Get Noticed With a Strong Pharmaceutical Sales Resume (This industry is unique!)

No matter where you are in your pharmaceutical sales career, you need a well-written pharmaceutical sales resume that accurately conveys your knowledge, skills, and experience. As you search for Pharmaceutical Sales opportunities you will notice the competition in the job market is out there, and it’s essential that you have a strong resume for pharmaceutical sales to stand out in the crowd.

Below, we’ll give you the tips necessary to build a strong resume that will help you land the job.

Step 1: Heading with Objective

A heading should state your name and contact details. A career objective or summary statement is optional; however, highlighting your preferences (geographical or target market) and any relevant skills can help you stand out such as industry education, training or certifications – particularly if an employer uses a search engine to filter resumes from an electronic resume database.

Step 2: Employment History

Begin with your present or most recent employment. State your job title, the name of the company, and the location. Be specific about the dates of employment, including the month and year. Details of each position should emphasize your accomplishments rather than responsibilities. Instead of writing a job description for your past and current positions, explain what you achieved within each of those roles. Especially for pharmaceutical sales resumes, it’s very important to include any recognized sales successes. When possible, use exact figures to back up your claims. Always begin bullet points with words such as increased, developed, created, produced, converted, and similar action, goal-oriented type verbs.

We also suggest limiting your employment experience to the last fifteen years. If you have been employed or in the workforce longer than that, you can create a summary section and list out additional experience under a general heading, rather than providing any potential for your resume to show any age bias.

Step 3: Education/Training/Certifications

Your education should follow employment history on your pharmaceutical sales resume. State advanced degrees first, followed by undergraduate information. You do not need to list the years any of the degrees were received, again eliminating the change of your resume being scrutinized with any age bias, even if unintentional. You can also include relevant courses, such as business and pharmaceutical sales classes. It’s not as important to list all or any pharmaceutical sales training/education, as employers are more interested in your ability to sell while being able to pick up clinical information and sell it to physicians. If you have a lot of sales experience, then employers want to know you can understand some of the basic science behind pharmaceuticals and have the ability to comprehend complex products.

For pharmaceutical sales resumes, it’s imperative that your education include examples of academic honors, industry training, certifications and excellence achievements. Especially if you are new to pharmaceutical sales, academic achievements need to be recent and can be the determining factor that sets you resume apart from the competition.

Step 4: Training and Qualifications

As previously mentioned, you should include specific keywords from the job description in the qualifications section of your resume. It helps to even differentiate this section of your resume based on each job posting that you are applying to. It is important to back up your qualifications with specific experience and training and include any pharmaceutical sales-specific training that you have received.

Another tip for the qualifications section of a pharmaceutical sales resume is to include any experience you have in any sports or competitive athletics. For pharmaceutical sales specifically, employers want to know you’re competitive. If you’ve been a D1 athlete, that is a great detail to include in your resume to really stand out from the other job seekers who are applying for the pharmaceutical sales position.

Step 5: Additional Information

Your pharmaceutical sales resume should also include professional affiliations, association memberships, extracurricular and volunteer experience, continuing education activities, and honors or awards that you have received. When trying to prioritize additional information for your resume, start with the leadership roles you have held. This is the perfect way to let the pharmaceutical companies know that you have the experience necessary to be a leader in their organization. After leadership roles, the next items to list should include community involvement or relevant business societies of which you are a member.

Your resume is much more than a list of previous employers and job descriptions. It is your opportunity to promote yourself. State your strengths and highlight the contributions you have made at previous employers. Be honest and concise and your resume is sure to make a memorable impact on potential employers. By following the proper formulas listed that we have outlined above, you can create an attractive pharmaceutical sales resume. If you need some additional help, please email us for a free resume review so you can get professional assistance rewriting your resume from resume experts with pharmaceutical sales recruiting experience. Good luck with your resume and your job search!

Below is also a good resume tips article written by INDEED, click to check it out!

CLICK HERE  or go to:
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/resumes-for-pharmaceutical-sales

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