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Browse published articles attributed to Peggy McKee, with full-archive search.
The era of the thank you note after a job interview is over. Well, not the actual “thank you,” just the delivery system. It’s critically important that you thank the interviewer for the opportunity, but it’s also critically important that you get it to him within 24 hours. And a handwritten, snail-mailed note just won’t do that. Send an email.
Medical device sales is a hot sales category. Because it’s hot, you’re going to have some competition to beat to land the job. But never fear–the medical sales recruiter has a strategy for you! 1.
Always send a thank you email after your job interview, instead of a handwritten note. Some think that putting pen to paper for your note is more personal. But there are factors that are more important...like speed, adaptability, and the possibility of keeping the communication going.
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?
At AACC, I had the pleasure of a long conversation with a national sales manager of a $30M company (10 sales reps and 10 technical support folks) where I discovered his opinion that “sales reps these days just aren’t as strong as they used to be.” I said, “Really? I’ve found that sales reps are just as good as the ones from the ‘good old days.’” So, naturally, I asked him about his hiring practices. He said that they hire their own people with no outside help (no recruiters) through ads, sales rep referrals, and a Rolodex.
There are so many details involved in a successful job interview, and every one of them is more critical than the last. Hiring you is a big, expensive risk for the company. (If they put in the money to train you, pay you, and give you health care benefits, are you going to make it worthwhile for them?) It's up to you to take care of every single detail to put their minds at ease and be excited to hire you.
Resumes are the foundational document for your job search. It’s so important that you get it right. You need it to act as your marketing document in your job search. It should grab the attention of the reader and make them want to talk to you to find out more.
Life has been tough for pharmaceutical reps for the last few years. Massive layoffs and changing sales practices by Big Pharma companies have resulted in a flood of sales reps in the job market. But life gets even tougher for them when they run into job postings with “pharma reps need not apply” or “we won’t consider candidates with a pharmaceutical background” right in the description! So is that the end of the road for them? Does that mean you can’t even look at that job if you’re a laid-off pharma rep? Of course not!
How many contacts and resumes are enough? That is an excellent question. Perhaps the answer is simpler and at the same time more frustrating than we would like. As success driven people, we like concrete answers with concrete solutions performed in a concrete, fixed period of time. Yet, in this case the answer is as many as it takes to win the job. So, instead of wasting time trying to measure the unquantified, job hunters need to focus in a laser-like way on driving more contacts and reaching each contact with increasing effectiveness on each subsequent effort.
Fast follow up emails after the interview are better than handwritten notes. Lots of job seekers underestimate just how important it is to say "thank you"....for the time, for the conversation, for the opportunity to meet. And it's also important that you get it to your interviewer fast: within 24 hours of your interview. A handwritten, snail-mailed note just won't do that. Send an email. Why is it so important?
When you take the big step out of military service back into civilian life, the last thing you need to be worrying about are the difficulties of a civilian job search. It’s true that veterans’ unemployment rates are higher than average, and it’s true that there are specific obstacles in your way…but the good news is that there are 3 sure-fire solutions you can implement that will get you hired quickly. Obstacle (and Solution) #1: Civilian employers don’t understand how your training and skill sets will benefit them.
Job seekers over 50 (and over 40) can run into real trouble getting job interviews. Before you assume it's age holding you back, make a few improvements to your resume. With the right resume know-how, your age and experience will be a huge positive for you in the job search.
Hiring managers often use personality tests such as DISC, Caliper, or Gallup to see if a potential employee “fits” in the organization. They may even have a benchmark of what a top performing employee looks like in order to compare and evaluate you. But what if you fail the test? If you take a personality assessment and are told that you don’t fit, is there anything you can do to get back in the game? There are a couple of things you can do. They might not work, but they’re your best shot at saving your opportunity.
