All about Medical sales jobs boards

There were no industry medical sales magazines, and the internet just hadn't kicked off then. Consequently any applications had to made with a written letter and printed CV for each role, rather restrictive by today's standards. Time scales were slow. First, you had to wait until the adverts closing date, then a short list would be created and candidates would be written too, all by snail mail, of course. It's hard to imagine just how much slower things were before e-mail really took off. In summary, the whole medical sales recruitment machine was smaller and slower. In many cases, unless you knew someone inside a pharmaceutical company who could put in a word for you, you stood a strong chance of loosing out to someone who did.

The internet and e-mail has changed medical sales recruitment beyond all recognition. Now, one doesn't even have to look for vacancies, having registered, a computer system will send an e-mail every time a suitable job is posted. Applying for jobs is easy and quick, once registered on a jobs board, all one has to do is hit the button and the application is made with your pre-prepared CV and letter. This means you can apply for lots and lots of jobs without too much effort, meaning you can ignite several job opportunities without any time or effort spent. This puts the balance of power back towards a candidate who can line up a number of jobs at once, an ultimately making companies scrap over the best prospects.

Technology has also advanced the cause of medical sales recruitment agency. The moment a job is posted, systems will identify matching candidates and proceed to send them e-mails and texts to their mobile phones to prompt their application. Once again this speeds up the whole process immeasurably. A recruiter can posted a vacancy at 1pm, candidate receives an e-mail alert by 1.01 pm and can have applied in full buy 1.02 pm and be booked in for interview with an agency by 1.05pm, closing dates are almost a thing of the passed.

Just considering the way this technology has changed the recruitment process for medical sales, one can see that the rules of the game have clearly changed. A good candidate looking to move roles can generate application processes (several) from a standing start in as little as 1 hour. they can expose themselves to several potential employers within a matter of days and secure new roles in as little as one week. So what does this mean to employers?

Well it's become much, much more competitive to land the best candidates. When I entered medical sales in the early 90's, recruiters could be arrogant about spending weeks or months selecting the best people. Now, if your process is more than a couple of weeks long, expect to loose good candidates. at best expect to end up bidding to secure someone with an excellent track record against other companies. Interestingly, as far as I can see, the majority of pharmaceutical companies recruiting medical sales people have failed to accept this and shift their behaviour towards shorter processes, opting for long winded process with multiple stages.

In summary, the advent of the internet, e-mail and the medical sales jobs board has totally changed the recruitment industry. Many pharmaceutical companies have failed to grasp this, leaving the best opportunities to succeed to those who have by shortening their recruitment process.