Electronic Resumes: What every applicant should know |
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Industry Specific -
Pharmaceutical Sales
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Written by Lisa Lane
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If you are planning to apply to companies online, success depends on knowing how to prepare your resume for online submission and knowing how the system works. Impactful, online resumes require you to follow a separate set of rules from the traditional, printed resume.
First, let’s talk about how the system works. Most large pharmaceutical companies scan the resumes that they get. Why? Because it is simple, inexpensive and efficient. This is good news for them but may be bad news for you. Your resume stands a good chance of getting lost in their database instead of being read by a human being.
You apply online to their job posting….now what? Once scanned, your resume just sits there waiting for an opportunity to be pulled from the database.
How are resumes pulled or selected? The person who is in charge of screening resumes will go to the database and type in some keywords based on the qualifications that they are looking for. For example, they might be interested in filling a position in San Diego, CA. They might want the person to have sales experience and have a BA degree in Marketing. They decide to use these keywords: San Diego, Sales and, Marketing. Viola! A search using those keywords pulls all the resumes with those keywords in the body of their online application. If the list of resumes is too long, they might add another keyword. Did your resume get pulled? If it had all of the keywords, yes. If not, there is a good chance that it’s still sitting there in the resume abyss.
Now let’s look at another scenario. Did you apply online at Monster? WOW! That’s some database! Even if you have all those keywords, there is a chance that your resume could be #500 in a listing of 1000 resumes. Is this all starting to make sense now? Can you see why you are a great applicant and haven’t gotten those calls for interviews?
Bottom line is that you need to load your resume with pharma sales related keywords when applying online. Look at the job listing. Use it to find your keywords. Chances are good that the keywords that will be used to search the database will be right there in the job description. Including 2-3 more relevant keywords than your competition can help bring success vs. failure in securing an interview.
How to prepare your resume for online submission:
• Now that your resume is in good shape keyword- wise. Its time to prepare it to speak the language of the computer that is scanning it. You need an e-version of your resume to effectively get your qualifications into cyberspace.
• The first thing that you must do is convert your resume to ASCII format. What is ASCII format? It is a form of data that can be understood by most computers. When you convert your resume to this format, you don’t have to worry about whether or not the recipient can open the file or read the format.
• Whenever possible, send 2 versions of your resume. One as a Word document and the other as an ASCII version. If you can send only one, send the ASCII version.
How to convert your resume to ASCII:
• Replace bullets with an asterisk (*)
• Use capitol (upper case) letters in place of bold text but avoid capital letters except for in the main headings.
• Remove all tabs and graphics. Move all text to the left margin.
• Do all spell and grammar checks before converting your document. Spell check does not work in ASCII text format.
• To convert an existing resume document to ASCII, go to File, Save As, Save as Type, and select "text only". This will remove all bullets, bold or italicized text, underlining, tabs, other standard document formatting, and graphics.
• When you open the new file, a plain text editor such as Notepad or Simple Text will open it. You’ll see your resume, as it will appear in an e-mail program.
• Carefully proofread your new ASCII resume. Sometimes the text runs together after the conversion. Look for any question marks, square blocks, or other odd looking characters that do not belong in your resume. Non-ASCII characters, such as bullets, will be converted into these strange objects.
• Finally, email your new ASCII resume to yourself and to a friend who uses a different email program and computer system. This way you’ll be certain that the resume appears as you intended when viewed on different systems.
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How to Start a Career in Pharmaceutical Sales! |
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Industry Specific -
Pharmaceutical Sales
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Written by Lisa Lane
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Thank God that the worst thing that can happen to you in your search for a pharmaceutical sales job is that you don’t land your dream job and end up in a job that you like… but don’t love. I mean, considering the grand scheme of things, like major sickness, world hunger, or that occasional bad bottle of wine-it’s not too bad but it still stinks!
Kindly remember that the only reason you’re in the hunt with thousands of others is that pharmaceutical sales is “one of the most sought after careers in America” (according to Money Magazine) and you want this career more than anyone else! Don’t give me that “I think that I have what it takes. If I don’t actually land a job, that’s ok too.” baloney. How many pharmaceutical sales job seekers have told me that? If you don’t land a career in pharma sales now, you probably won’t be trying again anytime soon!