Nothing is as much of a foundational piece of your job search as your resume. If you think of the job search as a sales process (and you should), then your resume is your marketing document. What does your resume say about you? Does it grab the attention of the reader like it should? Does it give the reader the information he or she needs to make the decision to call you in for an interview to find out more? The first fourth of your resume is the key to grabbing the attention you need.
As a recruiter, I am always impressed by candidates who have questions of their own to ask—and I consistently receive feedback from hiring managers all over the country who feel the same way. The candidate who’s asked, “So, do you have any questions?” at the end of the interview better come up with something. One who answers, “No, I don’t think so,” is going to get a big negative mark against them in the hiring decision.
Do you know that most people develop a lasting impression of you and what you’re like based on the first few seconds of meeting you? That’s way before you’ve said anything important…you’ve barely said “hello.” Some of that impression is based off your body language and handshake, true, but the rest is based off how you look—what you’re wearing.
Situational Response Question: An airplane landed in the parking lot. What would you do? Most situational interview questions are like behavioral interview questions. They have some direct relation to the job…like, “You are introducing a new policy to the group and facing opposition. How would you handle it?” Or, “How would you handle a situation in which a subordinate was not performing to expectations?”
The short answer is yes. A recruiter can and will absolutely help you put together a 30/60/90-day plan, especially an external recruiter whose paycheck depends on you getting the job. The longer answer is also yes, but you have to do your part in making sure that happens. A good recruiter can point you in the right direction for your research on the company. But you also have to ask the right questions to get the recruiter to share with you what they believe and know about the company and the job. What are some basic things you need to know to create a killer 30/60/90-day plan?
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.
What are your advantages and disadvantages? This job interview question is another way to get at what your greatest strengths and weaknesses as a candidate are. But in this particular one, they’d like a list of the pros and cons of hiring you. Don’t let it throw you. It is a beautiful thing to be the one in charge of putting together that list (if only during the interview). You can spin this story like a politician and turn it in your favor. Don’t lie. Just focus on the positive.
Online social media is a fantastic tool for job hunting. The Big 3 (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter) each have their own unique style that you can utilize in different ways for your job search. But while you're working these sites to land the perfect medical sales job, employers and recruiters are looking for you, too. And if you get their attention in the early stages of the job interview process, they're going to be actively searching for more details about you. According to one survey, 70% of hiring managers and recruiters have rejected an applicant based on what they found online.
Describe your work style. Do you know what your work style is? This is a popular interview question, but a lot of people go wrong in their answers because they don’t understand what that employer really wants to know. They’re not interested in your personality or your likes and dislikes with this question. They’re not interested in your work wardrobe, either.) They want to know how you work. So some people really shoot themselves in the foot with the ‘work style’ question because they say things like, “I’m really laid back.” First, that’s a personality trait.
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.
One of the easiest ways to make a good impression in your phone interview is to be calm, cool, and collected. To do that, you need to be prepared, organized, and relaxed. Here are some tips that will help you have a great phone interview.
Are you in an executive job search? Statistics say that you’ll spend one month in the job search for every $10,000 you earn. Do you have that kind of time? Of course not. You can have your pick of executive positions if you are as strategic with your executive job search as you are with your executive job. How? Let’s start with this: Here are the 3 things that keep most executives from getting interviews:
The best time to present your 30/60/90-day plan is in your first face-to-face interview. In this difficult economy, many well-qualified people are applying for jobs, creating some stiff competition for you, so you’re going to want to come out of the gate strong. Don’t bother trying to bring it up during your phone interview—I don’t think you can present it well over the phone. I do think that you can email it to the hiring manager if you are trying to get the hiring manager’s attention and you’ve exhausted your other methods.
So what happens when you have a really great interview, you send your follow-up email in a timely manner, but then you hear nothing? What do you do? Do you send another note? Do you contact HR? Or the hiring manager you spoke to in the interview? It’s a tricky situation, and a lot of people struggle with what to do.
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?
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?
