Here’s Looking at You, Kid

Key Qualities Employers Seek in Job Applicants

By Rick Fromme

“There are as many opinions as there are experts,” former president Franklin D. Roosevelt astutely espoused. That’s certainly true when it comes to ascertaining important attributes employers seek in job candidates. As in many elements pertaining to one’s career search — creating an effective résumé, crafting a compelling cover letter, honing one’s interview skills, developing key questions to ask during a job interview, knowing how to negotiate your salary — there’s a plethora of sound advice from sagacious experts, all of whom are eager to share their wisdom.

The Power of Character

Eleanor Roosevelt with Fala (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It seems our former POTUS (President of the United States) and his spouse, FLOTUS       (First Lady of the United States), were both wizened individuals; that’s undoubtedly one reason why they were a dynamic chief executive duo. For, like her husband, the indefatigable Eleanor Roosevelt was also skilled at making  pithy observations, as evinced by her statement, “Only a man’s character is the real criterion of worth.” Indeed, many contemporary business experts and pundits, including Dr. Stephen Covey and Zig Ziglar, have reiterated similar sentiments. Regardless of one’s qualifications or “hard skills,” says Vivian Giang of “Business Insider,” there are four key character traits that are important for any particular job.

Ambition: Employees should demonstrate drive and desire for success. Otherwise, it’s impossible to build the successful company that the founder(s) envision.

Initiative: Managers prefer having employees who can organize their workloads and execute their business without constant supervision. Employees who can identify challenges and create solutions are even more valuable.

Commitment: Employees who are willing to go the distance for a company, even during lean times, are always assets for any firm.

Personality: Employers prefer having employees who are pleasant to work with. They promote a sense of well-being in the workplace. Contributing to a positive workplace ambience is important.

Serial entrepreneur James Caan stated in his post on LinkedIn, “There have actually been times when I have brought people into my business purely because they had these qualities. They weren't necessarily the most qualified on paper, but they ticked the right boxes in terms of character. Many candidates go into interviews and are keen to emphasize their skills ... if you can also show potential employers you have most of the qualities listed above — preferably with examples — you will almost certainly become a more attractive candidate.”

NACE Makes its Case

Recently, the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) was asked to determine what its staff deemed important attributes of would-be employees. According to NACE’s Outlook 2014 survey, employers are looking for team players who are adept at problem solving, who can organize their work, and who can communicate effectively. Ranked from most to least important in its survey, the responses are as follows:

• Ability to Work in a Team Structure

• Ability to Make Decisions and Solve Problems

• Ability to Plan, Organize and Prioritize Work

• Ability to Verbally Communicate with Persons Inside and Outside the Organization

• Ability to Obtain and Process Information

• Ability to Analyze Quantative Data

While writers/editors and sales personnel may fervently debate its findings, the least two important attributes, at least according to NACE’s survey, were the “ability to create and/or edit written reports” and the “ability to sell or influence others.”

“Soft skills,” similar to one’s character, 

are interpersonal skills
and attributes one must have 

to succeed in the workplace."

Soft Skills: Wear Them Comfortably

As mentioned earlier, there are tangible skills and qualifications applicants need. These are the “hard skills” that are job-specific, the requisite, skills an aspiring candidate must have when applying for a specific job. Then there are “soft skills,” which, similar to one’s character, are interpersonal skills and attributes one must possess to succeed in the workplace. It’s important to demonstrate to employers you have command of both hard and soft skill sets when interviewing for jobs. Even more importantly, it’s important you demonstrate them regularly once you’ve landed that coveted position.

English: Stephen Covey at the FMI Show, Palestrante on June 22, 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Analytical

Employees need to be able to puzzle things out, having analytical skills are important in the workplace (and in life in general). The level of this mostly left-brain attribute will vary depending on the job and the industry. In conjunction with being able to analyze and solve things, employees are expected to be able to organize, plan and prioritize tasks effectively. As Dr. Stephen Covey was noted for saying, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Communication

Regardless of what NACE says, most other experts agree that the e ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing is paramount, no matter what job you have or industry you work in. You’ll need to be able to communicate with fellow employees and managers, perhaps with clients or other businesses with whom your firm interacts. You’ll need to be able to do so online, in writing, face-to-face, on the phone, and perhaps using video conferencing.

Interpersonal

Interpersonal skills, often times called “people skills,” are what you use when you engage and interact with others. The ability to connect with other people is important. Your interpersonal skills will be evaluated during job interviews and during your tenure in the workplace, so it’s important your "people prowess" is up to par. Nobody likes working with employees who are surly, have a prima donna attitude, are prejudicial, or who are unpleasant. Sure, we all have bad moments and days, but always strive to put your best self forward.

Leadership

Portrait of Lao Zi (Lao Tzu) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The old business model of leaders carrying a big stick doesn't hold true anymore. Today, the best leaders empower their fellow coworkers to strive for excellence. Lao-Tzu, the ancient Chinese philosopher who penned the “Tao Te Ching,” said it best, “When the best leader's work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’”

Positive Attitude

Attitude might not be everything, but it’s very important. Employers want positive thinking employees, even in stressful and challenging circumstances. They want team players that demonstrate a “can do” attitude, and that are willing to go the extra mile(s) to get the job done.

