Recruiting Bloggers.com

What is a brag book and how can it help your interview success?

Recruiting Animal — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:26:07 PST

A brag book is a folder/ binder that you can use during your interview process to clarify your skill sets and set you apart from the competition so that you can get a job offer in medical sales, laboratory sales, pharmaceutical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, DNA products sales, cellular sales, molecular sales, medical equipment sales, medical device sales, hospital equipment sales, surgical supplies sales, or any healthcare sales.

It can include letters of recommendation, “attaboy” notes (or any notes commenting on what a good job you’ve done), staff ranking, annual reviews (if you include some, include them all), rewards letters, your resume, types of equipment you’ve used or marketed, certifications or other educational courses, any financial or PowerPoint presentations, copies of articles you’ve written, brochures you’ve helped develop, and a college transcript (though ONLY if you’re just getting out). Change and add to your book as you go through your career.

It is critical that you take the time to show your brag book to the hiring manager in your interview.

The brag book demonstrates initiative, professionalism, organization, your understanding of sales and marketing, and sets you apart from your competition–it’s the difference between “good” and “great.”

What do you think?

Whats Your Purpose?

Recruiting Animal — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:29:59 PST

By Harry Urschel

Ever spend much time thinking about that? What’s your purpose?

What does that have to do with your job search or career? Everything!

Do you find your purpose in your job, or in something outside of your career?
What animates you from day-to-day?

- Advancement in your career?
- More money?
- Ability to have more toys, nicer houses, cars, jewelry, or ‘stuff’?
- Provide better for your family?
- Provide value or serve your customers?
- Be a better spouse, parent, child, friend, or neighbor?
- Have more fun?
- Serving God, or reflecting Him in the culture around you?
- Achieve happiness?
- Gain authority, titles, recognition, or power?
- Become the ‘Best’ at something?
- Live a ‘good’ life?
- ???

There are dozens, or hundreds, or thousands of things that can give someone purpose for their life. Certainly some purposes are more worthy or more noble than others, however, it’s important to know what yours is. Without purpose you go through the motions each day to do what you think you’re ‘supposed’ to do, but nothing drives you to do or be more or to be enthusiastic about getting out of bed in the morning. Lack of purpose can lead to depression, while having a clear purpose in your life gives you hope and encouragement.

Too often I see people who have no idea what their purpose is. They drift from day to day and their priorities change constantly. They feel empty and often try to fill that emptiness with drugs, alcohol, sex, or some other vice. They may even appear ‘successful’ on the outside, however, constantly feel discouraged or aimless on the inside.

People with purpose are more directed in all areas of their life. Even if their purpose has nothing to do with their career, they tend to perform better on the job because they know what it’s all for.

Our culture makes it easy to be distracted from thinking about our purpose. There are endless ways to fill our time and our minds with other things. TV, Radio, iPods, Video Games, Restaurants, Bars, Work, School, or anything else you can think of. The thought may come to mind that “it might be a good idea to figure this out”, but something else comes up and things get postponed again, and again, and again.

Taking the time to really think through what’s important to you, why you’re here, what you want to accomplish in life, and how do you get there can be an absolutely life altering experience. I would suggest that finding a purpose in something that’s transcendent, something outside of your personal achievement or worldly ‘success’ will ultimately be far more satisfying to you. However, whatever you decide your purpose is, it will make you far more effective in your life that not having one at all.

What’s your purpose? Take the time to figure it out!

Are You Professional?

Recruiting Animal — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:17:22 PST

By Harry Urschel

What makes someone “Professional”?

I’ve read interesting takes on that question lately. Some good points, and some… not so much. What defines professionalism? Based on various pieces I’ve read, it’s certainly subjective. Whatever the definition anyone uses, it’s often THE factor that tips the scale from one candidate to another in the hiring process.

In trying to define it, the dictionary doesn’t seem to be much help. Webster defines professionalism as: “the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or professional person.” …sounds like a circular definition.

Having been a Recruiter for 23 years, and interviewing thousands of people, I’ve gathered some observations:

~ There is no single characteristic that makes someone ‘professional’. Invariably when someone impresses as being professional, it’s a combination of a number of traits that creates that impression.

~ It’s not the occupation! Often, people think you need to be a doctor, or lawyer, or senior executive to be considered professional. However, I know of people that are in lower level blue-collar positions that I consider more professional than some C-level executives.

