Every Regional Manager in every one of the Pharmaceutical, Generic, Medical Consumable and Medical Device companies receives on average 25 CVs for each advertised Medical Sales Role.

How will your CV stand out?

Why will the he or she read YOUR CV?

What difference will having a great CV make?

Let’s start by looking at what exactly a CV is.

A CV is an advertisement for you.  It contains all your personal details, your educational achievements, a record of your employment history or career to date and an outline of your key skills and personal attributes.

Sounds like a boring list, doesn’t it?

It need not be and it should not be.

Let’s start at the beginning again.

Your CV is your first opportunity to impress.  It should emphasize your strengths and abilities. It should outline in some detail why you are the ideal person for this job based on your educational qualifications and relevant experience.

The CV should be well laid out, aesthetically pleasing, typed in an interesting but conventional font, reasonable size (12pt is ideal) and ideally no more than two pages long.

Start with personal details at the top of first page.  Confine yourself to Name, Address, Tel number and Email address.  There is no need for Date of Birth, Marital Status and Driving licence in this section.

INTRODUCTION

In one or two sentences tell the interviewer why YOU are the most suitable candidate for the job, what three skills you would bring to the role and why you want the job.

PERSONAL PROFILE

In five bullet points summarize your experience to date, your achievements and your strong personal qualities. e.g. 2007 Representative of the year, 2008 Highest monthly sales ever recorded for Product X

KEY SKILLS

In five bullet points list your readily transferable skills that you think might be key to this job. e.g. Organizational skills, planning skills, selling skills, sound scientific and medical knowledge

CAREER HISTORY

This section is your opportunity to elaborate and explain in detail what you have been doing and what you have achieved since you left school/third level education.

If you have been working for ten or more years or had more than two employers then only give a detailed account of your last job and mere details of the previous jobs.

Give:

Title of Role: e.g. Medical Sales Representative

Company:

Territory Covered:

Products detailed:

Customer base: GPs/Retail Pharmacists/Hospitals etc

Key Achievements: e.g. Targets met and exceeded (give figures in percentages)

Knowledege and experience acquired:

Reason for leaving:

Always be honest as to why you are leaving or have left your last role.  You will be very surprised how people will react to honesty.

For your second and third last role(s) just give bare details.  You can expand on them at interview.

INTERESTS

In this section you need only briefly mention interests, hobbies and sports you like to play that you really do play and enjoy.

REFERENCES

It is enough at this stage to say that references are available on request

Details of you referees may be supplied at the very end of the selection process.  You do not want an employer being made aware that you are looking for another job and equally well you do not want referees approached until you have asked their permission to quote them as referees.

Your CV is now complete.

To return to our original questions:

How will your CV stand out?

YOUR CV will stand out by being well laid out, easy to read, brief, bright, energetic and confident (it needs to reflect YOU)

Why will the he or she read YOUR CV?

Because it is very interesting, the first two sections have caught the attention of the reader and drawn them into the main section of YOUR CV.

What difference will having a great CV make?

All the difference in the world.  A great CV will lead to an interview and then YOU will get the opportunity to shine like a beacon, stand out from the crowd by a country mile and you won’t just kill the opposition – you will BURY them!

Good Luck Now!

The Pharmaceutical, Medical Equipment, Consumer and Generic companies use Recruitment Companies to recruit Medical Sales Representatives.

In ireland there are more than 40 Recruitment Companies that specialise in recruiting for the industry.

In the current economic climate it is advisable to be with at least four Recruitment Agencies.

You should arrange to meet with the Recruitment Consultant to discuss your CV and application in detail.

He or she will assess your chances of securing an interview and will appraise you of the vacancies they are currently dealing with.

You should be in regular contact with the consultant.  The rule of thumb would be to email or telephone them every two weeks.

During this time you should do everything possible to prepare for the interview.  The competition is fierce and you must do everything you can to help differentiate yourself from all the other candidates.

1. Prepare your CV properly and ensure that it is in the acceptable format

2. Take an Introduction to Medical Sales course

3. Join the Medical Representatives Institute of Ireland as a student member

4. Arrange to shadow a Medical Sales Representative

5. Read about Medical Sales

6. Research the role of Medical Sales Representative

7. Take a Preliminary Training for Medical Sales course

8. Speak to your own GP and Pharmacist

When you have a specific interview scheduled you could consider taking a Pre Interview Training Seminar.

Failure to prepare is to prepare to fail!

Securing an interview and preparing for it is the first part of your campaign.  The next part is the actual interview itself.

A friend in one of Ireland’s larger Pharmaceutical Companies was telling me about a candidate who went for interview and didn’t know what a Pharmaceutical Sales Representative does?!

Well just in case you don’t know………….here is the drill:

Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives are employed by Pharmaceutical (Drug) Companies to sell company products, convey medical information and communicate directly with the medical profession.

Legal Drug Pushers then? Who said that? Well sort of!!

There are 45,000 licensed products on the market in Ireland so how can the doctor remember the finer details of each product?  They rely on the Pharmaceutical Sales Representative to come in with a briefcase full of branded items (pens, pads, tissue boxes, glove boxes, diaries – you name it really) and tell them the latest information on each product.

Pharmaceutical Sales to GPs, Practice Nurses, Hospital Doctors and Pharmacists is a great job and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a job in which you are out and about, meeting really professional people and communicating really important information.

In Pharmaceutical Sales you are making a quantifiable difference to patient lives by giving the doctor information he will use on the next suitable patient.

The job of Pharmaceutical Sales Representative is one of the most satisfying jobs there is.

As with Medical Sales, Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives come from a variety of backgrounds but with suitable training and support most go on to become excellent Representatives.