops sciences group, an animal care group, as well as its own in-house consulting team. To learn more about MBA jobs at Bayer as well as the company culture, we spoke to Mike Crocker, director of the Bayer pharmaceutical group’s MBA program.

What types of employment and programs does Bayer offer for MBAs?

For MBAs, we offer a more classic summer internship. All of the Bayer MBA programs here, including those for the pharmaceutical and consumer care groups and consulting team, all run them. They last for 10 to 12 weeks. In the pharmaceutical group only, we have a two-year management associate program. In that program, people do rotate, so they spend one year in one business group here within pharma the second year they rotate, including going abroad for two months. In the consumer care group, they actually bring on permanent hires straight after graduation. MBA graduates enter the rotational program as full-time employees. After they finish their two-year rotation, we offer them permanent positions.

Are most MBAs hired through Bayer’s MBA programs and as opposed to being direct hires?

There are two exceptions. In the pharmaceutical group that I represent, the full-time permanent hires that are MBAs come through internships. First-year students are brought in through the summer program. From that pool, we pick the best of the best for the full-time two year management associate positions, which often lead to permanent roles.

The other two groups that I am familiar with – the Bayer consulting team, and the consumer care team – do take some of their full-time or permanents employees from their summer intern pool, but they also interview second-year MBA students. Some of their permanent hires come from outside of the summer pool, directly from business schools. There’s a mix, whereas, in the pharmaceutical group permanent hires come in strictly through the internship program.

Bayer was listed as one of the world’s most in demand employers on LinkedIn, so what are some of the top reasons MBAs give for choosing to work at Bayer?

This answer will primarily revolve around the pharmaceutical side because that is where I get the most feedback. In the past three years, the interest from the top talent at these very prestigious business schools has exploded. I'll give you an example. Three years ago I went to Columbia University to the do a corporate presentation on Bayer. I got eight students. This year I had 35, and I can say that exactly mirrors what goes on at Rutgers, the Johnson School of Management at Cornell, Boston University, and MIT.

I'll tell you why that's going on. In the feedback I get from presentation attendees, MBA interns and my colleagues, the number one thing mentioned is the unique environment we have. It stands out significantly.

Before we even make a student an offer, we have them come and spend the day here. We are in this big wonderful, new, state of the art campus here in Morristown, New Jersey. It's a very unique, open space environment that looks like a consulting firm or an advertising firm. No one has offices here and it sort of supports that ‘people’ culture. MBA students love that. When MBAs spend the day here, they get to meet a lot of people, and that is where the impact of our culture starts with them. As they go to other pharmaceutical companies, they will come back and say that they have not found a place that has as unique of a people culture as we do.

MBAs are supported here. The people are friendly. In addition, MBAs are not far removed from highest levels of our organization. Even when they come here for a meet and greet or as an intern, MBAs are always invited to senior meetings where their opinion counts. Bayer’s culture is what sells MBAs on working here. Their colleagues are so jealous of what they have here that they say, “Oh, my God, I should have come to Bayer.”

Also, Bayer is not just siloed in the pharmaceutical industry or in a category within the pharmaceutical industry. For example, we aren’t a company that deals only with oncology. We are very diverse. Even within the pharmaceutical group, we are in a lot of different arenas within healthcare: oncology, neurology, etc. But then, right across the hall we have the world's second largest over-the-counter company and consumer care as well as crops science. MBAs look at this as a world with a plethora of opportunities for them as they come in. They don't just have to focus on oncology, for example, or stay in the pharmaceutical group, if they want to go over to consumer care or into consulting.

We also have global teams here. MBAs know that Bayer is one of the most international businesses on the face of the planet. We have offices in 123 countries and students are very interested in working overseas down the road. So, when students think about this they come back and say, “Wow! There are so many different opportunities for me.”

Years ago people would just come to come up to and run up a silo. So, if they wanted finance, they would just run up the silo. Today's generation doesn't like to do that. They understand the importance of diversifying themselves across the different areas. It makes them more valuable, it builds up their résumé, and they love that.

If you like New Jersey, you are in the heart of everything here; our Whippany office is thirty minutes west of New York City, an hour from the Jersey Shore and an hour east of great mountains and ski areas. People just love this location for those who want to come to New Jersey. So, when you combine all that and you add my charm to it (!), I think that is why interest in us has exploded.