Unfortunately, you can make lots of mistakes when searching for a pharmaceutical sales job. You can create a terrible resume that no one will read. Now that really stinks! You can go the route of thousands of others and wait for a reply from Mr. Monster Job Board while you pray day and night for a call. (When he doesn’t call, you are really starting to feel like even your dog might not want you!) You can pretend to be looking for a pharmaceutical sales job…..how can you find a job when you are working so hard at the one you are already at 12 hours per day? Poor marketing of yourself and not knowing where to begin is the worst mistake that you can make in a pharmaceutical sales job search.
When you take the wrong route, you get experience in rejection. No calls for interviews at all. A simple mistake in the approach moves all of your hard work you put into your job search from the “I landed interviews” side of your list to the “I learned from my mistakes” side. So here’s how to correct it.
The first consideration in any-and every-job search campaign is to devise a plan of how you are going to land interviews. The better you are able to aim your approach, the more interviews you will land. And…the name of the game in landing pharmaceutical sales interviews is to market yourself to the max. In other words...get the word out and get it out big time! If it’s the last thing you do, your goal is to make that one extra person stop, look, pick up your resume and the phone, and call you with that interview for your dream job.
Anyone can put a resume together and pass it around to a couple of people and post it on a few job boards. Problem is, if you don’t know how to load your resume with keywords so that it will be found among thousands, your chances of landing interviews, even if you are “the one for the job” could be slim.
In a search for a pharmaceutical sales job, the more perfect your resume, the more you get it out to the right people in the right places, the more you will land interviews. The more interviews you land, the better your chance of landing a job. Simple as that.
An example: Suppose you are perfecting your resume and are hoping to get it out to a couple of recruiters who might be able to help you. You send your resume to a couple of local recruiters who are pros at placing pharma reps. You land one interview. Yippee….that’s a start!
Now take the same scenario, but this time you fill your resume with a pharmaceutical sales specific objective, list your salary requirements, load your resume with quantifiable achievements and then send it to recruiters all over the country. Your resume now shows accomplishments in hard numbers, they love it. A recruiter in Florida knows about an opening in your town of Detroit, Michigan, and gives you a call. So do 15 other recruiters. Ok, you’re warming up!
Now, you try a different track: Instead of just posting your resume online, you load it with the keywords that the recruiters and HR people are looking for. They actually find you! You get 3 more calls for interviews! WOW! You laugh all the way to your interviews when you think of how smart you are compared to your competition. Suddenly, you are having a great time at this job search stuff and you are having a blast lining up your next interviews. Can you say “Future Pharmaceutical Sales Rep?”
You are really working this job search right! You decide to take it one step further and reach out to more companies than your competition. Instead of applying to the 20 companies like Merck and Pfizer, (who typically get 1000 resumes per posting) you decide to apply to companies like Pam American Labs. A company that doesn’t normally post their openings online and averages 25 resumes per opening. Rather than wait for them to post an opening, you send them a resume. (Imagine that!) You do this with 200 other smaller companies and the calls for more interviews start to roll in. WOW…. even your ex-girlfriend is starting to think you are smart!
This is just a glimpse of how to really make an impression and land interviews. The competition for pharmaceutical sales jobs is fierce. Knowing where to start and how to outsmart the competition is the key to landing your dream job.
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An Interview with a Pharmaceutical Sales Recruiter: Part 1 |
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Industry Specific -
Pharmaceutical Sales
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Written by Pat Riley
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I have been in corporate sales and the executive search field for about 10 years. I began my pharmaceutical sales recruiting career with a leading Houston-based search firm. While at this firm, I worked with two world-class pharmaceutical companies to build and expand their national pharmaceutical sales teams. Whether directly or through an affiliate program, I have worked with the majority of major pharmaceutical and medical companies. I earned awards for top performance in the placement of candidates on a national basis and, in the process, built one of the nation's leading pharmaceutical sales and medical sales recruiting practices.
