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370 articles by Peggy McKee · showing 50

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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

10 Proven Tips for Your Medical Sales Job Search Success

Your job search is one of the most significant tasks you’ll ever have. What job you end up with determines how you’ll spend the majority of hours in your day, how much money you’ll have, and how satisfied you are with your life. It’s worth making the effort to end up where you’ll be happy. Whether you’re currently employed or not, here’s how to put everything you’ve got into your job search–and it will bring you great results, whether you’re in laboratory sales, medical device sales, pharmaceutical sales, or any other health care sales arena:

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions – Q77

What were the major challenges of your last job and how did you handle them? This is a tough job interview question to answer because the major challenges of your last job typically are going to be the key job skills that you’re bringing to the new one. (The exception being if you’re a brand new graduate or transitioning careers). Since most jobs you interview for build on the job you had before, you’re actually likely to be talking about the job skills that you’re going to take on in this new role.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q28

How would you go about establishing your credibility quickly with the team? The best way to go about establishing credibility with anybody in any situation is to ask really great questions and try to understand the situation before trying to do any kind of magic trick. (Incidentally, this is another benefit of asking questions in the interview…you show what you know by what you ask. If you ask great questions, it helps establish your own credibility as a strong candidate with the interviewer.)

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q63

What have you learned from your mistakes? This job interview question is an opportunity for you to show them that you’re a “growth” person…someone who learns from their mistakes and grows from it, developing into a stronger, smarter, better version of yourself.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Use A Brag Book for a Successful Job Interview

Do you know one of the best ways to make a great impression in your job interview and set yourself apart from other job candidates? Build a brag book. Brag books can be very persuasive in an interview process (if you use them right). The fact that you've taken the time to put one together is an attention-getter, and the things you highlight in it are the "proof" that you are someone they want to hire.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Stand Out In Your Medical Sales Job Interview

What does it take to set yourself apart from the competition in the job interview process? Is it a killer resume, a brag book, a 30/60/90-day plan, a great LinkedIn profile, smooth interview skills, or how well you prepare for the interview? Yes, it’s all those things. AND, it’s more. It’s how you position yourself in relation to your competition. Who is the hiring manager comparing you with? How do you stack up? What do you have to offer?

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q35

Is there anything I haven’t told you about the company that you’d like to know? Toward the end of the interview, hiring managers will ask some version of, “Do you have any questions for me?” Your answer is ALWAYS going to be “yes.” You always want to have a list of questions to ask in the interview. If you don’t have any, it makes you look like you’re not that interested in the role. Here are some examples of great questions to ask: Why is the position open?

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Interview Prep for Medical Device Sales

If you’re in the job search for a medical device sales job, you know how tough it is. Even if you have the right background in science and technology plus sales experience, there’s some intense competition for these fantastic positions. What can you do to prepare for your medical device interview so that you’re the one who walks away with the job offer? * Harness the power of LinkedIn LinkedIn is a powerful resource for the job hunter.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Fastest Way to Find a Job - Tip 10 - Recruiters

Recruiters Recruiters can be extremely valuable to your job search. Why? First, they very often have an “in” at some great companies that you don’t…if there’s an opening and the recruiter says, “Hey, this is someone you should look at,” that’s going to carry more weight than if you show up and say, “Here’s my resume.” Second, many companies prefer to hire only through recruiters…so for those particular jobs, the recruiter is the ONLY way to get to it.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q56

What do people most often criticize about you? Watch out for this question. This is another way to ask, “What’s your greatest weakness?” It is also a fishing expedition to see how well you take criticism. We all have to be open to criticism in order to grow and improve as professionals and as people. Being ‘coachable’ is a big plus in your favor in the eyes of your future manager or supervisor.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Do You Have a Brag Book? Don’t Leave It at the Interview

Brag books are a fantastic way for you to showcase the best you have to offer as an employee. It’s a historical look at what you’ve done over your career, and it’s made up of your performance statistics, project results, product brochures you’ve created, awards, rewards letters, and even complimentary notes you might have gotten from supervisors or even high-level clients. Anything positive that demonstrates in a concrete way what a valuable part of the team you have been goes in the book.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Why Do Companies Use Personality Tests?

