FAQ for Medical sales/pharmaceutical jobs

Q.  Do I have to to have a degree to enter medical sales?

A.  It helps and is preferred but it's not essential.  There are plenty of people get in who either have science 'A' levels or perhaps a nursing background.  If you don't have a degree, a sales track record in some other area will really help.

Q. What is the ABPI?

A.  The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.  The industy's own governing body.  It regulates everything from what a company can say about it's products to what it's staff are allowed to do and say, and that includes all in medical sales.  There is also an ABPI exam for people in medical sales which must be passed within 2 years of entering the industry to remain.

Q. Do I need to pass the ABPI exam for other pharmaceutical jobs?

A.  No.  It's for customer fronting roles to regulate what can be said and done with customers.  You may end up taking it in other pharmaceutical jobs for training and knowledge purposes.

Q.  Do I have to 'shadow' ( spend a day with) a medical rep to get a job in pharmaceutical sales?

A.  Most of the time is an expectation.  It's kind of an industry tradition to demonstrate a degree of research, and also a test of your skills and resiliance as it's often not as straight forward as you may think.

Q.  How do I shadow?

A.  Most surgeries will have all the business cards of all the medical reps.  It's a question of calling them and offering them coffee and sandwiches to give you a day out :o).  Most if not all of them will have done this at some stage.

Q.  How many pharmaceutical recruitment agencies should I register with?

A.  Most agencies will tell you to limit the number of agencies you register with, but often that's to increase their chances of making a fee out of you :o)  They get paid only if they place you, the less agencies you regsiter with, the greater their chances.  Legally, they can only send your details off to a company with your permission.  So as long as you manage it properly,  more agencies will mean more opportunities.

Q.  There are 1000'a of pharmaceutical vacancies on the internet, are they are real?

A.  Probably not.  Many internet sites are structured to supply a better response to a pharmaceutical recruitment agency the more vacancies they post.  On sites which give them 'umlimited' vacancies, this can encourage duplicates to increase their chances of a response.

Q  Should I use a big or small pharmaceutical recruitment agency?

A.  There are benefits to both.  Large has more clients and more vacancies but also has more candidates to choose from.  Your better off finding someone, who as an individual, supports your cause.  someone you feel you can trust, answers your questions, returns phone calls etc and is generally straight with you.

If you have any questions re medical sales and pharmaceutical jobs, or indeed the pharmaceutical industry in general, please do let us know, info@careersconsulting.co.uk

The editor

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