Use a Field Preceptorship to Get Your Next Revenue Position

A field preceptorship a excellent way to boost your chances of landing a medical sales job.  Also known as a ride-along or career opportunity shadowing, it’s usually something we associate with students, but a field preceptorship offers multiple benefits for the jobseeker:

• It gives you on-the-job experience without having to get the job.  You can explore it to see if it’s right for you before you make the commitment to change careers.
• You can use the experience on your resume, giving you keywords that will flag your resume in Applicant Tracking Systems–especially helpful for those with no prior experience in pharma sales.
• It gives you material for your 30/60/90-day plan, an handsome document to have in a career opportunity interview.
• It sets you apart as a “go-getter.”  Not everyone will go to this length before they even have the career opportunity.
• It shows that you know how to make contacts, which is essential in a sales role.
• It’s impressive to hiring managers, and helps them to see you in the position.

How do you find someone to ride with?  Ask your doctor or pathology for the names of sales reps.  When you contact them, ask if you can ride along for the day, or even part of the day.  Reassure them that you’re not after their job, but are just looking for information.  Try to stay quiet during the actual revenue part, but in between, ask questions about a typical day, the pros and cons of their career opportunity, what it takes to be successful, and so on.

When you get to the interview, the prep work you did will show, giving you the edge over other candidates and help you land the position.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized medical and pharmaceutical sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

Related posts:

1. Take the Ride: The Benefits of a Medical Revenue Preceptorship For these unfamiliar with the term, “preceptorship” is just another…
2. Ride-alongs and ride-withs (aka Job Shadowing) What is a ride-along?  Why is it important? A ride-along is…
3. The Field Service Engineer Position – BMET/CBET/BioMed Peggy McKee (the medical sales headhunter) describes the FSE…

Use a Field Preceptorship to Get Your Next Sales Job