I sat by a lake today...

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These jobs are about taking a lot of money to put up with total bullshit and then lie your ass off and glad hand to keep them. There is not one thing valuable about being a pharma rep except for the samples and vouches. Please spare me the "we save lives" story. All of these drugs have their studies designed to "win." Very few are novel and most could have been replaced by the patient living a better and healthier life early on in life. . . not to mention choosing organic and filtering your water.

I worked in pharma for 17 years. It was a great run and I was able to get out of debt, own a home and have some nice stuff. It definitely improved my family's quality of life. Over time, the job just became mind numbing, management more and more out of touch, (No, pharma does NOT give a shit about patients! - LMAO), and who needs three reps with the same message calling on 50 doctors? Really?

If you find yourself sinking into a hole of depression, if you are sitting in the parking lot or by the lake faking calls all day and hate yourself for doing it, if you crave being valuable again, give up the money and come back to the workforce. I got a new job and pretty much said just that: "I have to give up pharma and need a real job with hard work, complex problems and real selling or I am not going to make it." They hired me on the spot. I am busy. I am happy. I am not sitting by the lake counting the days until layoff or until I get caught faking calls.
 






Anonymous said:
These jobs are about taking a lot of money to put up with total bullshit and then lie your ass off and glad hand to keep them. There is not one thing valuable about being a pharma rep except for the samples and vouches. Please spare me the "we save lives" story. All of these drugs have their studies designed to "win." Very few are novel and most could have been replaced by the patient living a better and healthier life early on in life. . . not to mention choosing organic and filtering your water.

I worked in pharma for 17 years. It was a great run and I was able to get out of debt, own a home and have some nice stuff. It definitely improved my family's quality of life. Over time, the job just became mind numbing, management more and more out of touch, (No, pharma does NOT give a shit about patients! - LMAO), and who needs three reps with the same message calling on 50 doctors? Really?

If you find yourself sinking into a hole of depression, if you are sitting in the parking lot or by the lake faking calls all day and hate yourself for doing it, if you crave being valuable again, give up the money and come back to the workforce. I got a new job and pretty much said just that: "I have to give up pharma and need a real job with hard work, complex problems and real selling or I am not going to make it." They hired me on the spot. I am busy. I am happy. I am not sitting by the lake counting the days until layoff or until I get caught faking calls.
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Others have said this, but not nearly as succinctly. Well done. You nailed it.
 






Anonymous said:
These jobs are about taking a lot of money to put up with total bullshit and then lie your ass off and glad hand to keep them. There is not one thing valuable about being a pharma rep except for the samples and vouches. Please spare me the "we save lives" story. All of these drugs have their studies designed to "win." Very few are novel and most could have been replaced by the patient living a better and healthier life early on in life. . . not to mention choosing organic and filtering your water.

I worked in pharma for 17 years. It was a great run and I was able to get out of debt, own a home and have some nice stuff. It definitely improved my family's quality of life. Over time, the job just became mind numbing, management more and more out of touch, (No, pharma does NOT give a shit about patients! - LMAO), and who needs three reps with the same message calling on 50 doctors? Really?

If you find yourself sinking into a hole of depression, if you are sitting in the parking lot or by the lake faking calls all day and hate yourself for doing it, if you crave being valuable again, give up the money and come back to the workforce. I got a new job and pretty much said just that: "I have to give up pharma and need a real job with hard work, complex problems and real selling or I am not going to make it." They hired me on the spot. I am busy. I am happy. I am not sitting by the lake counting the days until layoff or until I get caught faking calls.
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Great post, glad you had the guts to make the change. So, give us some hope, what industry are you selling in now and what do you like about it?
 






Anonymous said:
These jobs are about taking a lot of money to put up with total bullshit and then lie your ass off and glad hand to keep them. There is not one thing valuable about being a pharma rep except for the samples and vouches. Please spare me the "we save lives" story. All of these drugs have their studies designed to "win." Very few are novel and most could have been replaced by the patient living a better and healthier life early on in life. . . not to mention choosing organic and filtering your water.

I worked in pharma for 17 years. It was a great run and I was able to get out of debt, own a home and have some nice stuff. It definitely improved my family's quality of life. Over time, the job just became mind numbing, management more and more out of touch, (No, pharma does NOT give a shit about patients! - LMAO), and who needs three reps with the same message calling on 50 doctors? Really?

