I'm a recent graduate who is looking to relocate to North Carolina. I would like the opportunity to get into the pharmaceutical or medical device industry. Does anyone have advice for getting into the business? I have a great resume and management experience. Should I be talking to recruiting companies? Thanks.
Recent graduate and you have management experience? Was that experience at Burger King? You will never get into this business. There are too many unemployed people with " real" experience who cannot get a job. Try Lowes or Home Depot .You are qualified to get the carts in the parking lot.
don't get too discouraged. there are hundreds of experienced unemplyed reps out there, but many expect high salaries and bonus based on previous positions. try gettiing hired by one of the contract sales organizations (CSOs). they will have the opportunity to place you without pharma experience. it will give you a possible opportunity for a contract roll-over into a full-time position...or give you some pharma experience on your resume. good luck!
for #2 I actually never worked at a burger king. But thanks for the positive response. I have managment experience in the beauty industry with a fortune 500 company doing b2b. I was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time. for #3 thank you for the advice.
None here in the Triangle, but email me if you are interviewing and I will meet you to talk about the job market, review your resume and fuck yoiur mouth once or twice.
Clearly, this poster is in pharma management. Sounds like a DM or Ops Mgr. Classic approach. Don't ya just luv it?! Word up... if you are a newbie to pharma sales then while the above quote may not literally happen to you, after about 3 years you will emotionally feel like it happens M-F, 8am-6pm....only it won't feel like your mouth. Hell, pharma jobs won't exist in another 3 years. Never mind.
By the way, if you really want to experience the fun of pharma work then make sure your territory is Durham/Chapel Hill, NC.
You might want to try an internal marketing role at large company with various divisions (GE, Medtronic, Depuy etc) ... pay won't be very good, but you'll have a lot more insight to the business and possibly cherry pick a good territory.
This poster nailed it. Durham gives you the unique ability to go 'coast to coast' on two products, with a solid two-way dialogue on every call. Doors are wide open, and the office staff always suggest spending the absolute minimum on your lunch/breakfast/snack. One of the best parts is when you do a dinner program, you actually have to turn people away!! Too many people(big targets) come to these things!! Duke offices are just like your living-room; warm, inviting, friendly people can't wait to greet you at the door.
DM here ... recently interviewed and filled an open Primary care job (basic entry level pharma) in Raleigh NC, I had over 300 qualified people with >3 years sales experience post for the initial posting. I had our HR person repost the job but this time only accepting folks with >3 years PHARMA experience, this narrowed the listing to 153 people. HR phone screened 20% of those folks and I FTF interviewed 10 people to find my new employee. He had 7 years of prior pharma experience in the territory I had vacant, had more than 10 letters of reference from high volume doctors in that territory and interviewed extremely well. Moral of the story = good luck.
Save yourself alot of frustration and dissappointment look into a different industry this one sucks and is dying a slow agonizing death
Hey, dont worry about #2, there's always an asshole to project their miserable life and existence on others.....keep on trying.
Many experienced reps with 10+ years experience are willing to go down on salary to stay in industry or to gain back into industry from layoffs. I know someone with salary $122K that went down to 82K to get an offer. He has several recommendations from large accounts.
It's going to take a decade for the overcapacity in pharma to be absorbed. Find another field like copiers, software, etc.
This thread is years long, how is the job climate for an experienced rep with decade of top results and awards in the piedmont triad areas? I decided to move so I wouldn't miss being a part of what are likely the last years of my parent's and grandparent's lives, plus they'll need some help. The company I worked for has a disastrous reputation & ton of turnover in this area so I resigned over transferring to a nightmare region. I just started looking but seems like there are openings. Anyone else experienced looking or have any feedback?
How many of us are looking? Anyone else interested in getting together, plopping some resources? Having a cocktail one evening ? Greensboro ? WS?
