Never worked with a pharmaceutical sales recruiter before?
Before you read the below list of recruiters, I wanted to highlight a few quick details about working with recruiters.
A recruiter might not be something you’ve considered until now, yet a recruiter can be an important component to today’s jobseeker.
There are recruiters who recruit for multiple industries, including pharmaceutical and medical device.
Recruiters do what you might expect. They source, contact, and prescreen potential pharmaceutical sales staff (e.g., account managers, pharmaceutical sales reps, and sales assistants) on behalf of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. These pharmaceutical behemoths include Pfizer, Novartis, Merck, Medtronic, AstraZeneca, and Sanofi.
As a career progresses, there are regional sales manager and district manager roles as well.
There are a few different channels for reaching out to pharma recruiters:
- Contact them through online networks, such as LinkedIn
- Reach out to them via social media, Twitter and Facebook
- Submit your resume through their website
- Meet them at pharmaceutical recruitment events
A primary method for attracting recruiters is through LinkedIn, so be sure to write an optimal LinkedIn profile.
What You Should Know Going In
Don’t feel that you need to vet and research recruiters, as you would potential employers.
A pharmaceutical recruiter is somewhat like a broker.
The biggest difference is the size of their network and client base.
And, since you may not be able to identify either of these without doing a deep dive, it’s best to know only a few surface details; e.g., how long in business, industries serviced, etc.
When submitting your resume to a pharmaceutical recruiter, it’s best to spread your efforts out.
This means, reaching out to more than one recruiter is acceptable on your part as a way of casting a wider net over potential sales openings.
Working with a pharmaceutical recruiter is much like working with any other recruiter.
Your resume goes into their ATS system and/or is added to their LinkedIn Recruitment platform.
If you have relevant details in your resume, such as previous sales and medical industry experience and an undergraduate degree, your resume should grab attention.
Although, this isn’t always true.
ATS systems can make things tricky for today’s jobseekers.
For example, a resume that isn’t ATS-compliant can cause a bit of a readability problem for these systems.
I cover some of the basics of ATS compliance in this article.
Who Recruiters Work For
Since recruiters are most often paid by the pharmaceutical companies (their clients), they will not be working for you.
I write about this extensively in my post titled, “Headhunters: The Truth About Working With Them [In-Depth Guide].”
This means sales recruiters answer to their clients (pharma companies), not you.
Your resume gets folded into an applicant tracking system (ATS), and then, you wait.
Recruiters look for relevant skills and abilities when screening new hires.
For example, they are looking for answers to questions like these:
- Does the candidate have pharmacology or clinical experience?
- What specific inside sales or outside sales experience? A little or a lot?
- Is that experience from business to business sales?
- Any involvement with sales techniques or supporting sales operations?
- Previous sales training or product knowledge?
- Does this candidate meet our educational requirements?
If you have no experience, you’re not completely out of the running.
There are many inside sales positions that require minimal to no selling experience.
[Related Article: Recruiters & LinkedIn – How to Get Found by Recruiters on LinkedIn]
Here are a few pharmaceutical recruiters:
1. Bench International Search
benchinternational.com
2. Jim Crumpley & Associates
crumpleyjobs.com
3. Eagle Research
eagleresearch.net
4. Edwards Search Group
edwardssg.com
5. Harbeck Associates
greatsalesjobs.com
6. Health Search
health-search.net
7. Mankuta Gallagher & Associates
mankutagallgher.com
8. Medical Executive Search Associates
mesaworldwide.com
[Related Resource: What You Need to Know When Targeting a Pharmaceutical Sales Job]
Would you like a list of 90+ pharmaceutical recruiters and 400+ pharmaceutical companies?
This downloadable book contains in-depth lists of resources (e.g., pharmaceutical CSOs, pharma sales forums, sales organizations, job banks, pharmaceutical companies, and recruiters) to shortcut your path to landing job interviews and a new job in pharmaceutical sales.
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