Six Steps & You're Hired from DEC Consultants

Welcome

Welcome. I am David E. Coad, Founder of DEC Consultants, a national recruiting and coaching firm specializing in executive searches for the medical devices, pharmaceutical, and bio technology industries. 

The mission of DEC is to provide leading healthcare companies with top executive talent for key sales, marketing, training and managerial roles. During the past 10 years, we have placed more than 800 professionals, with a 95% retention rate after one year and an advancement rate of more than 30%.

Make no mistake about it, finding a new career is a sales process and you are the product! Interviewers depend on you to learn about you.

Don't assume that interviewers will automatically figure out what you want them to know about you.  Bad hires happen all the time and they are often the product of bad interviews.

My goal is to provide you with a proven technique that will help you pursue the promotion you deserve, change to a more fulfilling career or, simply, get a job!

Securing a new career is not an event – it’s a process, and it requires:

• Patience
• Strategy
• Motivation
• Determination
• Sales Skills
• Professionalism 

 

 

Sell Yourself!

As a sales professional, I have placed hundreds of individuals in a variety of jobs. Not everyone finds an ideal position but most do, and the candidates who follow my methods have a huge advantage over other interviewees.

I am going to give you the “secret” that will set the tone for your job search…and hopefully for your entire career.  

Ready…

What are you selling? 

Right.  You are selling yourself! 

Making a career move is nothing more than a sales process or sales call. The only difference is that you are the "product." Thus, how you promote yourself in an interview should be no different than how you conduct yourself today in selling whatever your product is.   

Again, you are the most important product there is, so don't cheat yourself...Sell Yourself!

 

Reasons Why a Hiring Manager Passes on a Candidate

 

Here are eight reasons why an employer may take a pass on a candidte: 

The individual:

1. is "not over it yet" or expressing anger or disappointment with previous employer
2. is not asking for the job or not inquiring as to what the next step is
3. lacks humor, warmth or personality
4. fails to set themselves apart from others
5. is trying to be “all things to all people"
6. is not successfully transferring past experience to the current opportunity
7. is making an inappropriate personal presentation
8. does not follow up frequently and assertively

Throughout my 10 years of recruiting and coaching healthcare professionals, I have heard all these reasons and then some from potential hiring managers. Our Three Pillar approach is designed to ensure you do not fall victim to these pitfalls.

Remember, you want to be the one who says no, not the hiring manager.  

This brings me to a very important point. If you are going to take the time to interview, then you must go after each and every opportunity like it's the most important thing you will ever do.  Don't pull out midway because you didn't like an individual you met during the interview process or you were quoted a compensation package by HR that didn't meet your expectations. 

Things change, individuals move on, and HR does not always have the last say. And, you cannot make an educated decision with only part of the information. So, wait until the hiring process is complete and you have received an offer. Complete the process with offer in hand, then sleep on it before you give a yes/no or negotiate.

Remember, finding your new career is a process not a single event.

 

3 Pillars

Everything I teach you will focus on the three things (pillars) that lead to a successful new career:

Prepare: What do you need to do to be ready for an interview?

Perform: An interview is your opportunity to showcase yourself.

Pursue: When you Prepare and Perform, you have a right and a responsibility to Pursue the opportunity!

Take a moment to recall past interviews. What went right? What went wrong? What do you fear most about interviews? Do you have any personal interview horror stories? Can you think of interview anecdotes from friends and colleagues?  

 

 

Right and Wrong

What can go right in an interview? What can go wrong? What is the right way to define yourself? What is the wrong way?

Often, we define ourselves by what we do, by our title, by how much money we earn. While it’s absolutely true that our careers and accomplishments make up a big part of who we are, they are two important components, they are not the whole.

This is particularly important to remember when you are conducting a job search. if you are currently unemployed or underemployed, you might make the mistake of confusing who you are with your employment status. This mistake can set a bad tone as you work through the job search process.

The wrong way to define yourself: I am unemployed.

The right way to define yourself:  I am the same competent, qualified, capable person I have always been and I am currently seeking my new career.

 

Pillar I: Prepare

Let’s talk about the first pillar of our three-pillar process: Prepare. 

Even if you are the best at what you do, it’s still important to take these important steps to Prepare for your new career:

• Target the right job at the right company
• Research thoroughly
• Develop a “company champion”
• Submit a cover letter
• Represent yourself with a well-written resume
• Prepare “smart goals”
• Create an organized “Accomplishment Book”
• Utilize crucial sourcing channels: recruiters, job boards, human resources departments and networking 

Following each step of the process can help lead you to your new career. 

