Anonymous writes:
Hello, I am writing you to ask you for some expertise help on what would be
the best way to go about a pharmaceutical sales rep job — like what should
I major in? Whether to get a bachelor’s or master’s degree? Any info you
could give me would be more that appreciated…. Thank you very much.
The Career Doctor responds:
Before I totally address your questions, let me first get on my soap box.
Over the last couple of years, the sexiest job opportunity for college grads
and career changers has been pharmaceutical sales representative. During
that same period, I think the most misunderstood job opportunity has been
that of pharmaceutical sales representative. Most of the job-seekers I’ve
talked with have this illusion that the job is glamorous, offers autonomy,
and pays amazingly well. The reality is that this career requires a lot of
work and determination — and if chasing doctors is your idea of glamour,
then so be it. High earnings potential? Yes, with the right company, in
the right location, with the right amount of persistence.
I know some former students and clients who are in pharmaceutical sales
and love it — while others who thought it was their dream career have
changed careers yet again. So just do your research and go into this
career with a realistic view.
Requirements vary by company, but the basic package you should have
is a bachelor’s degree (in any field, though a business field might give
you an edge) and previous sales experience (through summer jobs, internships,
etc.). An interest in science/medicine is beneficial, but not necessary.
Master’s degrees are generally not required — and may make it harder
for you to land an entry-level position.
Because of the popularity (and demand) surrounding pharmaceutical sales,
there are numerous books and other sources of information about this career.
Your best bet? Use your network to find a couple of people currently working
as pharmaceutical sales reps and conduct informational interviews to learn
more about their impressions and experiences. Informational interviews are
highly focused conversations with established professionals that provide
you with key information you need to launch or boost your career — and
can often provide you with critical feedback about breaking into a career,
your credentials, and more.
Learn more about informational interviews in the
Informational
Interviewing Tutorial published on Quintessential Careers.
Conduct research on pharmaceutical sales rep jobs by visiting this section of
Quintessential Careers: Jobs
in Health Care, Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and Social Work.
Josh writes:
What careers offer lots of vacation time (besides educational careers)?
The Career Doctor responds:
There may be other professions that offer as much vacation time as
those of us in education enjoy, but the bigger question is why are
you so focused on vacation time as a factor in choosing a career?
To me, that’s almost as bad as when people ask what professions
pay the highest salaries? Why? You need to find a career that will give you personal satisfaction — that’s where you will be
your happiest and most productive.
Overall, the U.S. lags other Western countries in the number of
vacation days offered, with the average around 13 days per year.
Entry-level workers often start with one or two weeks of paid vacation.
Usually, the longer you are employed and the higher you are within
an organization, the more vacation time. When I worked at People
magazine, I had six weeks of vacation time (not counting paid holidays, personal time, and sick days). Obviously, these numbers vary by
employer/industry/profession.
I think the more telling statistic in this current era of overworking
employees to increase productivity is that several studies have
shown that the average worker is unable to use his/her allotted
vacation days because of work demands. And low-wage workers
who actually get vacation time often have to work other jobs during
their vacations to make ends meet.
Patricia writes:
I would like to get information on marketing as a career. Where I should go and
what would my major be? And what are the job prospects and types of jobs available?
The Career Doctor responds:
Remember that I am just a bit biased about marketing, okay? If you
want to have a career in the one area of any business or organization that is
integral to its success, then you want a career in marketing. Marketing is all
about developing (superior) products or services consumers need, and
delivering them at the highest level of customer satisfaction as possible.
Marketing is both an art and a science. Without successful marketing,
no organization can survive — because without marketing, you don’t
have any customers.
You don’t need do major in marketing in college, but I would strongly consider it.
You might also consider communications, public relations, psychology, and sociology as possible majors or minors. More importantly, once you are in
college, you need to get the marketing experience — as much as possible —
through volunteering, school projects, campus organizations, and internships
or co-ops. The experiences will be invaluable in not only helping you land a
great job upon graduation, but also fine-tuning your specifics interests
within the field of marketing.
I define marketing as delivering customer satisfaction at a profit… and there
are many career opportunities in performing marketing, such as: services marketing, brand management, retailing, distribution, sales, research, advertising, public relations, business-to-business marketing, political marketing, international marketing, direct marketing, non-profit marketing, and more.
