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Facebook Do you think that LinkedIn is for business and Facebook is for friends? You’re partly right; but the line between the two is very, very fuzzy when it comes to job searching. I found some stats on Mashable that says as of December 2011, over 18 million people have gotten jobs through Facebook. 18 million.
As a medical sales recruiter, I get almost daily inquiries from people who would like to be in medical sales even though they have no sales background and want to know what they should do. I’m never surprised to get these calls. Medical sales is (I think) the top tier of sales categories, and there are many, many people who want to be involved in it.
Have you ever heard the saying, “It’s not what you know…it’s WHO you know”? That’s not entirely true, but there’s a healthy-enough grain of truth in that statement to make networking a very powerful strategy for your job search.
A 30-60-90-day plan is an outline of what you intend to do in your first 3 months on the job. It’s a goal-setting document that shows you understand the job and you know what it takes to be successful at it. It covers everything from your training to your initial efforts to grow the business. It’s very impressive for hiring managers because it shows that you’ve put a lot of thought into what you can do for the company, and it takes a lot of the “risk” out of hiring you. It can be overwhelming to create a plan, since it must be specific to the company to be the most effective.
How does this position fit in with the career path you envision for yourself? I think a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot with this career path question. To be fair, it is a hard question to answer, like “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” or “What are your long-term goals?” Unless you’re a person who has their life planned out, it’s hard to predict what you’ll want to be doing down the road. Especially if you’re just starting out and still learning what jobs you love and what jobs you could do without. But.
How would you feel about working for someone who knows less than you? It’s not ideal to work for someone who does, in fact, know less than you. In fact, it’s kind of aggravating. But typically, they don’t know less than you in all areas. There is usually a reason they are where they are. They must know more than you in at least one little area, or they wouldn’t be the person in charge. Right?
A 90 Day Interview Plan is also known as a 90-Day Plan, a Business Plan, or a 30-60-90-Day Plan. Whatever you call it, the point is that it’s a plan—a plan for how you will attack your new job in the first 90 days of employment. Having a plan, or a strategy, in place helps you show your true value to a potential employer. Why does a 90 Day Interview Plan give you a better interview?
As a medical sales recruiter, I spend a lot of time on the phone fielding inquiries from job seekers. Not only about specific jobs in medical sales, laboratory sales, imaging sales, biotech sales, clinical diagnostics sales, pathology sales, medical device sales, hospital equipment sales, pharmaceutical sales, or other areas of healthcare sales, but also about career coaching: How does it work? How can it help me? Can you help me?
Many of us have the wrong idea about the job search. We believe that our skills, the industry requirement for skills, and our dedication to hard work is enough. This is never the case and in today's environment this is even less so as you may be competing against dozens and sometimes hundreds of candidates for the same position. For those with some knowledge of statistics makes the process into something of a numbers game. The number 1 step you must take is to get on the numbers treadmill and start collecting interviews.
Job shadowing is just what it sounds like: you be someone's "shadow" for the day, to learn what a typical day is like in their job. It's also known as a field preceptorship, or a ride-along (especially accurate for going with sales reps on their routes). It's a "tryout" for you with no pressure. It gives you a chance to see if you like that work environment, and see what it takes to be successful in it.
Rest in peace Joseph Juran, inventor of the 80/20 rule. Your 80/20 rule saved many careers. How can that be? If you managed for any period of time and were an effective manager, you have used the 80/20 rule. Simply stated, the 80/20 rule says that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts. If you have 10 people on your team, 80% of your results or production will come from your top 2 reps (20%). If you own a restaurant, 80% of your revenue will most likely come from 20% of the time you are open. If you have 10 accounts 80% of your revenue will come from the top
It's a tough job market out there right now, but what if you can’t even get an interview? What if you're resume or your network is good enough to get you to the interview, but you can’t get past that point? Are you demonstrating the levels of commitment, drive, tenacity, skills and organization employers want? Here are 6 tried and true ways to separate you from other candidates and be the candidate everyone wants to hire: 1. Preparation = SWOT Analysis: SWOT is a strategic planning tool.
