Pharmaceutical Sales through the recession

If all you do in terms of trying to land your first pharmaceutical sales job is to send in your resume to human resources departments, recruiters or through a resume 'blasting' service, then your efforts may not become fruitful during tough times of a recession. Even in good times, blindly sending in your resume is not the most effective way of getting a pharmaceutical sales position. Ironically, this is probably the most often used method among job seekers out there. If you are one of the more savvy job seekers taking the time to network with industry people like current pharmaceutical sales representatives, sales managers and other folks who are connected with the industry in your local area, then these efforts will have a higher chance of getting you results.
First of all, you could have less competition during a tough economy since many people out there will simply wait for a better times before restarting their job search efforts again, at least in pharmaceutical sales. Second, if you do your networking properly and if the industry people you network with like you as a high potential sales rep, then they will remember you. If you take the time to develop some sort of business relationship with these people, you will keep your name at the top of their minds.
Even if there are no openings during tougher times, there will be again eventually since economic slumps are usually part of business cycles. When companies are in a position to hire again due to better economic conditions, your name will be at the top of their candidate list. Your competition, who just apply during healthy economic periods, will be at a major disadvantage to you since they are unknown entities to the companies but you are already known as a serious candidate for a pharmaceutical sales position. Companies may not even bother to advertise for openings if they already know that you are available to fill in a spot in their sales force.
The other factor is that for many companies in pharmaceuticals and health care, there could be some business units that seem to be recession proof. No matter how the economy is doing, sales of some pharmaceutical and health care products are pretty stable since people still need health care as well as medications all the time. In fact, it is said that we could see even more people in need of health care during tough times because of increased stress levels for individuals trying to make ends meet. So some companies in the health care sector may be doing just fine during recessions.
The bottom line, is that if you choose to network wisely with pharmaceutical industry people and not expect that sales positions will be open right at the moment, then doing so during a recession is as good as any other times. In fact, being active in networking during recessions may give you a definite edge over your competition in the job market for pharmaceutical sales.