Got a pharma sales interview? Don't forget your "brag book"

If you're interviewing for a position in pharmaceutical sales, your portfolio, or "brag book", is an important and generally expected element. MedZilla offers readers information about why brag books are important, what to put in them and how to use them to present yourself.

For Immediate Release

Got a pharma sales interview? Don't forget your "brag book"

Marysville, WA (PRWEB) April 23, 2004 -- Landing a job in pharmaceutical sales can be very competitive -even if you have experience and an impressive sales record. Sales experts will tell you that your portfolio of accomplishments, or "brag book", is an important element that you probably shouldn't be without. Brag books are made up of presentations that back up your claims, and, in pharmaceutical or medical device sales, they can help in your mission to land a job.

"Whether or not to have a brag book, what to put in it and how to present it are some of the most frequently asked questions on the MedZilla pharmaceutical sales forum," says Michele Groutage, marketing director of MedZilla.com, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that serves biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science. "We know the topic weighs heavily on the minds of aspiring pharmaceutical sale reps because the MedZilla forum is probably one of the key places on the net where pharmaceutical sales people go to discuss job search strategies."

Don't leave home without it

Tracey Warford, a surgery product specialist who sells injectables for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson, says that if you want a job in pharma sales, you shouldn't go to the interview without a brag book. Warford, who got laid off in December before landing a new job with Ortho Biotech, says even professional career counselors often don't realize how important these tools are in pharma sales. A career counselor hired to help her in her job search after she was laid off tried to dissuade her from bringing her "big" binder to the interview. However, she knew he was wrong, and she landed the job.

Warford had to redo and update her brag book, which she compiled five years prior.

She learned about what it should include by asking colleagues, going to the MedZilla forum and querying a pharmaceutical district manager for feedback on the books. She realized, after five years in pharmaceutical sales, that the brag book was very much like the "detail binder" pharma sales reps present to physicians and other clients. The detail binder includes information to support what you're telling the physician about your employer's product. It includes clinical studies, package inserts, marketing materials, etc.

In the same respect, the brag book supports what you're saying about your experience, accomplishments and more. Rather than selling a product to a physician, you are selling yourself to a district or hiring manager.

What should your brag book include?

Warford divided her brag book into sections, including her resume, a list of references (with names and numbers of people she worked with), her professional achievements (including certificates and awards), letters of recommendation, annual reviews, emails from colleagues and clients commending her on her work, and a miscellaneous section. In the miscellaneous section, she includes an article about doing lunches that she wrote for Pharmaceutical Rep magazine, information about advisory board meetings she has attended, and a company calendar featuring a picture of Warford and her office staff.

The book should be professional looking, with neat tabs. "The way that I present it is the same way that I present my product to the physician. I don't go through page by page-that's monotonous and boring," she says.

Warford might tell the district manager about her being named the number one representative in the company one year and pull out the certificate to support her claim. It's the same thinking, she says, when you tell a doctor that a drug has a low side effect profile and pull out information from the package labeling to back up your statement.

Should you worry if you don't have pharma experience?

A hiring manager would know that a person who does not have direct pharma sales experience would not have a brag book filled with pharma-related accomplishments. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have a brag book-it just means that your emphasis would be different.

Warford suggests that you include sales accomplishments, certificates, awards, recommendations and more from whatever industry you were in. Put it together professionally, and it will show that you have an understanding of the pharma sales process. Even people just out of college can include college, summer work and volunteer experience achievements. "But don't fabricate the information," Warford warns. "It will come back to haunt you."

Not just for pharma

"I think brag books are important not just for pharmaceutical sales but also for many other interview situations," says Frank Heasley, president and CEO of MedZilla. "It always helps to bring along some sort of portfolio of the things that you've accomplished in your career-things you would not include with your resume but that certainly serve as points of discussion to enhance communications with the person that you are talking with."

Dr. Heasley remembers using the brag book concept when he was interviewing for jobs in research and development. "I would bring examples of products that I had played a key role in the development of. I'd bring my certificates and letters of recommendation-just things that back up your candidacy," he says. "People appreciated it. Often, if I were waiting for the interviewer to come into a room, I would take my products out of my bag and line them up on the desk in front of me. Then, I'd bring pages out of my portfolio and talk about them."

While industry experts differ on their opinions about whether having a brag book is essential, there is general agreement that having a brag book can help land pharmaceutical jobs.

About MedZilla.com

Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. MedZilla databases contain about 10,000 open positions, 13,000 resumes from candidates actively seeking new positions and 71,000 archived resumes.

Medzilla® is a Registered Trademark owned by Medzilla Inc. Copyright ©2004, MedZilla, Inc. Permission is granted to reproduce and distribute this text in its entirety, and if electronically, with a link to the URL www.medzilla.com. For permission to quote from or reproduce any portion of this message, please contact Michele Groutage, Director of Marketing and Development, MedZilla, Inc. Email: mgroutage@medzilla.com.