How to Write a Job Description That Attracts the Right MedTech Candidates

What You Will Learn in This Post

• How to make your MedTech job description clear and useful to the candidates you want to attract
• Why separating essential experience from preferences can widen your candidate pool without lowering your standards
• What information candidates need about salary, territory, travel and working arrangements
• How to help candidates understand what the job is really like before they apply

A job description can contain every responsibility, requirement and benefit associated with a vacancy and still leave a candidate unsure what the job is actually about.

That's a problem.

The people you're trying to attract need to be able to understand the opportunity quickly. What would they be doing? What do you genuinely need from them? Where would they work? What would they earn? And why might the role be worth exploring?

Your internal job description and the advert candidates see don't necessarily have to be identical. One may document the role in detail. The other needs to give somebody enough clear, relevant information to decide whether it's worth a conversation.

Here are seven things to get right when writing your next MedTech job description.

1. Use a Recognisable Job Title

Your internal job title may make perfect sense within your organisation. That doesn't mean somebody outside the business will know what it means.

Use terminology that people in the MedTech market are likely to recognise.

Titles such as Territory Manager, Clinical Specialist, Product Manager, Regional Sales Manager or Key Account Manager give candidates an immediate indication of the type and level of role.

If your internal title is unusual, consider whether a more familiar market-facing title would make the vacancy easier to understand and find.

The aim isn't to make the role sound more impressive. It's to make it clear.

2. Explain Why the Role Exists

Don't make candidates work through a long list of responsibilities before they understand what you're actually recruiting them to do.

Start by explaining the purpose of the role.

For example, is the successful candidate going to:

• Take over and grow an established territory?
• Develop a geography where there is currently little existing business?
• Launch a new product or therapy?
• Support clinicians with the adoption and use of a medical device?
• Develop strategic relationships with major NHS accounts?
• Build a new team or function?

Two jobs with the same title can offer very different opportunities.

Help candidates understand which one you're offering.

3. Separate the Essentials From the Nice-to-Haves

It's easy for a job description to become a wish list.

Direct product experience would be useful. Experience with the same customer group would be useful. Manufacturer experience would be useful. A particular number of years in the industry would be useful.

Before long, everything has become essential.

Be clear about the difference between what somebody genuinely needs to do the job and what you'd ideally like them to have.

Depending on the vacancy, an essential might be particular clinical knowledge, experience selling into the NHS, previous people management experience or evidence of commercial success.

Other things may be learnable.

Being clear about that distinction can help you avoid excluding good candidates whose experience doesn't exactly mirror the person you originally had in mind.

4. Be Clear About the Salary and Package

Candidates need enough information to decide whether the opportunity makes financial sense for them.

Where possible, be clear about:

• Basic salary or salary range
• Bonus or commission
• Company car or car allowance
• Pension
• Private healthcare and other significant benefits
• Holiday entitlement

For sales roles, don't use terms such as OTE without giving candidates enough context to understand what they mean.

If the role offers a £50,000 basic salary plus a £15,000 target bonus and company car, that tells somebody considerably more than “competitive salary and excellent benefits”.

There may be some flexibility depending on experience, but candidates should have a realistic idea of the package before investing significant time in the recruitment process.

5. Be Upfront About the Things That Could Make Somebody Say No

Some aspects of a role will work perfectly for one candidate and make it completely unsuitable for another.

That doesn't make them negatives. But they do need to be clear.

Depending on the role, that could include:

• A large geographical territory
• Regular overnight travel
• Early starts
• Theatre or procedure support
• Regular head-office attendance
• International travel
• Weekend or on-call requirements where applicable
• A full UK driving licence
• Relocation

Don't hide something that could reasonably make somebody say no.

Finding out at final interview that a supposedly home-based role requires two days a week at an office three hours away doesn't improve your chances of hiring somebody. It simply postpones the point at which they withdraw.

6. Tell Candidates What Working There Actually Looks Like

Generic statements about having a “dynamic and collaborative culture” tell candidates very little.

Give them something concrete instead.

For example:

• How large is the team?
• Who will they report to?
• How much autonomy will they have?
• How often does the team meet?
• Is the manager regularly in the field with their team?
• What does hybrid, flexible or home-based actually mean in practice?
• Is the company growing, launching something new or entering a new market?

If somebody will work remotely but attend a monthly sales meeting at head office, say that.

If a Clinical Specialist will spend most of the week supporting cases in theatre, say that.

If a Territory Manager is joining an experienced team and will have considerable freedom to manage their own diary, that's useful information too.

Specific information helps candidates picture the job much more effectively than a list of adjectives about your culture.

7. Use Clear, Inclusive Language

Once you've written the job description, read it again and look at the language you've used.

Does every phrase help somebody understand the role or the person you're looking for?

Be particularly wary of filling the advert with vague descriptions such as:

• Dynamic
• Hungry
• Rockstar
• Ninja
• Aggressive
• Young and energetic
• Digital native
• Work hard, play hard

The same applies to endless lists of qualities such as passionate, driven, ambitious, resilient, motivated and tenacious.

If a characteristic genuinely matters, think about what it means in the context of the job.

Instead of saying you need somebody “resilient”, explain that they're taking over an underdeveloped territory and will need to establish new accounts.

Instead of asking for somebody “commercial”, explain the commercial responsibilities they'll actually have.

Clear language makes it easier for candidates to assess themselves against the real requirements of the job.

Tell Candidates What Happens Next

The job description doesn't need to explain every detail of your recruitment process, but if you know what happens after somebody applies, consider telling them.

For example:

First interview with the Sales Manager, followed by a second-stage presentation and meeting with the Sales Director.

Or simply:

This will be a two-stage interview process.

If there are assessments, presentations, field visits or other significant stages, candidates should know before they're suddenly asked to complete them.

Being clear about the process helps people understand the commitment involved and reduces surprises later.

Before You Publish, Read It as a Candidate

Put the internal version of the role to one side and look at what a candidate will actually see.

Can they quickly work out:

• What is the job?
• Why does the role exist?
• Where is it based?
• What territory or geography does it cover?
• Who will they be working with or selling to?
• What experience genuinely is essential?
• What experience would simply be useful?
• What will they be paid?
• What are the travel and working expectations?
• Why might somebody want the job?
• What happens after they apply?

If several of those answers aren't clear, the job description probably isn't ready to go to market.

A Strong Job Description Starts With a Strong Brief

Writing a better job description can't compensate for uncertainty about who you're actually trying to recruit.

Before writing the advert, establish what you need the successful person to achieve, which experience genuinely matters, where you're prepared to be flexible and what you're offering in return.

Once the recruitment brief is clear, the job description has a much simpler job:

Help the right people understand the opportunity well enough to decide whether it's worth a conversation.