Teamwork

Regardless of the job, employers want to hire cooperative team players who work well with others. They don’t want employees who are difficult to work with. When you are interviewing, be sure to share examples of how you worked in a cooperative environment. Here, extracurricular examples may be used such as sports, playing in a band or singing in a choir, group volunteer work, etc.

Technical

Depending upon the job, the necessary technical skill will vary. These days, many jobs require nominal computer and peripheral equipment skills.

Showcase Your Skills

To be certain you’re showing your top skills when you're job searching, make a list of the skills and qualities you’ve demonstrated in the past. Also, think of examples of how you’ve applied these skills to achieve success in previous jobs, school and/or volunteer and civic work. Think of ways to include them in your résumé and/or cover letters. Whenever appropriate, share these examples during your interviews as well.

Amble Soup

To warm up your memory during these colder winter months, here’s a veritable alphabet soup of important soft skills to peruse at your leisure:

          A - D

    Able to Listen

    Accept Feedback

Alphabet Soup (Photo credit: Thriving Vegetarian)

    Adaptable

    Artistic Sense

    Assertive

    Attentive

    Business Trend Awareness

    Collaborating

    Communication

    Competitive

    Confidant

    Conflict Resolution

    Cooperative

    Courteous

    Creative Thinker

    Critical Thinker

    Crisis Management

    Critical Observer

    Critical Thinker

    Customer Service Experience

    Deal Making

    Deal with Difficult Situations

    Deal with Office Politics

    Deals with Difficult People

    Decision Making

    Dedicated

    Delegation

    Dependable

    Design Sense

    Desire to Learn

    Diplomatic

    Disability Awareness

    Dispute Resolution

Ergonomic Blogger (Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)

    Diversity Awareness

            E - G

    Editing Experience

    Effective Communicator

    Emotion Management

    Emotional Intelligence

    Empathetic

    Energetic

    Enthusiastic

    Entrepreneurial Thinking

    Ergonomic Sensitivity

    Establish Interpersonal Relationships

    Experience Dealing with Difficult Personalities

    Experience

    Facilitating

    Flexible

    Follow Instructions

    Follow Regulations

    Follow Rules

    Friendly

    Functions Well Under Pressure

    Giving Feedback

    Good at Networking

    Good at Storytelling

    Good Attitude

            H - O

    High Energy

    Highly Organized

    Highly Recommended

    Honest

    Independent

    Influence/Persuasive

Deadline (UK TV series) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    Innovator

    Inspiring

    Intercultural Competence

    Interpersonal

    Interviewing

    Knowledge Management

    Leadership Skills

    Listening Skills

    Make Deadlines

    Management Skills

    Managing Difficult Conversations

    Managing Remote Teams

    Managing Virtual Teams

    Meeting Management

    Mentoring

    Motivated

    Motivating

    Negotiation Skills

    Organized

            P - R

    Patience

    Perform Effectively in a Deadline Environment

    Performance Management

Public speaking (Photo credit: brainpop_uk)

    Perseverance

    Persistence

    Persuasion

    Physical Communication

    Planning

    Positive Work Ethic

    Possess Business Ethics

    Presentation

    Problem-solver

    Process Improvement

    Proper Business Etiquette

    Public Speaking

    Punctual

    Quick-witted

    Read Body Language

    Reliable

    Research

    Resilient

    Resolving Issues

    Respectful

    Respectable

    Results-oriented

            S - U

    Safety Conscious

    Scheduling

Franklin D. Roosevelt (seated third from left, in white shirt) in a school photo of football teams in Groton, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    Self-Awareness

    Self-directed

    Self-monitoring

    Self-supervising

    Selling Skills

    Sense of Humor

    Stay on Task

    Strategic Planning

    Stress Management

    Successful Coach

    Supervising

    Take Criticism

    Talent Management

    Team Building

    Team Player

    Technology Savvy

    Technology Trend Awareness

    Thinks Outside the Box

    Time Management

    Tolerant of Change and Uncertainty

    Train the Trainer

Vermeer A Lady Writing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

    Trainable

    Training

    Troubleshooter

            V - Z

    Value Education

    Verbal Communication

    Visual Communication

    Well-Groomed

    Willing to Accept Feedback

    Willingness to Learn

    Work Well Under Pressure

    Work-Life Balance

    Writing Experience

    Writing Reports and Proposals

    Writing Skills

   Xenophiliac (I’ll wager you didn’t think we’d have an ‘X’; see Diversity Awareness)

    Zeal
    Zest

Rick Fromme combines entrepreneurial enthusiasm with an insider's knowledge of the medical industry to co-found MedMasters.com. Both his drive and perspective provide health care professionals with a superior mechanism with which to communicate, network and market their strengths. Prior to founding MedMasters.com, Rick operated a highly successful medical device distributorship. Other milestones in his 12-year career in the medical industry include a key position at a medical device start-up company that was later sold to the Ethicon Endo division of Johnson & Johnson. You can reach Rick by connecting with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube. 

