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what am i doing wrong?

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Anonymous

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I have interviewed with 3 seperate pharma companies in the past 3 months- i made it through to the second round with the first two but that was it.
I don't understand what I am doing wrong in these interviews..I have 3 years pharma experience, President's Club winner and Rookie of the Year Award and obviously am not making an impression-
the only thing that may be hurting me is that I was laid off (due to company dissolving sales force) in March of 2010 and have not worked since then other than bartending to make extra money- When that is mentioned in the interview I tell the DM that during that time I had a baby and was interviewing for sales positions but was not presented with an offer.

Does anyone have any idea what I could be doing wrong?
 








What type of sales job do you have now? I do not want to sell insurance or go into the finance industry- I feel that once you get into pharma and spend any amount of time there you pigeon-hole yourself in the industry-and no one takes you seriously
 




Do not tell them you just had a baby! You took some time off, explored some other avenues such as restaurant or bar management, and decided you wanted to return to the industry. Be ready to say WHY.
 




Honestly, you owe it to yourself to get into b2b sales. A few years of experience there, do well, and go on to device or surgical and make fantastic money with a 45 hour work week.

I wouldn't say that pharma is dead, but in all likelihood you are setting yourself for another layoff.

Go get a job where your actual work can be tied to WHAT YOU DO.

Consider this a blessing. Seriously.
 








Anonymous said:
I have interviewed with 3 seperate pharma companies in the past 3 months- i made it through to the second round with the first two but that was it.
I don't understand what I am doing wrong in these interviews..I have 3 years pharma experience, President's Club winner and Rookie of the Year Award and obviously am not making an impression-
the only thing that may be hurting me is that I was laid off (due to company dissolving sales force) in March of 2010 and have not worked since then other than bartending to make extra money- When that is mentioned in the interview I tell the DM that during that time I had a baby and was interviewing for sales positions but was not presented with an offer.

Does anyone have any idea what I could be doing wrong?
Click to expand...
\

You are likely not doing anything wrong. They just have candidates that are better connected.

You need to build up you network and just keep fighting for a job.

You will wake up one day with the job of your dreams, if you don't quit.

Its annoying, but that's life. Its sucks. Life sucks, sometimes.

Hang in there.
 




Folks, I heard somewhere the other day that the average pharmaceutical company gets 2500 RESUMES for every job opening.

You might have better odds buying a lottery ticket.

In fact, I went to a job fair the other day (and wasn't interested in the pharm/med jobs offered), but the recruiter said that for the pharmaceutical job they did NOT want anyone with more than 3 years pharmaceutical sales experience.
 




Anonymous said:
Folks, I heard somewhere the other day that the average pharmaceutical company gets 2500 RESUMES for every job opening.

You might have better odds buying a lottery ticket.

In fact, I went to a job fair the other day (and wasn't interested in the pharm/med jobs offered), but the recruiter said that for the pharmaceutical job they did NOT want anyone with more than 3 years pharmaceutical sales experience.
Click to expand...

Folks, if you are older and are just riding this out until you retire, I get it. But if you are younger and sersiously thinking this is a career and not a rest stop on your way to bigger and better things, I am dumbfounded. I always respected the people in pharma that just admit they do the job because you don't work that hard and you make decent money. I never really met anyone particularly ambitious in pharma, OTHER than those that wanted to be promoted and would do success stories on voicemail, volunteer at district meetings to do extra work, etc. Shit, at my company, none of that matters. The only way to get promoted is know the device inside and out and have year after year of record numbers. Furthermore, you must show intense business acumen and market knowledge and for our upper positions an MBA from a good school is more or less required. Which I applaud.

Having been the victim of one pharma lay off, I'm not going through that shit again.

Bottomline is folks, don't pigeonhole yourself to JUST pharma.
 




Anonymous said:
I have interviewed with 3 seperate pharma companies in the past 3 months- i made it through to the second round with the first two but that was it.
I don't understand what I am doing wrong in these interviews..I have 3 years pharma experience, President's Club winner and Rookie of the Year Award and obviously am not making an impression-
the only thing that may be hurting me is that I was laid off (due to company dissolving sales force) in March of 2010 and have not worked since then other than bartending to make extra money- When that is mentioned in the interview I tell the DM that during that time I had a baby and was interviewing for sales positions but was not presented with an offer.

Does anyone have any idea what I could be doing wrong?
Click to expand...

Don't assume you are doing something wrong. Why not ask for feedback after they've passed on you.

Also, I was confused. You don't tell them that you were laid off but you tell them you quit to have a baby?

I was laid off and I told people that in subsequent interview and didn't blink an eye. "Company restructured, I was last hired, so I was first to go. 20% of the workforce was laid off in similar manner. It didn't matter that I blew out my quotas."
 




Anonymous said:
Folks, I heard somewhere the other day that the average pharmaceutical company gets 2500 RESUMES for every job opening.

You might have better odds buying a lottery ticket.

In fact, I went to a job fair the other day (and wasn't interested in the pharm/med jobs offered), but the recruiter said that for the pharmaceutical job they did NOT want anyone with more than 3 years pharmaceutical sales experience.
Click to expand...
'

Let me breakdown those 2500 resumes for you:

1. About 2400 have no shot, because they don't even have a four year degree.

2. About 90 have no shot, because they don't have any solid sales experience.

3. That leaves 10 solid candidates. And then its just who you know.
 




What do you look like? My manager and I interviewed a candidate who was 4 foot 7.
My manager thought the candidate looked amazing on paper.
My manager never called the candidate back on the 2nd interview. Why? He said the candidate didnt appear to be a good fit.


So sad. I felt like reporting my managers ass.
 




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