~ Attitude. Certainly attitude creates a positive impression. However, I believe it is also a critical component of professionalism. It’s not just whether someone is upbeat or not, but also whether they are a solution-finder or nay-sayer. A professional is someone that sees opportunity, not just finds reasons that something can’t be done.

~ Competence. With that perspective regarding attitude, competence in your field is therefore also vital. In order to be professional, you have to know what you’re talking about. You have to be able to have understanding and insight into relevant issues in your field and be able to articulate solutions.

~ Communication Skills. You may have a great attitude and be highly competent in your field, however, if you can’t communicate your insight or ideas effectively to others, you miss the mark. Communication skills don’t refer to an accent, but rather the ability to be understood, speak in clear terms, and make complex subjects understandable.

~ Appearance. Unfortunately, often “unprofessional appearance” has been used as a euphemism for racism, sexism, discrimination against the obese, or some other such discrimination. Those are misguided and shouldn’t be a factor in considering a professional appearance. However, appearance does matter. It’s not necessary for someone to wear a $2,000 suit. However, clean and appropriate clothing, fit properly, and arranged well do play a part in a professional image. A mechanic in well fitting and well cared for cover-alls can create a professional image as well as a C-Level executive in a tailored suit. Dirty, wrinkled, sloppy, and unkempt appearance damage a professional image regardless of the field you may pursue.

~ Appropriateness. Inappropriate language, slang, appearance, or subjects have as much to do with damaging a professional image as anything else. Running off on unrelated tangents in a conversation, cursing, or wearing a polo shirt to a formal executive interview each create an impression that you don’t grasp the particular role. Like it or not, but ‘bucking the system’ rarely gets rewarded when pursuing a new job.

These are obviously all personal opinions. However, I have seen each of these factors play a large part in my own impression of someone’s professionalism. Observations that are regularly supported by the feedback I get from my clients.

Are you "Professional”? Take a look at yourself through these criteria and decide.

Should college students pay for internships to get into medical sales?

Recruiting Animal — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:24:00 PST

By Peggy McKee, the Medical Sales Recruiter:

Internships can be tremendously valuable to college students looking for that resume experience, but I recently came across an article about how some college students are paying for the privilege. Bad idea. There are better ways to spend your money…like custom consulting from a recruiter in the industry you’re heading for. You can learn what specific actions you can take that will provide immediate as well as long-term benefits, and you can learn about how to position yourself for long-term success in medical sales, laboratory sales, clinical diagnostics sales, biotechnology sales, medical device sales, hospital equipment sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, DNA products sales, and healthcare sales, management, and marketing.

Click here for custom consulting options from a leading national recruiter in medical sales…PHC Consulting.

What Does a Resume Writer Do?

Recruiting Animal — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:19:12 PST

by Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter

Okay, so by default, I weave guidance into my in-depth resume writing processes that smacks of coaching. Recently, Recruiting Animal (@Animal) took note of this in his blog post: “The Resume Writer.”

However, today, I beg to differentiate myself: I am a word wrangler, message clarifier and career story teller (i.e., resume writer) – not a career coach. At the end of the day, my clients hire me for the influential ‘words’ that erupt from the virtual and literal pages that we create, for the words that spring from their lips during job interviews, networking conversations or when caught unaware in casual conversation.

As well, my job as a career writer is to push, prod, ask the reporter’s ‘who, what, where, when and why’ questions, drive for deeper understanding of where the job seeker has been and even more importantly, provide them the spade to unearth their unique value drivers that help define where they want to go!

As a good career reporter, I do my research. This involves a barrage of questions, the answers of which often lie dormant in the job hunter’s head and involve intellectually rigorous recovery and regurgitation (My clients work hard! Likewise, I lift intellectual weights on their behalf!). Moreover, the job seekers I write for find themselves performing research to illustrate their go-forward goals.

Serious about my writing trade, I maintain ongoing niche-specific credentials (including Master Resume Writer) qualifying me to build the engine for a job seeker’s career vehicle, tapping the job seeker’s truth and powering it up with word fuel that drives the message home to the target reader. It’s all about the audience reading the story, after all!