Marketing is a hot field — and expected to keep growing for the next decade,
according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics,
with services and business-to-business marketing having the most opportunities.
You can learn more about marketing and marketing careers by going to the
Website of the professional organization of marketing:
The
American Marketing Association.
You can also get a feel for jobs and careers in marketing by going to the
marketing job sites found in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Jobs in Business,
Management, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, and Sales.
See if your library has this book — a great source of information —
Opportunities in Marketing Careers, by Margery Steinberg (McGraw-Hill).
Haylee writes:
I’m a senior in high school. I’m planning to study medicine, but my problem is that
I’m not sure which rank of medicine I would like to study. I was wondering if you
could be kind enough to email me the different types of doctor careers there
are and what they do.
The Career Doctor responds:
I think a medical career is a wonderful calling — even with all the crises in
healthcare in this country right now — medicine is such an important career
for those who have a desire to help people. Just remember that you are still
young and have not experienced much of what college offers, so while you
may remain true to your choice and become a doctor, you may also veer into
any number of other career paths — so just keep your eyes open to all the
possibilities that await you.
OK. So, careers in medicine; specifically, career paths for doctors.
You can choose to be a generalist or a specialist.
According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, “About
one-third of the nation’s physicians are generalists — ‘primary care’ doctors
who provide lifelong medical services for you and all the members of your
family. General internists, family physicians, and general pediatricians
are all considered generalist doctors. They are the first doctors you
consult for medical care.”
(Read more.)
The other two-thirds of doctors specialize in a wide variety of areas that basically
fall into one of these categories: research, obstetrics and gynecology, cardiology, psychiatry, or surgery. Within these categories are specialists in: dermatology, gastroenterology, cardiovascular diseases, pulmonary diseases, general surgery, orthopedic surgery, and many more too numerous to mention. Read more in this
section of the Department of Labor’s
Occupational Outlook Handbook.
I suggest you begin talking with doctors now — even before you start college.
Use your network to find a variety of doctors — and then conduct some informational interviews to learn more about their careers (and how you can best prepare for yours).
Learn more about informational interviews by reading this article
published on Quintessential Careers:
Informational
Interviewing: A Powerful Tool for College Students.
Start reviewing medical job and career information in this section of Quintessential Careers:
Jobs in Health Care,
Medicine, Pharmaceuticals, and Social Work.
Lamar writes:
Dr. Hansen: I am looking for a new career in teaching. I have a master of arts degree
in interdisciplinary technology from Eastern Michigan University with a minor in
business. Just how do I break into this field without having a doctorial degree or
the experience in teaching besides being a part-time substitute teacher?
The Career Doctor responds:
I guess it really depends on what level you wish to teach. If you wish to teach
K-12, then the combination of experience and a master’s degree will take
you far in getting your foot in the door. You’ll also need to earn a teaching certification for whatever state where you are seeking a job. Certainly there
is a shortage of teachers in many parts of the country — and because
technology has become such an important part of the curriculum,
someone with your credentials should be in high demand. Don’t
discount yourself or your credentials; focus on the positive!
If you want to break into the college ranks, your best bets are community colleges and temporary positions at four-year schools. Many community
colleges are more flexible in their hiring criteria and look at a mix of
degrees and experience, thus you should find numerous permanent
positions. But because technology is also in such demand at the
college level, and because there is a limited number of qualified candidates, there may also be numerous offerings for instructor-level
positions. In the end, if you want to teach full-time at the college level,
you are going to have to seriously consider getting your doctoral degree.
So, your next step? Regardless of the level you want to teach, your next
step is to begin developing your network. Join an industry professional organization (and join a discussion group and/or attend a conference),
talk with your professors about contacts in the field, track down alumni,
and check with family and friends who may have connections to teaching.
There are also numerous excellent job sites on the Web related to all
levels of teaching. At a minimum, you can begin reading job descriptions
and requirements and better position yourself as an ideal candidate as
you develop your list of prospective employers. Follow this link on
Quintessential Careers: Academic,
Educator, and Teaching Jobs.
