Medical Device / Pharmaceutical Employment Opportunities for Nurses

dishes, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2016

The medical and pharmaceutical rep job market is likely saturated with experienced applicants, due to the downsizing and merging that pharmaceutical and medical device companies have gone through in recent years.

dishes, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2016

The pharm and medical reps that I know, say their companies laid off employees and gave larger territories and larger portifolios to the remaining employees. Since it is an employer's market, an applicant hoping to work in the field, will need an outstanding resume and cover letter that shows why they are the best candidate for the position.

**NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN** · Jun 5, 2016

I know a guy who did that for a while, and was downsized like many. He does case management now, which doesn't pay nearly as well.

dishes, BSN, RN · Jun 5, 2016

@tawill I am curious, what is it about a sales rep position that interests you?

Libby1987 · Jun 6, 2016

I remember having nurse reps available for inservices and consulting. They had smaller territories and were available to make joint visits every time we had a challenging issue.

Not anymore. No wound consultants. No local clinical experts available. It's a shame as I learned so much from them but our newer nurses don't have that resource.

meanmaryjean, DNP, RN · Jun 12, 2016

Also, and there's no way to put this delicately- what do you look like? Because in my 40 years of experience, persons of 'average looks' do not get hired to be reps/ sales people.

martymoose, BSN, RN · Jun 12, 2016

from what I've noticed lately, this is one of those jobs you have to already have outstanding experience in. All the ads I see say "proven sales record"

Asystole RN · Jun 15, 2016

The medical and pharmaceutical rep job market is likely saturated with experienced applicants, due to the downsizing and merging that pharmaceutical and medical device companies have gone through in recent years.

Not really.

Asystole RN · Jun 15, 2016

I currently work for a large medical manufacturer.

It has been the most impactful position on healthcare I have ever held. To literally have a hand in shaping the standards of practice, sometimes in shaping laws, and shaping the quality of care has been very rewarding. I can look at my work and point to statistics where my involvement had a real and significant impact on MILLIONS of patients around the world, I find that very rewarding.

Pharma does tend to hire for looks but anymore that is more of a stereotype and not reality. If you are selling to small MD clinics that is sometimes true but most of the time nurses are so used to seeing people in scrubs, little make-up, and messy hair that when they see someone dressed in business casual or business formal is seems exotic. That is my guess anyways.

Medical device companies are VERY different from pharmaceutical companies. It is fairly common in pharma to hire legions of sales reps and nurse educators for a few months to years and then lay off the entire group. It is considered a normal sales cycle as marketing objectives change. This is not true of medical device.

Keep in mind that sales is a unique animal within the "industry" that has its own benefits and challenges. I work with many, many, many other nurses in the industry with only a fraction of them being in sales. There is marketing, clinical research, technical services, education, medical complaints, risk management, business team leadership, new product development, etc etc etc.

I will post more later.

tawill5 · Nov 24, 2016

Thanks so much for these insightful perspectives! There's certainly a lot to consider.

Anonymous865 · Nov 24, 2016

EMR companies hire nurses for sales, sales support, training, implementation, customer support.

To get a sales job, you will probably need sales experience.

Look at sales support. In sales support you would travel with the sales rep and meet with customers. You would be responsible for talking with clinical people, explaining the product, doing demos. Essentially you would "sell" the product to the clinical staff.

The sales rep would be responsible for building the relationship with the "C Suite." S/he would be responsible for negotiating the terms and conditions of the sale and closing the deal.

If you develop a good reputation in sales support, you would be able to move into the sales rep position.

In sales support you will make $$$. You will carry a quota along with the sales rep. If you don't make your quota, you could lose your job. The majority of your compensation will come from salary. A smaller portion will come from commissions. Your risk is smaller but so is the upside (commissions).

As a sales rep you will make $$$$$$.. The sales rep has the majority of the responsibility to make sure s/he and his sales support make their quota. The company will be a lot quicker to fire a sales rep who doesn't make his quota. About 50% of the sales rep's compensation will come from salary. The rest comes from commissions, so the more he sells the fatter his wallet. On the flip side, he could have lots of lean months. You might work on a $20M deal for 2 years before it closes.

I worked in sales support for 15 years. Here was a typical week for me:

Monday - leave the house at 4:30am to head to the airport

arrive at customer's about 9:30 and start meetings, demos

I might be at that customer's all day or we might have meetings with other customer's close by. Either way we'd be with customers until about 6.

Mad dash to the airport to fly to next customer's.

Try to work in the airport and on the plane.

Arrive at hotel about 11pm or midnight.

Work on proposals, presentations, answering emails for several hours.

Tuesday - start customer meetings at 6:30 or 7 am. Everything else is a repeat of Monday.

The rest of the week would be the same. I'd get home at 11pm or midnight on Friday.

Saturday I'd do laundry, house work, yard work, and pack for next week.

Sunday I'd have to spend 3 or 4 hours on the computer answering emails and getting ready for the next week.

You were expected to take your cell phone and laptop with you on vacation and holidays. If your sales rep or customer or prospect wanted something, you were expected to respond immediately. If you aren't producing, you and the sales rep aren't making money.

It was interesting work. You were always learning. I made a lot of money, but it was physically grueling to travel that much and sleep so little.