It’s been bugging me for awhile, this tendency to lump resume writers and coaches into one entity, almost as if to say, that without adding ‘coaching’ to our label, then we’re ‘just’ resume writers with perceived lower value.

I applaud my resume writing colleagues who equally market their career coaching and resume writing talents, for many are passionate about blending the two professions. However, that’s not me. My overriding value proposition is my career reporting skills: abilities in in-depth research, asking the driving questions, unearthing career gold nuggets, whittling 25 pages of career brain dump down to 2-3 crisp, compelling and focused pages, and marketing the job seeker’s value to the right reader, influencing them to call.

How RiseSmart Is Disrupting Outplacement

Richard Becker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:22:41 PST

By Richard Becker

When RiseSmart first entered the recruiting industry in 2008, it set its sights on a specific niche. One year later, RiseSmart shifted its business model to include outplacement. The difference between the two places presents a case study in disruptive business.

RiseSmart is a provider of Web-enabled outplacement and job search services. The former helps laid-off employees find jobs faster. The latter helps professionals find jobs in the $100k market.

"Our initial thought was that we would need to make significant traction with a B2C offering in order to build interest in the B2B solution," says Sanjay Sathe, founder and CEO of RiseSmart. "But the moment we introduced Transition Concierge in the second half of last year ... we had an extraordinary amount of interest, and were signing up Fortune 500 companies almost immediately."

For RiseSmart, the timing couldn't be better. Layoff announcements had risen to 48 percent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) and U.S. job cuts were on pace to exceed 1 million this year (Challenger, Gray & Christmas). At the same time, 81 percent of employers were engaging help from external outplacement providers (The Value of Outplacement, Reed Consulting).

Why was the timing right? Traditional outplacement relied heavily on psychological testing, use of personality and skills assessment tools, hands-on career counseling, and the provision of an environment where an executive could feel comfortable while making networking calls. The newer model, called the "Market Model," included market research, proactive job/tech development, hands-on campaign management and skills training.

RiseSmart, on the other hand, applied its existing technology to outplacement in order to focus on the job seeker's most pressing need: finding a job. Not only did employees appreciate faster outplacement services, but employers also realized a significant cost savings by expediting placement over counseling or skills training.

The net result was $4.6 million in additional Series A financing, including $2.8 million from Storm Ventures and $1.8 million from Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Since last year, the company has raised $8.85 million in institutional investments.

“RiseSmart’s Transition Concierge is disrupting the cost structure for corporate outplacement providers, while leveraging technology to deliver superior value to a growing roster of Fortune 500 clients," said Sanjay Subhedar, managing director of Storm Ventures. "The company has gone the extra mile to provide an excellent customer experience to both corporate clients and transitioning workers — and that has paid off in word of mouth and new business referrals.”

According to Sathe, the model is by design. As employees recently laid off by a Fortune 500 company have a positive transition experience, they are likely to tell others about the experience. From a marketing perspective, the B2B service not only disrupts existing outplacement sources, but it also provides the company a cost-effective approach to market its B2C service.

That's not to say the strategy hasn't had some challenges. Moving from a B2C-focused business model to a B2B business model means a smaller universe of customers and competitors.

"The biggest [challenge] is that many of these big players have very entrenched relationships with corporate HR departments, which can be difficult to overcome," says Sathe. "But the biggest positive is that it enabled us to become very focused on what we needed to do to differentiate ourselves from the big players; we have brought innovation to an otherwise stodgy industry that has introduced very few new ideas over the past 20 years."

The primary differentiation is that a 2009 survey Institute for Corporate Productivity showed that employers invest an average of more than $5,000 per executive or manager to provide external outplacement support for a period of three to six months. RiseSmart has succeeded in cutting those costs in half.

At the same time, while the compelling price point has helped RiseSmart open doors, the less tangible benefits for employees and employers establishes a reputation for excellence. Ninety-two percent of respondents expressed overall satisfaction with RiseSmart Transition Concierge service and 88 percent said it was likely they would recommend the service to friends.

The results are in stark contrast to the rest of the industry. The lackluster performance is understandable, with dissatisfaction increasing exponentially with every month those employees remained unemployed. In contrast, the RiseSmart Transition Concierge service is delivering the average worker 10.6 highly relevant job leads per week.

"Many of the jobs we screen are recruiter posted," adds Sathe. "We expect to expand our relationship with recruiters to enhance Job Concierge and Transition Concierge over time."

