Your resume Is Vital
Your resume is one of the most important documents you create when applying for a medical sales job. Recruiters and hiring managers look at candidates’ resumes and select the most impressive ones for interviews. Knowing how to write a strong medical sales resume can help you convince potential employers to consider you for the job. In this article, we describe how to write a resume for medical sales and provide a template and an example for guidance.
What is a Resume for Medical Sales?
A resume for medical sales is a document describing the skills and experience a medical salesperson has promoting medical products and services to healthcare professionals.
Individuals applying for medical sales jobs use resumes to convince hiring managers they are qualified for the job.
The resume should prove the medical sales professional can perform common duties such as:
- Making appointments and organizing meetings with medical staff and community members
- Identifying and developing new business leads
- Negotiating contracts
- Demonstrating medical products to healthcare professionals, including pharmacists, doctors and nurses
- Performing research
What to include in a resume for medical sales
When you are writing a resume for medical sales, here are the main sections you should include:
- A header that lists your contact information
- Resume summary or objective
- Skills and qualifications
- Work experience
- Education
- Awards
- Any other information relevant to the job
Step-by-Step: How to Start Your Medical Device Sales Career
Here are some tips to start your medical device sales career.
1. Read and understand the job description
Before writing your resume, read the description of the job you are applying for to understand the skills and qualifications the hiring manager wants in a candidate. If you have skills the employer is looking for, add them to your medical sales resume. Including keywords for the required skills and qualifications can get the employer’s attention and help you earn a medical sales job interview.
2. Include a header
When writing your medical sales resume, the first section should be the header. It should be at the top of the page and include contact information such as your full name, telephone number, email address, physical address and, if necessary, a link to your website. Write a professional header with an easy-to-read format and font that makes a good first impression on the hiring manager. They use the personal information you provide on your resume to contact you for an interview.
3. Create your resume objective
A resume objective or a professional statement is a summary of your experiences and qualifications. In one or two sentences, explain why the employer should hire you for their open position. When writing a resume objective, introduce who you are (“results-driven medical salesperson with 5+ years of experience”), followed by a brief description of talents and accomplishments related to that job.
4. List your strengths
Create a list of your skills that are related to the medical sales job you are applying for. Focus on skills that make you an effective salesperson, such as technical and marketing skills. Other medical sales skills might include:
- Communication
- Leadership
- Organization
- Public Relations and marketing
- Community and medical staff collaboration
5. Include your experience
Highlight any professional experience you have that relates to the medical sales job. For each current or previous job on your medical sales resume, include your title, the company’s name, the dates employed, and the job’s location. Include a list of your main responsibilities and accomplishments as an employee with each company. Including your experiences and dates of employment can help the hiring manager track your progress and determine your career path as a medical sales employee in the company.
6. Apply appropriate margins
Format your resume in a way that is visually appealing to the recruiting manager. Set proper margins for your resume to make sure the page has enough space on it to be easily readable. Standard margins on resumes are 1 inch on all sides. If you need more space to list your work experience and skills, you can reduce the margin to 0.75 inches. You might also align all the content on your medical sales resume with the left side of the page, which is the easiest resume format for employers to read. If you choose a center alignment format, align your header at the top center of the page as well.
7. Use a readable font
Choose a font for your resume that is clear and easy to read. Hiring managers and applicant tracking systems (ATS) should be able to scan it quickly and find the information they need. Most employers use ATS that cannot interpret or read complex fonts well. Consider these fonts when writing your resume:
- Roman Italic
- Agency FB
- Georgia
- Cambria
- Calibri
- Avenir
8. Use bullet points where appropriate
Organize your resume’s education, skills and experience sections using bullet points, which are easier for hiring managers to scan and read than paragraphs. Make sure every bulleted list has at least two bullet point items.For example, you can use bullet points to summarize your duties at a company and demonstrate how you succeeded in that role:
- Consistently organized successful medical meetings with the staff and community
- Outlined the need for three more business facilities
- Completed monthly medical sales reports as needed
In the education section, use a list format without bullet points:* Medical Sales Board Certified, February 2019
9. Edit for spelling and grammar
After writing your medical sales resume, proofread it to make sure the spelling, punctuation and grammar are correct. Ask a friend or mentor to read it as well, or use a grammar checking app or software to scan it for accuracy. Recruiters look for mistake-free resumes when hiring medical sales professionals.
10. Ask for feedback
Also find a trustworthy friend or mentor to review your resume for readability and formatting. Their outside feedback and perspective can be useful, and they might find areas you can improve to make your resume more attractive.
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