What the Heck Do I Do?

I always find it interesting to read “How To” articles, but often wonder if the theories in the article hold water in the real world. So – keeping with our theme of being mavericks – I’ve decided any “How To” articles will be actual interviews with real people who have achieved the “How To” goals themselves.

Enter Cindy H.

Situation: she was a staffing professional. No medical or pharmaceutical sales background. She landed a job in medical sales. I asked her 6 questions, as follows. Her answers revealed the keys to her success.

Q: What job did you land?

A: Hospice Services – a huge market. This is for people who are at the end of their life. I call on physician’s offices, directors of clinics, Aids/Cancer clinics. The geographic area is in the Twin Cities – MN.

Q: How long did it take you to land the job?

A: About 30 days. I was surprised at that – I had expected to be longer in the job search. I have friends who have been looking for 6-months and only now landing interviews.

Q: How did you find your job?

A: CareerBuilder. I saw an ad. I submitted my resume. There was no response. I then did two things: I had my resume professionally done, resubmitted it; I then followed up to make sure the company received the resume. They did – they called me in for an interview (phone interview first), and made me an offer.

Q: Any suprises in the job search?

A: Yes – the value of Linkedin. I, probably like many other people, was a member of Linkedin, but always put off really using it actively to network. Once I did, it really performed for me – a great (still somewhat unknown) tool.

Q: Any advice for job seekers?

A: Yes. Make sure your resume has the “wow” factor – get it professionally done if you have the money. Follow up with ALL submissions. And, I know this sounds hokey – but – keep a postive outlook. You have to remind yourself daily that YOUR job is out there. But how you find that job is very different than it was in the past – you must be innovative.

Q: Recommended services?

A: I got the resume done at www.HealthcareReps.com; www.Linkedin.com is awesome, and use the advanced search agent at www.CareerBuilder.com

If you are feeling a little distraught about the lack of hiring, you are not alone. The trend is very real. But when will things turn around? No financial wiz can look into a crystal ball and predict the future; however, some common sense prevails here. And there is some good news in that crystal ball. I’ve found 3 reasonably safe indicators for answering the question, “When will they start hiring again?”

There is an old saying from Marketing: “Perception is Realty.” And our perception as employees and employers must be that we feel secure about our financial situation before we will start buying again and employers start hiring again. What do we use to determine our perception of financial security? Answer: the value of our houses, the value of our stocks, and the unemployment rate.

The value of our houses: prices appear to be stabilizing. Pending house sales rose 3.6% in June. Things are still weak. Time to hold our breath.

The value of our stocks: the Standard & Poor 500 index is up 47% since March (the lowest point).

The unemployment rate: on 8/2, Allan Greenspan said “I’m pretty sure we’ve already seen the bottom.”

In the end we still only have our crystal ball. And our common sense and instincts. These later two suggest jobs will come back – not as soon as we’d like. But that the term “job security” will be a misnomer – how we view the employer-employee relationship will change. And we all know that old saying: “The only thing that never changes is change.”

What will the future of being a pharmaceutical or medical sales rep look like? Stay tuned – in future articles we’ll carefully examine what the future landscape may look like – and how you can capitalize on those changes to advance your career. Yes – change is scary. But, hey, think about the first time you rode a bike. Scary? A little. Thrilling? Absolutely.