Why you should never work for Stryker (the surgical equipment company)!

Stryker is a surgical equipment/instrument company (like Guidant, Sklar, Roboz, Millenium, and others).  For me as a clinical sales recruiter, Stryker stands out.  The reason I believe that you should never work for Stryker is that I have never seen anyone have a long-term relationship with them in my 17+ years in the laboratory sales industry.  They don’t invest in their people, they don’t promote well, and they don’t have a problem firing people–I think they pink-slip the bottom 25% almost every quarter.  You might say, “Well, I’m better than the bottom 25%, so I don’t have a problem.”  But, there are circumstances that can easily be beyond your control–for example, maybe there’s a GPO (Group Purchasing Organization) or some other group organization your hospital belongs to…if they sign a contract with another vendor, then they quit working with you.  You did nothing to cause that, and you’ve no control over it, but it makes a giant difference in your sales territory numbers.  All of a sudden, you drop to the bottom 25%, and you’re let go.  Is that the kind of commitment you want from a company that you work for and invest sweat, blood and tears for?  I don’t think so.

Surgical companies do pay tremendous amounts of money, if you do well at it.  However, you got to be able to be in the surgical suite at 5AM in order to be available to surgeons, and these surgeons are a pain in the tail.  They (mostly) have egos as big as Texas, and they expect that you will pander to ‘em.  And if you don’t, they have 3 or 4 vendors sitting right behind you who will.  (Story:  I had a friend who went to work for one of these companies–for a year and a half, although he no longer works there.  He did make $300,000, but he also said that was the year his hair turned gray.  He had no family life, he felt stressed the entire time, and he felt as if the competition was right on his heels.  You could say that’s just him, but that’s some tremendous job stress for anybody.)

When I see ”Stryker” on a resume, I don’t wanna even talk to the person.  In my mind, they’re somewhat “ruined.”  They’ve been able to make very leading money, and they will always think that’s what they’re worth, in any job.  In reality, they aren’t worth that unless they can continue to work at that particular pace, selling that particular product, dealing with that particular nasty little customer–surgeons.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pharma and pharma sales recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

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Why you should never work for Stryker (the surgical equipment company)!