Job Interviews How You Can Benefit By Asking Questions

Job Interviews How You Can Benefit By Asking Questions 10 Stand out in your job interviews by asking questions that show your expertise. This a guest post by Peggy McKee. If you’d also like to guest post here on JobMob, follow these guest post guidelines. My name is Peggy McKee, and I am The Medical Sales Recruiter. Jacob asked me to participate in his guest blogging contest and so I thought I would talk to you about what really separates candidates. It is not what you think.eval Free bonus: The One Job Interview Resource You’ll Ever Need is a handy reference to help you prepare for any kind of job interview. Download it free now What sets candidates apart Of course, you need a great resume and you have to have presence. You have to have your shoes shined, show up on time and answer all the questions correctly.eval But you know what really makes a great candidate stand out from the others? It is the questions that they ask. The questions that show: they have the confidence to ask the questions they thought it through they think strategically Quick story I had an entry level medical sales candidate last week call me right before she had her phone interview. She said, “Hey, I want to ask you a couple questions, do you mind? I want you to tell me, without worrying about hurting my feelings, what are my weaknesses and what do you perceive are my strengths?” I’ve never had a candidate ask me that! Most candidates think they already know what I think, but we don’t really understand how anyone perceives us without first asking questions to find out. The kinds of questions candidates should ask Questions like: Tell me a little bit about what you are looking for in your candidate or new hire, tell me about the last one you hired, or why is the position open? What was it that you think held the other person back from being successful? What are the tasks in this job that are really going to define success for this person? What are the next steps? When will I hear from you? Do you have any reason why you would not consider moving me forward during the (hiring) process? Are there any other folks who will be interviewing me later? Will it be a panel interview? In the typical day, how many hours do you work on the road? How does the travel program work? With your clients, what do you think is the #1 obstacle to success? What do you see in the field with sales representatives that stops them from being successful? Which product line of yours is your lead line? (i.e. the one that everyone should buy) Which product line should they probably not buy? What do you like about working here? Among the other candidates, how do I rank? Are there any questions that you have for me? Do you see how my experience at XYZ (past company) translates well into this position? Do you agree with me that a Bachelor’s degree in Biology is not necessary for this position, that it seems like it’s a sales process that really requires someone that can understand the product well enough, but can also understand the customer and their business process? What it takes to ask a question is: Confidence Thinking it through Being strategic Back to the story I will tell you, that gal that asked me those questions, she set herself apart. I was impressed! And that does make a difference about my confidence in supporting her candidacy. So when a manager called me and said that he was not quite sure if he was going to move forward with her, I insisted because I felt strongly about her. Since she had enough guts to ask me those questions when I interviewed her, she convinced me that she could probably do the job well. She will probably ask the customers questions like: When can I expect you to order? When would you like the product to arrive? Is there any reason why we can’t move forward with this deal? How many pieces do you want to buy? Is there someone else I need to speak to? What is the purchasing process? Get the point: QUESTIONS! This is the key. I hope this video helps you and I wish you the best of luck. I’ll see you at the top! Free Bonus If you want a handy job interview resource that you can keep on your smartphone or print out for easy reference, I’ve got a special bonus for you. This free download contains: 165 positive personality adjectives to describe yourself 444 of the most popular job interviewer questions to prepare yourself with 175 questions that you can ask in job interviews to make a good impression and learn about your future employer Click the image below to get access to The One Job Interview Resource You’ll Ever Need: JobMob Insiders can get this free bonus and other exclusive content in the JobMob Insider Bonuses area. Join now, it's free! About the Author Peggy McKee is The Medical Sales Recruiter and the owner of PHCConsulting.com. This article is part of the 3rd Annual JobMob Guest Blogging Contest. If you want Peggy McKee to win, share this article with your friends.

Stay Healthy And Warm During Winter With These Tips

Stay Healthy And Warm During Winter With These Tips Like all seasons, winters has its fans and its haters. While there are many people who wait for Winter’s arrival, they still find it challenging to keep the cold at bay. Some Winter seasons are really hard to combat, even if you are fond of the icy weather. But, you don’t need to worry though, because there are numerous tricks that you can incorporate within your lifestyle that will help you stay warm and healthy.  Exercise Working out is essential for your body and mind in general, but it becomes more essential when it is freezing outside. Moving your body in rapid, steady motions will keep your body heated. The science behind it is pretty simple. Your body burns calories as you exercise, which releases energy and heats up your blood. Your blood flow is increased by rapid heartbeats, which also heats up your body overall. Hot tubs One of the drawbacks of Winter, is that you can’t relax in a swimming pool out in the sun. But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the next best thing. If you are finding yourself missing the warm water sensation around your body, consider buying inflatable hot tubs that you can keep indoors for you and your family to enjoy. Not only will they maintain a comfortable temperature for you, but they will also help you relax and unwind. Healthy diet Eating in general can help us feel warm because of its temperature and the energy it gives our bodies. You can maintain your normal diet in the cold weather, but you can also add new things to it that will make you feel even warmer. Consider making hot soup every day and eat it before lunch or as your main meal. Hot soups will heat up your body in no time and they are as healthy as eating salad. Hot drinks A lot of people resort to alcohol when they feel cold, but that’s only counterintuitive. Alcohol draws the heat from your organs and it makes you feel warm on the outside not the inside. There are healthy drinks that you can consume instead of unhealthy ones. Like a classic marshmallow hot cocoa next to the fire, tea, or any other herbal drink.   Most department stores have a great selection, and one of our favorite places to find one is Target. Electric blankets If you are one of those people who get cold easily, consider purchasing electric bedding. There are many options that you can choose from. You can get an electric blanket that will make you feel cozy at night, but you can also get electric pads, pillows, and mattresses. Take your pick. Winter is pretty enjoyable, you get to wear layers without feeling hot, enjoy the rain, and drink as much hot cocoas as you want. The only thing that you will be battling with is the icy weather. Luckily though, there are many things that you can do. Make sure that you stay on top of your working out schedule, so you can maintain body heat. Consider purchasing a hot tub or electric sheets. Finally, remember to sip some soup and drink hot drinks.