How do I know you still have the ‘fire in the belly’ to do this job? If you’re of a ‘certain age’ in the job search, you already know that age is a big issue. It’s a very real obstacle to getting a job. Older workers have a reputation of not being up on the latest technology, not being willing to adapt, not being willing to take orders from younger bosses, and not having the energy or motivation to keep up with a heavy work schedule. That’s what this ‘fire in the belly’ question is really asking: Are you still motivated to work hard?
What was your most difficult work experience and how did you deal with it? This is a great job interview question to talk about how you have overcome a challenge and ended up a winner! You can talk about how you stepped up to a difficult situation and got a good outcome, or how you overcame something that was holding you back in your job (maybe you learned a new skill).
To prepare for a job interview in medical or health care sales, you have to make sure you're ready to answer both common and tough interview questions, and know how to frame your answers to highlight what you're going to bring to the company (a great way to do that is to structure your answers in the form of stories that spotlight your skills). You also have to have some interview questions of your own ready--after all, you're interviewing them, too. You want to know if that company's a good fit for you, and is going to be a place where you can succeed.
If you want your resume to actually be a marketing document for you, and get a recruiter's or a hiring manager's attention, you must pack that resume with the keywords that are relevant to the career area you want. Recruiters, hiring managers, and Human Resource departments use computer searches and applicant tracking systems to flag resumes worth looking at, and that means they use keywords to search for the ones they'll be interested in looking at further. But what if you're new to the area and don't have much experience?
What does your interviewer really think about what you wear to the interview? Not dressing appropriately for your interview is high on the list of top 10 interview mistakes.
You’ve seen them: the Domino’s commercials talking up their new pizza recipe. Have you tried it? Well, lots of folks have, and it’s changed everything for Domino’s, according to an article in USA Today– New Pizza Recipe Did Wonders For Domino’s Sales. Domino’s was not doing well. They had a poor reputation and were at the bottom of an already shrinking pizza market in the middle of a recession–not a recipe for success. So what did they do?
Many candidates wonder if it’s a good idea to bring their 30/60/90-day plan to their first job interview with the company. They have questions about timing, etiquette, or even saving a “wow” moment for the second interview. A 30/60/90-day sales plan (or action plan, if you’re not in sales), is difficult to put together. It takes a lot of research, and a lot of work to create. Some candidates think that’s a lot of work for just a preliminary interview.
With over 40 million members and still growing, LinkedIn is the biggest professional network in the entire world. It connects an individual with numerous contacts. But, there is more to LinkedIn than just connections....after all, recent developments in networking technology should provide more than just size. LinkedIn is able to facilitate the exchange of ideas on a larger scale. In other words, the network does not just exist – it exists for a specific purpose, which is to increase professional and business opportunities for users.
Tell me your life story (more of your personal history). Hiring managers want to find out as much as they can about you in the interview. It’s a little bit of a risk management thing. The more they know, the less likely they’ll make a mistake by extending you a job offer. But even if they ask you to specifically reveal more of your personal history, it’s still very important that you remember that your focus is not to make a new best friend here…it’s to get a job. For that reason, here’s how you want to talk about your personal story in the interview:
It's common for me to get questions from folks in higher-level sales positions or semi-supervisory positions (maybe National Accounts Managers, etc.), who want to know how to move up. Maybe they are interviewing for Regional Accounts Manager jobs or similar positions and need advice, and they want to know how to differentiate themselves so that they will be the ones who get tapped for promotions. There's a lot of advice out there about these kinds of things, and certainly your sales performance has to be solid to even put you in the running.
I can’t emphasize enough just how important your LinkedIn profile is to your career in medical sales. Your LinkedIn profile is the primary thing other people (all 40 million of them on the network) will see about you. It is the online world’s equivalent of a first impression, so it should be utilized well. Even the simplest errors on a profile page can have dire effects.
If you had to choose one, would you consider yourself a big-picture person or a detail-oriented person?
It's critical in today's uncertain business climate to make no mistakes in interviewing and hiring new sales representatives for your company. Hiring managers are under more pressure than ever before to make the right decision the first time. Beyond the basics of conducting a great interview and communicating with candidates in a timely manner, it's important to keep an objective, balanced perspective. Here are the top 5 things you need to know to make a great decision and avoid costly hiring mistakes: 1. Use a results-based decision-making process. What does this mean?
