Would a pharma consulting company hire a former pharma rep?

For the reps that get laid off - have you ever heard of one getting a job with one of the pharma consulting companies? Like the ones that do our territory alignments or provide us our sales data or the ones that do market research or other types of pharma consulting?

Could former pharma reps transition into jobs like this? What would it take? Or would companies like this not hire former reps?

Anonymous said:

For the reps that get laid off - have you ever heard of one getting a job with one of the pharma consulting companies? Like the ones that do our territory alignments or provide us our sales data or the ones that do market research or other types of pharma consulting?

Could former pharma reps transition into jobs like this? What would it take? Or would companies like this not hire former reps?

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In today's business environment, you are very unlikely to land such a job.

If you knew someone in upper management, you might have a decent shot. Or if you had an MBA from a top school, you would have a decent shot.

But, I just don't see how they would need someone like this right now, especially when they are cutting back because of the uncertainty in Washington.

Most of these pharmaceutical consultants couldn't find a doctors office with a GPS, limo and driver ...

This goes back about 20 years ago, but we had somebody in the home office that thought we (as hospital reps) needed to spend time in OR's with anesthesologists and thought it was difficult for the reps to do it on their own. They found some consultant in Cincinnati who would "set up" these tag-alongs.

My boss askes me where I'd like to do this. Heck, by this time I had sat in on open heart surgeries at about half of my hospitals. But there were a couple I had problems getting into, so I put those places on the list.

Couldn't get into those joints, but since the program was bought and paid for, he set me up with a good friend at one of the teaching hospitals. And I happened to be sitting in his office when the consultant called. "Yes, I know Fred. Sure we can do it. Yeah, I'll wait for the paperwork, no problem." Hangs up. And tells me that the consiltant is going to pay his hospital/department $2800 to spend four days with him over the next six or nine months.

In fact, I got a "promotion" to another division of the company during this time. And I was told that, a week or so before I was to take that position, I needed to spend my final day with the doctor. So I did (I brought along my successor as well).

I'm sure the company paid this consultant several thousand dollars more for this program -- because I remember the guys from marketing telling me about the expensive dinners the guy took them to while selling the program, including flying to their home office in New York.

I used to say that there was one business better than the drug business, and that was the businesses that sold stuff (consultants, etc.) to the drug companies.

Anonymous said:

For the reps that get laid off - have you ever heard of one getting a job with one of the pharma consulting companies? Like the ones that do our territory alignments or provide us our sales data or the ones that do market research or other types of pharma consulting?

Could former pharma reps transition into jobs like this? What would it take? Or would companies like this not hire former reps?

Click to expand...

Yeah, they might need someone to make Starbucks runs, or head over to get pizza for staff at lunch time...that pretty much sums up the drug rep's transferable skill set...

Sorry to be such a smart ass...I am in the same boat as you...career pharma guy who is out of work and totally screwed...but the reality is that we made good money in the cotton candy of careers, and it all just sort of melted away...

Anonymous said:

In today's business environment, you are very unlikely to land such a job.

If you knew someone in upper management, you might have a decent shot. Or if you had an MBA from a top school, you would have a decent shot.

But, I just don't see how they would need someone like this right now, especially when they are cutting back because of the uncertainty in Washington.

Click to expand...

I would tend to agree with this post. The big consultants like McKinsey and ZS hire market research analysts with, like the poster stated, big time MBA’s, and usually experience either form internships or from competitors. I understand your POV from the sales rep but generally your experience and expertise would be limited to the few companies you have worked for which is not all that valuable. They would rather talk to the reps at the companies they are hired by versus talking, for example, to a guy who worked at J&J five years ago. You would offer a singular perspective from an organization that may not be at all relevant to what the consultants are working on. Not sure that experience would be all that relevant to a lot of their customers nor would that type of insight be hard to obtain from other sources.

I have had the opportunity to work with both companies over the years and as much as sales people might not like the outcomes of their work nor do their recommendations always make sense I will say they are highly intelligent people and not that where you MBA is form is the be all end all but I’ve never been in a meeting with more Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, types in any other situation.

If you have an MBA from a top tier program and are interested in those types of jobs I would certainly give it a shot. The best place to run into these guys is at the medical conferences. They are always there in droves pitching the executives. Try to find one of the younger looking ones and chat them up and see how they got in and all that and see if there is a way to get your resume in the right hands. I’ve known a few executive at the VP level who have made the jump but I have not heard of any reps who have, but clearly that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.

Good luck.