In October of 2001 I started "10 Abbott Street" www.10abbottstreet.com, an executive search firm specializing in pharmaceutical and software sales placements.
Q: Why do so many people want to be in pharmaceutical sales?
Generally speaking, working as a pharmaceutical sales representative has a romantic aura about it. Why? I'm not sure, but the image that comes to my mind of a pharmaceutical sales representative is an individual that is successful, intelligent, and extremely professional. You might say they "have their act together".
Historically, pharmaceutical companies have only hired the best and the brightest people. For some reason, when you say you are a pharmaceutical sales representative, you and your abilities are instantly respected ¾ and I think others admire this respect. If someone were to sit down and really think about the job description of a pharmaceutical sales representative, I think they would conclude the following: A pharmaceutical sales representative sells a technologically advanced product to highly intelligent physicians in a very professional environment. You know what? They're right. A pharmaceutical representative is respected for their ability to sell multimillion-dollar drugs to highly educated physicians.
But getting down to the basics, I think people want to be in pharmaceutical sales because of the excellent income potential, the outstanding benefits, industry stability and the opportunity to improve other peoples' lives. Just think about this ¾ as a pharmaceutical sales representative, you could represent a drug that could potentially save a life or dramatically improve the quality of someone else's life. Now, how exciting is that?
Q: Is the pharmaceutical industry a good career choice?
Well, it depends on your career goals. If you want a 9-to-5 job where you have to rely on the good graces of your boss to receive a 3% annual pay increase and hope that you win the lottery to obtain financial freedom, then a career in pharmaceutical sales is not for you. But if want an opportunity for work that is stable, but in a growing industry with excellent career advancement opportunities, than pharmaceutical sales is a good career choice for you.
The pharmaceutical industry is a growth industry with a very positive future. I could talk for days on this subject, but out of respect for your time I'll tell you just a few reasons why this is great career choice.
* Did you know the pharmaceutical industry is recession-proof?
There will always be illness. People will continue to need drugs to assist in the healing process as well as to retain a high quality of life. Regardless of the valuation of the stock market or political situations, the pharmaceutical industry is a solid career choice.
* Continued investment in drug research and development
Pharmaceutical companies invest more in research and development than any other industry. (Almost 3 times what the auto industry spends). Because of the large potential profit, pharmaceutical companies spend millions of dollars to develop and market new products.
Pharmaceutical companies invest a tremendous amount of revenue in research and development. According to PhRMA Pharmaceutical Industry Profile 2001, an estimated $30.5 million was spent in 2001 on research and development alone. However, the number of drugs that make it to market is very low. It is not uncommon for pharmaceutical companies to have only one drug make it to market out of 10 drugs in research and development. Most major pharmaceutical companies promote 4 to 5 drugs at a time. Over 70% of a pharmaceutical company's revenue comes from only 20% of their drugs (PhRMA Pharmaceutical Industry Profile 2001). The financial risk is high, but the potential financial reward is higher. Research and development is the future of a pharmaceutical company. Thus, with such a commitment to the future, a career in pharmaceutical sales is a solid choice.
Q: What is the best way to break into pharmaceutical sales?
Some people say only divine intervention will help them get into pharmaceutical sales. I agree with divine intervention, but I also believe you should get your spiritual life in order, get your heart right, listen to the gentle nudge of God and work like HELL to make it happen.
Seriously, breaking into pharmaceutical sales is hard work. Throughout life, you learn "life rules" like "respect your elders" and "wear a shirt at the dinner table". Likewise, there are pharmaceutical job-hunting rules. Only nobody has told you about them. However, I am going to tell you some of these rules...secrets. How do I know these secrets? Because as a five-year veteran of pharmaceutical recruiting, I'm fighting the same battle you fight every day. Trying to find the open jobs! I'm going to tell you a couple of my secrets, but not all of them, because I still want to earn a living in my industry of choice.
* Secret 1: NETWORKING: It's not WHO you know, but who THEY know!
Tell everybody you know (family and friends) about your intention to become a pharmaceutical sales representative. They might know somebody who can tell you about an unpublished job opening.
