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How to Become a Medical Science Liaison

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Medical science liaisons mediate between medical researchers and healthcare professionals. They provide information about the latest research developments, up-to-date approaches to diseases and their treatments, and results of new clinical trials.

Medical science liaisons attend conferences to present what information they've gathered to pharmaceutical product teams, physicians, and other medical personnel. The job is about finding a market for the latest products of medical development.

Essentially, a medical science liaison's job is translating the language of medical academic research to prospective clients. They work closely with people in the industry and travel a lot. Interpersonal skills and an engaging personality are important in this role, along with the ability to sustain fruitful professional relationships.

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a medical science liaison. For example, did you know that they make an average of $54.76 an hour? That's $113,905 a year!

Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 8% and produce 10,600 job opportunities across the U.S.

What Does a Medical Science Liaison Do

There are certain skills that many medical science liaisons have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, analytical skills and interpersonal skills.

Learn more about what a Medical Science Liaison does

How To Become a Medical Science Liaison

If you're interested in becoming a medical science liaison, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 51.7% of medical science liaisons have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.6% of medical science liaisons have master's degrees. Even though most medical science liaisons have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a medical science liaison. When we researched the most common majors for a medical science liaison, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or doctoral degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on medical science liaison resumes include master's degree degrees or associate degree degrees.

You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a medical science liaison. In fact, many medical science liaison jobs require experience in a role such as clinical pharmacist. Meanwhile, many medical science liaisons also have previous career experience in roles such as staff nurse or sales representative.

Top Medical Science Liaison Jobs Near You

Medical Science Liaison Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a medical science liaison can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as manager, progress to a title such as sales manager and then eventually end up with the title regional sales manager.

Medical Science Liaison

Top Careers Before Medical Science Liaison

Clinical Pharmacist(101,564 Jobs)
10.7 %
Staff Nurse(699,636 Jobs)
9.1 %
Sales Representative(205,456 Jobs)
7.8 %

Top Careers After Medical Science Liaison

Medical Director(75,810 Jobs)
12.0 %
Pharmacist(50,943 Jobs)
6.6 %
Associate Director(72,370 Jobs)
6.5 %

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Average Salary for a Medical Science Liaison

Medical Science Liaisons in America make an average salary of $113,905 per year or $55 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $255,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $50,000 per year.
Average Medical Science Liaison Salary
$113,905 Yearly
$54.76 hourly
$50,000
10 %
$113,000
Median
$255,000
90 %
See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

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Medical Science Liaison Education

Medical Science Liaison Majors

Nursing
17.0 %
Pharmacy
16.8 %
Business
12.1 %

Medical Science Liaison Degrees

Bachelors

51.7 %

Doctorate

18.0 %

Masters

11.6 %

Top Colleges for Medical Science Liaisons

1. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition
$56,225
Enrollment
19,548

2. Duke University

Durham, NC • Private

In-State Tuition
$55,695
Enrollment
6,596

3. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI • Private

In-State Tuition
$15,262
Enrollment
30,079

4. Columbia University in the City of New York

New York, NY • Private

In-State Tuition
$59,430
Enrollment
8,216

5. University of California - Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA • Private

In-State Tuition
$13,226
Enrollment
31,568

6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC • Private

In-State Tuition
$8,987
Enrollment
18,946

7. University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA • Private

In-State Tuition
$55,584
Enrollment
10,764

8. Harvard University

Cambridge, MA • Private

In-State Tuition
$50,420
Enrollment
7,582

9. Yale University

New Haven, CT • Private

In-State Tuition
$53,430
Enrollment
5,963

10. Johns Hopkins University

Baltimore, MD • Private

In-State Tuition
$53,740
Enrollment
5,567

Top Skills For a Medical Science Liaison

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 11.4% of medical science liaisons listed scientific information on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and analytical skills are important as well.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Medical Science Liaison Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Medical Science Liaison templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Medical Science Liaison resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

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Medical Science Liaison Resume

Medical Science Liaison Demographics

Medical Science Liaison Gender Distribution

Female
Female
58%
Male
Male
42%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

  • Among medical science liaisons, 58.4% of them are women, while 41.6% are men.

