Matchstick Reviews

I started working with Matchstick as a rotational student. During my first few weeks, I was brought up speed (there’s an internal wiki with detailed “textbooks” on key topics) and integrated into the team. Fit with the team is key. I was placed on a project related to my background (pharmacy) and interests (medication safety and adherence). The project also challenged me to learn outside my traditional scope. The Matchstick leadership is there when you need them – you get enough structure to guide you in the right direction, but also enough autonomy to be creative and lead parts of a project “your way.” After intensive prep, I presented my work directly to senior leadership of our client. As I became more comfortable with medical devices and combination products, I was given further opportunities to learn about other projects going on. What makes Matchstick most unique is their culture. The team is a small but agile group that truly believes in inclusion and developing younger professionals. I was encouraged to ask questions and received direct feedback frequently. Approaching that feedback with an open mind helped me grow quickly and gave me opportunities and exposure that has directly influenced my post-graduate career path and set me apart from my peers.

The experience I have gotten this summer at Matchstick is like no other. Growing their team is a top priority and they go above and beyond to set and meet high expectations. My time in the Early Career Experience (ECE) program started with the ECE Accelerator, a two week case-based program where we learned by doing: client discovery, brainstorming, frameworks for organizing information, facilitating meetings and workshops, and creating compelling presentations through storytelling. We delivered numerous presentations, ran meetings, and got feedback from the team…all in two weeks! I got to apply the skills I learned in the Accelerator right away as I worked on projects to advance our user research capabilities and build our recruiting and campus outreach strategies. Additional learning and development took place through our Speaker Series and our Clinical Curriculum. Matchstick invites top pharmaceutical and medical device executives to share what they do, how they progressed to where they are and to offer career advice. It was amazing to have close and personal access to top executives in an informal setting. The Clinical Curriculum was developed and is taught in-house by our Clinical Analysts. It lives on the Matchstick internal wiki and focuses on pharmacokinetics, disease states, patient life, and medications. Through our CAs, we learned about drugs and diseases and the implications on device development. The expectation is that with all this development and learning, you are going to actively contribute at a high level at the company. I was prepared to make a client facing presentation on my first project, work with the team cohesively to meet deadlines and expectations, contribute to a publication, and run brainstorms and workshops for the company.