* Secret 2: Speaking with a pharmaceutical sales representative or district manager.
Speaking with a pharmaceutical sales representative or district manager is probably the best way to break into the industry. You want to build a relationship with existing pharmaceutical sales representatives and district managers for several reasons. First, a referral from a representative to their manager is golden. The referral usually carries more weight than a resume from any other source. Second, they know the industry and might be able to provide you with a list of contact names (i.e., other sales representatives, hiring managers, or recruiters) or existing or potential open positions
* Secret 3: Job Boards/Career Boards
Nothing has had more impact on the job search market in the last few years than job or career boards. Job boards have changed the way companies find people and the way people find jobs. However, job boards are only one small piece of the puzzle. You must combine searching job boards with other techniques to conduct a thorough job search
* Secret 4: Get to know a Recruiter (Headhunter)
Recruiters are an excellent way to maximize your resume exposure and limit your resume risk. Most recruiters will know of several pharmaceutical sales positions with multiple companies in your area. Unlike human resource managers from one company, who work a very limited number of jobs, recruiters can handle several jobs from multiple companies.
Most pharmaceutical recruiters are contingency recruiters, which means they do not get paid unless you accept a job that they present to you (in contingency recruiting, the hiring company pays the recruiter's fee). Therefore, it is in the recruiter's best interest to place you as quickly as possible. Recruiters also bring industry knowledge, territory knowledge, and resume expertise to the table for your benefit. It is not uncommon for a recruiter to work with the candidate to "spiff-up" or improve their resume and coach the candidate through the interview process. I recommend that you get to know several recruiters in your area. Set up interviews with the recruiters, meet them, and build professional working relationships with them so you can trust them with your resume and career.
Secret 5: Check out my book "Secrets of Breaking Into Pharmaceutical Sales" at www.pharmaceuticalinterviewquestions.com and I will share 13 proven methods (tips and tricks) on how to break into pharmaceutical sales.
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An Interview with a Pharmaceutical Sales Recruiter: Part 2 |
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Industry Specific -
Pharmaceutical Sales
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Written by Pat Riley
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Q. Tell me, how do you know so much about pharmaceutical sales? Did you ever want to be in pharmaceutical sales?
I have been in corporate sales and the executive search field for about 10 years. I began my pharmaceutical sales recruiting career with a leading Houston-based search firm. While at this firm, I worked with two world-class pharmaceutical companies to build and expand their national pharmaceutical sales teams. Whether directly or through an affiliate program, I have worked with the majority of major pharmaceutical and medical companies. I earned awards for top performance in the placement of candidates on a national basis and, in the process, built one of the nation's leading pharmaceutical sales and medical sales recruiting practices.
In October of 2001 I started "10 Abbott Street" www.10abbottstreet.com, an executive search firm specializing in pharmaceutical and software sales placements.
Q: What if I don't have any sales experience, can I still become a pharmaceutical sales representative?
This is a great question. Yes, there are sales representatives in the pharmaceutical industry without the ideal sales profile, but they have had to reposition or rethink what they could bring to the table.
This is what I tell candidates when they ask me how to overcome their lack of prior sales experience.
* Develop personal relationships with existing pharmaceutical representatives This is perhaps one of the best ways to overcome your lack of sales experience. A referral from a pharmaceutical sales representative to a hiring manager about your character, accomplishments, and desire to break into pharmaceutical sales is a great way to secure a phone screen.
* Capitalize on your "transitional" skill set
A transitional skill is a skill that can transition to different industries. Just because you do not get paid to sell does not mean that you cannot sell. Focus on how you convinced co-workers or managers to take a particular course of action. Do you have a track record of delivering products and results on time? Illustrate to the hiring manager how the same desire to get the job done will work with your desire to meet your sales goals. Perfect these stories and use them in the interview process.
* Reposition your resume
Try repositioning your resume for a pharmaceutical sales position, not just a marketing position for a large company. Focus your accomplishments on your ability to sell or meet your goals. In the accomplishment section of your resume, articulate how you directly influenced an increase in company profits or reduced costs.. Highlight any awards or special recognition you received for performance excellence.
