Three D’s (Do’s) for Medical Sales Reps Who Are Job Hunting

By Hector Cisneros

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Most medical sales reps, having worked in the health care field, understand the importance of being responsible for their own health and well-being. Consequently, they know about the "Three D's (Dos)" to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle: exercise regularly, consume nutritious food and drink plenty of water, as well as getting adequate sleep each night.

Similarly, every medical sales rep who is job hunting needs to do the following activities on a consistent basis: network effectively, join niche job boards, and have a Rolodex of recruiters with whom to be in contact.

Networking Know-How

When it comes to obtaining gainful employment in the health care industry, priority one is to connect with as many health care industry professionals as possible. As the old adage goes, it's often not what you know, but who you know. Face-to-face networking -- attending conferences; convocations; seminars; business events; even a friendly, social out-and-about with your peers -- are some ways to go about it. Also, if you have the time, volunteer, join health care professional associations, participate in events, write blogs ... anything that favorably gets your name and face in front of others.

Online Networking is Essential

You also need to be networking online as well. This is where professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and other social media sites like Facebook, Google+ and Twitter can prove useful.  Better still are industry specific job board/networking sites, such as MedMasters.com, which allow you to target your professional social media profile and job search efforts in the health care industry. You can even narrow down your category to pharmaceutical or medical device sales.

Focus Your Online Search/Presence with Niche Job Boards  

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Looking for a medical sales job? Going to Monster, CareerBuilder, Indeed or SimplyHired works great if you’re looking for a position in sales, marketing, retail and some other fields. But it isn’t the best strategy for medical sales reps. There are several reasons why specialty or niche job boards are better. These large job boards don't aggregate all their listings. Furthermore, smaller, more industry focused sites usually include openings that don't show up on generic job boards. These specialty boards sometimes include specific contact information, such as how to directly reach the hiring manager, which is far more advantageous than being herded through a generic application process. I mean, who has the time to spend hours filling these things out? More often than not, these produce little in the way of favorable results. Being on a niche site also means you are more likely to be found, rather than disappearing into the slag among thousands of other medical sales applicants.

Generally speaking, smaller companies and skill-specific industries such as medical sales prefer using niche boards to target applicants because they tend to get responses from higher quality and more experienced candidates. In turn, this reduces the time involved in the selection process which is a win-win for applicants and hiring companies.

There are many niche job boards out there, sometimes two or three for a specific industry. Ask others in the health care industry which sites they may have used. You can also ask hiring managers and recruiters about choice niche sites for posting positions and recruiting. If you choose to search online, type "medical sales" followed by "jobs." Usually, if a niche site appears on the first one two pages, it's worth checking out. If you encounter a site that's over-populated with Google ads or other offers not related to employment, chances are they're more spammy and should be avoided.

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Some good quality niche job sites also post informative videos, blogs and tweets, so it behooves you to search through YouTube, Vimeo, Blogger, WordPress, Twitter and others that may contain content that was created by health care recruiters.

Recruiters: Stay in Their Radar

Knowing key recruiters and HR professionals who specialize in the health care industry and medical sales recruitment is also advantageous. In many cases, these specialized recruiters act as the primary communication link between a health care employers and a potential job candidate. Recruiters are responsible for reviewing résumés, conducting interviews, and ensuring the medical organization is paired with the right candidate who will ultimately meet and fulfill the needs of the employer or organization -- ideally you! According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), recruitment specialists are knowledgeable about the organization(s) they're representing or to which they belong, and consequently can skillfully locate and recruit the proper candidates for each requisite job opening.

Medical sales recruiters must conduct thorough interviews in order to gauge the suitability of the candidate for the position. Other duties of a medical sales recruiter may include:

• Reviewing applicants' résumés/curriculum vitae 
• Placing and assigning employees at medical/health care facilities
• Communicating efficiently with employers and employees, ensuring the needs of both are met timely and effectively
• Performing background checks on potential employees, as well as checking given references, credentials, transcripts, etc.  
• Negotiating salary, problem-solving, and counseling, therein establishing a rapport with the job candidate

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Obviously, given their critical gate-keeping/door-opening role, the more industry specific recruiters you can get your résumé and credentials in front of, the better. Networking effectively and posting your professional profile on appropriate niche job board sites, will both enable you to effectively prospect for employment.

In this article, I discussed the three main activities anyone seeking medical sales job perform consistently and skillfully: networking, joining industry specific niche sites, and communicating with recruiters.  If you found this article useful, please leave a relevant comment below and feel free to share and repost it.


Hector Cisneros is a co-partner, COO and social media director for W Squared Media Group based in Jacksonville, FL. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make working the Web to win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for Ezine Online, an active blogger (including ghost writing), and is a published author of three projects, “60 Seconds to Success”  (on sale at Amazon and B&N); “Internet Marketing for the 21st Century," which you can get free by clicking the link at WsquaredMediaGroup.com; and his latest, “Working the Web to Win” (on sale at Amazon).  Connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. 

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