Hired! Image Makeover Proves Healthy for Pharma Rep

Hired Image Makeover Proves Healthy for Pharma RepHired Image Makeover Proves Healthy for Pharma RepPharmaceutical sales resume focus keeps career on track.JaNet Adams welchesnt looking for a job in 2008. The 27-year-old motzu sich of a one-year-old was a sales representative at Pfizer, the largest pharmaceutical company in the world, and had no intention of entering an unfavorable job market or relocating outside North Carolina.But fate said otherbeiwise, and Adams was laid off in October along with several others in office.Between severance and her savings, Adams said she had about an eight-month cushion and initially gave herself six months to find a job, but after a week or two, I got bored. I realized I had an opportunity to build on what I had done already and wanted to start working again. So I started buckling down. That included signing up with SalesLadder.Adams was looking for her first job since she graduated from college with a marketing degree. She knew pharmaceutical co mpanies were laying people off, not hiring she knew she might need to leave sales she knew she needed to move fast and she knew her resume wasnt ready.I was told by several recruiters it needed to be completely re-done, she said. They told me it was too task-oriented it needed to be mora results oriented. Adams was told employers want to see what she had accomplished, not a list of her duties or a description of her job.It took me three days to re-do my resume. I re-wrote the whole thing, based on the things I had been told, she said. She highlighted her experience in a way that showed what she had contributed in her previous position, and she began to see the pharmaceutical sales opportunities she thought were too scarce to rely on.The big pharmaceutical companies are laying off, she said. But I saw listings from biotech companies, medical supply companies- companies I didnt know about. These companies are a little harder to get into, a little harder to find out about. Ladders open ed the door to other recruiters I didnt know existed.Keep an open mindFrom October through early December, Adams interviewed for sales positions, doing phone interviews and face-to-face interviews. She kept an open mind, applying for positions in marketing as well as sales. I thought, Im young, I could move into something else, she said. I think you have to be open to other areas. Look at a layoff as a chance to discover other passions you might have, look at other industries, she said.She landed a job in pharmaceutical sales at InVentiv Health, a Somerset, N.J., company that provides nationwide support and consulting to healthcare and biotechnology companies. The job will allow her to stay in North Carolina. While still in sales, the scope of her job will be more wide-ranging than her position at Pfizer, offering her a new path to her ultimate goal of becoming a hospital representative for a pharmaceutical company. She begins her job at InVentiv in February.Its going to be differe nt, Adams said. InVentiv will contract with a pharmaceutical company, and Ill be working for that company for a while. When that contract ends, Ill work with another company. Ill get experience working with more people in my district. Ill work with a lot more physicians. I want to use this as a learning tool in how to deal with a lot of different people.Adams, who is also pleased that this job wont require relocation, was happy to find a job as quickly as she did. I had a cutoff of five or six months. Thats when I was going to take something that might make less money, just to have income coming in. A lot of people told me it might take six months, so I was happy to find something in three.It helped that she was so diligent in her job search.It was a full-time job, said Adams. I was always on the computer when I first started, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. People were surprised when she told them she was so busy during the day. So busy, in fact, that she continued to pay for daycare for he r 1-year-old son.That was the last thing that was going to go, she said. If we had to cut back, I wasnt giving up daycare, she said. I needed to be able to concentrate, and to talk to people on the phone. And when people asked if youd be available the next day for an interview, you cant be scrambling for a babysitter.