Thinking of leaving Ortho and/or medical

The way things are going in Ortho I can't imagine this being a great job for too much longer. I've only been in this for 7 years but have seen a big drop in pricing and quality of life. I'm selling more product only to have price drops at a national contract level. I could see this turning into a pharma type gig in the coming years. Has anyone left Ortho and or medical all together and been happy? It seems to be hard to find something outside of medical making what I am now.

 

Take a number and get in line. Be fortunate that you see where this is going and have a back up plan.

 

Be grateful you have a well paying job. The hay days are over, we all know that, it's about adapting and living within your means. I could start all over again but it would suck to have to learn a new industry and deal with the turbulence that comes along with starting a new sales career. I'll ride this out as long as possible, pick up other lines, leverage relationships and continue to make $.

 

Yup, the gravy train is coming down the tracks & the last stop isn't far away....be lucky if u make $200k (market dependent), have a decent QOL (i.e. no trauma call), and have a steady career & are valued within the organization you are in & have some stability. That's my 2 cents

 

Yeah wtf is going on? Impossible interviews I couldn't land 2 years ago are a dime dozen now, med device companies are throwing sales fairs left n right nationwide right now when did that ever happen? Stryker is losing accounts going downhill all of a sudden, companies contracts cancelled all thru out usa hospitals ... this is all unheard of ....

 

So the response is to basically be happy I have a job, ride it out, and eventually make a lot less money. Is there really no one on here with advice or experience leaving Ortho

 

You are correct. Very few have taken the jump outside of medical that were doing this a long time and make the $ or equivalent. I've been looking for the option to get out for a very long time. There are not jobs out there that pay like the medical device industry as 6 figure jobs are very slim if not existent. You will still make good $, you are not going to make as much $ as you are worth due to the changing dynamics of this industry. It isn't so bad that you will have to take a little cut do to price erosion which will drop commission and the greed of the companies to grow which means more feet on the street which will come out of your check. If you do find an alternative, please let me know. However, do not post about pain creams and energy sales as that's all a temporary bs bandaid.

 

I'm in transition, using the profits I make from medical devices to fund opening a MJ dispensary. If all goes well, I plan on starting a MJ grow to provide material for the dispensary. I'm also thinking of purchasing the super critical CO2 equipment necessary to convert the trim into oil.

I'm also thinking seriously about investing in the creation of refill cartridges for vaporizer pens such as www.openvape.com.

The demand for MJ and its derivatives, in states that are now making its use for medicinal or recreational use legal, is streaking upward towards the sky as quickly as a missile. It's not to late to get in now and establish a foothold, for the demand will only rise as various states legalize it for either medicinal or recreational use.
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002481

The future of this industry looks so bright, I need to wear sunglasses.

 

That industry is great until the feds kick your door in, or your dispensary gets robbed at gunpoint. High risk high reward I guess.

 

you can make more money working in the IT industry by far.

 

Thank you to the last poster. Can you elaborate

 

Any type of software in demand, enterprise business sales, data back up solutions, cloud

Oracle
EMC2

Many others. Go work for Epic, still healthcare but gets you away from chasing MDs

 

A good way to find out what IT companies hire med sales rep is by using LinkedIn.

Do an advanced search and make sure IT is the current industry and then type in for past company some of the well know med companies or even your current employer.

By just putting in Stryker, Covidien and Ethicon there are currently 918 I can see.

They are hiring, it's just a matter of getting in touch with the right person.

Companies that have hired former med device reps I know personally are HP, salesforce.com, EMC, Microsoft and Oracle. None of them had previous IT experience and all left within 5 years of getting into med device sales. All of them will never come back to med sales.

 

Interesting thread! I have been in Medical Sales since the mid 90's and prior to that worked for Med device in operational roles. Sure enough the thread is timely and exactly what the industry has come down to. I actually was joking with other reps in my area experiencing allot of this that we should get into the "Vape" business that it appeared to be booming. So to the guy doing this good call and hope it keeps moving forward for you. I started looking to get out of Med sales two years ago as things started to really move in the direction that it has. I got involved with renewable energy products since I originally had an engineering background. No! I don't make anywhere what I had been for the last fifteen years but I'm keeping the $$ coming in even if significantly less. The landscape has changed completely and its pretty dam ugly!

 

I love reading this. people complaining about not making their 250k and it getting harder to make the big bucks. get over yourself, your just a sales rep and you're not worth the money you think you are. You do realize there are reps that are younger then you with the sales skills to succeed and ready to take less $ to do so? wake up and lose the chip, your easy ride is over.

 

The last poster is obviously a bitter hospital employee or something. The majority of Ortho reps don't make 250 or close to that. You also don't know much if you think it is an easy ride. You see the reps at the hospital covering cases during your 8 hour shift and think that is all they do. You have no idea what it takes to be a successful rep in this business. I guess the same could be said for you. The hospital could hire some nurse or tech straight out of school for less money. They could do just as good a job as you since you think experience brings no value.

 

Previous post is dead on. The people who make big bucks earn that because they are valuable to their company. If you make your respective company millions of dollars in revenue they see value in that and that's why certain companies pay big guarantees/points etc. dropping 200, 300, +400k on a rep is a drop in the bucket when your generating 10x that in revenue... Chew in that

 

You just need a vacation and a few cocktails.