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Scientific consultant vs medical representative

The differences between scientific consultants and medical representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a scientific consultant and a medical representative. Additionally, a scientific consultant has an average salary of $82,034, which is higher than the $36,309 average annual salary of a medical representative.

The top three skills for a scientific consultant include SQL, R and FDA. The most important skills for a medical representative are patients, customer service, and first aid kits.

Scientific consultant vs medical representative overview

Scientific ConsultantMedical Representative
Yearly salary$82,034$36,309
Hourly rate$39.44$17.46
Growth rate4%4%
Number of jobs13,980176,481
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 47%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Average age4747
Years of experience22

What does a scientific consultant do?

A scientific consultant provides consultation services for scientific projects and research for implementation and enabling scientific missions to the customers. They strategize solutions for business or organizational problems as well as providing a fresh perspective and knowledge based on their expertise. Their duties and responsibilities include compiling and presenting information to the organization through reports.

What does a medical representative do?

A medical representative is responsible for selling medical equipment, medications, and other medical supplies by demonstrating benefits and features to patients and healthcare professionals. Medical representatives work closely with their company's marketing department to develop strategic procedures and promotional techniques to attract customers and generate revenues for the business. They respond to the customers' inquiries and concerns, take their orders, and process their payments. A medical representative also analyzes the current trends in the medical industry to identify business opportunities that would establish a market presence.

Scientific consultant vs medical representative salary

Scientific consultants and medical representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

Scientific ConsultantMedical Representative
Average salary$82,034$36,309
Salary rangeBetween $51,000 And $131,000Between $27,000 And $48,000
Highest paying CitySan Francisco, CALansing, MI
Highest paying stateCaliforniaMichigan
Best paying companyBooz Allen HamiltonCapgemini
Best paying industryTechnologyPharmaceutical

Differences between scientific consultant and medical representative education

There are a few differences between a scientific consultant and a medical representative in terms of educational background:

Scientific ConsultantMedical Representative
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 47%Bachelor's Degree, 68%
Most common majorBiologyBusiness
Most common collegeUniversity of PennsylvaniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Scientific consultant vs medical representative demographics

Here are the differences between scientific consultants' and medical representatives' demographics:

Scientific ConsultantMedical Representative
Average age4747
Gender ratioMale, 63.0% Female, 37.0%Male, 45.2% Female, 54.8%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 3.9% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.3% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.2% Asian, 5.2% White, 72.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage6%6%

Differences between scientific consultant and medical representative duties and responsibilities

Scientific consultant example responsibilities.

  • Provide SharePoint development and administration, budget and financial reporting; manage invoicing; and develop training manuals and user guides.
  • Define and document a new application architecture which load client databases with properly format data using in-house develop Java ETL applications.
  • Support regulatory submissions (ISSs, NDA), CDISC (SDTM, ADaM).

Medical representative example responsibilities.

  • Achieve market share growth in the psychiatry, cardiovascular, and neurology markets.
  • Lead the nation in new product introduction of ZAC, an anti hypertension medication.
  • Manage the sale of pharmaceuticals to treat hypertension, cholesterol, diabetes, depression, women's health and pain/neurological disorders.
  • Manage specialty sales of psychiatry and other products across Mid-Michigan health-care systems.
  • Manage products in gastroenterology, cardiology, endocrinology, psychiatry, rheumatology, and OB-GYN categories.
  • Achieve sales growth objectives by incorporating product/technical knowledge, teamwork, customer and multi-product focus, innovation and creativity.
  • Show more

Scientific consultant vs medical representative skills

Common scientific consultant skills
  • SQL, 73%
  • R, 7%
  • FDA, 4%
  • Laboratory Procedures, 3%
  • Experimental Design, 2%
  • Scientific Journals, 2%
Common medical representative skills
  • Patients, 17%
  • Customer Service, 13%
  • First Aid Kits, 9%
  • Incident Investigations, 9%
  • CPR, 6%
  • Medical Terminology, 6%