A brag book is a list of your accomplishments (stories for behavioral interviews, right here), new skills and training, stack rankings, performance reviews, e-mails or letters from satisfied customers, and awards.  You can keep it in a kudos file for easy updates for your resume, job interview preparation, or a morale booster.  One source says you should bind it like a book to give to potential employers. Note: You do not have to leave a brag book with the interviewer.

Either way, it’s a tremendous resource for you.

Salary negotiations can be the most stressful part of the entire interview process in medical sales, laboratory sales, clinical diagnostics sales, biotech sales, molecular products sales, cellular products sales, medical device sales, pathology sales, imaging sales, or pharmaceutical sales.

The video below is designed to help you navigate your way through.

So:   How do you answer questions in the interviewing process that have to do with your financial situation?

You don’t. 

The first person who mentions a specific number in the negotiation process is usually considered a loser.  Because, if you’re the candidate and you name a figure that’s too low and later realize you could have gone higher, you can’t go back.  But, it’s a delicate process.  The company has its own agenda and doesn’t want to make a mistake, either.  If your interviewer asks you directly how much money you currently make, you can antagonize him or her by refusing to answer, so you have to say something.  One option:  answer honestly, but qualify it by saying, “I am not sure that it is relevant because this position requires…x, y and z…”

Another option:  Deflect it by saying, “So if you are talking money, are you making me a job offer?”  Some clients will actually say “yes, I am interested.”  So now you have a new conversation that gives you a little more leverage.

Another thing you can say is:  “I am certain that given the responsibilities that this position has, and how important you have described that it is to your organization, that you are going to financially compensate the right candidate with an appropriate amount of money.” 

One of the most critical things you can do is to research salaries in your specific field, in your part of the country.  Knowledge is power.  Here’s an article on the Top 25 Salary Negotiating Tips to help you. 

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If your references don’t even think enough of you to call back, it doesn’t reflect well on you.  It cost my candidate a job.

Choose your references wisely.  The best references are past managers.  Not necessarily the one you’re just now leaving, but previous ones.  Hopefully, when you left those jobs, you asked if you could use them for a reference should it become necessary, and told them that you would be happy to help them in any way you were able.  Just ask, ”Can I count on you for a reference?”   Then keep in touch with them.  Knowing their personal e-mail addresses will make this easier. 

 Know what your references will say about you.  You need to be in control of the information that will be provided to your future employer.  It’s not acceptable to wonder if they’ll give you a good reference.  Your job search is too important.

When you are applying for a job, call your references to give them a heads up.  Don’t let them be caught off guard.  You can use this opportunity to coach them on what to say for the best impact.  The qualities that will make the best impression will vary slightly depending on which company and which particular job you’re applying for in medical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, laboratory sales, pathology sales, imaging sales, molecular products sales, cellular products sales, biotech sales, or pharmaceutical sales.

See 10 Tips for Top Notch References for more information. 

Paul Mullen, a career coach in Ireland, has highlighted my online videos as offering excellent advice (I have to agree…).  Turns out, Paul offers some excellent advice, himself.  His Measureability website offers psychometric testing (ability and personality assessments) and career coaching.  It includes a career blog, with a post I like on Reasons for Interview Failure.  He also has a Careers and Jobs blog focused on jobs in Ireland, but with lots of applicable advice for us here in the States looking for jobs in medical sales, laboratory sales, pharmaceutical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, medical device sales, surgical supply sales, molecular products sales, cellular products sales, biotech sales, pathology sales, or imaging sales. 

I thought you would find the article interesting.

Still, there are things to keep in mind:  like, how much of your stuff automatically gets shared when you interact with a new application?  And…even if you are vigilant about keeping up with your privacy settings, your friends can inadvertently share your private information with third parties very easily.  Mary Madden has a great discussion of issues like these in Securing Private Data from Internet ‘Zombies.’  There’s also a great stream of comments to go with it.  I highly suggest you read it.

Online social networks can be great for boosting your career and job search, so I’m not saying “don’t use them,” I’m just saying “use them wisely”.  Aside from the biggies like FaceBook and MySpace, LinkedIn is tailored for career networks and job-searching applications.  Tech Crunch’s article Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network offers a list of nine up-and-coming “white label” social networking platforms and explains what each of them does.  They could prove very useful.

Critical advice:  you should Google yourself (with all the possible versions of your name) once in a while to see what’s out there about you.  Is your online identity sabotaging your executive job search? explains that employers and executive recruiters will Google you, and you need to know what they will find.  What kind of online presence do you have?  Ideally, you should have a positive one, with the number of search results correlating with your years of experience.  (It’s a personal branding issue.) 

