Your Cart is Empty
If you are interviewing for a role at a medical device sales company for an associate role, you are almost guaranteed to get asked "Why do you want to do medical device sales?" during the interview.
Your response to this question can make or break your chances of landing the role.
I stumbled across this post on Reddit recently that illustrates how critical it is to solidify your "Why Medical Device?" statement.
In summary: a nurse is looking to transition to medical device sales but is struggling to pass the interview. The interviewers seem surprised that she is leaving nursing. This is a textbook case that illustrates how improving your answer to "Why Medical Device?" can help you in the interview.
Of course, it is impossible to say that the sole reason for her challenges can be attributed to her answer to "Why do you want to do medical device sales?". I do, however, suspect that this answer could use some refining.
Before you start journey applying and interviewing for associate roles in medical device sales, you must discover and refine your purpose for entering the industry for three reasons:
As seen in the example above, not having a well-thought-out, tailored response to the question can decimate your chances of excelling in the interview.
This response is so important that we've dedicated an entire chapter of our course (Section 3: Landing the Interview, Mastering "Why?"). The entire section works on crafting an unbeaten response to the most asked interview question, understanding the Winning "Why?" Framework, reviewing anticipated counter questions, and identifying your core principles.
Let's anchor this exercise in the Reddit example. The goal of this exercise is to craft a winning response to the question "Why do you want to be in medical device sales?".
We'll assume the identity of the former nurse who is looking for a transition due to client interactions, upward mobility, money, and work from home. Let's pretend that she is targeting an associate role in spine at Medtronic.
Interviewers will poke holes in your answer if it is not constructed properly. He or she will do so by asking you counter questions. Here are a few examples:
Not constructing an air-tight response to the question "Why medical device sales?" can expose you to these types of counter questions. The goal is to have an answer that eliminates ambiguity.
The first step is looking beyond the surface value of these reasons for wanting to get into medical device sales. It requires a bit of introspection. Let's dive deeper by posing questions to expose your core principles.
Use the insight of identifying deeper core principles to construct a story of how the principles logically tie into your past experience.
Building off a few of the statements above from above:
I initially went into nursing because I wanted a role where I could tangibly see the impact of my work on patient outcomes. There is nothing more fulfilling to me than seeing how my work directly improves the lives of my patients. In my current role, I help patients each day; however, I want to expand my horizons and make a broader impact on patient outcomes by way of medical device sales. Additionally, my work as a nurse enabled me to thrive in a results-oriented environment.
The final part of constructing your "Why Medical Device Sales?" answer is tying your core principles and experience to the sales role you are interviewing for. Let's pretend we are targeting an associate role in spine at Medtronic.
This associate role in spine presents a unique chance to apply my extensive clinical knowledge in Medtronic's results-oriented sales organization. I relish the fact that medical device sales affords me the opportunity to make an impact on the bottom line without sacrificing my passion to improve patient outcomes. I look forward to championing these synergies if I am fortunate enough to begin my career as a spine associate at Medtronic.
This is the easy part. String together each section we covered. Open with your core principles, relate it to your past experience, then tie it back to the role. Here is the example we just worked through pieced together in a cohesive response:
Crafting your answer to "Why do you want to do medical device sales?" requires a thoughtful approach. If you don't prepare your response correctly, you will struggle during the interview.
We hope this guide helps put you on the right track. If you are gearing up for interviews and found this helpful, check out our All-In Course. We have an entire lesson on this topic where we go step-by-step through the most common "Why Medical Device?" statements from applicants, share counter-questions from hiring managers, highlight winning core principles, and conclude with 10 example statements.
Comments will be approved before showing up.
