If you had to do it all over again...

Thought this would be a good introduction topic for the new registered posting only section...

So, my question is if you were in your 20s again and had to do it all over again, would you go into pharma?

Now, many of us have done well financially in pharma, and have made some great friends, but let's face it: we worked for a very corrupt industry that treated most of us like little kids.

At least that is how I felt towards the end.

Personally, I would NOT have do it, and would have pursued a commission only position, and built up my selling skills that way.

Even though the money might have not been as good in the beginning, I think I would be in a better position today if I had started in a commission only opportunity.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 

No. If I had to do my career/life all over again, I would stay in school and get a doctorate or would have become a BSN (maybe a cath/radiology/IT Tech). The industry, especially pharma is a total dead end job. While I am grateful to pharma when my life was tough for giving the income to payoff my debt and get a nice house, there is nowhere to go with it unless you aspire to be a DM or work at the home office. Either one of those choices never appealed to me. To your point, I would not have done commission only either. With healthcare costs as we age, that would be one rough road, especially if you have a family to support. One doctor who works independent spends about 30k annually for his family of 5 on premiums alone.

Look, pharma used to be one of best gigs out there. I do not think I'll make it to retirement in the industry and am pretty much at my wits end trying to come up with alternatives. Had an offer to interview for a home health agency. Salary was only 50k, no car and bonus was about 25. There was mileage but the driving would have put a car in the ground every year and there was no reimbursement for entertainment/hotels. At this point, the only things I might consider are foods sales, construction sales (hard if you're an old chick), or auto sales. Now, I wish I had spent the time and energy to get a doctorate since those are the only high paying fairly safe jobs left unless you're an accountant or an engineer. Anyone just coming into pharma and in their 20s or 30s should consider this a temporary career at best. They should use the money to save, save, save and use any tuition reimbursement to go back to school to get a technical certification or become a doctor.

 

Two "no" votes so far.

I'm the first yes, but it's pretty conditional. I would go back to pharmaceutical sales like it was when I started in the '80's. It's funny to hear EVERYONE calling it "Pharma" now. I never called it that. The first time I heard it was from a Big Pharma boss who hired me into a small biotech a little over halfway into my 20 year career.

When I started, the old-timers would tell me the good old days were gone. A couple of years after I got in, Amgen and Genentech exploded on the scene, and everything changed for young reps like me who had a little specialty experience (Hospital Sales, HIV/AIDS, Cardiac, Oncology).

I got passed over by Amgen and turned down an interview with Centocor the day after I accepted a non-biotech, but specialty division position. The Amgen manager I interviewed with was pretty full of himself. He had good reason, of course, but...oh well. Neither situation would have been as good as how things ended up for me.

Long story short, I spent nine years as a biotech rep, with two different companies. I don't think those opportunities exist anymore like the ones I had. Reimbursement issues from the soon to be nationalized health care system are going to finish off the innovations that ruled the '90's and early 2000's. The FDA is getting tougher about approvals in some therapeutic areas. I don't read alot about stock options on the Company Boards here, so I guess those are gone, too.

HIPPA was more of a shock to me than most of you. I retired from the second biotech company after fully vesting my options, which had gone up 15-fold. Some friends with another startup called me a few months later to go to work. There was no HIPPA implementation when I quit. When I came back...POW: "The doctors don't make rep appointments but you can cater lunch...don't wander about." What they should have said: "The doctors never come back to the breakroom but you can feed the rest of us."

 

15 FOLD?

When did you sell, in the 1930s?

Why do you come here and lie?

Just post honest stuff or get lost.

 

Such rudeness! I'll give you some data from my era in Pharmaceuticals, then you can decide whether or not to apologize to me. You're proving my point: the opportunities I had in the 90's to 2000's don't exist anymore.

AMGEN: March of '94--roughly $5 a share (adjusted for splits). Feb. of 2000: $68/share. They're trading in the mid to high '80's today. You do know there are thousands of former AMGEN reps out there? Maybe I'm one of them.

Immunex: Traded as low as $4 per share in the '80's. Divide that by the 8-for-1 splits (2x2x2 for one) they had until they were bought by AMGEN in 2001. That's 50 cents for the low, and they were trading at around $14 a share when Amgen offered to buy them out. That's a factor of 28-fold. There are only hundreds of former Immunex reps out there. Maybe I'm one of them.

Genentech: Grew 8-fold roughly between 1985 and 1999 when they pulled their GNE stock and became DNA. They grew roughly 8-fold again from 1999 to 2009. Obviously I'm not a former Genentech rep because the growth wasn't the 15-fold I told you about.

Maybe there were one or two others out there I didn't tell you about. Maybe I was with one of them.

We didn't do as well as some of the other .com's, but the Biotech Pharmaceutical people in the 90's and early 2000's did exist and did real business (unlike Enron and Worldcom).

Let me tell you what you will think is a further lie: I'm a professional helicopter pilot now. Way better than Pharmaceutical Sales, but I'm glad I've done both things in my life. It makes me appreciate both of my careers all the more.