It also serves as a reminder that not all marketing measures include advertising, public relations, or social media. While communication assists business, the right marketing model can transform an entire business overnight. And sometimes, at least in the case of RiseSmart, those changes can disrupt entire niche industries.

Cover or Uncovered???

Recruiting Animal — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:23:13 PST

By Harry Urschel

I’m often asked how important a cover letter is when submitting a resume for a position, or if one is even necessary at all. My answer is: “It depends.”

Who is receiving your resume? If it’s being sent to a recruiter, or you are applying to an online system, you can be virtually guaranteed that a cover letter would not be even looked at, much less read. The volume of resumes that go through a normal recruiting process makes it all but impossible for cover letters to be considered in addition to resumes.

A recruiter focuses on the resumes looking for prior work experience that matches the job requirement as closely as possible and quickly discarding those that don’t show the obvious fit. When there are dozens, or hundreds of applicants as there often are in today’s job market, there are simply not enough hours in the day to pore over every resume and cover letter thoroughly.

If you are submitting a resume to a recruiter or through an online system, don’t bother taking the time to write a cover letter. It won’t get read.

A hiring manager, however, may be another story. In most companies, the hiring managers don’t usually get many resumes to sort through themselves. The corporate recruiter or HR representative usually has the responsibility to screen the majority of applicants and present a select few for the hiring manager to consider. Also, since the hiring manager naturally has the greatest interest in knowing more about the applicants they are somewhat more likely to read a cover letter if one is available. However, the resume is still the primary document that helps them to decide to move forward or not.

As a candidate, your chances of getting an interview rise dramatically if you can present your information directly to a hiring manager. If you do, be sure to include a cover letter along with your resume for them to gain a better understanding of how you can be of value to them in the role.

Whether you submit information to a recruiter or to a hiring manager, a clear and effective resume is critical.

There are several other resources available on this site and elsewhere online with tips for writing an effective resume and cover letter. The focus here is strictly whether to actually send a cover letter or not.

Are there any negative consequences to submitting a cover letter to a recruiter? No. However, as you seek the most effective ways to spend your time in a job search, you are much better off networking or finding information through online resources to gain access directly to a hiring manager rather than take time writing to an online system.

Manage your time effectively and seek the best contacts at every company you target.

Job Interview Tip: How to Handle Behavioral Interviews

Recruiting Animal — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:24:05 PST

By Peggy McKee, the Medical Sales Recruiter

It’s likely you’re going to find yourself in a behavioral job interview sometime in your job search. Do you know how to handle it?

Behavioral interviews focus on past job behavior and performance (what did you do in a given situation) with the idea that this information will predict your future behavior and performance. Behavioral interviews are really much more informative for employers than a “what do you know how to do?” interview, and more and more hiring managers are using some version of it. (Here’s a previous post on STAR Interviews.)

What do you need to know?

1) Have stories or examples ready that explain your skills/performance in many different situations. What happened when you had an unhappy customer? How have you increased sales? How did you deal with _____________? Here’s a link to sample behavioral interview questions.

2) Quantify your examples whenever possible. You increased sales by how much? You were responsible for bringing in _______ dollars in revenue. You saved the company _______ dollars by doing/changing/introducing _________________. Salespeople (in all areas of medical sales, pharmaceutical sales, laboratory sales, clinical diagnostics sales, DNA products sales, biotechnology sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, or medical supplies and equipment sales) are good at having these numbers at hand, but people in marketing, tech support or service areas in healthcare will need to work harder.

This video will explain all of this in more detail. I hope it helps you have a successful job interview.

Are Recruiters Violating Privacy By Digging Deep?

Richard Becker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:47:24 PST

By Richard Becker

"Recruiters shouldn’t care about that Facebook picture of your beer pong game in college." — Shel Holtz, ABC, principal of Holtz Communication + Technology.

Holtz calls the increasing shift toward total transparency a cultural transition, spurred on by social media. And, as a consequence, "Animal House [by Millennials] behavior really shouldn’t matter to hiring managers today."

The communication has sparked an interesting conversation, with Jen Zingheim, Media Bullseye, wondering if "Millenials are perhaps setting themselves up for future problems, because it's hard to put that privacy genie back in the bottle." At the same time, she recognizes that she came from a different era, one that celebrated the separation of professional and personal, work and play.

