I am currentlyin B2B sales and got into the position with the intention of moving on into Pharma/Med Device Sales after gaining experience. I have an educational background in human sciences and up to this point this has been my passion. I sell document management solutions (copiers, software, etc.) and this has piqued my interest in IT quite a bit. I am currently getting a lot of offers to interview for med device/pharma and these offers will continue as my tenure at my current job increases. However, I currently have an opportunity to get into IT sales in Silicone Valley/Bay Area where all the IT action is. It would be 2 years inside $60,000 to $75,000 1st year (not much in CA Bay area) and then I would move to the field with income potential of $200,000+. Anybody have experience in IT industry and could compare it to Medical sales? Which one do you feel to be better (personally)? Any good forums anybody knows about for IT professionals? Anybody made the transition from one to the other? Thanks
No pharma. Device, it depends. Tough market getting tougher so all depends if you land w/ good company or not. If it was Cisco, I'd say go IT. But a shithole IT company can be just as bad as a shithole device company. All depends. No to pharma for sure.
No brainer in my mind, IT. I left 12 yrs of pharma behind me to go into IT and couldn't be happier. I have been in IT for almost 5 yrs and have moved from a smaller company to one of the top 4 software vendors in the last year. In IT you have literally tons of options for employment and they all offer great pay and high commission opportunities. You must be willing to make the calls and learn the technologies but the rewards are awesome. My best year in pharma with a small biotech was $150K, my worst year in IT has surpassed that. The upside in this industry is literally close to 7 figures in the top sales jobs with no call or weekend work.
I look forward to hearing more responses in this thread, as I am an ex-pharma rep (over 14 yrs), job-hunting, and may now have an opportunity to get into IT sales with one of the major players (I know someone there). To me, it sounds pretty intimidating, as we really weren't computer gurus in pharma, by any means, but if I can get in, I am going to go for it. Making that kind of switch will open up a world of opportunities that you simply won't ever get by staying in pharma or even med sales (who knows if med sales will end up more like pharma down the road. You certainly hope not!). People I know in IT sales do very well.... and the ones off the top of my head didn't have IT backgrounds. I would say IT over pharma for sure! Yes, no brainer there. DO NOT TOUCH PHARMA!!! Medical--hard to say, but I do hear they are beginning to have similar issues as pharma (being shut out some, having to provide luncheons, etc.) Who knows what will happen in the healthcare sales world in the future. IT, much safer bet I would think.
Any suggestions as to which IT companies are willing to hire top pharma/specialty reps? I'm looking to make a change. Making the calls and learning technologies are appealing along with the income potential (currently making what you did with small biotech).
Only go pharma if you want time to run your own business. You'll never make good money in pharma but the hours are great. You can get your job done with a dense territory in 20 hours a week. I'm in pharma but I own a business. I want to make 200k a year and between pharma and my business, I do. I can't do either one yet alone. I think I'll have my business where I can take 200k a year out in about 3 more years.
I've been in pharma for 12 years and trying to make the jump to med devices. Honestly, if I had the skillset to go into IT sales, I would be all over it in a heartbeat. The pharma/device world is changing, and not for the better.
12 year vet gone to IT here, I never get on here anymore so I haven't replied in a long time. With regards to the question of what IT companies hire with Pharma experience, none are looking for your skill set specifically. Having said that it won't stop you from getting the job if you go about it the proper way. My suggestion is to network through your friends and see who has an in. You might have to start out on an inside sales team and work to the field. Inside reps make a little over $100K with the big companies, less with smaller companies. Don't worry about not knowing the products, you will have to learn whatever you sell, we are all in sales, not programmers. I would suggest learning as much as you can about the basics of IT. Start out learning about databases, applications, OS, hardware and how it all ties together. You don't need to know what the specifici companies do or offer, just how an application operates, what a database does and so on. Hope that helps. It also helps if you live in IT heavy cities or major metros. Almost all those locations have inside teams with the hottest areas being the bay area, Austin, Chicago, NY and for some reason there are quite a few in Columbus, OH.
Any updates on what you would do? I’m currently interviewing with Keyence (big IT robot automation) and Stryker (med device) which route would you go? It seems 1st year you both make about 80-100k 2nd year 150k+ for Keyence and Stryker says 200-300k year 2-3
got an offer from an IT local company ,. They’re growing & the CEO wants a PR-type real seller to gain access & close the biz bc his engineers can’t cut it. So ideally id hunt the biz down, close the sale then the IT team would show up & implement/install. A lot of the commissions here would be from upwelling these accounts to managed cloud/data storage. Any feedback?
