Creating an Outstanding CV for Sales Positions in Medical Devices

When on the medical sales job market, the resume is usually the first impression you make to potential employers. It therefore presents you with your one shot at showing how uniquely skilled, qualified, and experienced you are to the job, or rather what puts you at the helm, as the ideal candidate for the role, and it mainly determines if you'd reach the interview stage or bypassed by another candidate. With all these qualified applicants vying for the same job, how will you ensure that your resume makes it past a recruiter's applicant tracking system and - once it lands in the hands of an actual, live, involved decision-maker - stands out from the pack?

The trick to a good medical sales representative resume is actually that you tailor your profile to specific sales roles, aligning your skills with the keywords and concepts in their job description while also playing up your most relevant accomplishments and expertise. Here are some tips that'll help you create a stand-out resume that will make it past an ATS (more on that later) and impress hiring managers:

Emphasize Your Experience in Relevant Sales

A no-brainer is that applicants often fail to emphasize or adequately highlight their most transferable sales skills on the job they are trying to pursue. Medical sales reps typically need sales backgrounds, so highlight any previous sales roles you have performed or sales achievements, even if those were in another field or industry. Quantify successes wherever possible using metrics such as sales targets or quotas exceeded, number of territories managed, and customer satisfaction rates improved. This concrete proof of your sales ability will prove your ability to deliver results to a potential employer, and, if you go through to later rounds of the interview process, letters of testimony on your behalf from professional references should also buttress those previous roles where you've evidenced the highest performance results.

Highlight Your Product Expertise

What is the medical device employer looking for? Awareness of or willingness to learn about his/her product. Ability to communicate complex technical material. Experience with particular medical devices or technologies-just demonstrate that on your resume. Describe your familiarity with the product lines, features, and applications as well as any training or certifications you have received. Of course, the most important thing to take away from this is don't bury this information deep in your resume, but instead make it easy to find. Research has shown that hiring managers will scan through a resume in only 5 or 6 seconds before deciding whether to accept or reject your resume.

Display Your Skills Particular to Your Industry

Beyond conventional sales techniques, medical device sales agents need a special set of abilities. Emphasize any pertinent abilities that would be helpful in this position, such as:

Understanding of industry norms and regulatory compliance

Proficiency in maneuvering through intricate healthcare settings

Capacity to establish connections with medical experts

Excellent presentation and communication abilities

Technical proficiency for product demonstration and troubleshooting

You can still use these talents to relate your prior work experiences, even if you are fresh to the sales field.

Add Industry Keywords

Most firms use applicant tracking systems to filter resumes for keywords once they are submitted. The applicant tracking system will eliminate resumes that lack the keywords present in the job description. In this regard, it means that, in most situations, your resume might end up in the dustbin before it gets to a real human being if it lacks the keywords identified in the position. The way to get your resume past an ATS is to study popular keywords and phrases frequently used when writing medical device sales job descriptions and think of a natural way to scatter these phrases throughout your resume. If the ATS can spot that maybe, just maybe, this resume matches the job description, set it aside to be viewed by the hiring manager.

Customize Your Resume for Every Job

While it might be tempting and very time-saving to stick with one-size-fits-all, using a tailor-made document for every specific position can give you an extremely varied job search outcome. Read the description of the job to be done carefully, and update your resume in line with the primary requirements and qualifications mentioned. This reflects the extent of personalization, which is detailed and gives a commitment to that particular role and, again, increases your probability that it will be accepted by the ATS.

Your resume is one of the first looks an employer may have into your qualifications, so it really needs to make a great first impression. Using these tips will help you write a fantastic resume that articulates your unique value proposition as a medical device sales professional-from zero years to however many experience you have-guaranteeing you an interview.