Good to hear I figured if there were any device reps on here, they would speak up and say something along these lines. I have been in sales for about four years, and have enjoyed quite a bit of success, but I am looking for something a little more interesting and challenging, and medical devices are at the top of my list. My only problem is that I no longer have any contacts in the industry, so I don't know who the good/bad companies to work for are.

 

I see the reps from the physician's stand point and have heard stories about rep (don't know how true).

It's a competitive business. You start out low and earn little until you get a desirable product or go into surgical field. The highest earning rep I know pulls in 300K/year (ortho surgical product) but getting there requires years in the field and you have to prove yourself. My old surgical rep pulls in 200K+/year at my previous job (She just felt like sharing that one day b/c she was pissed of at a doctor who belittled her. We are pretty good friends by that point so she felt comfortable enough with me to rant about this jerk of a physician). If you can't do surgical, at least do specialty; better pay and better working conditions. During my med school years, we all rotated through primary care offices and those reps are mostly ignored and treated poorly. No physician have the time of day to listen to even a 15minute talk about drug from each and every rep so they ended up pitching to us students or nurses who had more time then ended up leaving samples. Their target audience, the doctors, glided in, nodded their head for 30 seconds, signed for the drug samples, then left. I felt pretty bad for those guys/gals. You have to have thick skin. Also, be prepare to drive 30,000miles/year in the company car in all kind of weather.
I haven't seen "Love and other drugs" yet but that's a movie about pharm rep. Will one day get around to seeing it. Maybe you should consider watching it?
good luck

 

I can't speak for the orthopedic side, but I do work in big pharma. Not sales, but feel I have some insight.

I don't believe that pharma sales reps are really sales reps. I don't believe any of the big pharmas sell to doctors. They sell to clearing houses and distributors. Consumers don't buy from the doctors, they buy from the pharmacy. In many cases, a pharma company may have an interest in a distributor or even a pharmacy to try and get a piece of distribution dollars, not just manufacturer dollars. The connection is that the doctor writes the script, which is the whole key to the system.

A pharma sales rep is really about distributing information and samples. My understanding is that you get minutes (the previous statement about 15 is probably way overstated) to make the doctor and/or staff aware of something new, leave materials and hope they 'get it'.

As for stability, our company's reps worked within one therapeutic area - Cardiovascular, Anti-Infection, Neurosciences, Transplant, etc... That let them present the whole range of possible therapies without having multiple reps do it. On the down side, as also stated, as patents come/go, reps for a particular therapeutic area were at risk. If there's nothing to sell in one area, you don't need reps to get the message out. In some more remote areas of the country (or other countries), a sales rep may have a region vs individual drug products.

I don't buy the whole expense account argument. Pharma, like many big industries is cutting back on expenses. Scrutiny by the regulators and lawmakers also removes much of what might have been considered favoritism obsolete. I bet anywhere you look, reimbursement for legitimate expenses is included. Golf on Wednesdays, probably not.

Good Luck with your decisions.

 

I have a client who's a medical device sales rep. He sells this pig skin stuff that is used to patch holes on organs or something. And the body accepts it. He showed me samples of it. Pretty nifty stuff.

Anyhow, he's actually in the surgery with the doctors and stuff... so I guess he's pretty high up? In any event, he owns a house, a diablo, and two other cars. I dunno what he makes.. but it can't be half bad

 

Law firms took a huge hit after 2008. BIG Law is dead with no recovery in site. That is translate perfectly over to other industrys. Everyone i know with corporate cards at companies like PWC, or Ibanking, or even pharm. sales still have a lot of perks. Also coming out right out of college $60k+ commission is amazing pay (especially outside of NY, Cali; etc.). All my friends who are pharm. reps LI (very congested/competitive) still make $100k/year + company car, laptop, internet, phone, card, and has many other perks. Granted i only know like 5-6, they all have only been in their industry for 1-3 years.

 

My Wife is a Pharma Rep, she said the glory days are long gone, she still makes bank and has a kickass schedule