Every time I talked to people about jobs; whether it be recruiters, hiring managers, human resources personnel or customers or any curious about my job, they would all ask the question: why sales? (i.e., why didn't I stay at the bench?) This begs the question of what is the difference between the two. Would one enjoy sales as much as bench work? I guess it really comes down to personality for me. My journey into sales is not representative of other sales professionals, but a sales job does fit my personality better. Not that I would not get along with people in a laboratory. It’s quite the opposite. However, I have always been one to learn about new things, to gain knowledge and insights about many different things. During my undergraduate study, I was an unpaid intern, starting with my freshman year, at many different labs with many disciplines. My reasoning was for me to learn what would interest me and attend graduate schools in that area. Of course, I ended up liking everything. In sales, I am given the opportunity to learn about all sorts of research studies. That's what excited me. I am straying from the topic at hand, however, so let's get back to it. Which to consider: sales or bench work? Let me specify it further to field sales versus bench work, as I never had an inside sales position. It has been a while since I worked in a lab, so I am just going by my old experiences. If I am incorrect, please correct me.
First, I should say that science is exciting and lab work is exciting in its own right. I remember how great it felt when my friend, Sean, then a graduate student in the lab where I did my 199A course (independent research study), helped me recognized my first discovery of a potential genetic marker through analysis of my Northern blot result. This was after six months of mouse bleeding, tails grinding, RNA extraction, and Northern blotting. Yes, this was before qPCR was the norm in every lab. My PI just negotiated with Cepheid for a Smartcycler. In academia, it seemed like you live and breathe science. I remember working until 1 or 2 AM in the morning. I would work until dinner time; have dinner, then go back to the lab to work, then head to the gym at 9PM, then coming back to the lab. My husband, then boyfriend, would try to page me (yes, to my pager, didn't everyone have one of those?) and not be able to connect with me because I was down in the mouse room and there was no signal in the basement of the building. All that seemed so worth it with the discovery I made. For a lot of scientists out there, I believe this ring true for you.
When I was working industry bench jobs, the hours got more regular, but so were the work. Yes, the discovery could happen here as well. Which drug formulation will gain entry into the mouse’s bloodstream and allow the drug to do its magic? Which rabbits will create the right antibodies that can be used to bind to that protein that would stop that gene from being over expressed? There are millions of questions and millions of possible answers. Of course, as a lab technician, I didn't make the decision on which question to try to answer. The activities I was tasked with seemed routine and I lost that excitement. Of course, lab work afforded a lot of stability and consistency. You know what would be expected of you and you would work from 8 to 5. There would be no last minute flight to make a meeting with a customer.
Another thing that lab work would afford you is the ability to leave work at work. When you are in field sales, if you travel the day before, you can expect some late nights doing follow-ups. Sometimes, before bed, you would end up on the computer sending responses to customers. If you have a blackberry, then it could be a constant thing. Sometimes you would be lying in bed and it would come to you that you forgot to email a customer something that you promised the day before. If you decided to stay in bed, you might toss and turn about that one thing and ended up getting up and sending that email. Or, you might be thinking about a customer and the problems he has that you would like to address tomorrow. So many things could be racing through your mind just before you nodded off.
The one thing I miss a lot about lab work is the coworkers. Strange as it seems, but in field sales, you are on your own. You don't have colleagues that you can hang out by the water cooler or the cubicles to talk about life and daily things. No, there isn't anyone to chat with you about that. Everyone got their own things to worry about. When you are on the phone, it should be something important as the day is short and there are many things to attend to. Once in a while, you can get together for lunch to talk about work and a little bit about personal things, but it is quite lonely out there. Yes, sales people know a lot of customers, but most of the times, it's not appropriate for you to talk about personal things with your customers. When you work in an environment where you interact with the same people day in day out, you would end up learning about their quirks and idiosyncrasies and vice versa. In other words, you bond. In field sales, if you find a "friend" to talk to, you are lucky.
