Congrats, you did it, you earned your PhD degree. You put in a lot of work, time and effort to obtain those letters and now you are thinking about becoming a biotech sales specialist. Awesome, here are 4 tips you can immediately start doing to land your first sales gig. 

Tip 1 – If you have not talked with your career center at your University, then I would encourage you to setup a meeting with your Universities Graduate School Career Advisor. Typically these career counselors sit within the graduate student affairs office, when I was a post-doc at The University of Chicago, they had a great website tool to connect with counselors and grad mentors: Career Development Link Example - The University of Chicago

Tip 2 – Often times, you might have sales reps from biotech companies come into your lab to talk with you about your research projects. This is a great opportunity to network with your biotech sales reps selling solutions to your lab. These relationships with your biotech sales reps can be a gateway to ask them questions about their role and what they actually do. It is a great opportunity to incorporate Informational Interviews and if you think the company could be a really good fit, you can always ask the sales rep to be a referral. This is the best way to get noticed by recruiters especially if you do not have any sales experience.

Tip 3 - Find a networking group that is related to your interest. Best way to find these meetups whether virtual or in person is either by talking with your career services team within your university, local postings through graduate student and post-doctoral events and associations. Of course do not forget about google, here are two links to check out Mass Bio Events Resource and MassBio Career page

Tip 4 – Create a LinkedIn profile if you do not already have one, you can sign up here, LinkedIn Sign Up Page. LinkedIn has a massive network of people that are willing to help and give back, you just need to ask. By the way cold reach out to a person you do not know is part of a sales role, so you should be very comfortable doing this if you are interested in sales. Good news, is that you will be surprised how many people are willing to help via an information interview with you. Once you do talk with someone who is willing to help, make sure to ask them who else they might know and if they would be willing to connect you with them.

Long story, short you will want to tap into your resources. Get creative and think outside the box. Moving from the lab into a biotech sales is not easy and you may get rejected several times before getting your first offer. Stick with it and be resourceful and I guarantee you will find success.