Pharmaceutical Sales

When I returned home from Costa Rica, I started interviewing for real jobs.  I had met some pharmaceutical sales reps while working for my dad who wanted me to work with them, so I applied.  The pharma industry was in high demand at the time, but somehow, without any real sales experience and before I was officially graduated from college, I landed a job.  For training I flew to Kansas City, MO for 2 weeks.  When I got back I did some in field training and then started working in my territory.  My base salary was 36k plus bonus, I was given 4 weeks of vacation plus 4 flex days, good health insurance, a 401k and a company car.  I thought I had hit the jackpot.  

This was my training group.  I'm center, blue shirt

The goal of my job was to convince doctors that my drugs were superior to others in the same classification so that they would prescribe my drugs for their patients.  I was selling Allegra and Amaryl in the beginning and was very successful.  I was working in a great team.  After my first full year I won the "Nova Award" which was an award for the best new sales rep. Our team also won a team award.  That meant that I won two trips, I also got a raise.  That year the trip was to Tucson, Arizona.  The company paid for everything, including golf and our excursions.  It was so fun to be there with our team and their spouses.  We always had the best time together.

Receiving the Nova Award

The next year I had an equally successful year.  My numbers were the best in the district, but because I had won 2 awards the year before, the leadership decided to share the wealth and gave the award to another person.  That really pissed off a lot of people.  The girl they gave it to had the 5th best numbers in our district.  The four of us that had better numbers felt jilted.  I talked to the regional director about it and he said that if I had the best numbers 3 years in a row, he would definitely take that into consideration.

The next year we launched a new drug, Lantus.  Not only did I have the best numbers in the district, I had the second best numbers in the nation.  The only area that did better than me was the area in Kansas City, Mo who had early access to the new insulin.  

That year I won "Sales Associate of the Year" and the President's Club award.  Because I won both, I had to choose which trip I wanted to go on and they bought me out of the other one.  The choices were the Bellagio in Las Vegas or the Ritz Carlton in St. Thomas.  I chose St. Thomas and got a thousand bucks for the other one.  

Receiving the Sales Associate of the Year award

Scuba Diving in St. Thomas

Look at the water on Jost Van Dyke


Snuba 

St. Thomas was dreamy.  When we opened the door to our room there was a gift on the bed.  It was a beach bag with 2 towels, sunscreen and $800 dollars for lunches.  Our breakfasts were included at the hotel and our dinners would be taken care of by the company.  It was so nice to spend some relaxing time on the beach.  The company rented a sailboat and we sailed to Jost Van Dyke which was the most beautiful beach I had ever been too.  We had lunch at Foxy's and snorkled off the boat.  Another day we golfed and another day we got resort certified and went scuba diving. It was a lovely trip and we went home with $500 in our pocket.  

My favorite parts about working in the industry were the fun activities we did.  We had bowling nights, dine and dashes, went to see musicals or movies or other shows and did Lagoon days.  During spring and summer we would work Monday-Thursday and then on Fridays we golfed with clients.  I would often take lunch in for the doctors and staff and would have left overs to take home for dinner.  I rarely cooked.  

My job enabled us to build a house.  It was so nice to be able to move out of the basement into a beautiful new home.  We moved from Layton to Syracuse.  Soon after, David graduated from college and started working for bank.  We were DINKs.  

After 4 years I in pharmaceutical sales I was feeling burned out.  What I really wanted was to be a mom, but I had not been able to get pregnant.  I met with a fertility specialist who said that maybe the stress of my job was affecting my ability to conceive.  I decided to quit my job, take a break and do some fertility treatments.  


Our team liked to dress up for Halloween. 
This year we were hillbillies.

Snow White and the 5 dorks

I went back to work for 3 different companies before I finally became a mom.  The first time I took a contract to sell Allegra again.  The second time I took a part-time job with Bioglan and the third time I was hired by Wyeth.  

Contract Sales District

Bioglan district

my friends Mike and Dave.
They always made me laugh
National Meeting in Atlanta

My friend David at our Bioglan National Meeting
Key Biscayne, Florida

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