Some people say only divine intervention will help them get into pharmaceutical sales. I agree with divine intervention, but I also believe you should get your spiritual life in order, get your heart right, listen to the gentle nudge of God and work like HELL to make it happen.

Seriously, breaking into pharmaceutical sales is hard work. Throughout life, you learn "life rules" like "respect your elders" and "wear a shirt at the dinner table." Likewise, there are pharmaceutical job-hunting rules. Only nobody has told you about them. However, I am going to tell you some of these rules.secrets. How do I know these secrets? Because as a five-year veteran of pharmaceutical recruiting, I'm fighting the same battle you fight every day. Trying to find the open jobs! I'm going to tell you a couple of my secrets, but not all of them, because I still want to earn a living in my industry of choice.

· Secret 1: NETWORKING: It's not WHO you know, but who THEY know! Tell everybody you know (family and friends) about your intention to become a pharmaceutical sales representative. They might know somebody who can tell you about an unpublished job opening.

· Secret 2: Speaking with a pharmaceutical sales representative or district manager. You want to build a relationship with existing pharmaceutical sales representatives and district managers for several reasons. First, a referral from a representative to their manager is golden. The referral usually carries more weight than a resume from any other source. Second, they know the industry and might be able to provide you with a list of contact names (i.e., other sales representatives, hiring managers, or recruiters) or existing or potential open positions.

· Secret 3: Job Boards/Career Boards. Nothing has had more impact on the job search market in the last few years than job or career boards. Job boards have changed the way companies find people and the way people find jobs. However, job boards are only one small piece of the puzzle. You must combine searching job boards with other techniques to conduct a thorough job search.

· Secret 4: Get to know a Recruiter (Headhunter). Recruiters are an excellent way to maximize your resume exposure and limit your resume risk. Most recruiters will know of several pharmaceutical sales positions with multiple companies in your area. Unlike human resource managers from one company, who work a very limited number of jobs, recruiters can handle several jobs from multiple companies. Most pharmaceutical recruiters are contingency recruiters, which means they do not get paid unless you accept a job that they present to you (in contingency recruiting, the hiring company usually pays the recruiter's fee). Therefore, it is in the recruiter's best interest to place you as quickly as possible. Recruiters also bring industry knowledge, territory knowledge, and resume expertise to the table for your benefit. It is not uncommon for a recruiter to work with the candidate to "spiff-up" or improve their resume and coach the candidate through the interview process. I recommend that you get to know several recruiters in your area. Set up interviews with the recruiters, meet them, and build professional working relationships with them so you can trust them with your resume and career.

· Secret 5: Check out my book "Secrets of Breaking Into Pharmaceutical Sales" at http://www.pharmaceuticalinterviewquestions.com and I will share 13 proven methods (tips and tricks) on how to break into pharmaceutical sales.

Tell me, how do you know so much about pharmaceutical sales? Did you ever want to be in pharmaceutical sales?

I have been in corporate sales and the executive search field for about 10 years. I began my pharmaceutical sales recruiting career with a leading Houston-based search firm. While at this firm, I worked with two world-class pharmaceutical companies to build and expand their national pharmaceutical sales teams. Whether directly or through an affiliate program, I have worked with the majority of major pharmaceutical and medical companies. I earned awards for top performance in the placement of candidates on a national basis and, in the process, built one of the nation's leading pharmaceutical sales and medical sales recruiting practices.

In October of 2001 I started "10 Abbott Street" http://www.10abbottstreet.com , an executive search firm specializing in pharmaceutical and software sales placements.