Since the MSL Society was founded in 2012 and received 501c3 Non-Profit status, it’s been our core mission to help aspiring MSLs, experienced MSLs, and MSL managers worldwide to advance in their careers as well as be the voice for the global MSL profession. Fast forward 5 years later, and our organization has grown exponentially in terms of members, events, training programs, educational resources, and involvement from the broader MSL community.

As a result of this growth, it’s not surprising that the level of awareness of the Medical Science Liaison career has also seen a considerable increase over the last few years. This has resulted in numerous academic institutions reaching out to the MSL Society to inquire about career resources and to offer career guidance to their students. Just in the last 18 months, 2 student chapters of the MSL Society have been established at MCPHS and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, with multiple other schools expressing interest in launching in the next year alone.

This, of course, does not include the wave of scientists, pharmacists, and physicians who reach out to us every single day seeking advice and inquiring about how to break into the MSL role. I try to answer as many emails as possible on a daily basis and guide them through the process as thoroughly as I can, pointing out the many programs and resources we have available for MSL candidates. All of this growth in awareness of the MSL role has unfortunately also resulted in the emergence of many unscrupulous individuals trying to take advantage of aspiring MSLs and students.

What prompted me to write this post is the fact that lately, numerous candidates have brought to our attention that there are now multiple scams that target aspiring MSLs and many of these aspiring MSLs are legitimately asking what are we as a society, going to do about this?

Why aren’t we serving as a voice for them and not speaking out?

So, as the voice of the global MSL profession, I decided it was time to speak up for these candidates.

Behind the scenes, we have been advising all aspiring MSLs to be VERY careful if someone tries to sell you advice on how to break into the MSL career. There are many of these individuals or self-proclaimed “MSL experts” who charge substantial amounts of money to aspiring MSLs who end up only feeling frustrated and ripped off. We have had several candidates recently inform us that these scammers are now even refusing to refund their money back after they realized it’s a scam. What is happening is that these so-called “experts” sell expensive ridiculous “training”, “certifications”, “CV reviews”, or “coaching services” on how to become an MSL.

However, if they reach out to you, ask them these simple questions:

1. Have they ever managed MSLs?

2. Have they ever hired an MSL?

3. Have they ever reviewed CVs as part of their job as an actual MSL manager?

For all the current self-proclaimed “experts”, the answer to all these questions is “NO”!

However, even for those very few individuals that have actually been an MSL, their experience is limited to only a year or two as an MSL - not as an MSL manager.

So, the question is how can they advise you on how to become an MSL and what a company or a hiring manager will look for in a candidate today if they have never actually hired or managed MSLs?

They can’t! They are not a credible source of information. Understand what you are buying with these programs and how these individuals get their information.

They obtain free information from experienced MSL hiring manager(s) or get information from credible sources like the MSL Society, package the information they received for free and then try to sell you an expensive ridiculous program, CV reviews, etc.

It’s a SCAM!

Unlike these individuals, and what is different and unique about all the MSL Society educational programs, is that ours are actually facilitated by current MSL managers from multiple countries. These are passionate professionals who want to give back to the community. In addition, our CEO (Dr. Samuel Dyer) and all the MSL managers that are involved in our various programs for aspiring MSLs, have multiple years of actual experience hiring and managing MSLs, and they also ALL VOLUNTEER (yes, including the CEO of the MSL Society). I am very proud of this and the fact that the MSL Society is relentlessly focused on doing the right thing!

If you have further questions, please feel free to leave a comment and we will address it promptly.

Best of luck!