One, other thing, in pharma, we bought six products in a year and a half and our pipeline, which is publicized, is broad and rich and diverse. If you go by our stock price, Wall Street loves us. So, when you take all of that it’s a really attractive place for people transitioning into their post-MBA careers.

What opportunities do MBAs have to make a difference by working at Bayer?

A lot of these students that take the opportunities to go into investment banking and consulting and those kind of things, but somewhere down the line, they have a family member or someone else that inspires them to work in healthcare.

I think those MBA students love about Bayer is what I just said about our culture. When they come here as interns, whether they are in consumer care, the consulting team, or in my group, pharma; they are all given very important, impactful projects to work on. Everything from building up a nursing program for a product we are going to launch in cardio pulmonology or oncology to changing and improving our patient health services for MS patients. They are told: “This is your project. We don't have the bandwidth to do it. We need smart people like you to come do it. ”

MBAs present their findings in all the different divisions to the executive committee there before the summer ends and the high majority of projects have links to them, which means that the projects keep going. Last year, three of our interns kept working for us on Fridays from their campuses in order to complete the project. They know that they are working on projects that have legs and then when they come back either as full-time hires or in the two-year program (because we're not that gigantic pharmaceutical company where you are employee number 2,752), they will be sitting in senior meetings where their opinions and observations count. They have fresh ideas and new ideas and that, really, is important right now as the pharmaceutical industry, and especially healthcare, go through a historic evolution, having people with new ideas is really important to them. MBAs can come here and feel like their opinions are making a difference and they are relied on for that. Their opinions aren’t discounted because they are ‘just an intern’.

Could you give an overview of Bayer's recruitment and hiring process for MBAs?

It comes in a few areas; some of these are kind of traditional for MBA programs for all companies.

We have a very large and growing presence at the National Black MBA Conference and that is, for us, almost the kickoff of the recruiting season. We spend a lot of time building to that and at least from New Jersey group we go there as this large group to address the students. This year we actually added people from our crops science group which is down in North Carolina and our animal health group in Kansas to join us. People come up to the booth and they see one Bayer and they really get to understand the different divisions and learn what might be most interesting to them. There, we conduct interviews with these students and that is where it starts. It gives us some early access to these students.

From that point on, a lot of things then happen. We do corporate presentations at our core schools and sometimes outside of core schools when there is an interest. We talk about our company, we talk about our culture, our people, our business, and all our divisions. We talk about the intern program and the different ways to get into Bayer. We usually hold a networking event after the presentation where we meet groups of people and have them meet one-on-one from that, that leads then to the interviews starting to get set up. We pride ourselves on the initiative we take with individuals. A lot of these campuses have healthcare days where they'll have people involved in their marketing clubs or healthcare clubs and we go and attend them. We sometimes do 'lunch and learns' on the campuses. Some of us just meet with smaller groups of students and provide guidance around it. And I would say that the one thing around Bayer's MBA program – and this is all the divisions – is that it’s actually the front people, or people like me who are on the business side, not on the HR side. So, we don't actually wear our classic recruiter hat, we actually go to give back to these universities and align our partnership with them. A lot of times I find myself just providing career guidance and information about the healthcare today versus selling people on Bayer all the time. These things actually openly help our recruiting because they see us as people that they want to align themselves with. Then, as I mentioned earlier, when the interviewing starts we invite the candidates to whom we are interested in making an offer to spend the day here with a lot of our leaders, to meet former interns, to get those insights. Generally after that we start the offering and that kind of thing.

So, it is a combination of things, from a large congress like National Black MBA, to lunch and learns, to individual work with students including marketing and healthcare clubs to large corporate presentations where we bring different members from Bayer onto campuses so they get to know us better, and understand who we are in our programs.

What are the most common jobs for MBA graduates at Bayer?

The job roles I will talk about are all in Whippany, because this is our US headquarters here these would be the MBA programs I am most familiar with. In the pharma division I represent and the consumer care group, the roles are very similar, they are in one and or two areas, either marketing brand roles (typical brand roles) or marketing strategy roles, or customer roles, customer partnership roles, customer strategy roles. Those are the ones that are the most prevalent. It doesn't mean there aren't other roles, but within marketing, it could be e-marketing, it could be customer solutions strategy, it could be the junior brand lead for Bayer's Aleve product or Bayer aspirin, but those are the common roles for the pharma or consumer care groups. In the commercial setting, there are either marketing or consumer-centric type roles – strategy or brand support.

