Job Search Tips: How to Take Advantage of Holiday Networking
Holiday networking is a gift to yourself
The holidays are possibly THE perfect time to build your network–which is important for your entire medical sales career, but vital during a job search. There are so many opportunities for you to reach out to others, and it will pay off for you throughout the new year.
Take advantage of the season
The most important thing you’ve got to remember about networking during the holidays: just do it. You can be confident that just about any contact you make this time of year will be received positively. People expect it, so take advantage of it. Reach out by sending out cards and emails to EVERYONE.
Reconnect with people you haven’t talked to in years
Think about all possible contacts: people you used to work with, former bosses, old high school or college buddies, former neighbors, your kid’s Little League coach from 10 years ago, everyone. Send a card or an email. You have a reason–it’s the holidays. Just say, “Hey, how are you? I was thinking about you and wanted to say Hi. What have you been up to? Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!” (Or Happy Holidays, or whatever holiday you celebrate right about now.) You don’t have to tell them you’re looking for a job. And you shouldn’t, yet. There will be time to gracefully fit that into the conversation later.
If they respond and they’re geographically close to you, invite them to grab lunch or coffee or drinks with you to catch up. If they’re too far away for that, they might ask how you’re doing and then you can talk briefly about your job search goal in a positive, upbeat way. (If that seems difficult, watch my video Be Positive When Explaining Your Unemployment.)
Thank your boss
If you’re employed, now is a great time to give your boss a gift or just say “Thank You” without looking like a suck-up. Bosses like appreciation, too.
Attend holiday parties and events
If you’ve got a holiday party on your calendar, check out these networking event tips. Set a goal of a certain number of people to meet, and follow up with them after the party with a nice “It was good to meet you” note.
Offer help and information to others
Keep in mind the spirit of the season. If you can think of a way to help someone else out–do it, even if it’s as simple as giving them a link to information they might want. Be a resource for people. I firmly believe that if you put good things out there, good things will come back to you.
How to Get a Job at a Medical Sales Trade Show
job search at at trade show
Trade shows are fantastic places to extend your networking contacts and start poking around for hidden jobs. You can find one for just about any medical sales arena–medical device, pharmaceutical, clinical diagnostics, orthopaedic manufacturing, and on and on–and they’re usually free for attendees. As long as you’re respectful of the exhibitor’s real purpose for being there (generating attention and business leads) you can pick up some fantastic contacts. In fact, this kind of in-person networking is on my list of top tips for your medical sales job search. It’s a great use of your time.
In the video below, I’ll tell you exactly what to do before, during, and after the trade show to maximize your efforts.
If you are currently in a medical sales job search, don’t miss my step-by-step How to Get Into Medical Sales kit.
Extreme Networking for Medical Sales!
medical sales networking
Making the right contacts, or networking, is critical to your short-term performance and long-term career success. And it can absolutely be a deal-breaker (or maker) for entry-level medical sales candidates.
In the video below, I’ll tell you how you can make a large number of excellent connections within the space of a few hours. Be prepared to do it with these in-person networking tips from Mark Hunter.
Click here to find out more about the Medical Sales Summit 2011
2011 AACC Annual Meeting!
Clinical laboratory sales reps: interested in a huge opportunity for professional growth and development (and some crazy-good networking)?
Get to Atlanta this month for the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) 2011 Annual Meeting and Clinical Lab Expo! Fantastic speakers, the latest products and services for clinical scientists, and valuable interaction with folks from all over the clinical lab field (yes, it’s in Atlanta in July, but air conditioning is a wonderful thing…). It’s a super opportunity for clinical sales reps (attending conferences is #10 on the list of the top 10 ways to get a recruiter’s attention) and medical sales recruiters–I’m looking forward to being there, and I hope you are, too.
* Before you go, check out my video for tips on how to work a tradeshow if you are searching for a job or think you might be in the near future. I’ve got some key pieces of advice for before the conference, how to make your time count after you’re there, and following up after you get home.
Best of luck!
Use Twitter to Land Your Next Medical Sales Job!
Knowing how to use social media effectively is a must in this job market. Twitter might not seem as critical as LinkedIn, but Kevin Kermes, from Career Attraction, has a great article about how two women used Twitter to get their jobs! Click here to read it:
Twitter as a “Twool” in Your Job Search
The Secret to Standing Out in Your Medical Sales Job Search – Part II
Although times are tough for job seekers all over, it’s not as bad for medical sales candidates (with the exception of pharmaceutical sales reps) because of the largely “recession-proof” nature of the business. But, having said that, medical sales job seekers are still feeling the pinch. Because it’s such an attractive career area, many candidates are transitioning in and the overflow of displaced pharma reps are adding to it. All in all, it’s an employer’s market here, too. When there are thousands of applicants for jobs posted online, it’s virtually impossible to get noticed. But there are proven strategies you can use to take control and land the job. We started with Tip #1, Rethink Your Job Search, and today’s tip is:
Tip #2: Turn Social Media into Your Job Search’s Best Friend (not its worst enemy)
Online social networks are both underrated and often misused as a job search tool. Facebook and Twitter can be amazing avenues to network or follow job leads, but it’s easy to forget that socializing with your friends can lead to comments or pictures that will kill your chances when the hiring manager sees it. Sanitize your pages—you will be Googled.
