During my time working in pharmaceutical recruitment, I have filled many vacancies. In my opinion, the task of filling medical sales jobs with the correct candidate is the most difficult.

There are various reasons for this, usually when recruiting for many roles you simply match the technical capability, skills and experience. This can usually be discovered from looking at a CV, without the need for a formal interview. However there is a difference with a medical sales vacancy as there are less obvious factors that determine if a candidate is going to succeed in any potential role.

To give an example, if I was hiring a somebody for a computer programming vacancy, it would be relatively easy to asses a candidates capability in an interview. This could be done by finding out if they had programmed a similar application before and if it was successful. If they answer yes to the question, then its pretty likely that they will be able to do so again, it's straight forward.

For a role like medical sales, it is not as straight forward. A role like this one requires a lot of motivation for it to succeed. For example if a candidate for a medical sales role is an experienced representative, I would have to query why they would be moving sideways in their career and not forward. If somebody is performing well and being paid a good salary, why would they want to risk moving sideways and building their reputation again.

The answer that somebody could give to the question why they would want the role could fall into an acceptable or unacceptable territory. Here are some acceptable answers:

1: This would be their first job in the industry. They realise and believe that to progress their career, they need to gain experience in more than one company. Alternatively, they could be looking to expand their CV by gaining experience in a specific sector.

2: They could be working for a small company, one with little chance of truly progressing.

3: They are performing well, potentially the best in their company, but earn a poor amount in bonuses. Alternatively, the company may be downsizing or unlikely to continue to exist.

Those would all be reasonable answers, ones which would not go against them in an interview. There are less acceptable answers, which would set of a few alarm bells. Here are some examples:

1: They have either fallen out with their boss, or don't get along with members of their team. As well as this, they could indicate that they don't like their current companies' culture.

2: Their sales results have been poor for reasons beyond their control, or if they believe their product isn't any good.

3: If they are only looking to move for more money. This could indicate that they are likely to want to move on again shortly.

4: If they have failed their ABPI

With the less acceptable answers, a candidate is unlikely to provide this information directly, so it usually does take some probing to reveal their reasons for attending the interview.

In reality, Medical Sales jobs do not differ greatly from company to company, for somebody to want to leave their current one for a job which is similar always raises eye brows.

If you are interviewing, look out for the tell tale signs of untruthfulness. Make eye contact and probe, if you see somebody squirm, they are lying!

Use the answers provided as a guide and you should be able to find a motivated medical sales representative to fill your vacancy.

Good luck.