A Day In the Life of a LifeSci NYC Intern: Brad Langhoff
For the third in a series of posts from participants in this summer's LifeSci NYC Internship Program, we hear from Brad Langhoff, who spent the summer at AXON, a company that simplifies complex information to improve outcomes in health care.
Simplifying Complex Communications—My LifeSci NYC Internship with AXON
by Brad Langhoff
I’m originally from a very small town in Connecticut. Recently, I decided to swap out the quiet, wooded setting of the suburbs of East Granby for the bustling streets of New York by attending Fordham University and diving head first into a life sciences internship with AXON this summer. I am about to enter my senior year, and I am glad I made this decision, as both studying and living in New York City have made pursuing my career interests immeasurably easier than if I had gone elsewhere. Other than the obvious benefit of being able to commute easily to interviews in the area, I was able to take part in LifeSci NYC’s internship program, which has been a priceless opportunity. LifeSci NYC was helpful from the very start, as the application process exposed me to a variety of positions, companies, and lines of work that I would likely not have known about without having participated in the program. More importantly, it opened the door to a wonderful and educational summer internship with the team at AXON; they take their work and client responsibilities extremely seriously but do not take themselves too seriously—I think this is a true recipe for success.
Because of AXON’s unique position in the health care communications nexus, no two days at my recent internship have been the same. I was involved in project management, survey programming and the analysis of subsequent data in Excel, researching and negotiating pricing models with vendors, identifying and then purchasing access to scientific articles for our editorial team, and numerous other tasks. In completing my varied assignments, I have been able to collaborate with nearly everyone in AXON’s New York office. Whether my colleagues were on our client services or editorial teams, I was able to garner deep insights into medical communications, public relations, clinical trials, and market access communications (in addition to the myriad of people and processes that are involved in running an agency of this size), as well as the life science industry at large.
My summer internship was no less than eye opening in terms of career exploration! I come from a rare academic background rooted in both economics and biology and am not certain of my future career path —but I have learned that there is an entire industry employing this sort of diverse talent here at AXON. Ideally, my dream career would allow me to apply my learnings from econometrics and statistics as often as those from genetics and organic chemistry. More importantly, I aspire to actively contribute to an industry that procures profound benefits for those it affects, directly or indirectly. Wherever I find this role, whether it’s ultimately at AXON, a pharmaceutical firm, a financial institution, or a nonprofit, I’ll certainly be able to credit this internship and, by extension, LifeSci NYC, with casting me in the right direction.
