Transform your Medical Sales Resume into one that Appeals to Today’s Online Readers

As a resume writer, the majority of resumes that come my way are out of date from a formatting perspective and are tough to read online.

Given that today’s medical sales hiring manager usually has no more than six to 10 seconds to spare per resume (15 to 20 seconds if they know you or received your resume from someone they know), and that 99% will read your resume on some sort of a screen, it is critical to address these medical sales resume shortcomings.

Below is a  list of sales resume tips to fix these Resume Don’ts:

#1 TOO LONG

There’s a lot out there about the ideal medical sales resume length.  Anecdotal experience tells me that in most cases three pages is just too long and will be perceived as such.

One page is great – but unless you’re new to pharma sales or medical device sales or have been in the same job your whole career, it’s not often realistic to fit in 5+ years of medical sales experience onto one page.

THE QUICK FIX: Widen your margins to no more than .5 inches all around, choose a small sans serif font (love Calibri!) and set your point size to 10 or 11.  You will be amazed at how much less room this new version takes up on the page.

#2 TOO MUCH TEXT

Chunked blocks of text, or text that is greater than three lines in length, is easy to read in print but tough to read online.  A skim reader who comes across a heavy block of text is apt to skip it altogether.

THE QUICK FIX: Whittle down your sentences to the ideal one- to two-line length and use a bullet to distinguish it from the next thought.  Make sure to have at least .5 point between your bullets to facilitate skim, online reading.

#3 TOO OLD

Those that have read medical sales resumes for ages can easily tell if you are out of the loop where resume trends are concerned – thanks to telltale signs.

THE QUICK FIX: Show you are up to speed on current resume writing trends by 1) removing an objective 2) removing “references available upon request 3) including just your cell and not both home and cell and 4) including your LinkedIn URL in the contact info along with your email.

#4 TOO HARD TO FIND THE GOOD STUFF

Skim readers usually only have time to read the first bullet below a job title. It is therefore crucial that the first thing the reader sees is something impactful.

In other words, don’t bury your achievements below your list of responsibilities –the skim reader may never get to it!

THE QUICK FIX: Refer to your medical sales stats and ask yourself what you are proudest of. Use the response together with some context so the reader can understand your challenges, actions and results.

#5 TOO MANY WOWS AT THE END

Unlike print reading where the eye tracks from left to right smoothly, when reading online our eyes tend to start left and then jump all over the screen. From an online resume reading perspective, this means that bullets must be front-loaded so that the “wow” part of the achievement appears first.

THE QUICK FIX: Place the achievement at the front of the sentence v. the end.

Example: “Elevated bottom-ranked territory to #1 in nation via a targeted sales strategy”

 VERSUS

“Executed a targeted sales strategy that elevated a bottom-ranked territory to #1.

– By Virginia Franco, NCRW, CPRW

Virginia Franco Resumes | www.virginiafrancoresumes.com | vfranco@carolina.rr.com