On the consulting side, we have our own built-in business consulting team. It’s just like having a little mini Deloitte here, with its own team building. They hire people who work as consultants for Bayer. They go into the various departments and they help them on various projects such as staff reorganization and efficiency. It's the typical, larger consulting type team work.

As a footnote, our finance group within Bayer also has a student program called FACT (finance, accounting, controlling, taxes) which is more oriented toward undergrads, but they do hire some MBAs. The finance program is a longer, 18 month program. People come in to work in finance or accounting as well as tax. About half the work involves travelling to different areas outside of Whippany, including going to Bayer headquarters in Leverkusen, Germany. So that is a different program, but it is probably geared 75% towards undergrads versus grads. It is a very cool program for people who want to go abroad and I think they spend time in Whippany, down in North Carolina, looking crops science, and animal health; and go abroad for six months. It is a pretty cool program which just started a year ago.

What do you look for when evaluating a candidate’s résumés and job experience?

Some of this is science and some of it is art. The art part is whether a candidate is a fit for Bayer including the social side and the leadership side. So we start off with looking at their track record and their success.

It isn't just healthcare, they may have not have spent a lot of time in healthcare yet, but then, obviously healthcare experience, whether it’s direct or indirect, is a first attraction. A lot of these students have worked three to five years in some cases. Most of them don't just go from undergrad to graduate school; they are out there for three or four years. A lot of them have worked in consulting, for example when you go to Columbia, there are a lot of students who have three to five years working in consulting with a healthcare eye. So that is the first thing: relevant experience and familiarity with healthcare. We don't want to bring them and go through the encyclopedia with them, so we have that element going on for them.

The other side, then, is the quality of the university. We are the corporate sponsor of Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey. They have a pharmaceutical management concentration; they are one of two schools in the country that actually have that. So, for us, that's really cool. Rutgers might not have the name of a Columbia Business School, but, actually, students there are probably more ready to jump into this world than students from the other schools. So, we look at the quality and the type of programs at the school and we look at the soft side, like we are just doing some kind of social club, because that is what we stand for at Bayer, we are very socially conscious. We look for those things that align with the Bayer culture because the culture is so critical for us. Ultimately we are doing this because, with the growth that we have, we need future leaders. You look for people right from the start when you first meet them and during their internship who just have those natural and learned leadership skills because that is who we will hire. We are not just bringing people in here who just get work done; this is a major part of building up our future talent pool in terms of leaders. So, that is a really important trait for us.

Which schools do you recruit from and why?

Rutgers Business School, the Johnson School of Business at Cornell, University of North Carolina, Columbia Business School, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Boston University, Wharton and NYU. Those are our prime schools. We look to different schools for different positions. For example, for the pharmaceutical division, Rutgers, the Johnson School of Business, and Columbia are core, but we work the other schools. For consumer care team it’s UNC, Wharton, and NYU. For Bayer Consulting, Duke is the top school.

How many MBA students do you typically recruit each year form the US?

In Pharma, this year, we are going to bring in nine interns. Consumer Care is bringing in more than ever, because we acquired a large over-the-counter business, so this year they are bringing in 12 interns. The consulting team usually brings in two to three interns.

That is the summer internships, but then we have full-time. For full-time on the pharma side - the two-year management associate program – they hire from the summer pool. We ask two to three to come back after they graduate for the management associate program. I think the consumer care group hires eight to 12 full timers, separate from their interns. Consulting usually hires two or three every year.

Last year, the pharmaceutical side had seven interns, and we hired two into the management associate program.

What steps should MBAs take to make a good impression? Conversely, what are some mistakes they should avoid when contacting recruiters?

The students who make the best impression are the ones who are able to demonstrate that they are invested in the pharmaceutical industry.

So, I talk about these students, whose investment is in their classes. They go to these amazing schools, but when it comes to finding a post-MBA job, attending a great school in itself just won’t work anymore. Whether you are a full-time here employee here for 10 years or an intern, you have to keep up with the industry today, with the trends.

