Are medical sales jobs what they used to be?

Well firstly, the reason why there have been so many cuts in the numbers of medical sales staff may not be what you think.  The current economy certainly isn't helping, but it's more to do with a trend which developed in the early 90s and grow out of control.

In the early 90s companies began to experiment with increased numbers of medical sales jobs to increase noise levels in the market place.  First 2 then 3...all the way to  8 in some cases.  What happened was that companies began to compete for the share of voice even though there was the short term result of losses due to staff cuts, it became a question  of matching staff number or die!

Now, the environment had changed and shareholders are demanding profits over shorter time frames meaning the levels of medical sales jobs simply weren't sustainable, resulting in widespread cuts across the industry.

All this said, the quality of a medical sales job with several people on a territory is much less that having your own territory, so for those that weather the cuts and stay, the medical sales jobs left on the other side will likely be more attractive than they have been over the last 10 years.