  • The most common race/ethnicity among medical science liaisons is White, which makes up 59.7% of all medical science liaisons.

  • The most common foreign language among medical science liaisons is Spanish at 45.1%.

Online Courses For Medical Science Liaison That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure  The courses listed below are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the course, we may receive a commission.
Medical Terminology
udemy
4.6
(1,169)

Introduction to the meaning of various roots, terms and combining forms that are components of medical words...

View Details on Udemy
Introduction to Medical Imaging
udemy
4.4
(401)

Your guide to the history, science, math, and economics of medical imaging systems (e.g, X-ray, CT, MRI, Ultrasound)...

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Practical Regulatory Affairs 2020 - European Medical Devices
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4.3
(417)

A practical course discussing the EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR) in real-world situations...

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Best States For a Medical Science Liaison

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a medical science liaison. The best states for people in this position are Maine, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Medical science liaisons make the most in Maine with an average salary of $160,340. Whereas in Tennessee and New Jersey, they would average $151,150 and $146,374, respectively. While medical science liaisons would only make an average of $145,750 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Minnesota

Total Medical Science Liaison Jobs:
1,188
Highest 10% Earn:
$228,000
Location Quotient:
1.73 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here

$144,367

Avg. Salary

View 1,188 Medical Science Liaison Jobs In MN

2. Maine

Total Medical Science Liaison Jobs:
92
Highest 10% Earn:
$245,000
Location Quotient:
0.67 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here

$160,340

Avg. Salary

View 92 Medical Science Liaison Jobs In ME

3. New Jersey

Total Medical Science Liaison Jobs:
986
Highest 10% Earn:
$231,000
Location Quotient:
1.2 Location Quotient is a measure used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to determine how concentrated a certain industry is in a single state compared to the nation as a whole. You can read more about how BLS calculates location quotients here

$146,374

Avg. Salary

View 986 Medical Science Liaison Jobs In NJ
Full List Of Best States For Medical Science Liaisons

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Top Medical Science Liaison Employers

We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ medical science liaisons and discovered their number of medical science liaison opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Exact Sciences was the best, especially with an average salary of $110,537. Bristol-Myers Squibb follows up with an average salary of $180,835, and then comes Merck with an average of $144,760. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a medical science liaison. The employers include Novartis, Myriad Genetics, and Seagen

Most Common Employers For Medical Science Liaison

Rank  Company  Average Salary  Hourly Rate  Job Openings  
1Genentech$191,463$92.0518
2Bristol-Myers Squibb$180,835$86.9438
3Eli Lilly and Company$178,047$85.6013
4Novartis$167,210$80.3926
5Glaxosmithkline$155,581$74.8011
6Sanofi Genzyme$152,743$73.4321
7Boehringer Ingelheim$149,316$71.7918
8Johnson & Johnson$149,109$71.6922
9AstraZeneca$148,360$71.3326
10Amgen$147,694$71.0115
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Medical Science Liaison Videos

How to Break Into the Medical Science Liaison role
A Look into the Medical Science Liaison
A Day In The Life of A Medical Science Liaison

Becoming a Medical Science Liaison FAQs

How hard is it to get a medical science liaison job?

It is hard to get a medical science liaison job. While this position is in demand, it is hard to get a job because there are fairly stringent requirements to get hired.

The medical science liaison is a specialized role within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and related healthcare fields, which can make it challenging to get into the role.

How much do medical liaisons make?

Medical science liaisons make an average salary of $170,000 per year. However, this salary varies depending on several factors, including their employer, education, and level of experience.

Is MSL a good career?

Yes, being a medical science liaison (MSL) is a good career. This is a good career option for people in the healthcare field who want to act as a bridge between healthcare companies and physicians.

Have more questions? See all answers to common life, physical, and social science questions.

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Updated July 11, 2022