Resumes with a confidential company as your employer….
I can see where you might want to keep the name of your employer confidential when you are submitting your resume to a recruiter (usually there’s some kind of fear factor involved because it can be a small world).
Please don’t bother.
Just so you know: it’s my job to find anyone, anywhere, and I do it well. I don’t even need Facebook. So if I were interested, I could find out where you work. But, I am a very busy medical sales recruiter, placing candidates every day in great careers in medical sales, laboratory sales, biotechnology sales, pharmaceutical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, DNA products sales, cellular and molecular products sales, surgical supplies sales, hospital equipment sales, medical device sales, and all other aspects of healthcare sales, service, marketing, and management. Which means, I don’t have time to do that kind of homework. And there’s no way I’m presenting you to one of my client companies without all the information available, so your withholding of it might be what knocks you out of the running. Or at leasts slows your progress down.
I am known for my sensitivity and confidentiality. Your secret is safe with me.
So save me the time, and increase your odds of success.
Job Search: How To Work With Sales Recruiters
I get many calls from people (potential candidates) asking about PHC Consulting’s services. The two main questions are always the same: “How much does it cost?” and “Why can’t I apply directly to the company?”
Although I am a niche recruiter (all medical sales-related jobs: laboratory sales, pharmaceutical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, biotechnology sales, surgical equipment sales, hospital equipment sales, medical supply sales, imaging sales, pathology sales, cellular products sales, molecular products sales, histology sales, etc.), all contingency recruiters work basically the same: Candidates pay nothing. Clients pay if a match is made.
Here’s the process:
1. You submit your resume to PHC consulting - resumes@phcconsulting.com.
2. We look to see if we have a job order that is a fit for you. Or if we know of a company that could use your skills and experiences in their organization. Some of the best jobs are created for candidates - great candidates.
3. If so, we call you and describe the opportunity. If you agree, we submit your information to the client company.
4. They put you through their hiring process.
5. If they hire you, we bill them. If not, we give you the news that they are not moving forward. And then we keep you in our database (in case we have another appropriate opportunity for you). And since we have gotten to know you, we will remember you everytime we work with a firm that could use your specific talent. We make introductions between companies and candidates before they even realize there is a need.
So why not apply directly to the company? It’s much riskier for you. When you apply directly, your resume goes into a black hole. Very few companies mine their database. (If they do, your resume had better be incredible for you to surface to the top.) You’re stuck waiting for them to call you. If you call them, you’ll likely get less than a direct answer. At best.
On the other hand, a recruiter can call the company after they submit you, push for a first interview, help you prepare for the interview (we know the company and what they’re looking for), correct some mistakes before you make them, and give you specific feedback after the interview. Even though you’re not “the client,” a recruiter is going to be an advocate for a successful placement. If the recruiter has taken a chance on you, he or she is going to have a vested interest in your success. It becomes an advantage for you.
Having said that, if a recruiter finds out that you’ve already applied directly to the company, he or she won’t deal with you on that. You will have shot yourself in the foot on that one, because you’ve taken away the incentive for the recuiter to work for your chance at that job (if the recuiter doesn’t place you from the beginning, he or she won’t receive a fee). In other words, you can’t apply and then decide you need help.
It’s almost always going to be to your advantage to use a recruiter from the beginnning in your job search.
Any questions?
I’m on Twitter!!! - www.twitter.com/SalesRecruiter
A few in my networks believe that this network has some value. I am a little leery.
Once I get my picture set up, I will start cruising the network looking for those in our industry. If you are on Twitter, let me know so. (I’m so new to this, that I am not sure what we do next - I guess Tweet - whatever that means). But LinkedIn felt weird at first and now I love it.
I am going to do an article soon on how to maximize your value on LinkedIn. Do you have any specific questions you would like me to write about (linkedin, career, interview, or resume)? Send me an email at peggy@phcconsulting.com.
Job Interview Skills Tip: How to Use Your 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, but how you present it is another way to showcase the skills that will make you successful in medical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, laboratory sales, DNA/cellular/molecular products sales, pharmaceutical sales, imaging sales, medical supplies sales, or hospital equipment sales.
Present your brag book like you would a product brochure. (You’re selling yourself and your skills, after all.) Have it segmented and easy for you to find information, so that you can deliver it in a controlled, confident, organized manner.
Hiring managers will look at how you use your brag book. That’s their indication for how you’ll use product brochures, PowerPoint presentations, or other media with your future customers. Lots of sales reps don’t use these kinds of tools well, so if you can, you’ll stand out.
It’s up to you do determine when the time is right in your interview for your brag book. Your cue might be when you hear “Tell me a little more about yourself,” for instance. Your book should include things like sales rankings, presentations you’ve put together, projects, awards, things like that. (See the video for more ideas.)
You need to take control of the interview, so that the manager can see how you’ll take control of the sales process.
If you don’t get to show all the sections of your brag book, or worse, don’t get to show it at all, that’s a great big clue for you that the interview didn’t go well.
What is a brag book and how can it help your interview success?
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?
