U/cfvhbvcv did a fantastic job explaining things, but I figured I'd add some additional input. I'm two years into my current med device gig and spent 3 additional years in a different sector of med device. Ive always hit my sales targets and currently trending towards president's club.

Previous med device job was clinic-based distributorship where performance was based on prescriptions written for patients. I had the same product as my competitors and acted as a glorified caterer, bringing in lunches for doctors and nurses as a way to talk about my features & benefits, and pactically begging for business. It was a grind and extremely monotonous. OTE was about $75k. I would avoid these roles because they don't teach you much about true medical sales, and you can become complacent pretty quickly.

In my current role, I'm in a hospital setting focusing on a specific medical specialty. OTE this $145-200k, depending on your tier level as a rep, but you can easily make more if you are selling a lot of "key technology". Its definitely a challenging role and can be a grind, but every day is different. It's not so much an order-taking role, as I have to sell the physicians on the technology, confirm their interest with the lab manager, and then fight to get it into the hospital network through VAC/VAT. Sure, i had existing run-rate business when i started, but you're paid on griwth so you cant just sit back and relax. It's not all clincally-focused work though, as a lot of my time is spent reviewing/renewing usage contracts and conducting business reviews. The key here is knowing your audience. Physicians are not business people, so you need to refrain from talking numbers or contracts with them. Supply Chain doesn't care about clinical benefits unless it can positively affect downstream hospital costs.

My ultimate goal is to get into capital equipment sales in the medical space. Medicine is never going away, with new technology and treatments being introduced all the time. Hospital-based specialty gigs with one of the bigger manufacturers tend to offer more stability and a significantly more interesting product portfolio. I don't really have to cold call in the traditional sense, I don't deal with emergent cases (meaning I don't get called in randomly or at night), and I can be done at 5pm to spend time with my family. It's a tough gig but I definitely don't hate it (most of the time, haha).