Dawn writes:
I am interested in a fast-paced career. I have started going to college this
year for business management. I have little knowledge of what is out there
for the future. Would like some ideas and steps that will help me achieve that.
The Career Doctor responds:
I could not possibly begin to mention all the potential jobs you could get
with a degree in business, but I think it’s very wise of you to begin thinking
about it now because as you develop some ideas about career paths, you
can choose elective courses to help you specialize in one or more areas —
and, perhaps more importantly, you can begin to develop a list of prospective employers and internship possibilities to gain experience — and to make
sure the career you think you want is actually something you would enjoy doing!
So, here is your homework.
First, start researching careers in management. Key sources for you are:
your management professors (even ones you have not had for a class yet)
and adviser, the career services office at your college, and online sources (such as the fantastic Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the U.S. Department of Labor).
Second, develop a list of your skill sets (and document those skills through
accomplishments in school projects and work experience). Skills you should
have as you progress through your business degree include leadership, problem-solving, critical thinking, written and verbal communications, teamwork, planning, organizing, and decision-making.
Third, start thinking of an internship for the summer. Some of the most coveted summer internships
have very early deadlines and better to start researching now and be ready
then to discover you just missed a deadline.
And to get a feel for the types of jobs out there, check out this section of
Quintessential Careers: Jobs
in Business, Management, Finance, Accounting, Marketing, and Sales.
Nikki writes:
I have been out of college for two years. During those two years I was a public -school teacher. Now I would like to make a career change toward international
business. I enrolled into a graduate program for international management and
commerce. What kind of job should I seeking to gain experience in this field?
How can I land the position with my education experience?
The Career Doctor responds:
There is a bit of a misunderstanding among students who are enrolled in
international business programs, though more so at the undergraduate
level. Students think they are going to graduate with this international business degree and travel the world, working for large multinational corporations.
You seem to have a better understanding of the situation. Businesses
who have operations in other parts of the world do want graduates of
international business programs — especially graduate programs — but
those graduates need to have proven domestic business careers first.
So, the critical thing for you is to get experience while you are in the
graduate program. I don’t know the details of your program, but find a
way to work full-time, part-time, consult, and/or volunteer. If you can
work for the next two years as you earn your graduate degree, you
will be a very attractive candidate to a multitude of companies that are
doing business overseas.
Talk with the professionals in your school’s career services office,
network with alumni of the program, and join at least one professional association. Start researching potential employers now, examine the
types of job offers graduates have received over the past few years,
and begin putting yourself in a position to receive multiple job offers
upon graduation.
One final piece of advice. Do you know one or more foreign languages?
If not, I would also suggest you take the time to become as fluent as
possible in at least one other language besides English.
Jenna writes:
I am currently trying to chose a career path. I will be going to college
soon taking medical radiography (to become an x-ray and ultrasound
technician); however, I don’t think this is the career I really want (bad
hours and too much human suffering). I want to do something that is a
little unusual — not your average job. I want to retire early … comfortably.
I want to learn a lot of new things on my way. Some ideas I’ve had are:
commercial pilot, architect, something in astrophysics… What I really
want are ideas for cool careers. Careers that when someone asks you
what you do for your living, they feel intimidated by your answer! I don’t
know what’s out there. Hopefully you do! So… any great ideas?
The Career Doctor responds:
What’s out there as a career for you? It’s a cliché, but it’s true: if you
have the intelligence, the determination, and the resources, just about
any career path can be yours.
But, don’t think so much about one career shaping the rest of your life;
think more about a series of careers that span your lifetime, some of
which may be related.
So, the first big question is why are you majoring in something — perhaps
even attending a specific college because of it — that you have no real interest
in ever doing? Why not look into other colleges and careers before you make that final choice?
As for other careers…the best sources are your teachers and your family…
you can also conduct a lot of career research online, using such sources as
the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Because you have a wide range of interests, it might also be helpful to take
one or more career assessment tests; these tests work well in conjunction
with you own assessment of your strengths and weaknesses, as well as
your likes and dislikes.
As you think about majors, you might want to read my article,
Choosing a
College Major: How to Chart Your Ideal Path.
You also might find these two areas of Quintessential Careers especially helpful:
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