How to Go From Military Veteran to Medical Device Sales
Veterans bring discipline, leadership, and work ethic to medical device sales. Here's how to translate military experience, network, and win the interview.
Anthony Giglia
· 3 min read
Veterans can make great medical device sales candidates. The discipline, structure, and work ethic you develop in the military can transfer well to this industry.
Medical device sales requires you to manage your time, stay organized, learn a lot of information, and keep going when things don’t go your way. You’ll also need to work with physicians and hospital staff, respond under pressure, and take responsibility for your territory. If you’ve led people or managed complex responsibilities in the military, you already have experiences you can draw from.
The challenge is making sure a hiring manager understands how those experiences translate to the role.
Translate your military experience into sales language
Your resume should do more than list your duties. It should show the scale of your responsibilities and what you accomplished.
For example, I helped a former Marine land a role at Zimmer. Rather than listing generic job responsibilities, we showed that he had led a platoon of 36 Marines. That number immediately gave the hiring manager a clearer picture of his leadership experience.
Think about what you can quantify in your own background. How many people did you lead? What equipment or resources were you responsible for? What goals did your team achieve? What processes did you improve?
You don’t need to pretend that military service is sales experience. You need to show the decision-making, leadership, accountability, and results that will matter in a sales role. (You also don’t need prior sales experience to break in.)
Keep your resume to one page. Make it easy to follow, explain military terms a civilian hiring manager may not know, and put numbers throughout the page wherever they accurately describe your work. Here’s more on building a resume that gets interviews.
Apply for the right roles and network with the right people
The first barrier to breaking in is getting interviews. Your background and resume matter, but so does how you apply.
Look for associate sales rep and other entry-level roles that match your experience. Then identify the people involved in each hiring decision. I would rather see you pursue three positions that make sense and do everything possible to connect with the decision makers than apply to 200 jobs online and do no networking.
Reach out to hiring managers and reps on the team. Learn about the company and division before you contact them. Give them a reason to remember you beyond the fact that you submitted an application.
Prepare to win the interview
The second barrier is getting the offer. A hiring manager may admire your military background and still wonder how you’ll perform in a medical sales role. Your job in the interview is to help them make that connection.
Be ready to walk through your resume in language they’ll understand. Prepare specific stories about leadership, overcoming setbacks, learning quickly, and delivering results. Keep your answers concise and make sure each story ends with what you accomplished.
You also need to study the company. Know its products, the patients it serves, the anatomy and pathology involved, and why that particular role interests you. Prepare thoughtful questions for every interview and know how to close.
Veterans have a lot to offer medical device companies. If you translate your experience clearly, network with the right people, and prepare to extreme levels, you can show a hiring manager why you deserve a shot.