Friends don’t let friends get a degree in psychology!
All across America this time of year, college campuses are filling with new and returning students all looking for that magic piece of paper that will ensure their futures. All that effort and all those tuition fees…. You’d better make sure it’s worth it.
No offense to those with psychology degrees, but the most valuable college degrees now and in the future are much more science and technology-oriented: Engineering, Computers, Finance, and Science.
A List of Best College Degrees By Salary fills the top 5 with the engineering and computer science types, but #10 is Business Management, #11 is Marketing, and #13 is Biology. Psychology is way down there at #19…past even English and Communications.
A Top 10 List of High Paying Careers ranks Pharmaceutical Representative at #9 with an average starting salary of $51,000+. I happen to know of similar sales jobs in clinical diagnostics, research laboratory, histology, pathology, imaging, DNA, cellular, molecular, surgical supplies, hospital equipment, and medical device where you can do better. In a more specialized medical sales job, you can be one of the few, not one of the many, and be that much more successful. What kind of degree is most helpful for those jobs? Biology, microbiology, chemistry…you get the idea. Not psychology. Sorry.
Am I right?
Easy Networking Tips
I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to have a network and keep in contact with the people in it, but many people don’t know how to do this well. So, today’s video post is on networking. Not how to meet and talk to people one-on-one (that’s later), but how to have a pool of resources. Here are 4 major points to keep in mind for medical sales, pharmaceutical sales, clinical diagnostics sales, biotech sales, laboratory sales, DNA products sales, cellular and molecular products sales, imaging sales, medical supplies sales, surgical supplies sales, hospital equipment sales, although it applies to everyone.
- You do have current contacts. Make sure you have current e-mail addresses. These don’t have to be close relationships–acquaintances are fine. It should be people who you have something in common with: you used to work with them, your spouse works with them, you went to school with them, you were/are in some kind of a group with them, you get the idea. Every 3-6 months, send an e-mail to those contacts. It should say something like, “Hi, this is Peggy. It’s been a long time since we’ve talked. I’m still at ____________________, still doing _____________. If you need anything, please give me a call. Here are my phone numbers if you need to get in touch with me or give someone else my contact information if I can assist them. If your personal e-mail has changed, please let me know.” If you can (but you don’t have to), offer them something. This will keep you in their minds so that when an opportunity DOES come up, they are likely to think of you. You haven’t asked anything of them, you’ve just said “Hello.”
- Get more contacts. You can do that by signing up for LinkedIn, FaceBook, or other social networks. You can join specific groups, where you can get posted on current blog postings, or join conference calls where you can give or get information. You need to be on those so that you can be found by recruiters who might have the perfect job for you. (We do look online for candidates.) As you add contacts, add them to your e-mail routine.
- Big Tip: When you leave a company, ask your boss if he will give you a positive reference. If he will, get a personal e-mail address. If he leaves the company, you won’t be able to get in touch with him when you need the reference.
- Be honest with your network. Everyone has problems–we all know that. I’m not saying we need to hear all the sordid details, but being honest about issues you have or situations you’re dealing with just might lead to an opportunity you wouldn’t otherwise have. We don’t always think of someone who tells us “everything’s fine,” but we all like to help someone if we can.
I have a lot of opinions and ideas about networking…some are on the video, some not. (Here’s some stuff I’ve posted before.) Do you have any networking tips or tricks to share?
Job Interview Mistakes - Watch your language!
If you research “job interview mistakes” and all its variations and related ideas online, you find a lot of things: the importance of your body language during job interviews; Make-or-Break Interview Mistakes that include not dressing appropriately, offering too much information, or being too friendly with the interviewer; and things like not asking meaningful questions because you didn’t research the company. Know what you don’t find? How not to say “crap” 3 times in the interview. That will lose the job for you. I know….it just happened to a candidate of mine. (Inappropriate or unprofessional language is generally frowned upon when you interview for jobs in medical sales, pharmaceutical sales, biotech sales, laboratory sales, clinical diagnostics sales, molecular and cellular products sales, medical supplies sales, hospital equipment sales, or medical device sales.)
What about you all? Have nerves ever gotten the better of you in a job interview? What happened? Hiring managers, have you ever conducted interviews where you couldn’t quite believe what came out of the candidate’s mouth? I know you have. Let’s hear it.
Sarah Palin - melting down or heating up? Sally Quinn, I am embarrassed for you!
I don’t normally use this blog to write any articles that have much to do with politics. But I recognize a trend in this presidential/vp race that is pretty close to my area of the playground. And that is discrimination, recruiting and hiring. The left side of our nation presses for change - more spending to help those who are in need, single mothers, struggling workers, those that are out of work. They have pushed for legislation that has employers tied in knots. Employers have to document every step of their hiring process to assure that there is no discrimination due to sex, race, political bias, etc. Employers are buying expensive software systems (this additional cost is just added to the price of their products) to document their hiring systems. Because they always have the burden of proving that they did not discriminate in their hiring process. When I am interviewing a candidate for a job that has a lot of travel (and therefore, time away from the family) it is against the law to ask the candidate who will mind the home fires - children, etc. Who has pushed for this? The feminist groups that feel there is a glass ceiling that has limited their ability to climb the corporate ladder. So when McCain named Sarah Palin as is right hand gal, who brought up the family piece?
