Chief of staff roles at a biotech / pharma. Great or terrible exit for a Strategy Manager?

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It can vary but in my experience from interviewing for / learning about the roles: they are high visibility roles but I wouldn’t categorize them at 40-50 hr work weeks (rather more) in terms of what I was told when I had explored them. It’s just that deadlines aren’t as immediate for projects, but you constantly have to try to wrangle people who are much more senior to you and get them to be helpful for your random asks when you’re not as much of a priority for them. At the same time you are basically “on call” for anything for a subset of the CxO day/night/weekends, which does obvious have urgent deadlines unlike the projects. Think of it like CxOs’ personal consultant. Your rarely have a direct report so you’ve got to be okay going back to owning the full lifestyle of a “project” including doing all of the work. The role is typically viewed as a D/SD level (sometimes AD equivalent) with a stint of 2-3 years prior to moving into a specific vertical within the same company usually at the SD level, if lucky then ED, if super lucky then VP. Or moving into a SD level role at another company. Obviously if it’s an AD entry you’re probably looking at a D (internal/external) exit. I’d encourage you to learn as much about the actual CxOs and personalities, drive, workstyle, company goals, as that will heavily influence your WLB.

OP, what have they shared with you about the leveling, type of work, expectations, CxO style?

likehelpful

I would think its a great role with a lot of leadership visibility. But depends on your long term goals

@author not crazy but well thought of
How feasible is a different question and I'll let more experienced folks answer that

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