For my part, I offered up the interesting case study of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, who found their personal and professional worlds collide while working on John Edwards campaign just last year. Holtz said it was apples and oranges.

Is it? Marcotte and McEwan isn't a story about bad behavior. It's a story about merely having publicly conflicting views with the candidate you work for — without bad or illegal behavior. It led to the chastisement of two professionals over nothing more than their own rhetoric. It also marked the beginning of the end for the Edwards campaign.

The consequences present evidence enough. What we do in public is public. Social media can make personal public.

Does this mean Holtz is wrong? Not in the least. This is a conversation with a dynamic that allows two people to be right at the same time in that there is a cultural shift occurring that allows for greater personal and professional crossovers. However, Holtz might be taking one step to far in suggesting that what you share might be exempt from public scrutiny after it's shared publicly.

What we do in public, especially when it includes personal behavior, has always had professional consequences. To think otherwise is saying that the employee who unexpectedly got drunk and put the lampshade on his head at the company party didn't somehow change the perception of the public that was present. Social media expands that public.

In some ways, it might be more hazardous because social media is different from daily relationships as it expands the audience (instead of 50 impressions at a company party, there might be 500 impressions on Facebook).

We might also consider that the online public has a limited engagement. For some in social media settings, they might only see that lampshade on his head, which wouldn't create the impression of someone who had too many. They might only see a drunk. Or maybe an alcoholic. Or maybe something else. It's hard to guess.

Five Social Media Rules for Your Job Search

Recruiting Animal — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:47:52 PST

By Harry Urschel

Looking for a new job? Be smart online! Your activity on the internet may make or break your chances of getting a job you want. Too often people sabotage their job search by leaving a trail online of careless, controversial, or foolish posts, pictures, or comments. Others use their time online to create an image that screams “Hire me!”

Here are five rules to follow to help insure your success:

Maximize your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is a tremendous tool for your job search, not the least of which is being found. Also, a recruiter or hiring manager may check you out during a hiring process just to see what you have posted. Spend time to create a full, professional profile. Be as meticulous as you are in creating your resume. Be sure there are no spelling errors and make it readable. Whether it’s to find you in a search, or to check you out as you’re being considered for a position, your LinkedIn profile is critical to give you an advantage when you’re competing for an offer.
Picture this! Clearly, having pictures online that show you drinking, doing drugs, or something else foolish or worse can be deadly to getting an offer. However, often people forget that ALL pictures online form a portrait of who you are. I saw a LinkedIn profile of a middle-aged heavy-set man with a picture of an apparent vacation in Hawaii where he was shirtless and wearing a lei. Not the image a potential employer is likely hoping for. Pictures on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr or any other site are accessible, often even when you think they are marked ‘private’. If you put it on the web, it can usually be found. It’s public information and can be a factor in a hiring decision. Make sure the pictures online, particularly on LinkedIn create the best professional image you can.
Avoid controversy. You may have strong opinions about politics, wars, healthcare, or a number of other topics. Airing them out publicly online, however, may alienate a potential employer. Whether the recruiter or hiring manager agrees with your opinions or not may be irrelevant if they consider the potential turmoil it may produce in their organization. Debate and discussion live and in-person is great, but anything posted online is open to public consumption now and years from now.
Watch your language! Just as controversial subjects can be off-putting when being considered for employment, so can bad language. If your posts in a blog, ‘Tweets’ on Twitter, comments to articles, or discussion in online forums are characterized by profanity, or sexual references it’s not likely to create the image you’d like a hiring manager to have of you.
Exude optimism! Complaining about your previous company, boss, current circumstances, neighbors, products, businesses, associates, or anything else creates an image of a whiner. Body language and tone don’t come across online. It’s critical to create an online persona of professionalism, helpfulness, graciousness, and optimism. If you read everything you’ve written online, would it sound like someone you’d like to spend time with each day, or someone that would bring you down? Create the impression that will make you an attractive employee and co-worker.

All of these things are not guaranteed to make a difference, however, if a recruiter or hiring manager were to Google you (and a high percentage of them do), what they find can be a deciding factor as to whether they will move forward with you or not.

Be careful to craft your online image and remember that EVERYTHING you post is open to consideration!