The ups and downs of field training jobs in pharmaceuticals

During my early career, field training was seen as an interesting and realistic promotion prospect from a pure sales role. Other jobs in pharmaceuticals such as product management, regional sales management and head office training were viewed as too much of a step up from field based sales. Field training meant higher status, and a step towards moving up the career ladder later on.

Field training provides two different advantages to the individuals involved. The trainer is someone who has been successful in their own field sales role, and they will provide support and assistance to comparatively less experienced sales team members. So during the training period, sales knowledge and skills are transferred from the trainer to the trainee, whilst the trainer is developing their own management skills which could help them in their own future positions. An added bonus is the fact that as the trainer is not the trainee’s manager, the pressure of results is removed, and the trainer performs a mentoring role.

You need to bear in mind the less positive aspects of a field training role. Some people find it difficult to be removed from a selling situation, with the stress but high rewards of success. If you are an individual who enjoys the selling ‘buzz’, and are successful in doing so, field training removes a lot of this. You are passing on your skills to someone else, who must then put them into practice while you sit and watch.

Another factor to bear in mind is that field training roles are quite often the first to go when staff numbers have to be reduced. Re-organisations in the current industry is common, as jobs in pharmaceuticals are having to move with the changing requirements of the NHS. Dedicated field training is not seen as a role that directly contributes to production.

The last negative aspect to this type of role is that you can sometimes feel isolated, not being part of the sales team, and yet not part of management either. When an individual is underperforming, you could be asked to get involved in not only improving their performance, but also reporting back with your assessment of how they are doing. This could directly impact on their future in this role, putting you in an awkward position and changing how you are perceived by the rest of the team.

A good approach when considering some field training experience is to continue to perform a sales role as well. This can be tricky to manage in terms of maintaining clients and training other team members but will provide a number of advantages. These include better job security, variation in your work and feeling much more part of the team. If you are looking at jobs in pharmaceuticals, field training is a very useful experience to have and may lead to extra career opportunities in the future.

Article Source: http://www.articleselections.com

John Bult runs an internet jobs board advertising jobs in pharmaceuticals in the UK

Please Rate this Article

5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5 

Not yet Rated