Many companies use personality assessments such as DISC, Caliper, or Gallup as an additional evaluation for potential new hires. Even though resumes, job history, and past performance are powerful indicators of success in your new role, there are also intangible factors such as drive, people skills and personality. It’s easier to pinpoint those intangible qualities with personality assessments. These tools are very helpful to help managers, primarily because they can baseline the commonalities of their top performers—what characteristics or traits do their best people have?

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Should You E-Mail a 30/60/90-Day Plan to a Hiring Manager?

As a Medical Sales Recruiter, I recommend to all my candidates that they create a 30-60-90-day sales plan to present to hiring managers or hiring teams during job interviews for every position in sales, sales management, or marketing for medical sales, healthcare sales, laboratory sales, biotech sales, medical device sales, clinical diagnostics sales, imaging sales, or pharmaceutical sales. Simply put, a 30-60-90-day sales plan is a document that spells out how you will spend your time in the first 30 days, the first 60 days, and the first 90 days on your new job.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Impress Your Interviewer: Create a 30/60/90-Day Plan

30/60/90-day plans are typically used for sales jobs, but did you know that you can use a 30-60-90-day plan for non-sales jobs? You can--it works for marketing, project management, technical support, and many others. For instance, I got a call from a candidate going for a job in Marketing Communications. He had a 30-60-90-day template, but needed help translating it into a document for a non-sales job like the one he wanted.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Job Interview Questions: A Strategy for Success

You won't find the best way to answer job interview questions from a Google search of 'best answers to interview questions'. Mostly what you'll find are answers that make you sound just like everyone else. The best way to answer interview questions is to do it with a strategy of your own. Your mission in this interview is to sell yourself for the job...so all your answers have to help you accomplish that mission. How can you talk about your background and your skills in a way that all works together to present you as a 'gotta have' candidate? That's a strategy.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q17

How do you deal with stressful situations? If I got asked about how I deal with stressful situations, the first thing that would pop into my head is, “You mean like this one?” (Job interviews are very, very stressful. The way you deal with that stress is recognizing that it’s going to be stressful, preparing for the interview as much as possible, and taking a few deep relaxing breaths before you start.) But now is not the time to make that joke. My philosophy is ‘never let them see you sweat.’rnr

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Applying Online For A Job Is Not An Effective Job Search

How many jobs have you applied for online? How many job offers have they gotten for you? It would be my educated guess that the answer is zero. Don’t worry—you’re not the only one. Online job applications are probably the most common, yet least effective, job search effort. Why isn’t applying online an effective strategy?

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Job Interview Tip: The Hardest Part of the Interview Is Asking for the Job

Many job candidates prepare well for the interview, connect well with the hiring manager, and then stumble at the end of the interview session because they’re not comfortable asking for the next step. It feels awkward, or too bold, or even weak (as in, “if they want to hire me, they’ll have to ask me—I’m not begging for the job”). That’s not the way to look at it. Hiring managers will tell you that candidates who don’t ask something about what the next steps are usually feel that the candidate is really not all that interested, after all. You have to ask for the job.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

STAR Interview Technique for Behavioral Job Interviews

Employers want to know about more than just your skills and experience–they want to know how you’ll get along day-to-day. How will you react in stressful situations? What will you do when a customer gets cranky, or there’s some issue with the product? One way for hiring managers to get to that information is to use behavioral interview questions, sometimes known as the STAR technique. STAR stands for: Situation or Task Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q2

Are you willing to relocate? Are you willing to move for your job? In many companies, this is a typical job interview question. Sometimes it's a deal-breaker, sometimes it isn't. Even if this particular job doesn't require it, many companies Will you relocate for the job?want that flexibility in their employees for long-term growth potential. The knee-jerk answer that most people give ("I'd consider it for the right opportunity.") is not your best answer.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Fastest Way to Find a Job - Tip 7 - Career Fairs

Career Fairs I’ve got to say, career fairs are not my preferred method of finding a job fast. They are mobbed with job seekers and it can be a little unnerving to line up shoulder-to-shoulder with your competition. They usually require you to stand in long lines for a lot of the day which can wear you out. They can be difficult for people who are a little shy and reserved. It takes a lot of guts to walk up to someone and introduce yourself with a handshake.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How Does LinkedIn Work?

