2021 Employer of the Year Award Winner
Congrats to the winner of the 2021 Employer of the Year Award, Xellia Pharmaceuticals!
Below are excerpts from the nomination submitted by Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering student, Dylan Pickryl, who worked there during the Spring and Summer 2021 terms.
After applying and interviewing, the immense pride in the organization and focus of saving lives while manufacturing a life-saving drug made me want to accept an offer. Also, the focus upon the values of zest, being our best, accountability, and openness and transparency really stood out to me, causing me to want to be a part of this organization.
Orientation consisted of training of the basics on site safety, what the site does for Xellia pharmaceuticals, and the basics of our product we produce. In addition to this, there was a lot of training around good manufacturing processes and good documentation practices as I was working in the most highly regulated sector of sterile injectable pharmaceuticals. Lastly, the day capped off with us meeting a variety of leadership members such as managers of the various departments learning about the various departments on site and the site manager.
Extracurricular activities consisted of lunches together, going to an escape room, a volunteer event, game days, and lessons with the site manager. Although Covid-19 prevented us from being able to engage and do many things safely, Xellia and the People and Organization team made sure that the co-ops were engaged with each other and building connections.
The supervision I received from my manager was one that allowed for me to grow and seek out opportunities in which I wished to work in. Although my title remained within Non-Sterile Operations, I was able to assist in a variety of the other departments on site and throughout the world! In addition to this, a variety of individuals from Quality Control engineers, to Process engineers, to Tech Transfer engineers allowed for me to shadow them and assist them when they were needed. I was able to work with many different "mentors" that come from a wealth of different knowledges and perspectives, therefore allowing for me to learn as much as possible.
As a result of working with others and alone, I was able to develop team-oriented skills as well as individual problem solving and technical skills. Through the assistance of my manager Colton, the whole Non-Sterile Operations team, and Xellia Pharmaceuticals themselves, I was able to provide myself with not only the improvement of my soft skills as an engineer, but I was also able to build the belief in my ability to perform on the technical level as I utilized problem-solving skills and deep analysis to solve a variety of problems we had associated with the manufacturing process. All in all, this experience is one that I will continue to build on as I am hopeful to be the best individual I can be.
Xellia Pharmaceuticals is deserving of the ECS "Employer of the Year" Award due to the immense impact it has had on my goals, my personal life, and my overall professional life as well. Simply the goals center around being yourself, but also taking responsibility for the day-to-day work in which you are doing to produce life-saving drugs.