I'm Melissa

I'm a Career and Leadership Coach for Women in Pharma/Biotech. I've been where you are, and I help you create the career you want without working more hours or settling for good enough.

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Standing out, not blending in: how AI tools can drive impact during job searches

July 16, 2026

Do you wonder if you should use AI to help you write your resume, LinkedIn, or application materials? BioSpace and Angela Gabriel wrote an article to ask this very question. They interviewed me for my take on how I use AI with my clients.

Read the article on BioSpace’s website to get the answer and two specific ways that I coach my clients to use AI to help them stand out in a competitive pharma and biotech job market.


Keep reading: Your Worthy Career: A Science-Backed Method to Build a Meaningful Career in Pharma and Biotech is built around exactly this — including frameworks for mapping where your visibility stops and how to close that gap strategically. Available now on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

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Hi, I’m 

The difference between career coaching and insider knowledge.

Former BioPharma Talent Leader. Organizational Psychology expert. Career strategist for women in industry. Best-Selling Author of Your Worthy Career: A Science-Backed Method to Build a Meaningful Career in Pharma and Biotech.

Six years ago I left a 12-year career in Pharma and Biotech to build something that didn't exist: a coaching practice designed specifically for the women I used to work alongside.

I spent over a decade in Talent and Organizational Development inside global companies — AstraZeneca, Human Genome Sciences, and Emergent BioSolutions — watching how decisions about people were actually made inside real organizations, across real teams, inside real Pharma and Biotech culture. That's where my Master's in Organizational Psychology stopped being theory and started being a diagnostic tool.

I heard the war stories nobody puts on paper. The patterns nobody names out loud. The reasons promotions happen, and the reasons they don't.

And I was also one of the women being talked about. I exceeded expectations and watched the path stall anyway. I did everything I was supposed to do — the degrees, the programs, the work — and still sat with the question of whether it was ever going to add up to what I actually wanted.

I know what is said when the room closes. Because I was in the room. And I know what it feels like to be the woman they are talking about. Because I was her.

Your Worthy Career® wtih Melissa Lawrence

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The Your Worthy Career® Podcast

For women in the Pharma and Biotech Industry

Your Worthy Career® has 200+ episodes for women in Pharma and Biotech who want more from their careers. Hosted by Melissa Lawrence, Certified Career and Leadership Coach with 15+ years in the industry, the show shares insider strategies to get clear on your next move, land promotions, and lead with confidence.

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Introducing...

The Your Worthy Career® Method

A structured method built specifically for women in pharma and biotech.

The WORTHY method is grounded in organizational psychology and years of coaching results inside this industry. It is a six-component framework that develops the external strategy (direction, positioning, visibility, and relationships) and the internal leadership (how you communicate, how you lead, how you own your value) at the same time.

Most career development addresses one side. This builds both. That is what changes your trajectory and turns the visible path into your hidden door.

An overview of my method is in the book. The personalized version is the work I do with clients.

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Get Melissa's Best-Selling book

Your Worthy Career: A Science-Backed Method to Build a Meaningful Career in Pharma and Biotech is the first-of-it's-kind. Get the proven method to get clarity on your direction, get a new job, promotion, and get recognized as a stand out leader.

Get the book

be the exception: training for women in pharma

Be the leader Pharma and Biotech cannot overlook. A live training for women already in pharma and biotech who want to answer what's next, get a new job, a promotion, or to be a confident and exceptional leader.

September 22nd on Zoom

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