LinkedIn, a social networking site for professionals, is a large community of over 40 million users from all over the world. It allows people to interact with other individuals and maintain profile pages that contain their career-oriented information and contact details. The advantage of LinkedIn is that it prevents personal details from being stored in the same place as business information—which means, you can publish your business information without worrying about who’s going to read it. In fact, the more people who have access to your business information, the better.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

LinkedIn Discussion For Sales Managers - What Do You Do When HR Can't Find the Hunters You Need?

I recently posted this question on LinkedIn: Sales Managers: What do you do when your HR group isn't able to identify the hunters you need? With the incredible costs due to unfilled positions (customers going with the competition, RFPs not completed and generally missed sales opportunities), what do you (the sales manager) do to help HR see the need to use an outside source?

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Book Review: Women, Work, and the Art of Savoir Faire

If you are a woman in the business world, no matter what your age, you must read the book Women, Work, and the Art of Savoir Faire, by Mirelle Guiliano. It will help you step around the mistakes you might make in your career or as a business owner, and step forward into an opportunity that you might miss without this kind of coaching.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Skip HR and Contact the Hiring Manager to Get That Job

Do you feel like you're sending your resume down endless black holes? Not getting interviews? They might be getting hung up in HR-which means you need to go to the source: the hiring manager. Contacting the hiring manager directly sets you apart as a go-getter. It's a concrete demonstration that you can do what it takes to overcome an obstacle and get something done. It gives you a chance to present your case (helpful if you're transitioning into the field) that you might not get if you're weeded out by HR. How do you do that?

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Ride-Alongs and Ride-Withs (aka Job Shadowing)

What is a ride-along? Why is it important? A ride-along is just what it sounds like: You spend a day with a medical sales rep who’s in the field you’re thinking you’d like to sell into, and see how a typical day goes. A ride-along can be one of your greatest opportunities to differentiate yourself from another candidate. It sets you apart as a go-getter. It gives you critical on-the-job information that helps you in your job search. Among other things, it helps you answer the question, “How do you see yourself in this job?” How do you get one? Step 1: Ask for contacts.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q10

Give me an example of a time that you felt you went above and beyond the call of duty at work. If you get asked to describe a time you went above and beyond the call of duty on the job, be thrilled because this is a great behavioral interview question that has the potential to make you look like an amazing candidate. You should ALWAYS have one of these stories. It’s always a great thing to talk about how you not only met, but exceeded the expectations of your employer. That’s value.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q19

How do you handle stress and pressure on the job? Hmmm….how DO you handle on-the-job pressure? - I cry, yell, or complain. - I hide in the bathroom. - I love stress! It’s so motivating! - I don’t get stressed. Obviously, they want your answer to be (c) or (d)…either one works. Either you get some kind of adrenaline high off of the pressure and perform better, or you maintain a Zen-like calm and don’t ever get stressed out.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Job Interviews: How You Can Benefit By Asking Questions

What really separates candidates? It is not what you think. Of course, you need a great resume and you have to have presence. You have to have your shoes shined, show up on time and answer all the questions correctly. But you know what really makes a great candidate stand out from the others? It is the questions that they ask. The right questions show: they have the confidence to ask the questions rnthey thought it through rnthey think strategically Quick story: I had an entry level medical sales candidate last week call me right before she had her phone interview.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q47

What are some of your greatest and/or proudest accomplishments? This is a great job interview question, but a lot of people don’t do it or themselves justice when they answer it. One of the worst mistakes people make is that they will say that their greatest or proudest accomplishment is something that matters to them personally, like their two kids. It doesn’t matter if your kids are saints who never fight, spend their weekends feeding the poor, and have just won the Nobel prize…that’s still the wrong answer.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How To Stay Motivated In Your Job Search

