This is not the same job as it was 5/10 years ago!

Discussion in 'Novartis' started by anonymous, Apr 6, 2021 at 5:14 PM.

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  1. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    This was a great job at one time. When someone in the sales force retired or was promoted to headquarters, they were given their company car. It was a taxable benefit.

    Everyone in the sales force was given a lunch stipends for their personal meal. This was to match the subsidized cafeteria in NJ. Bringing lunch into a doctor’s office was begun by Pfizer in 1980 and the rest of the industry followed their lead.

    If you were making a call more than 75 miles from home, you received an overnight stipends. You kept what you didn’t spend. You had to account only to the IRS. Many reps stayed in budget motels, had a cheap dinner and kept most of the stipends.

    Industry average daily calls were about 8 or 7. This was because doctors gave you 10-15 minutes of their time. Also, most doctors spent the morning in the hospital and the afternoon in the office. If you were smart, you knew where the doctors lounge was located in the hospitals and picked up some of your calls in the hospital,

    No counterparts until the mid 1980s. No formularies, except Medicaid. Just competitors. If your sales went up, it was because of you. No BS matrix or KPIs.

    Those were the days.
     

  2. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Amen! There was no hiding then. We owned our business and were treated like adults
     
  3. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Get in rare disease space and you will have all of that. No counterpart, formularies are non-existent, and you get allowance for company car to drive what you want.
     
  4. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    ABSOLUTELY! I have never worked at Novartis, but was in the industry for 40 years. This is the attitude that is necessary to survive in this environment! I will spare you any “back in the good old days” stories, but it really was an amazing job when I started. Now, you must learn how to play the game like an expert!

    My advice is to get out after a couple of years and try to break into device sales. There, you will see if you can actually sell or not. Remember one last thing, they could care less about you! It’s a quid-pro-quo on a daily basis. Work smart and play even smarter!
     
  5. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Had the opportunity in device sales...i know i can do it, but the job and demand of being on-call and getting 3am phone calls on a weekend is not something i want to do now that I’m not in my 20’s anymore. The key is to keep moving...roles and responsibilities to gain experience so you aren’t expendable. Diversify your skill set to be more marketable.
     
  6. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    agree however I don’t think it will save you from
    Being downsized . We are all numbers . It comes down to ranking, rating and all the diversity crap kicks in . So unless you climb the corporate ladder it doesn’t matter . A career rep might really be the “safe place” if you perform. I also don’t feel there is much opportunity, people are hired from outside for positions that are eventually downsized .
     
  7. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Of course, we are all just a number in big pharma, but I’ll take my chances on having a diversified skill set and trying to continue to climb the corporate ladder. If you have been at NVS a long time then you would know that rankings are not always (but i’d rather be on the higher performing side than at the bottom) the deciding factor when ZS make cuts. A friend of mine who was a 4 time (in 5 years) pclub winner was downsized during the first big massive layoff NVS did 10 years ago that shocked most people who knew and worked with them. Most definitely D&I is more important than it was even 5 years ago and will be taken into consideration —as will age, location, and division. Btw, very few external positions being filled as HR now with a hold on positions. If anything its internal hires and folks moving divisions who are NVS employees. The news is a reorg is on the horizon come December. This doesn’t necessarily mean a layoff, but if you are concerned and aren’t happy in current position, you have been given more than the 60 day WARN notice to start looking outside the organization.
     
  8. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    Spot on.
     
  9. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    it cracks me up how many of you worry about getting downsized or losing a crappy job.

    the idea in life is to not work. to retire early. you all just don't get it. you never will because you are slaves to the system. to your spouse. to your family. to materialism.

    only a few good men will understand this post.
     
  10. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    yes ! Although I think it will be before December. Q1 2022 starts in August, granted financials still calendar year . Don’t think it will be massive, but definitely changed depending on division . Time will tell and novartis is really no different then any other big pharma company out there . If anything we are in better shape then most !
     
  11. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    If you look at the situation at Novartis, use logic and not emotion and you should be able to draw a clear plan of what will happen. Today on Cafepharma there was a research paper done by a consulting firm about what the doctors want post pandemic. Less face to face interaction. So how many face to face interactions did you have pre pandemic. 6 a day if you were lucky. On the phone or Zoom you could have 20 a day. Right there you eliminate 2 reps. Now Novartis can no longer do after hour events. These events needed reps. Novartis now doesn't need anyone after hours. Most likely lunches will be eliminated in the near future. The offices that were reducing lunches pre pandemic will eliminate them completely now. Now comes the real question: If you owned Novartis and you realized all of the above is true, would you really waste money on an expense you don't need? This answers the question of your future. And to answer the last 2 sentences of the post I responded to. Novartis is very different then other pharma companies. The most restricted CIA and almost no promotional events. From a sales/promotion standpoint, We are not in better shape than most because of the restrictions. Get your head out of the sand.
     
  12. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    enjoying your micromanagement.
    good for you.
    god bless.
     
  13. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    It doesn’t matter what any marketing analytics data says—nothing will ever beat a face-to-face interaction with a customer. Period. Pfizer tired a virtual sales force years ago and proved it wasn’t as impactful. So, regardless, there will always be a need for a rep—-maybe not as many—but virtual will never replace that.
     
  14. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    yes, we understand that you’re a moron. Just imagine if we were all as evolved as you.. smh
     
  15. anonymous

    anonymous Guest

    99.9% of jobs in the USA do not "need a college degree" dopey!!! think about outside of MD JD we are all swimming in the same shit pot