What's about all the perks you hear about sales? Yes, you would work from home, but it would not mean you get to do whatever you wanted during those hours. Most of the time, I would be locked in the room until it was time to break for dinner. Sometimes I'd forget to eat if it wasn't for my husband who would occasionally knocked on the door and slipped in a lunch plate. Those would be the non-travelling days. If you need to travel for work that day, then consider a five o'clock wake-up call to get you to the airport for the first flight out. You got to pack your bags the night before, too, so forget that movie you've wanted to watch and been eyeing it on the shelf from Netflix for the past couple of days.
What's about being able to travel to different cities and different cuisines? I have to tell you, travel is over-rated. If you live in big bio-hubs or work as a distributor rep for VWR or Thermo Fisher Scientific, then you might be able to avoid traveling further than a few hours and you would drive for those hours. Otherwise, you can expect to travel. My first life sciences sales position, I covered the Western states. When I worked for GE in Los Angeles, I covered LA and Orange County. Once I moved to Arizona, the territory got bigger and no smaller than two states (Arizona and New Mexico, mostly). When you travel for work, you have meetings to attend and by the time you are done, you are too tired from the travel and the meetings to really do anything else. I know people who would go out and have a great time at clubs, etc... I am usually more of a hotel person. I would go back to the hotel and work on my follow-ups to reduce the work I would have to do when I am back to my office. I would end up going to the same restaurant and book the same hotel. I have done enough experimenting to know what was good in that area and when the restaurants were closed and where the late night ones were. Once in a while, I would attend dinner with a colleague who would be traveling with me or a customer if his/her schedule would permit. It is worse is when you dine alone. I would like a table for one, please. How lonely is that! Most of the times, I would do take-outs and bring it back to the hotel to eat. At least I would have the TV to accompany me and the computer to get some work done. If it's a one-nighter, then you would have to pack again for tomorrow, keeping in mind that you would need certain things out for your meetings the next day, so you would not be able to cramp everything into the suitcase. Of course, the perk for traveling for work is that most companies you would work for would allow you to accumulate points on your airline frequent flier membership, so the next vacation's flight could be free.
The biggest thing in sales, of course, is the unpredictability of it all. Most companies would require you to forecast, which is to predetermine when your sales would be coming through. Of course, no one could predict the future, but sales people learned to recognize the signs and understand the cycles. However, if the grant money isn't coming through, you are out of luck. Your customer told you they would be able to purchase this month, but it could drag out to next year. Unfortunately, forecasting is huge in the sales profession and it escalates up to the companies themselves making predictions on their revenue. If you watch the stock market, you know what I mean. Company stocks rise and fall based on their ability to make their predictions. If they have to lower their forecast, stocks would fall. If they make and exceed their prediction, stocks would rise. Some companies would have incentives for employees to meet their forecast or to stay within 95% of their forecast. Other would penalize employees for missed forecast, in terms of commission or bonus.
This would lead the next topic of commission and salary. Yes, the compensation is good, but only if you make your number. And, there is a number for sure. If you make and exceed your number, you are rewarded. What if you don't make your number? That's why I never lived on my commission checks. I based my family's budget on my salary and use the commission checks to pay for things like vacation or to pay off the car. In sales, there would always be ebbs and flows, but sometimes the valleys could be wide and you don’t make much commission years after years. The potential is there and perhaps that was my main reason for staying in sales. Whatever effort I put in, I could see the rewards at the other end in form of a pay-check. For researchers, it could be years before they see that. I read a recent article regarding the scientists who came up with one of the essential ideas behind Ion Torrent’s Personal Genome Machines (PGM) receiving a royal check for $2000. Ouch!
I am sure there are more pros and cons to list for either side, however, this blog is getting long and my eyes are getting tired, so I will end it here. This is, again, my personal take on sales job versus lab bench work. I don't mean to offend anyone here. Like I said before, this was drawn from my own experience. If you would like to share yours, you are welcome to comment below. Tell me what your thoughts on sales versus lab work. Thanks!
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