That’s why I give MBA students the following advice: find a journal online or a magazine and spend fifteen minutes a day reading it. You will be way ahead of the curve. Attend lectures on campus around healthcare reform. Find mentors in companies to talk to because if you don't invest in this industry right now, you are only going to be equal. You can it see when people come, because in pharma, we all have different lingos, so when people come from outside of pharma, they are like ,”What the heck are you guys talking about?”

I think if you start going up and you are already running hard, that's an investment versus just going to your classes and saying, “Well, I’m taking a class on pricing in pharma.” It's a lot more than that. I think the other side is focusing on what you have done and what you are going to do to improve your leadership. Volunteering to lead a project in school, being the president of the healthcare and bio-tech group at your campus, leading a group of people as a mentor – those types of things teach you more about leadership and that's what we are looking for.

In addition, the people who make a good impression are the people who invest in really understanding the organization they are coming into; not just the products we have, but who we are. At Bayer, for example, we all live within a culture that is called LIFE – leadership, integrity, flexibility, and efficiency. I am always impressed by students who come in saying, “I really understand this LIFE thing, and let me tell you what I think of that that.” You can just Google our products, but when you take the step to research our company objectives you are already investing in understanding what our company culture is about, and for us that's really important.

If you understand the industry better, if you are investing in it, if you are doing things to improve your leadership capability, and really get into the granular level of the company you are talking to, those are really important.

So, the mistakes happen when MBA students don't do that. The mistake is that they just say, “Hey! I'm in great classes this year. I'm going to Cornell, it's a great school. When I get out, I really want to learn this business through the internship.” And quite honestly, an internship in pharma is not a training ground for beginners. We create a great learning environment, but you have to come in ready to go. To me, that's the biggest mistake I think people make. And then, I get students who forget they are actually talking to Bayer, or they think they are in the consumer care side, which shows me that they really didn't have that interest in the pharma side. So, it is all about investment.

What are the biggest misconceptions that MBAs have about Bayer and the pharmaceutical industry?

For Bayer, when they come in, especially on the pharma side, they will say, “Wow, you guys are so big! You are so huge! You have all this and I am looking for something smaller.” Because MBAs are so used to going to these big companies for interviews, whether that is pharma or healthcare somewhere else, they assume Bayer is a really big, both in terms of how they will be treated as well as their ability to make a difference. I have to remind them that the pharma group really isn’t that big. We don't act like we are big. We don't work like we are big. You are not just another number here.

Pharma is a medium-sized organization within Bayer, and that really supports our strategy in Pharma. On the consumer care side, we are actually the world’s second biggest over-the-counter drug organization. When it comes to just pharmaceuticals, however, the reason we are not a Novartis or a Johnson & Johnson is because our strategy is around specialty pharmaceuticals, which is especially true here in the US. Instead of coming up with blockbuster products that lower cholesterol, and are the fifteenth in a row of those, we really focus on niche markets and look for disease solutions and drug therapy around a set need; that's our strategy and therefore in itself makes us a more moderate size in terms of revenue and the number of people who work here. So that is just on the pharma side, but that is our strategy, that's how we like to work, that's who we are. It's different on the over-the-counter side of consumer care, which deals with mass-produced products.

Even though pharma is separate from consumer care, many MBAs think of Bayer in terms of Bayer aspirin, which, for them, seems really big. For those people who are interested in something where they can make a difference, once I tell them about the fact that we are not really big, that we don't just operate that you are just a number, that really changes things for them. It allows them focus on our culture rather than having them think they will be part of a big Bayer aspirin organization.

Sometimes, also, MBAs think marketing is just advertising, like billboards and TVs and big visual aids; they are so used to seeing commercials on TV. Marketing today, however, is very different than it was 10 years ago. It’s really more about outreach being the science side of your brand and working closely with your medical teams and really focusing on what is best for patient care. It’s more about focusing on the care organizations of the providers as opposed to traditional advertising. This isn't Madison Avenue and I think that really, then, impacts marketing and customer strategy. So those are the two biggest areas I see; a little that is about Bayer a little bit of that is about the pharma industry. Sometimes, I can tell that MBA students are a little worried about going into pharma because there is so much an ongoing never ending negative press. The media sometimes paints us as the big bad people who gouge patients’ pocket books, because they only care about profit. It is not that job candidates think that directly, but you can tell that it's part of their hesitancy to work in the pharmaceutical industry. So some of that comes up sometimes, especially during lunch and learns and meetings with campus clubs, and we do spend some time addressing that.