How to land an interview?

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Anonymous

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I'm a recent graduate and am trying to land an interview at Eli, at least get a call for a chance to talk with them. I feel I have the proper qualifications: biochemistry degree, owned a business while in school (B2B sales experience), started a club/held leadership roles in clubs, worked my way up to manager at a call center (cold call + negotiation experience), volunteer work, 2 years independent research experience with my university

My only negative mark would be GPA, which is a B-, but that's simply due to all of the other things I was doing outside of school (community work, research, running a business, clubs, etc..) Is there anything I can do besides apply, I feel my application isn't even getting looked at.

Thanks in advance!
 


















Anonymous said:
should I mention my major GPA is 3.6

I just didn't spend as much time on my bullshit classes.
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Spending time with bullshit is a major, major prerequisite for landing an interview and a job at Lilly. Please spend a couple of years refining your bullshit expertise, and then re-apply. It appears that you are on the right track.
 


















The only way to get an interview with Lilly is to take the test on line. If your score is high
enough you might get an interview. I know I worked for Lilly for 28 years. With all your great qualifications you may want to look for a better company. Lilly is a very nasty company to work for because of their situation. No new products to sell, poor R and D, most everything has been outsourced to China. Your might want to rethink joining Lilly.
Medical offices that once respected Lilly, now call their reps prostitutes. If you are smart, and your qualifications seem to indicate that you are, don't bother with Lilly. They only want thin 20 years olds in short short skirts, spike heals and an empty head. Lilly is no longer a career company. If you are planning to stay with them 30 years to earn a pension please know that they have done away with pensions for the younger employees. Don't take a contract position with Lilly even if your are desperate. They will tell you the position is for 2 years and let you go in 6-18months with no severance pay or benefits. Good Luck.
 






Anonymous said:
The only way to get an interview with Lilly is to take the test on line. If your score is high
enough you might get an interview. I know I worked for Lilly for 28 years. With all your great qualifications you may want to look for a better company. Lilly is a very nasty company to work for because of their situation. No new products to sell, poor R and D, most everything has been outsourced to China. Your might want to rethink joining Lilly.
Medical offices that once respected Lilly, now call their reps prostitutes. If you are smart, and your qualifications seem to indicate that you are, don't bother with Lilly. They only want thin 20 years olds in short short skirts, spike heals and an empty head. Lilly is no longer a career company. If you are planning to stay with them 30 years to earn a pension please know that they have done away with pensions for the younger employees. Don't take a contract position with Lilly even if your are desperate. They will tell you the position is for 2 years and let you go in 6-18months with no severance pay or benefits. Good Luck.
Click to expand...

Trust the old pro above. Last time I was on the bus near the corporate center, a flock of twentysomething she-reps got on board and all talking trash like "we are working sooo hard" ... so fake and the veiled mockery relating to prostitution was there too.

I don't know what you do. If you are in finance, might be good for a while. HR, stay away - you will only damage your future. Scientist - not the best idea but this company sure needs them. Doctor - you are not there yet, and if you were, you would stay away. Ditto on the good luck
 






Anonymous said:
The only way to get an interview with Lilly is to take the test on line. If your score is high
enough you might get an interview. I know I worked for Lilly for 28 years. With all your great qualifications you may want to look for a better company. Lilly is a very nasty company to work for because of their situation. No new products to sell, poor R and D, most everything has been outsourced to China. Your might want to rethink joining Lilly.
Medical offices that once respected Lilly, now call their reps prostitutes. If you are smart, and your qualifications seem to indicate that you are, don't bother with Lilly. They only want thin 20 years olds in short short skirts, spike heals and an empty head. Lilly is no longer a career company. If you are planning to stay with them 30 years to earn a pension please know that they have done away with pensions for the younger employees. Don't take a contract position with Lilly even if your are desperate. They will tell you the position is for 2 years and let you go in 6-18months with no severance pay or benefits. Good Luck.
Click to expand...

OP here. I haven't had much luck with any other company (FSC Pediatrics called me, but no thanks after reading on here/their offer of 28k) I've been looking for 2 months now, trying to apply to every pharm sales position I've seen, am I expecting too much too soon? I figured I would at least get a legitimate call or two from the amount of applications I've put out.

What company would you suggest for someone who is trying to break into the business? I always heard Eli or Forest is best in hiring recent grads.
 






Anonymous said:
OP here. I haven't had much luck with any other company (FSC Pediatrics called me, but no thanks after reading on here/their offer of 28k) I've been looking for 2 months now, trying to apply to every pharm sales position I've seen, am I expecting too much too soon? I figured I would at least get a legitimate call or two from the amount of applications I've put out.

What company would you suggest for someone who is trying to break into the business? I always heard Eli or Forest is best in hiring recent grads.
Click to expand...

You need real world sales experience. What you call B2B sales from your time in college is pretty much a resume filler/talking point. Jobs like Yellow Book or Cintas are better to springboard into pharma. But pharma is a dying industry, you should be thinking medical device sales long term. Most companies in med device won't even look at someone with pharma experience, The Cintas/YellowBook reps are more enticing to them. There is a negative stigma attached to pharma reps these days. And not to rain on your parade, but a Biochemistry degree for pharmaceutical sales is as useful as tits on a boar. It will be more use to you in med device anyway where it is a much more specialized sale, typically in the OR (if you don't mind witnessing surgeries).
 






let me rephrase from the previous post - yes you have "real-world" sales, cold-calling, telemarketing. But I should have said "relevant" sales. If you know anything about the industry, you will see pharma is laying off like crazy, so you are probably right, your resume isn't being looked at because there are many qualified pharmaceutical reps already to choose from. Tens of thousands of them.
 






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