But the Big Daddy of online networks, and the place you need to spend most of your time, is LinkedIn. You must be on LinkedIn, with a high-quality profile that includes a business-appropriate photo. (Career Confidential offers a LinkedIn Profile Tutorial for this.) There are over 70 million professionals on LinkedIn—that’s a lot of job leads. And, at least 80% of employers and recruiters use LinkedIn to look for potential hires. You can’t afford to miss this.
You can join LinkedIn groups specific to your field and learn tremendous amounts of vital information, make connections to grow your network, and make a name for yourself by joining discussions and contributing useful comments. Companies maintain pages that are invaluable when researching for your interview. Perhaps most importantly, you can get ahead of the job-searching crowd and find “hidden jobs” by contacting hiring managers directly on LinkedIn.
Here’s another tip for you to make the most of LinkedIn:
Which Online Social Networks Do You Really Need To Be Involved In?
There are many, many social networks available online: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn, niche networks, and many more. Are some better than others? Do they have different purposes? Which ones are worth your time? Watch the video to see what an expert in the job search thinks about the different social networks, and which one is critical for you to be in:
Medical Sales Networking Strategies
Kevin Kermes, from Career Attraction, has some terrific advice and tips that will boost your networking efforts in your medical sales job search and career: how to give back. What can you do for your network? Focusing on your network in a way that says “How can I help you?” rather than “What can you do for me?” will pay big dividends for you faster than you think. It’s a great article with specific, practical, powerful advice that I think you should read. Here’s the link:
Is Your Job Search Missing Something?
Super Charge Your Job Search Network on LinkedIn – Tap the Open Networkers (LIONS)
If you’ve spent much time on LinkedIn, you may have stumbled on the term “Open Networker” and perhaps seen the term “LION”. A LION is a LinkedIn Open Networker. There are thousands and perhaps millions of LIONS on LinkedIN and you may not know any of them personally. However, if you are serious about your job search, you need to devote a portion of your allowed invitations to these networking beasts. Some of the LIONs have tens of thousands of first-level connections. Connecting to a just a few of these allows you to reach far across and deep into the LinkedIn network to reach your networking and job search goals.
What exactly am I proposing and how do you go about this?
- Google Search “LinkedIn LIONs”. You’ll find some well-put-together websites where simply joining will allow you download these folks’ information for LinkedIn networks. Return to LinkedIn and upload the list and reach out to these new network contacts. They will universally add you to their networks. As soon as they do, you will see your first level grow by 100, 200, 300, or even more from the LION list, but the real effect will be on your 2nd and 3rd level network. You may jump from tens of thousands of connections to millions in a few days’ time. Your ability to reach folks in your industry, in your skill set, from your alma mater, or from any other criteria you can imagine willl blossom.
- As you move around LinkedIn, you will notice certain individuals who include their email address in their profile or even in their own name. These people are likely LIONs as well. Consider adding them to your network and magnifying all the benefits and network power described in item 1 on a smaller more incremental basis.
Once this is completed, I suggest taking a look at the LIONs you’ve connected with. Search on industry or profession. A few may turn out to be from the medical or health care sales industry. These folks are a wealth of resources within that industry and deserve special attention. For example, my brother is in the rental property business and has a network that includes hundreds of real estate professionals. Also, you will notice a lot of these same folks are executive recruiters (not surprising, really). Find out their specialty and what they have available. You may have already stumbled on to the job lead or source that will be your next career step.
Want more advanced LinkedIn job search tips? Check out LinkedIn Ninja Tricks for bypassing HR and getting the job.
Do I have to be on Twitter?
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.
Twitter relies on “tweets,” which are posts of 140 characters or less. They’re short, but frequent. Life moves fast on Twitter. But then, the world moves fast and this is a way to keep up. And yes, while some tweets are huge time-wasters (some of us don’t want to know what someone else had for breakfast), there’s quite a bit of useful information you can gain from following the right people. It’s both a way to research and a way to network. You can follow companies, customers, suppliers, vendors, industry experts, and recruiters who post jobs (there’s even a Top 25 Recruiters on Twitter list–anyone who’s going to be useful for you. You’ll be able to keep up-to-the minute current. And then you can be useful yourself–pass along job leads, industry info, or the great book you just read. Any help or advice you can provide your contacts is a nice way to contribute.
You can ask questions, find people, and make contacts. Look for people to follow on www.twellow.com. You can search medical device, laboratory, surgical, diagnostics, clinical, molecular…you get the drift. You can search for any keywords that matter to you at search.twitter.com.
There are all kinds of ways to use Twitter for your job search. More and more companies are getting involved, and 75 million people means you ought to be able to find a job lead or two. You can put your elevator pitch in your bio, and provide links to your resume, LinkedIn page, or anything else that’s cool about you. Check out my Top 10 Twitter Tips for Medical and Laboratory Sales Reps for more tips on how to use Twitter for your job search.
The point is: Twitter is a fantastic networking tool. And networking is critical to the success of your job search and your long-term career.
Set up your bio on Twitter today. Need more help? Check out Mashable.com’s Twitter Guide Book.
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