I work for another company and have been in the industry as a rep for a long time. I'm still dismayed by the number of bad managers in the pharma industry as a whole. I estimate that 1/3 of the managers I have had could be considered good or great managers, 1/3 were average (not great, but not terrible), the other 1/3 were the stuff of nightmares. The bad managers were really bad! All used micro-management as their style. One had a huge ego and he was always right. No room for debate. Another was a weird analytical type who would spend much of his time on a ride-along with his face buried in his laptop looking at reports. He would give mostly negative feedback. Just a fuck-tard! Another was a whacked-out older female, since retired (thank God!) who would make reps recite the product's core message in under 10 seconds while she timed them using the stop watch function on her phone during ride-alongs. Another gave his district a list of expectations that included demands like being in the field from 8am to 5pm, making your first call before 9am and last call after 4pm, and getting doc signatures throughout the day (sampling or not). There is no inspirational leadership with these types, only stress and more stress. Nobody wants to work for them. The reps that work for them will stay long enough to secure another gig. My advice is to learn about the manager you will be working for, if possible, before even applying for the position. With LinkedIn, and through networking in the territory, it is possible to learn about the manager's reputation and maybe save yourself a world of hurt. I did my homework for my next job, you should too. No amount of money is worth tolerating a bad manager month after month. This is your life we're talking about and it has value, even if a bad manager doesn't think so.
