A Sincere Letter to those considering pharma sales as a "career"

Dear Naive Ned & Nellie...

I know it looks like fun...Glamorous even...You see shiny, happy people dressed in
nice sexy dresses and well cut suits and think you have found a profession. Every
morning, they lean over their car trunks exposing their gym-toned bodies, and load
brightly-colored boxes of samples, and cheerful promotional literature.

It all looks pretty good from a distance...And if you have very little ambition or career
aspirations, it might be good for a year or two. But that is where the temptation lies, and
the Golden Handcuffs tighten like the hangman's noose...

Pharma sales is something you will deeply regret getting into. (Ultimately, we all do.) It will suck you in with the smoothness of George Clooney at a beach bar in the Bahamas...But don't take the bait if you can help it...You will get pushed out by the company at a critical time in your professional life, almost without exception. If you manage to stay for any length of time, you will find what little work ethic you may have had, is now dissolved like cotton candy. The lying, cheating and fabricating will take a toll on your soul, assuming you had one to start with.

If you must join this heinous industry, even after my warning dear child, please get on a promotional track and get into management or marketing ASAP, so at least you have something skillwise to transfer to another industry if need be...Otherwise, you are completely screwed...(Like I am now)

Be well my children...

 

Very nicely said. This job truly wears on your soul,psyche and conscious. Most,don't laugh,in pharma are fairly intelligent. But after you realize what this job entails, you soon realize that you basically pretend to work and get paid. You will have to fabricate expense reports,lie about physicians you see(Charles Charles) go to meetings and listen to others fabricate stories about how they do their job. If it were a true sales job, you would get your sales numbers on a weekly or at least monthly basis...and they would have to be accurate. The above poster was right. This job will lower your IQ points by at least 20. Now that Borders is closed, where can a rep spend his/her days actually learning about the world?

 

"Now that Borders is closed, where can a rep spend his/her days actually learning about the world?"

Panera's??
At least they have free WIFI.......

 

Hysterical!!! Where do I sign up!!!

 

How true. How true.

 

B&N

 

Yeah Pharma sales sucks. I've been in for 13 years and for all but 4 of those years I've made greater than $100k and working about 20-25 hours a week. I'm now in specialty making no less than $130k and working under 20 hours a week.

Quite your whining. This job has allowed my wife to stay home and raise my children. Has allowed me to pay for their college education. Had allowed me to stock away a crap load of $$$ for retirement. Has given me the flexibility to be at their dance or school events. Etc etc. it's truly the best career I ever could have had. You're negativity is boundless.

If you can't survive and thrive in Pharma sales, you're worthless.

 

How old are you oh holy one?? You brag about working part time...ok..cool...so you like to cheat the system and are good at it...congratulations...

wait until your nice fat salary gets you flagged and targeted for layoff...Wifey poo might have to re-join the work force then...what a shame!!

 

Some people don't mind being on welfare. Perfectly analogous to the r***** that just posted above.

 

The initial post is dead on balls accurate. The paycheck is the only good thing about this job. And, honestly, it's not enough to make up for the soul draining work. This job / industry is horrible and I tell everyone who wants to get into it exactly that. Worst. Job. Ever.

 

Merck is now designed to move you after 10-15 years. Your time will unfortunately come soon. Over the years you have conditioned yourself to become lazy and worthless. It’s a bad habit that can’t be broken. You have taken many shortcuts, provided a minimum contribution, and thought you were getting away with it. You did not fool Merck, it’s just a company. You fooled yourself and with the bad habits, you’re unmarketable now.

I feel bad for you and your family. 100k is not a lot of $$$$

 

What a crock! Total BS on the hours a week we put in. More like 60 if you do the work and count the hours. Unless you have 15 or more years under your belt the check is not that big. Even for someone making 100K a year or a little more you need to live with the hillbillies to live like you're saying...pay off college and save big retirement too!? Keep throwing the bull you sound like a total jerk. I'm ready to pee in my pants from laughing....

 

Hilarious and heartbreaking. True, true,true
You never can imagine you would feel this bad about yourself after this long in a career. Its the easiest job for the hours and money, period. And that what keeps me in it. Thankful to have a job in this economy, even if it is this

 

The above posters are correct in that you(we) have developed very bad habits in our years working in pharma. In order to maintain your drive people need to change positions every two or three years. People become bored in what they do and find any which way to slack off. They know the system and pretend they are doing something new. It's a boring job. Look at all the tenured people around. They are lazy. They may put on a good show but don't fool yourself. They are home out by 10 and home by 2 or 3. This goes for the majority of businesses too. People become complacent. If you're not challenged or challenging yourself, you will try and cheat the system. The American way.

 

If you have no dignity, then this job is perfect for you. Temporary, but perfect.

 

You must be in another field.....most people I know work all day (sample storage and offices, meetings, special stops and projects) then most of the nightime hours doing Merck work. Forget reading fairytales for the kids...it's computer time for quest and email clearance...you seem to forget only a part of our work is see the doctor. Eliminate the other things and the days with doc get lo
nger.....

 

Do managers and office people do only one thing all day long? No..everybody has other things to do. Everyone knows reps juggle. Office hours can be 7AM or 10 AM start and office end at 6PM or 3PM then other work things need to be done. Like every worker days are filled with 10 things to do, Now... shut up you idiot.

 

I think I touched a nerve. Be serious. This job is silly. All pharma jobs are silly. Not just Merck. The juxt of my point was that people in pharma only work about 1 hour a day of actual selling. The rest is tedious busy-work. The majority of work in all fields is busy work. There are to many people in the US to actually do any impactful work. People who have desk jobs sit and look on-line at clothes,fantasy football,etc. The American work ethic has vanished. People actually still want to get into pharma. Why? Because they've been told by friends it's the easiest way to make decent money for pretending to "sell." Lighten up and go pick up your kids,go to the gym,shop etc. on the company dime. All sales reps do this. Ask yourself when you get home what you accomplished today. Did you make the sale? Charles Charles,you tube,my friend.

 

this is a great (and unfortunately accurate) post...ultimately, we are all just fooling ourselves...Me: Pharma lifer that recently left to retain my sanity, only skills to speak of are catering and delivery, in my 50s, beaten down, (thanks Merck!) no place to go even if I still had the fire in my belly...basically unemployable...(Will have to buy a franchise of some sort or sell insurance, teach...u get the picture...

totally wasted my time and energy at Merck and in pharma...don't make the same mistake...(I think that is the point of the original post)

 

I agree...it truly is the WORST job ever...the reason why is that it is its own phony, fake world, that translates into ABSOLUTELY nothing that you can transfer to other industries...the only way you can transition out is with less than 4-5 years in...Otherwise, you are pretty well screwed without further schooling or re-training...

Pharma sales is crap and it is an industry run by souless devils...