If you find yourself sinking into a hole of depression, if you are sitting in the parking lot or by the lake faking calls all day and hate yourself for doing it, if you crave being valuable again, give up the money and come back to the workforce. I got a new job and pretty much said just that: "I have to give up pharma and need a real job with hard work, complex problems and real selling or I am not going to make it." They hired me on the spot. I am busy. I am happy. I am not sitting by the lake counting the days until layoff or until I get caught faking calls.
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Great post. I was in pharma for a quarter of a century. It wasn't perfect, but early on it was a rewarding job overall. Later on each day became difficult to justify just as you describe. My sense of value had dropped to zero, even when numbers were good. Towards the end I desperately wanted to get out, but had put in so much time for benefits it paid to stay.
 












I sell another health related service! Lots of call points. (Over 200) CRM DATABASES that blow out anything from pharma. No micromanaging although I have eight bosses and we come up with ideas, work as a real team and care about each other and the pts.
 






Anonymous said:
I sell another health related service! Lots of call points. (Over 200) CRM DATABASES that blow out anything from pharma. No micromanaging although I have eight bosses and we come up with ideas, work as a real team and care about each other and the pts.
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Teamwork?! How are you going to measure individual effort and personal performance THAT way?! There's simply no metric for it!
 






Anonymous said:
Teamwork?! How are you going to measure individual effort and personal performance THAT way?! There's simply no metric for it!
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Sure, because each of us is responsible for ONE aspect of business or sales. So, we know exactly who is the fuck up. . . and all we care about is the patient and happy clients. We measure that and we measure admissions. We have to function as a team or it all falls apart. Pharma is a joke.
 






Anonymous said:
These jobs are about taking a lot of money to put up with total bullshit and then lie your ass off and glad hand to keep them. There is not one thing valuable about being a pharma rep except for the samples and vouches. Please spare me the "we save lives" story. All of these drugs have their studies designed to "win." Very few are novel and most could have been replaced by the patient living a better and healthier life early on in life. . . not to mention choosing organic and filtering your water.

I worked in pharma for 17 years. It was a great run and I was able to get out of debt, own a home and have some nice stuff. It definitely improved my family's quality of life. Over time, the job just became mind numbing, management more and more out of touch, (No, pharma does NOT give a shit about patients! - LMAO), and who needs three reps with the same message calling on 50 doctors? Really?

If you find yourself sinking into a hole of depression, if you are sitting in the parking lot or by the lake faking calls all day and hate yourself for doing it, if you crave being valuable again, give up the money and come back to the workforce. I got a new job and pretty much said just that: "I have to give up pharma and need a real job with hard work, complex problems and real selling or I am not going to make it." They hired me on the spot. I am busy. I am happy. I am not sitting by the lake counting the days until layoff or until I get caught faking calls.
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Peace be unto you my brother. May the great winds of solemnity carry your spirit forward to the light.
 






I am the one above who is also out of pharma and who has reached Zen. I am still in healthcare, but providing a service that patients and physicians really need. It is covered by managed care and insurance plans, also. It also saves lives and quality of life. I am also welcomed into offices at a higher percentage of what I was while in pharma. Wish I had made the jump years ago. Thank you to my former pharma co. for laying me off.
 






OP here. I remember when I first discovered cafepharma and decided to start this post. I was fairly new to the industry and involved with the launch of Crestor, during the "share of voice" wars. It was complete mayhem dealing with AZ reps and contract reps, as well as the offices who were sick of our repetitive visits and piles of unwanted Crestor samples. I actually sat in my Ford Taurus by a lake after basically getting kicked out of an office by an angry gatekeeper. I'm in still in pharma sales, not AZ, and have gotten used to the daily routine. I like the culture at this new company a bit better, nowhere near as uptight and tentative with their sales approach, which has sort of revived my sales and competitive juices. I've taken a break from the "getting out of pharma" mantra I repeated ad nauseum in the past, I think my pretty decent rankings at this time gave a great deal to do with my mood right now. I still think of making a break from time to time, but the base salary, car, bonuses, and work/life balance always reels me, and my wife, back in. I'm just being honest.
 
























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