Six Steps & You're Hired from DEC Consultants

The 3 Key Questions in a job Interview

Companies are hiring again, but interviewers may be a bit rusty.  Here are the 3 most important things to ask.  Click Here for Article

Panel interviews require even more preparation

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has highlighted an emerging -- and potentially scary -- hiring trend among companies: the panel interview. 

In a panel interview, a candidate could face 4, 5, 6 or even 9 interviewers -- all at the same time.

"Everything in the process just seems magnified," the Journal-Constitution writes. "More pairs of eyes on you, more people asking questions and more folks to impress with your witty repartee. Which, by the way, is quantifiably more difficult to pull off with multiple people around a conference table."

While a panel interview can be nerve-wracking, if you execute the "Six Step Sales Process" with everyone on the panel, you'll keep your cool and make the case for why you're the ideal candidate.

Those Six Steps are:

1. Establish Rapport
2. Probe to Uncover Needs
3. Listen, then do a Trial Close
4. Review Features & Benefits, then do another Trial Close
5. Handle Objections
6. Close Hard

Reasons for Not Getting the Interviews

Previous post was talking about the reasons for not getting past the interviews.  Now would like to turn your attention to actually getting the interviews.  Or rather - reasons for not getting the interviews.

Chicago Examiner's Andrea Persico gives 10 of such reasons in her August 8, 2010 article.

1. Sending a resume to the wrong person: don't miss the opportunity to send it to a higher level person, especially when you are very qualified for the position.
2. Lack of Follow Up.  That's exactly what I meant in the end of the last post - getting an interview is only half of the work, making sure that you keep your candidacy in front of the mind of the hiring party is extremely important considering the high competition in today's job market.
3. Resumes in a bizarre format.  Follow requirements and keep it simple, avoid extravaganza.
4. TMI, i.e. Too Much Information.  Focus on the job and your skills in the writing and during the oral conversation, skip over-sharing pictures or personal stories.
5. You are not on LinkedIn.  And you have to be in this day and age.  Otherwise you may be considered out of touch with modern trends.  And you may miss out on finding job openings posted only on LinkedIn.
6. Off Key.  Use as many keywords from the job description as possible in the resume and interview.
7. Socially Unacceptable. If keeping up with the trends is not a problem for you, then you can likely be found on Facebook, Twitter or other social network, in which case it makes sense to keep them "clean" enough in case your prospective employer decides to check you out there.
8. Disorganized.  Remember which companies and positions you applied for, otherwise you may leave a bad first impression right during the first conversation with the potential employer.
9. Not Qualified.  If you don't meet minimum job requirements, the chances are so low for getting a response, that it's not worth spending time on this kind of application.
10. Cyber stalker.  Refers to a person who applies to numerous positions in the same company telling the employer that you lack focus and can't properly estimate your strength and qualifications, because you can't be qualified to all positions!

Reasons Why Employers Take a Pass on Applicants

San Francisco Examiner ran a good article by Marvin Walberg on January 5, 2010 titled "Reasons why employers take a pass on applicants."  Among the reasons why applicants are said to fail during the interview process are:

• Not being over the previous job or expressing anger or disappointment with previous employer
• Not asking for the job or not inquiring to what the net step is
• Lacking humor, warmth or personality
• Failing to set yourself apart from others
• Trying to set yourself apart from others
• Trying to be "all things to all people"
• Not successfully transferring past experience to the current opportunity
• Making an inappropriate personal presentation
• Not following up frequently and assertively

Try to practice these advices throughout the whole application process, starting from resume and cover letter building and all the way to the interview follow up, because remember - interview is only one step of getting your foot in the door!

'Milestone' stem cell advance reported

The possible discovery of taking ordinary human skin cells and converting them into chameleon-like powers of embryonic stem cells is an exciting possible breakthrough that might someday deliver the medical payoffs of embryo cloning without the controversy. Interesting article on latest developments here.