* Great attitude/rapport
This is the great equalizer in overcoming your lack of sales experience. If the hiring manager really likes you and your attitude, you have greatly increased your chances of moving into a sales position.
Q: I hear that pharmaceutical companies don't hire recent college graduates. Is that true?
The competition to break into pharmaceutical sales at the recent college level is extremely high. Only a few of the larger pharmaceutical companies (Merck, Pfizer, etc) recruit sales representatives directly out of college. The pharmaceutical interview process is probably the biggest series of exams you will take so don't just "wing it" and hope that your winning smile will land you the job.
As a recent college graduate, you have several advantages in breaking into pharmaceutical sales. Here are just a few:
* Interview schedule
Some major pharmaceutical companies recruit directly from college campuses! Do what it takes to secure an interview and adequately prepare for the interview. Many times, the rosters fill up very quickly and only 10 to 15 people will get an interview out of a campus of 15,000 students. So, what do you do?
IDEA: This is an idea of how to get an interview when the schedule is full. This technique landed a friend of mine with a job at Xerox. Determine when the last interview is completed. Arrive 30 minutes before this interview has concluded. Be dressed and mentally prepared for an interview. When the last candidate has left the interviewing room, knock on the door of the room (the pharmaceutical manager will be doing paperwork) and introduce yourself.
Sample Script
"Hi, I'm (your name). I really want a career with your company, but because of the sign-up process I could not get on the interview schedule. I feel that my strengths would allow me to outperform the other people interviewed and feel it would be worth your time to interview me. Do you have a few minutes to talk with me?"
* Career Center Resource Center
Another valuable resource is the extensive amount of information at most career centers. Take the time to get to know your career counselor and ask them for assistance.
* Resume preparation
On your resume, be sure to indicate your specific desire to break into pharmaceutical sales as your objective. Limit your resume to one page. Illustrate your accomplishments with each of your summer jobs. Remember, you are going against other college graduates who have similar work experience. It is also helpful to illustrate any life science course that you have taken.
Q: Do I need a degree to become a pharmaceutical sales representative?
Yes, A four-year degree from an accredited university or college is required to become a pharmaceutical sales representative. Pharmaceutical companies prefer candidates with degrees in life science (such as biology) but, generally speaking, all four-year degrees are considered. Your receipt of a four-year degree represents your ability to learn and master new information and shows that you have the discipline to complete a goal.
Q: Do I need a specific type of resume to interview for a pharmaceutical sales position?
Yes, you need a GREAT-looking resume to break into pharmaceutical sales! The resume is probably one of the most important components of your pharmaceutical sales job hunt. You've heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but a good resume can be worth thousands of dollars. Therefore, the resume must accurately and concisely articulate who you are, what you have accomplished and what your desired position is. The resume should be clear, concise, factual and truthful.
There are dozens of great resume guides and books on the market. However, the resumes that catch my attention (as a seasoned pharmaceutical recruiter) are the resumes in a chronological order format loaded with accomplishments listed under each job. Let me give you a HUGE tip ¾ Accomplishments, Accomplishments, Accomplishments give your resume a competitive advantage! I discuss why accomplishments are important in my book Secrets of Breaking Into Pharmaceutical Sales (Sorry for the plug, but it is the truth!).
Q: What is a typical day like for pharmaceutical sales representative?
Like most sales positions, the "typical" day for a pharmaceutical sales representative does not exist. Due to the nature of their clients (physicians with medical emergencies), a pharmaceutical sales representative must be flexible, resilient and capable of changing their schedule.
That being said, the sales representative must have a daily, weekly and monthly schedule of doctors to call on. Most pharmaceutical companies expect their sales representatives to make 8 to 10 sales calls per day, depending on doctor density and territory size (doctor density is the number of doctors in a given territory. Doctor density will be greater in a metro area with a large medical center than in a rural area.)
A day can start as early as 7:45 AM with a breakfast meeting at a physician's office and end at 10:00 PM with a dinner at a nice restaurant with a physician or two. Daily sales calls are made in the morning and late afternoon.
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