Jennifer Shields

I have been working in medical device sales for 19 years and currently serve as a Sales Territory Manager at Recor Medical, where I have been for just over a year. Before entering the sales field, I worked as a cardiac nurse in a cath lab. I made the transition because I wanted to challenge myself with something new. Bedside nursing and cath lab work as a full-time position involved a lot of physical wear and tear, and the avenues for me to move into leadership or management would have required going back to get a master's degree, which I wasn't ready to do with young children at home. I worked with reps who came into our lab and talked with them about what they do, and I thought I might be good at that. What inspired me to get into this field was seeing the reps that came into our cath lab and how integral they were to some of the procedures we performed with new technology, not only teaching the staff but also teaching physicians how to use new technology, hone their skills, and produce good outcomes. My most notable professional achievement would be persevering through an industry that is this competitive. It's a tough world out there, though there have been changes in recent years that make it a little bit easier for women, or I would say parents in general, to make space for other parts of their lives that the job and the pressures of the job could bleed into.