Pharmaceutical Interview Questions

All serious aspirants to the pharmaceutical industry must be familiar with this list of pharmaceutical interview questions. As with any other job interview, the questions revolve around facts and figures about yourself, your career, the organization you applied for and the industry you applied for with a greater degree of job specific queries. Since competition is high in this area, you are better off leaving nothing to chance. According to experts the interview process could be anything from one week to a month and may even be a six-step interview process.

If you have been a pharmaceutical company sales representative before, prepare yourself on previous experiences by qualifying and quantifying them and how they benefited your previous company then. Get your resume ready to sell yourself. This part is the key part and lasts about 90 seconds and is termed by some as a ’90 second commercial’ that sells you to the interviewer.  Make the best possible sales pitch for yourself. Your commercial introduces you, states your objective, your previous job and your achievements, products handled, clients and territories handled, achievements, the reason for the move, your education background and a brief about other jobs handled during your career.

Needless to add, in order to answer pharmaceutical interview questions, you must know the company you have applied to well. Check out its website, annual report and other news items and news releases. Know its products, competitor’s products, strategies and if possible your views on how to improve sales for these companies.

Some sample pharmaceutical interview questions that you may encounter in a job interview are listed.

How do you perceive a pharmaceutical representatives typical workday?

As a sales representative you know very well that your job is to sell to the physicians. Whatever it takes you have to increase the sales figures. To do that you must make a favorable impression on the doctors, especially the ones that count. Discuss how you plan for each doctor differently based on their work schedules and preferences, likes and dislikes.

What is the most challenging aspect of a pharmaceutical representative?

As a pharmaceutical representative your biggest challenge is pretty much in influencing the physicians among many others representatives who are doing the same thing. Tell the interviewer on how you find your way to sell yourself to physicians creatively and to make it count in numbers.

If given a territory and a list of physicians to call on, how would you go about it?

Nothing beats sound field knowledge to make a strategy. Know your territory first.  Know your customers and their sales potential. Analyze the data and figure out where your biggest potential is in terms of the 80:20 principle (80% of your business comes from 20% of the people). After the A list is covered, then make your own B list and C list within a time frame that fits with the organizations sales closing

How would you like your ideal sales manager to be - to get the best out of you?

Some pharmaceutical interview questions like this one are tricky. But you would certainly like a helpful sort who equips you with all the tools and knowledge, tips and other forms of support. You need one who can assess your potential and set you realistic goals based on a well-analyzed sales plan. One who actually sees you in action and tells you how to get the best strategy in place. One who can drive you, who supports and believes in you, who is open, honest and who can use his knowledge and yours to bring about a synergistic result. One who can add value to both your personal and career goals.

How do you think you would get a Physician to switch to your drug?

The biggest challenge comes with a physician who is happy with his current drug. In such a case, your first step is to make your presence felt by setting small goals and making small in roads. As you gain more knowledge about the drugs and the physician’s prescribing behavior you would use your product knowledge and other tools to make the physician view your drug favorably. Then your next step is to get the physician to prescribe to one patient type, and you have a foot in the door. Follow up with the doctor to see the results on the patient type and then you can push for other patient types.

For more pharmaceutical interview questions, go to our job interview page.