 

 

Prepare: Networking

People ask me every day, “David, should I use a recruiter, job boards or the Human Resource Department (HR) when pursuing a new job?”

The quick answer is: use them all.

It used to be that job seekers only needed to utilize one of many sourcing channels, such as recruiters, HR, friends, job boards and other avenues. Today, you need to network and use every channel available to you. This is especially true during the current climate of high unemployment rates.

That said, use these sources wisely:

1. Choose one or two recruiters who you feel you can trust.  Most recruiters belong to a network of some kind (ie. First Interview Network), so if you are working with one recruiter, you are working with many.  
2. Use HR sparingly, and don’t rely on it as your only source. For some companies, HR may be your only avenue in. Only rely on HR after you have exhausted all other resources. 
3. Be careful with job boards (please see my post dated July 10, 2010, Job Boards). I prefer using the job boards to research which companies are currently hiring because today many companies are using job boards to post open positions. However, remember that these job boards are managed by HR and so your chance of a response to your resume is slim.

 

I coach all my candidates today to network through friends in the industry and to develop a "company champion."  See my post, Developing a Company Champion.

 

Prepare: Resume Writing

Why does Amazon.com show you the cover of a book? To entice you to read the Table of Contents. Why do they then show you the Table of Contents? To get you to buy the book.

When selling yourself to potential employers, your resume is a crucial sales tool. In order to make it work for you, it needs to show breadth without depth. In other words, think of your resume as a Table of Contents that highlights the book of your career.

To create an effective, powerful resume, you don’t need to hire a resume consultant, just follow the steps outlined here:

Keep it Clean and Simple

Choose a formatting style and font that won’t overpower your information, and keep both uniform throughout. Ideally, font size should be 11 or 12 (and definitely no less than 10) and the style should be legible, such as Arial or Times New Roman.

Content Basics

For each work experience entry, include: 

• Company name and location (City, State)
• Dates of employment (Month/Year)
• One or two complete sentences describing the company, with a focus on what it markets or manufactures
• Position held
• No more than four complete sentences describing your role and responsibilities.

Example-Action-Result

Follow the EAR (Example-Action-Result) model when describing responsibilities.  Using bullet points, include specific examples of incidents or problems, the action(s) you took to solve them and the precise results. Avoid including “fluff” accomplishments that are only descriptive in nature.

A Few More Tips

1. Including a career objective on you resume can be a no-win proposition. If it’s too specific, you can pigeonhole yourself and lose out on other opportunities. Too general, and it becomes meaningless. Evaluate whether or not you want to include this on a case-by-case basis. In general, I recommend not including it.
2. Personal experience or education first?  If you are two jobs or more removed from your graduation date, then experience should come first. If you are within two jobs from your graduation date, place education first followed by experience. Remember to include graduation date, month and year.
3. Include additional training and relevant organization memberships.
4. For a company where you achieved one or more promotions, please see the example resume.

Example Resume:    Download Example Resume

Before with "fluff":   Download Before Resume   

After "specific, concise & results":   Download After Resume  

 

 

Prepare: Cover Letter

If you think of your resume as the table of contents to the book of your career, then your cover letter is the cover of that book.

More specifically, your cover letter is like a billboard that has about 6 seconds to grab the attention of a hiring manager who is most likely inundated with resumes.

The key to making yourself stand out from the multitudes is to keep your cover letter clean and simple. Don’t drown it in information and don’t waste words being vague.

Essential Elements
Opening and pleasantries

Paragraph/Bullet Point/E.A.R. 1

Paragraph/Bullet Point/E.A.R. 2

Paragraph/Bullet Point/E.A.R. 3

Closing

E.A.R. (Example-Action-Result): Use specific and concise examples, action plans and results to expand upon the information presented in your resume.

Remember that at best, a generic cover letter will only get you a generic response. Use precise details to differentiate yourself to hiring managers. 

Example Cover Letter:    Download Cover Letter_Pandora

 

 

Prepare: Targeting

Your career search will miss the mark if you don’t target. And, in order to target the right job at the right company, you need to know what you’re looking for.

You don’t want just a job; you want a career that matches your calling, which means that you must first define what that means to you.

Are you seeking a position in sales and marketing or in training? What level of management responsibility is right for you?

This is a crucial step, so bring everything you have to the table. Investing your patience, determination, discipline, passion, enthusiasm and time will lead you to a company that you love and a successful career to be proud of.