This trend will contribute to the long-term job security and need for individuals to choose a career Health care -- the hot field to find a job in with  demand expected to grow 26% in 7 years!

Hot Field To Find A Job In

The San Francisco Chronicle ran an interesting article last week -- Health care - it's the hot field to find a job in. An excerpt:

For long-term job security, a career in health care is hard to beat in California.

Employment demand for technical and college-educated health workers in the state is expected to grow by 26 percent over the next seven years, compared with an overall job growth of 16 percent, according to a study released Monday.

The report is a call for action to make policy changes to increase the number of health care professionals, said Edward O'Neil, professor at the Center for Health Professions at UCSF.

If you're looking for long term job security, look no further than healthcare. A dramatic growth in the aging population and one that is increasingly plagued by chronic diseases means more jobs are needed in the healthcare field.

Whether you are looking for a career or looking to make a career change the healthcare industry should be given full consideration. Healthcare is an industry that does not seem to be affected by a turn in the stock markets for the worse, political changes and recessions. It is an industry that you can grow personally and financially. You may not get rich quick like you can in other industries but it is stable secure and long term.

After 20 years of working within the healthcare industry I can personally say that my career flourished through several political changes, recessions and market downturns. I was continually challenged and paid for my efforts. My income never decreased, only increased. I had the opportunity to get sales, sales management, marketing and training experience that set me up to start my own company in the healthcare industry. I am proud to say that I am continually challenged, growing and increasing my income in this ever growing industry.

So whether you're looking to choose a career or to make a career change make sure that you explore this hot field with plenty of opportunity now and well into the future. Health care - it's the hot field to find a job in / Demand is expected to grow 26% in 7 years

 

Job Boards

The question today is: Do you post your resume to a job board or not? In today's ever-increasing competitive job market and the Internet posting your resume to a job board such as: Monster, Med Reps or Healthcare Reps has become second nature. Yes, by using job boards it is a fast and efficient way to get your resume into the hands of as many recruiters and companies possible. But don't forget that by doing so you also can put your resume in the hands of your boss and or manager. Unfortunately, this is the downside to posting your resume to a job board.

Value of headhunters

Let's not forget the reason headhunters became popular. A headhunter allows a candidate to know what career opportunities are available in the marketplace and to do so confidentially. One of the most devastating things that can happen to an individual is to get let go or fired from their jobs before they are ready to make a move. A candidate is most marketable when they are employed. In other words, you are more valuable and can get top dollar for your experience and skills.

Right or wrong, there are many companies that will not even look at a candidate who is unemployed. If I look back on my own experience in the marketplace for 25 years the only time I had a difficult time securing a job was the time that I was unemployed for 30 days. Back in those days there were no job boards. It used to frustrate me to no end to hear a headhunter tell me that I could not interview for a job because I did not have a job. Having been on both sides of the fence as a recruiter today I work with many companies and managers and the majority of them will still not interview a candidate who is not currently working. No matter how clean and successful the resume may be.

To post or not to post

This question of whether or not to post your resume to job boards has become the number one discussion among recruiters today. My recruiting firm belongs to a network of approximately 300 affiliate recruiting firms made up of over a thousand individual recruiters. Many of the recruiters that I work with today are adamant about not representing a candidate whose resume is posted on all the job boards. This is a double edged sword for recruiters. Although it has been profitable for recruiters and easy to secure many resumes very quickly it does not keep an individual's search for a new career confidential. Again, as I've mentioned, the purpose and job of a good headhunter is to help a candidate securer the career of their choice and to do so while they are currently employed. A tech savvy recruiter today will have all their jobs securely posted on their company's website. This allows the candidate to still use the efficient Internet to search for careers and submit their resumes confidentially. The Internet and job boards have been fun and profitable, but sometimes processes and relationships are best left to the old fashion way.

Food for thought: before I hit the send button, do I really want the world to know that I am currently looking to make a career move?