The Travel Checklist 7 TIPS FOR A WORRY-FREE VACAY

The Travel Checklist 7 TIPS FOR A WORRY-FREE VACAY Having done a bit of traveling both for business and pleasure, I’ve had quite a number of “note to self” moments when encountering a less than ideal situation or seeing a nifty approach to traveling from people I meet along the way. Ask any traveller.  One of the simple pleasures of a trip is sharing stories and travel tips with new friends. So here it goes. Like the many who have shared this with  me, let me share some tips  with  you! Here are 7 of my favorite tips for a hassle-free vacay: ITINERARY.  Don’t be afraid to go on a side trip. Expand your horizon by trying to fit in more activities in your plans. If given some free time, check for trips that you can squeeze in online. A friend of mine went  on a big trip to Europe, and seem to be having  quite an adventure! Spur of the moment weekend to Madrid? No problem! And from Madrid on? Perhaps to explore the beauty of the South of Spain. Seville, is a mere 3 hours and 20 minutes off by train from the capital, according to travel search site  GoEuro. As long as you have your free time figured out, you can enjoy a trip or two!   DOCUMENTS. Apart from having original documents on hand, screenshot everything and save it to a cloud travel folder. I screenshot and take a picture of everything (except financial docs, let’s be smart here) â€" itineraries, flight bookings, ID’s, even calling cards of hotels I stay in and people I meet. Save them all in one cloud folder that can be accessed offline and will sync online automatically. This saves me from scrambling to find a hotspot to check my itinerary or bringing a bunch of papers everywhere. Keep your devices charged and link them to the same cloud so that you can use your actual documents as a last resort. Just make sure to put a security pin on each and every device! HEALTH. Have a medicine basics kit â€" apart from a handy first aid kit, carrying some Advil, Nyquil, and Imodium won’t hurt. While there are drugstores everywhere, you will save yourself some translation pains and awkward charades if you have these packed. Inform your physician where you are going so you can be prescribed the right medicine to carry with you. Consider getting travel insurance. Heaven forbid you’d ever need it, but better prepared than sorry. COMMUNICATIONS. This one is quite simple but often neglected. I went on  a trip to HK with my bestfriend a year back, and went home mortified to find out that my phone bill skyrocketed! Make sure your Data roaming was either arranged prior to leaving the country or turned off completely. Transmitting data overseas can cost a fortune! Wi-Fi is available in most areas, and in places where it’s not… save the instaposting for later. Have an extra phone for long trips so you can carry it with you everywhere and switch sims when moving from one country to another. FASHION. My biggest fashion tip of all â€" pack neutrals. This will save you a lot of space because you can mix and match everything, and it would look good in casual afternoon or in a more business affair. And when packing? Roll, don’t fold. BAGGAGE. Have locks on your bags, and a distinctive tag is a very affordable investment that can save you a lot of trouble at the airport baggage conveyer. This tag should contain your name, your address, and your next destination.  Avoid bringing valuables, and if you are carrying them, put them in your hand carry. A lot of airports can’t guarantee the condition of your baggage. For an extra level of confidence, pack your carryon bag expecting the worst. Extra underwear can take you give you leagues of relief in case your checked bags take a flight to another country by mistake. Trust me, I’ve been there.   Pinworthy quote! Do you have any tips you want to share? Comment below or tweet me @mscareergirl! Photo Credit: Free Digital Photos by  David Castillo Dominici Free Digital Photos by  Witthaya Phonsawat Katharinah of Polyvore

