Going from Engineering to Medical Sales?

fatbadger2

Hello, I really hope someone can shine a light for me

I am currently a Mechanical Engineer in the medical sector on about £40K with good benefits, pension etc.

But, I am really bored and fed up with the nitty gritty of a very demanding (intellectually) but quite unrewarding (financially) job - considering how hard it is, I'm not satisfied tho I know 40k is a lot by some standards.

My strengths are: I understand orthopaedic devices/implants and the engineering that goes into them and the surgical operations needed (I interact with surgeons a lot). I have a PhD is medical devices, am very personable and make good rapport with strangers (even when I know I don't like them!)

So, I was thinking Medical Sales looks like a good salary (30-50K PLUS bonus). The trouble is all the jobs say "must have sales track record". Does anyone know if this is a 100% bar to me getting into this, or should I 'sell' myself on technical and interpersonal competence?

Thanks so much

agrinnall

It's probably worth a try, but if jobs are being advertised by agencies they may well simply see a lack of sales experience and reject your application. A better approach may be to use any existing contacts you have in the industry to get yourself on companies' radar so that they can come to you when there is a job. LinkedIn could well be a good tool to use for this.