How to Write a Resume for a Pharmaceutical Sales Job

Many individuals seek jobs in the potentially lucrative pharmaceutical sales industry in the hopes of making a decent living. It can be difficult, however, to get a job in sales if you don't have experience. You'll need a strong resume showing that you are a top-notch sales person to get an interview with an industry leader.

Difficulty:

Easy

Instructions

Write a Resume for a Pharmaceutical Sales Job

1. Write a little personality into your pharmaceutical sales rep resume, as long as it remains professional. Personality, temperament and experience are more important qualifications for pharmaceutical sales than education.

2. View your resume as a self-marketing document. Don't worry about coming on too strong in this type of resume. Sell yourself more aggressively than is normally acceptable in other industries.

3. Include all your previous job titles and the names of your former employers. The world of pharmaceutical sales is surprisingly small, and recruiters will often know the people you've worked with in the past.

4. Focus most of your resume on any experience you have that is related to direct sales. Detail your previous responsibilities, including who your main clients were and what pharmaceutical products you've sold.

5. Write a resume that highlights innovations you've made in the past. Show that techniques and practices that you pioneered resulted in increased sales or reduced costs to the company.

6. Demonstrate your experience to create a budget and to work within budgetary constraints. If you have managed to come in under budget on previous projects, include that information.

7. Show that you have the ability to work with very little direct supervision and are able to meet deadlines. Pharmaceutical sales reps work mostly in the field and spend a great deal of time traveling and interacting directly with clients.

8. List any sales training programs you've completed in your education section.

9. Use very specific data. Rather than writing, "Increased sales within the company," you'll get a better response by stating, "Increased sales of products by 32 percent over previous quarter."

10. Show that you have experience managing others. Include how many people have worked for you on your sales teams.

Tips & Warnings

• If your resume alone doesn't seem to be getting you the interviews you hope for, take your resume to a career fair. At a career fair, you can get advice from pharmaceutical sales representative recruiters, and you might even get an interview or two.