What Social Recruiting Apps Actually Work for Candidates

What Social Recruiting Apps Actually Work for Candidates Youve read all the blog posts, articles and ebooks. Youve heard pundits on TV, radio and down your local pub swearing by the power of social media. Its the solution to everyones customer service gripes, online dating, general time waste and of course your job search. Were told recruiters and employers spend all day trawling through random social networks to find their next hire. So what are you doing even reading this, you should be busy branding yourself on social media surely? Which ones should you use? How do you know which social tools are actually useful for jobs and which ones are a giant waste of time and effort? Well thats not easy to tell. They all look equally shiny and typically have a decent content marketer pushing out good stories on a blog. Is BranchOut going to get you a job? Maybe BrandYourself? No wait, try VisualCV or why not DoYouBuzz. BeKnown is definitely the one. Wait, theres another one If youre a jobseeker (or an employer) you will have noticed that almost every week there is a new shiny tool, app, plugin, add-on, extension or platform launched in the career space. They all have unique features and promise to automate your job search (or candidate search for employers). You might find yourself signing up to new tools every week and going through the motions of filling in your bio, uploading that photo and connecting with the same people again. By doing this its easy to achieve a false sense of achievement, just like spraying out 50 CVs to random companies. Low barriers to entry The trouble with online technology is that the barriers to entry are very low, meaning anyone can set up the next big thing from their garage. This is of course a great leveller and you would hope the invisible hand of business would sift out the inferior products. Not so Im afraid. Just as its easy to set something up, its easy to keep it ticking over as well whilst you decide what to do with it (thats what they call BETA testing). This situation is not something the end-user will benefit from. Big companies always succeed surely And just because a large company launches a new application doesnt mean its going to take off; Monster.com launched BeKnown last year. It was billed the professional network hosted on Facebook and was going to be a game changer. A year later you barely hear about it anymore those guinea pigs that signed up and did up their profiles, connected with others and started engaging must be regretting their early adoption. What are some of the good ones? There are a few tools that are genuinely useful and they have either been acquired by the bigger players, such as Rapportive or SlideShare which were both snapped up by LinkedIn. The best way to find out which ones are worth bothering with is to take a step back and let others do the testing for you. Instead of jumping on every new plug-in, wait for reviews to come in and ask your network if they get any use out of Super Cool Plug-in 3.0. Bottom line Social media is about people and a hiring process is about people (I would hope). Use social to identify and contact the right people within an organisation, dont sign up for another tool that somehow automagically would contact people on your behalf. If you think a tool looks useful, take a step back and breathe. Read the reviews, ask your peers and do your due diligence. Then youre ready to invest your time and effort. What social recruiting tools work for your career management? Please let me know in the comments! Image: Shutterstock

Career Reinvention - A Model for Change - Career Pivot

Career Reinvention - A Model for Change - Career Pivot Career Reinvention Click to Enlarge I thought of the term Career Reinvention while listening to a Marshall Goldsmith coaching webinar. He talked about facilitating organizational change. The principles he discussed are directly transferable to career reinvention. He used the model to the right to guide organizations through organizational change. We can apply this same model for career reinvention. Notice that, in one dimension, we have the positive and negative symbols. Another way to look at this is that one direction is either pushing you toward your goals or taking you away from your goals. In the other dimension, we have what we want to change and what we want to keep. Creating Creating is a positive change. What do you want to add to your career? How do you want to positively change your career? Creating the career you want…what stops you? Fear? Stereotypes? Perhaps you were you told that you were a certain type of person. Maybe the responsible one, the rebel, the quiet one, the pretty one, etc. How does that affect you today? Financial requirements? Do you feel you have to make a certain amount of money? Can you visualize what you want to become? Can you work backward to find the steps you need to take? (More: Career Reflection â€" A Twice a Year Duty) Preserving Preserving is keeping positive things in our career. What current aspects, tasks, or rewards do you want to keep? Listen to the most recent episode You do not need to change everything! What do you want to carry forward or preserve from your current career? What talents do you have that you want to build skills upon? There are many characteristics in our careers that have been successful. Even if they have become obsolete, it is important not to discount them. Marshall spoke about a philosophy or model for change created by Frances Hesselbein, former CEO of the Girl Scouts of America. It is calledtradition with a future. You never want to put down the past. You cannot move to the future by replicating the past but, on the other hand, we can honor where we have been. (More: Talents versus Skills: Do You Know the Difference) Eliminating What are those negative things in your career that you want to be eliminated? This is a two step process: Knowing what to eliminate Knowing when to eliminate them If you do not eliminate things, you cannot create. There is not enough time. You may eliminate talking when you are angry or making destructive comments about others. Another idea is eliminating toxic friends. Do you have toxic friends from your current career who are telling you how hard it will be to change? Accepting Letgo of the past. Who do you need to forgive? What are those negative things in your career that you do not like but are willing to accept? Maybe it is the commute or the bad coffee at work. How about your age? You cannot change how old you are. You cannot go back to being 25. This is all about making a positive difference and not about proving how smart or right we are. This is all about letting the things go that you do not like but at this time, are going to move on and not deal with it. (More: The Key to a Successful Career Shift: Asking for Help) Career Reinvention So what is positive in your career? What is negative? What do you want to keep? What do you want to eliminate? Let me know what you think of this model. Can it work for you? Are you ready for Career Reinvention? Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...