Job interviews can be very stressful situations. To alleviate that stress so that you come across as confident, competent, and capable: be prepared, have good communications skills, and have a few tricks up your sleeve. Stepping it up so that you shine in the interview and stand out from the crowd is what's going to get you the job. It cannot be stressed enough: Do your homework on the company. Know what they do, and what's currently going on with them. Check the company's website and Google them, too, to find information from newspapers, magazines, and blogs.
80% of you won’t agree with this. 20% will: 100% – 20% = Failure for a medical sales rep How can that be? If you are a field-based medical sales, laboratory sales, medical device sales, or pharmaceutical sales rep, don’t you always have more tasks to accomplish than time to do them? Hello 80/20 rule! Simply stated, the 80/20 rule says: * 80% of your sales will come from 20% of your accounts. * 80% of your problems will come from 20% of your accounts. * 80% of your peers will try, 20% will succeed. * 80% don’t understand your technology.
What a difference a space makes. LinkedIn is vastly different from Linked In, which implies that it is something that you just plug into. That’s definitely not what LinkedIn is all about. Instead, this particular site is a powerful networking tool that allows people to get in touch with other professionals from around the world. It necessitates a proactive stance rather than a passive one. LinkedIn is a networking tool that requires the cultivation of relationships in order to be effective. Making a profile does not mean that you get to sit back and relax.
What are your workplace values? Asking about your workplace values is similar to asking “What is your work ethic?” Or, “What are your workplace ethics?” They want to know what kind of person you are. What matters to you?
Why should we give you the job over the other candidates? This is a tough job interview question. Most people are not that comfortable with the idea of tooting their own horn, but that’s exactly what you have to do in a job search and in a job interview, and that’s especially what you have to do when you answer this question. So feel free to brag. They are looking for you to sell yourself for the job. Tell them why they need you.
It’s too long if you aren’t getting any interviews at all. If nothing is changing for you, or moving forward in any measurable way, then you must do something differently. Remember: what’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
As painful as looking for a new job can sometimes be, job seekers often overlook the simplest way to make the search easier: work with a recruiter. A recruiter can ease the pain of the search in several ways: she has contacts you can only dream of, she knows where the jobs are that you probably won't, and she will help you prepare for interviews with inside knowledge of the company and an objective eye for you. However, sometimes there are misconceptions about recruiters that cause a candidate to question the process.
What have you been doing since you got laid off? I know…this job interview question makes you want to roll your eyes. The painfully obvious answer is, “I’ve been trying to find a new job!” But you can’t say that. Why would they ask you this question? It turns out, they have several good reasons for asking. There are a lot of questions behind this question, and if you know what they are, you can answer it more effectively. Here’s what they’re really asking:
Give me a specific example of a time when you had to conform to a policy with which you did not agree. Even though a good STAR story is the backbone of answering Behavioral Interview questions, here’s one interview question where it’s actually a good thing NOT to have a great story for. Asking you for an example of a time when you folded under pressure is a situational interview question that’s even worse than “Describe a difficult situation and how you handled it.” At least in that one you can come out looking like you’ve overcome something.
LinkedIn is an amazingly valuable resource for anyone’s career, and essentially important for the success of a job search. A great profile that shows you off at your professional best is the first step, but many job seekers want to know just how important it is to have recommendations on your profile. And how many do you need?
Think you can talk on the phone anywhere? That might be true if you’re discussing dinner plans, but it is not true for your phone interview. For that, you have to choose your location carefully. Why? Because this phone conversation is the gate you have to pass through to get to your face-to-face interview. If you don’t do well here, there is no face-to-face interview, which means there is no job. This is a critical tipping point in the interview process.
What’s the best way to show recruiters and hiring managers why they should consider you for a position? It has nothing to do with the interview…go back a step. It’s your resume. But many sales reps fail to understand exactly what recruiters and hiring managers are looking for when they scan resumes. As a medical sales recruiter, I frequently see resumes cross my desk from candidates who’ve had experience in selling roles, but fail to include numbers, dollars, or percentages on their resumes. It’s a common mistake that can really hurt you in the job search.