Sally Quinn. She just isn’t certain that Sarah can be a good mother and be our VP. Sally - I bet if a white male asked you to discuss how well you have done with your children, you would be offended. And probably, if that male were in a senior position within your firm, you would serve him papers! How dare he? But Sarah should be subject to your questions about her family? Give me a break. Do you know why women fail to move faster within organizations? Because we are too bitchy to support one another. We see other women as threats to us. Men don’t do this. They are pretty straight forward with one another. Sally, you should be embarrassed. Go hunting (btw - I’m a pretty good shot as well)!
Why can’t we treat women the same as men? When was the last time we talked about Bill Clinton’s parenting? or John McCain’s parenting or Ronald Reagan (who I love, but I am not sure how he did on the family scene)? We don’t, we didn’t. Because it wasn’t related to the job. Oh, and Sally, John didn’t have to choose the most qualified candidate for the VP job, it is his campaign, he could choose anyone. If you want to talk about choosing the most qualified candidate, go back to the liberal left with this topic. I think they would tell you that they wanted the “most qualified candidate that could get the most votes”. Why else would you choose someone who has the slickest, smoothest communication style where he can address a question, yet never provide an answer?
In my world, your candidate would not get the job with a discerning hiring manager? Why, because he is “looks good, less filling”! Unless, the hiring manager hadn’t hired enough females, hispanics, african americans, etc., then they might have to hire the unqualified candidate that meets the discrimination numbers. The liberal left wants to help those that are suffering. Who better to lead our country than someone who has suffered? Sarah has her personal problems, I don’t care. Is she inspiring, is she real, is she focused on the best choices for our nation? I have owned my own business for 9 years. I pay taxes that are insane, I fill out paperwork that is unending, and I am constantly looking for ways to streamline my business (for my production and ultimately for my personal financial gain). Everything that comes out of Obama’s mouth indicates more taxes, more rules, and more paperwork for the business owner. This only squeezes more. Unfortunately, I am a first hand witness to the financial peril and out of work problem that our nation faces. I see resumes everyday of people who just want to go to work and move forward. Capitalism is what cures this. Put together incentives to drive opportunity in the green market (tax cuts, education, etc). Don’t push struggling businesses over the edge with more legislation and more taxes. As a business owner I invest in my employees and my business, for every dollar that I don’t send to Sam, I put into the economy. Make this easier. Give businesses some tax advantage for re-educating workers from those failing industries. Use the incredible wealth of knowledge and time that our retired community has to retrain, retool and create new opportunities. Have contests to create business that assist with this, not just shell out cash to those who are hurting. Don’t give them the fish (soon it will be gone), teach them to fish. Women, don’t let your petty insecurities cause you to hurt other women.
I know 2 individuals that have the knowledge and resources to start thriving businesses today. They aren’t that excited about it. Why? Rules and regulations that add endless questions to every decision and the exposure of having employees. This is our problem.
Sally - you weren’t too smooth for Bill. You looked like a jealous female and you were an embarrassment to working women throughout this nation. I hope that the payoff that you receive from the liberal left will be enough to compensate for ruining your credibility.
One last thought, why if a person owns their own business, should we have the right to tell them how to run that business, what types of people they have to hire and how much they should pay them? Isn’t this the free world? If you don’t want to work for the wages, don’t take the job. It is a free choice. Who convinced us that we should have that type of say in their business?
Why can’t I discriminate about who I will take on as a client? I should be able to choose who I will choose to do business with and who I won’t do business with?
And if you don’t think the binding legislation and taxation doesn’t impact the astute business person’s decision, you are wrong. I was in California when I quit my corporate position and started my own business. Guess where I went to start the business? Texas. Guess why?
One last rant, would the hollywood types bow out of the political arena. Your skill and talent is in providing entertainment. Most of you just aren’t qualified to speak on these topics. No offense intended.
Layoffs at Siemens and Abbott Labs (again…)
News from the Wall Street Journal Health Blog: Abbott Laboratories recently announced plans to close a manufacturing plant in California and cut 1000 jobs. Many major companies (Merck, Wyeth, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, and Amgen) have also announced job cuts in recent months. Siemens, in fact, announced in June plans to lay off 17,000 workers worldwide, which could be a sign of the times, according to Cliff Mintz at BioJob Blog.
Pharmaceutical sales positions tend to be the most unstable and tied to the economy (and have gone through their own round of job losses lately), but many of these job cuts are related to diagnostics. How secure does it feel at your company?
If you are experiencing this type of instability, check out niche companies within a market. There are many, many areas of medical and healthcare sales, management, and marketing to specialize in: biotech, DNA, molecular, cellular, medical device, surgical supplies, surgical equipment, hospital equipment, histology, pathology, and imaging, to name a few.
Best bet: contact PHC Consulting.