(This information applies to everyone in medical sales, laboratory sales, clinical diagnostics sales, pathology sales, imaging sales, medical device sales, medical supplies sales, pharmaceutical sales, DNA products sales, molecular products sales, cellular products sales, biotechnology products sales, or any area of healthcare sales, marketing, and management.)

Job shadowing is something we usually associate with high-school or college students, but it can be tremendously beneficial for anyone changing careers.  It’s valuable hands-on experience before you make the commitment to switch.  (Here’s a link to a virtual ride-along…not as good, but a good place to start.)

How do you find someone to ride with?  Ask your doctor for names of sales reps.  When you contact them, reassure them that you’re not after their job, but are looking for information about the field….pros and cons, typical day, and so on.  When you go, have 10-15 questions prepared (you’ll think of more throughout the day) and take notes.  This will help you narrow down which healthcare sales field you want to get into, and when you land the interview, your prep work will show and give you an edge over other candidates.

I’ve put together what I hope is a very helpful video that explains all this for you:  Medical Sales Preceptorship–Get Hired. 

More and more first interviews are conducted by phone (they’re efficient), so make sure you know how to do them.  According to The Phone Interview, you should have a quiet room, keep your resume in front of you so you don’t forget anything, and be as professional as if you were sitting in front of the interviewer.  How to have a successful interview says, don’t get too comfortable just because they can’t see you…be mindful of how you sound.  (No slang.)  Another article says that you should have practice phone interviews with your friends and family to catch any problems with mumbling or speech that’s too fast. 

One thing I want you to remember:  if you have optimal conditions for a phone interview when you’re called, great.  If you’re called at a bad time…take control and ask if you can call back.  Nail down a better time, and be sure to call back then.  It won’t hurt you.  The most important thing is to ensure that you can have a quality interview.

However, panel interviews can the most stressful for the candidate of all interview types since they seem impersonal and more judgmental.

How to stand out in a panel interview:

1)  When you meet each person on the panel, ask for a business card.  Lay them out in front of you facing the appropriate person to help you remember names.  This also helps you for writing thank you notes later.

2)  Don’t assume the most senior person is the decision maker.  Be sure to include everyone in your responses.

3)  Try to size up the agenda of everyone in the group.  The needs of different departments will vary, so position your answers to meet those needs.

4)  Send everyone in the group a thank you letter and make sure each one is unique.

Here is a video with more tips:

My personal key points for the candidate:

• Remember that they (the employer) need you and that is your job to help them determine this. It really is your responsibility.
• Remember that each person would interview you anyway, and be much more personal if this were one on one, and that they probably don’t want to be here either.
• Be calm. Practice relaxing breathing.
• Prepare-there is nothing like preparation to help calm your nerves.
• Know the job, the interviewers, the company and yourself.
• Think about body language. Lean forward, smile, gesture, make eye contact, and shake hands.
• Have some questions of your own and not just the obligatory 2 or 3 at the end of the interview.
• Ask for the next step. Confirm that you have answered all questions.

It’s REALLY important to sanitize your social network pages (anything on MySpace, FaceBook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.)  while you are looking for a job in medical sales, pharmaceutical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, laboratory sales, pathology sales, imaging sales, medical device sales, cellular products sales, molecular products sales, or biotech sales, which is why I have addressed this in previous posts. 

Why?  According to a Vault.com survey, which I found in Net Etiquette for Job Seekers, 44% of employers surveyed looked up potential employees on social networking sites and 82% of those employers would think twice about hiring candidates with something perceived as negative in their on-line profiles. And FYI:  39% of employers have searched the on-line profiles of current employees, so don’t think you’re good to go after you’ve got the job.  It may seem unfair and an invasion of your personal social life, but it becomes fair game once you’ve put it out there in public. 

Additional great advice in this article–not only make sure your sites are “PG,” but also make sure they are complete, since they are serving as another resume.  For instance, identify yourself as a healthcare salesperson (or even better, as a laboratory sales rep) rather than just say you’re “in sales.”

If that many employers are using social networks to gather information, I would imagine that any recruiter worth his or her salt uses them, too.  (I know I do.)  Social networking sites are one of the gold mines for finding candidates. 

Social networks can be general or focused on a particular group, and it’s worth it to companies and candidates to find out how to effectively use them.  The New Way to Network for a Job offers an overview that shows you how important they have already become and solid advice for how to use them to your advantage. 

By the way, no one will tell you that this is what killed your chances…managers will just assume that you have bad judgment and want nothing to do with you.