Phone interviews are often the very first step of the interview and hiring process. You’re not likely to get a call to come in and interview without some kind of conversation on the phone first. How Important Phone Interviews Really Arer Your resume got you the phone call. Now this one 10-minute conversation is the deciding factor as to whether or not you’ll get the interview. That’s how important it is.
Career coaching is sometimes thought of as a counseling session for “what do you want to be when you grow up?” That has its place, for sure, but career counseling is not career coaching. Career coaching works a lot like athletic coaching—it’s an experienced trainer standing behind you, helping you get past your weak spots and improving your game so that you can win—in this case, that means getting the job offer you want. Job seekers can get help with overcoming the hurdles they face, like: • transitioning from one company to another • transitioning from one industry to anotherr
I don't think it's even possible to be "over-prepared" for your job interview. The better prepared you are, the more confident you will be--and that shows. Especially in this job market, you've got to show up with your "A" game right off the bat to avoid getting eliminated from consideration. That means putting everything you've got into getting ready for your interview. When you think about your interview strategy, think about your goals. What do you want to accomplish in the interview? * You want your potential boss to see how successful you are going to be in the job.r
Do you know the most important question you should ask in phone interviews? Hopefully, you already know that it’s important that you should ask questions in your telephone interview. But you might not know that one question in particular can ensure a good interview or even turn the tide of a bad interview. What’s the question? The question is: What does your ideal candidate look like? What’s on their wish list of skills and qualifications of someone in this role? If a person with those qualities walked through the door now, they’d be drooling and trying to hire them on the spot.
It seems that there’s always been a stigma attached to being unemployed, and even in this economy, when so many people are without a job for a lengthy stretch, it still causes candidates to be uncomfortable and nervous about telling people that they’re unemployed. They don’t quite know how to handle the situation in the job search or in the interview.
LinkedIn is an amazing tool. I've seen a wide range of folks land both jobs and contracting opportunities. Careers can grow in unexpected and amazingly positive ways with this tool. Before LinkedIn, a young person beginning their career could have spent decades contacting and connecting with only a fraction of the persons they can now connect to in a matter of a few months.
Phone interviews are an incredibly critical tipping point in the hiring process. They liked what they saw your resume enough to talk to you…will this phone call make them like you enough to call you in for a face-to-face interview? There’s a lot you can do to prepare for phone interviews and make sure that happens.
What’s keeping you from getting the job? It could be the same thing that trips up others: you don’t understand (yet) that the job search is a sales process. It doesn’t matter what career you are involved in: to get the job, you have to sell yourself to the hiring manager. That means that you’re the product. You’re trying to get the hiring manager to pay you a salary to do work (or, to buy the product to get a benefit). Once you understand this, it changes EVERYTHING. If the job search is a sales process, what does that mean for you?
Being laid off can feel so awkward to a job seeker that it paralyzes them in an interview situation and undermines their candidacy--but it doesn't have to. I'm going to show you how to change the language you use and the perspective you have about your layoff to boost your confidence and calm the concerns of a potential new employer. So: How do you address a layoff? First things first
Tell us about a failed project. This is a more specific version of “Tell us about a time when you failed.” This is a big behavioral interview question. Why do hiring managers want so badly to ask about your failures? It’s because we’ve all failed at one time or another and how we deal with it and react to it says a lot about our character and our work ethic. It gives them another perspective on how you deal with stressful situations, too. Failures are difficult. I’ve had a few of them myself.
A 30/60/90-day sales plan is a written outline for exactly what you’ll do in the first 3 months on a new job. It’s the goals you’ve set for yourself as a new employee for the first 30 days, the first 60 days, and the first 90 days. A30/60/90-day sales plan is tremendously impressive to a hiring manager because it takes a lot of effort to write one, and requires that you research the company and the job very well in order to be specific in your goals.
How should you follow up after a phone interview? If you think that your follow up is the face-to-face interview (if you get it), you are making a mistake.
Why do you want to work for someone else after owning your own business / freelancing? LOTS of hiring managers will have a hard time believing that you can start taking orders after being your own boss. It’s not a big leap for them to make…it would be difficult for many people. Your best answer to this difficult job interview question will be honest but positive.