21 First Round Interview Questions

By Linda Hertz

My Medical Sales Career

I am often asked by sales people what are example interview questions that they may be asked during the interview process. I often tell them that it depends on whether it is the first interview, second interview & etc. (Sales Managers who are interviewing for a job get a whole other list of questions!). In addition, interviewing is an art and each hiring manager may throw in a couple of what they consider their “secret recipe question” that separates the wheat from the shaft!

All that said, the first interview will have more standard questions asked than the other ones that hopefully follow:

  1. What do you know about the job you are interviewing for?
  2. What do you know about our company?
  3. Can I answer any quick questions for you about the job before we get started?
  4. Do you have any Job Gaps or periods of unemployment? Why?
  5. If Laid off, who was kept that filled your job? Why do you think they won out over you?
  6. Do you have a documented 4 year Degree?
  7. What was your GPA? (if low why?, if over 3.5- how?)
  8. How did you pay for college? What percentage of college if not 100%
  9. If you worked in college, what job did you do?
  10. How long did it take you to complete your college degree?
  11. Why do you want to leave your current job?
  12. What are you looking for in the next job to improve your situation?
  13. Progressing through your resume (most will start from college forward, some from most recent back), why did you make the decision to leave a job and choose a job?
  14. As hiring managers go through each job with you they will ask you the questions that pertain to their job skill or experience requirement:
    a. Who did you call on (type of customer)?
    b. What did you sell (service, device &etc.)?
    c. Type of Sales (economic sale, clinical sale, highly technical sale &etc.)
    d. What was your sales ranking?
    e. Any Sales Awards? (National, Regional)
    f. Number of people who won your award against number of sales people? Hiring Manager trying to determine how valuable or meaningful your award was.
  15. What are your 3 top motivators at work (in life)?
  16. What would your current boss say is your greatest strength?
  17. What would your current boss say is your areas for coaching are? Why? What did you do to improve?
  18. Would your previous manager agree with your current manager’s assessment of strengths and weaknesses?
  19. Do you have current Performance Reviews you can share if we ask you back?
  20. What do your top customers say about you?
  21. What do your difficult customers say about you?

I hope these help you prepare for your first Interview for a Medical Sales Position and please share with us if you have some great questions that were asked of you in the first interview!

by Linda Hertz, join me on LinkedIn

Tags: 1st Round Interview Questions, Interview Tips