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
Here’s a common scenario (and complaint) for job seekers: “I spend all day long applying to jobs online through Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, or niche job boards—and I never get a response. Have I lost the understanding of how this job search works?”
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.
As a career coach, I talk to job seekers in difficult circumstances all the time. One of the biggest problems that job seekers can face is that at some point, they were fired--for fault. It wasn't downsizing. It wasn't the economy. They did something that caused the company to let them go. If you were fired, you might think that your career is over--but chances are, it isn't.
A 30/60/90-day plan is a detailed outline of what you intend to do on the job in your first 3 months as an employee. It’s an overall strategy for success laid out in a step-by-step fashion that is specific to that company and that job. The more specific it is to that company, the better off you are, because you want the hiring manager to be able to visualize you working for him and being successful in the job. As you might guess, it’s not easy to just whip one of these up.
Never underestimate how important thank you notes are to the impression you make on the company in your job interview process. But the most critical factor of all is speed. For that reason, every thank you note should be a thank you email...sent within 24 hours of your interview. Why? Because hiring decisions can be made quickly, and you don't want to miss your chance to influence it. It's that simple.
There are plenty of people who think that a LinkedIn account replaces traditional methods of job-hunting. While this might work for a few, this is not really the concept that propels the existence of this professional networking site. The purpose of LinkedIn is to provide a means of connecting with other people in the context of career opportunities…that’s why there are groups to join, Q&A sections, testimonials, and more. LinkedIn can be a valuable tool even when a resume is already in place.
The best-prepared candidate is often the one who gets the offer. And the hands-down, very best way to ensure that YOU are the best-prepared candidate is to construct a 30/60/90-day plan.
If you want to build your personal brand, establish an online presence, and be in the right place at the right time for your job search, then you have to utilize social media. The big 3 social media sites are LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. While LinkedIn is focused more fully on business, and Facebook leans toward the social, Twitter lands somewhere in the middle. Nearly 75 million people visited Twitter in January 2010.
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?
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.
The medical sales arena is the top-tier of sales positions in the workforce. Because the area is so varied, exciting, and lucrative, many, many candidates are vying for those jobs. So, if you want to land a job in medical sales, you’re going to have to bring your “A” game.
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
You might be thinking: “I have to ask questions? I thought I was supposed to ANSWER questions at an interview.” You do have to ask questions if you want the job. But which questions? While there are many questions you want to ask, there are two questions you must ask at every interview, every single time:
How can you apply your specific skills to help the organization achieve sustainable growth and generate revenue? To answer this question, it’s very important that you understand the role you’re applying to fill.
Many people find that there are roadblocks they can’t get past when trying to break into medical sales, medical devices, laboratory sales, or other health care sales–but it can be done. The biggest one is the lack of a medical background. But here are 4 ways you can overcome that:
Are you asking the right question in your job interview? Lots of job seekers don't even realize they should be asking questions in the interview. If they do, they limit themselves to information-gathering about the job. Information-gathering is great (as long as you don't ask about salary!), but there's one question that can either seal the deal on you getting the job, or even rescue an offer you're already losing. It’s “Do you see any reason why you wouldn’t hire me for this job?”
What do you do if you’re currently unemployed (like so many others are in this economy), and you go to a networking function and are asked “What do you do?”
Medical sales has a well-deserved reputation for being extremely competitive. The path to get into the field is littered with job seeker casualties: “not enough sales experience,” “not the right kind of experience,” “no experience in the medical field,” and so on. But there are ways to get your foot in the door even if you have no experience at all. You’re going to have to work for it, but it is possible, and it’s very worth it. So here’s a few offbeat ideas for you to get into medical sales:
Job shadowing is common among students, less so among adults who have been out in the work force for a while. But if you're transitioning to a new job or career field, it can be a huge boost to your credibility and your performance in the interview. But you've got to ask the right questions to get the kind of information you're going to need to stand out.
Why haven't you been promoted?