It can be really hard to stay upbeat in a job search, especially if you’ve been out of work for any length of time in this difficult economy. You can stay motivated by setting realistic goals that aren’t activity-based, but are instead performance-based. And what I mean by that are actions that get you interviews.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Focused Networking: How to Find Your Next Job

You’ve always known that networking is a necessary part of any career path, and it’s even more important when you’re searching for a job. But you don’t want to waste your time and effort on meaningful contact with everyone you know or come across in your search, because you don't want to apply for just any company with a job opening. For your best results, you want to focus your efforts on a few individuals at a few great companies. It’s a precision strategy to land the job you really want. How to find the best people to contact

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions – Q91

Why do you believe you are the best fit for this position? This job interview question closely resembles “Why should we hire you?” It’s one question that makes candidates very uncomfortable because it puts them on the spot, but it’s really a fantastic question. Why? It allows you free rein to sell yourself for the job. Remember that every job interview is a sales process. You are the product (and the sales rep), and the hiring manager is the buyer. Why should he or she choose you above all the other products available?

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q55

What did you like or dislike about your previous jobs? Asking what you liked or disliked about your previous job sounds like a ‘get-to-know-you’ question, but don’t get too comfortable. This is another way to get at your strengths and weaknesses, and you can trip yourself up. Always remember your primary focus is to sell yourself for this job. Be strategic.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Job Interview Tips: 3 Opportunities to Make a Great Impression in the Interview

In your job interview, the details matter. The big picture is often the same, in terms of the process, but how you handle each individual step tells the interviewer a tremendous amount about you and how you’ll approach the job. Here are 3 opportunities for you to stand out from your competition: Presentation

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Questions to Ask During a Job Interview

The questions you should ask in your job interviews might surprise you. In general, you always want to ask questions during your interview because (1) it shows that you researched the company, rn(2) it helps you have a more relaxed and productive conversation, and rn(3) it helps you uncover information you can't get anywhere else.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Phone Interview Tips - Number 27: Biggest Phone Interview Mistakes

For such a short conversation, phone interviews are a surprisingly wide-open opportunity for screw-ups. Why is that? Partly, it’s because in a phone interview, the interviewer is really looking for mistakes. Telephone interviews are a screening process—a way to weed out too many candidates. So they’re looking for reasons to mark you off the list. Here are the biggest ways to make that happen: Failing to Prepare for the Interviewr

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

How to Answer Interview Questions - Q32

If you could relive the last 10 years of your life, what would you do differently? Hmmm….what would I do differently? I wouldn’t speed when I was going to get a ticket… I wouldn’t have invested money in those stocks… I wouldn’t have bought those shoes… Maybe those kinds of things are what come to your mind when you’re asked about what you would do differently, but when they ask you that question in a job interview, that’s not quite what they mean. This is another way to ask the ‘weakness’ question. They’re looking for your flaws.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

Phone Interview Tips - Number 16: How to Project the Right Image Over the Phone

Phone interviews are notoriously difficult for the simple reason that the interviewer can’t see you. So much of how we communicate is through gestures and expressions and those have no meaning at all on the phone. But phone interview or not, it’s still vitally important that you project an image that will make them want to move you forward to the next step. Just like in any job interview, you need your image to be one of competence, professionalism, and enthusiasm. So how do you do that when you only have your voice to do it with? You have a lot more options that you probably realize.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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By Peggy McKeeRecently published1 topic

5 Killer Questions to Ask In Your Medical Sales Job Interview

Usually, the emphasis in job interview prep involves getting your answers ready for the toughest interview questions–and there’s no doubt that it’s a critical component. But you must remember that interviewing is a two-way street. In one respect, the job interview is your chance to find out if the company is somewhere you can shine and advance in your career. You have to ask the questions that will tell you what you want to know.

Primary topic: Interviewing Skills
Interviewing Skills
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