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Résumé Rules for Health Care Industry Job Applicants

 

By Rick Fromme

Looking to launch or further your career in the health care industry? You may be in luck. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that more than 25% of the new jobs created nationwide between 2013 and 2018 will be in the health care. There are millions of people working in some capacity in health

resumes (Photo credit: realisticresumes)

 care, whether it’s in hospitals, doctors’ offices, clinics, hospices, other facilities or even doing home health care.  Similarly there are an additional 1.1 million industry-supporting jobs, such as in medical sales – pharmaceutical, biotech, medical devices and other technologies. While the overall projection for positions in the industry remain positive, competition for lucrative positions remains tough.

Unless you’re fortunate to inherit a family business in the health care industry, more than likely you’re going to need to a résumé that’s spot on, guaranteed to get you invited to the all-important job interview.  It’s an advertisement of your skills, experience, knowledge and education presented in their most favorable light.

Do an Online Search

Do an online search and/or go to your local bookstore and you’ll find hundreds of articles and periodicals pertaining to how to write a good résumé. Bob McIntosh, an established career trainer, empathizes with applicants when he writes: “Do you heed the advice of professional résumé writers, recrui

David Bruce Jr LinkedIn Profile (Photo credit: Frederick Md Publicity)

ters, HR, or hiring managers? They all offer good advice, but their advice will be different. In fact, you can ask 20 résumé experts their opinions on how you should write your résumé, and you’ll get 20 different answers. So who is correct?”

While not wanting to be perceived as flippant in saying “Who the heck knows?” the truth is, it’s the person reviewing the résumé s the who decides to invite you in for an interview. Or not.  Short of using computers to search for delineated keywords, résumé reviewers can be somewhat subjective when perusing through hundreds of them.

           

It takes a medical recruiter or hiring manager reading a résumé about 12 seconds or less to know if they want to read more or move on to the next candidate. Hence, your résumé, at a minimum, needs to be concise, easy-to-read, error-free and impressive. No problem, right?

 Always post your résumé whenever possible because many recruiters rely on résumé keyword search to source new candidates. It should contain very specific keywords that reflect your specialties, job functions and, if applying for a job in medical sales, specific product categories sold. Similarly, a résumé that doesn’t include industry buzzwords won’t garner an interview and will likely end up in the trash. Recruiters want to see you know what’s trending in the health care field, what industry keywords mean, and why they’re important. Know and use them. But don’t overdo it, either.

Recruiters Store Résumés in Databases

Recruiters store résumés in databases and use keywords to find potential applicants. A résumé that doesn’t include relevant keywords is essentially non-existent  because it won’t show up when the 

Graphviz Keywords (Photo credit: Aldon)

recruiters do a keyword search. Health care resumes should have relevant keywords spangled throughout. Use language that is pertinent to the desired position.

Don’t just list your past jobs – detail them: A bullet point list of the jobs you’ve held doesn’t give  a hiring manager enough information to make your resume stand out. Whenever possible, you want to show quantifiable results with numbers, dollars and percentages. Short of that, you want to highlight accomplishments  you achieved while at each job, not simply list the duties you performed.

Keep it concise: Remember that aforementioned 12-second figure? That’s why it’s critical your résumé is succinctly written, logically formatted and free of distracting and unnecessary extras such as graphs and graphics. Include only the most relevant information and keep your  résumé  to two pages, maximum, providing you have the experience and accomplishments to back it up. Most pundits say information such as personal and professional references should not be included in your résumé. Along with your contact information, it should reflect two concepts: your relevant experience with highlighted accomplishments and education. 

Recruiters usually receive hundreds of résumés for most positions. How, within just a few seconds, do you make yours stand out? One way is by having a compelling summary paragraph or objective at the top of the first page. The summary paragraph should be thought of as your sales pitch. If the summary paragraph isn’t enticing, the recruiter may not even continue reading the rest of the page. The summary paragraph should highlight your education/certifications, work experience, and accomplishments. Specialized training, medical volunteer work, and awards are examples of items that can make your stand out.

Modified Google Reader (Photo credit: mattjb)

Your résumé should not only be aesthetically appealing, but visually readable. While containing as much pertinent information as possible, there should still be plenty of white space to let the  page “breathe.” Employers who read hundreds of  résumés will glance at them for as few as 10 to 12 seconds before deciding to read them at length. Make yours scannable by writing shorter word blocks, three to four lines at most. Use pithy bullet point phrases whenever possible. Don’t use fancy fonts that are difficult to read. But take advantage of italicizing and bolding specific text, use larger font sizes, etc. There should be a logical, organizational flow to your résumé.

While it certainly takes more work for the applicant, most recruiters recommend tailoring your résumé to each job to which you’re applying. Employers don’t want a one-size-fits-all résumé  that doesn’t address their needs or follow the job description. Health care professionals should customize their résumé for each job; not doing so is a mistake. For example, a résumé for a hospital opening  shouldn’t be the same as one for a position at an orthopedic surgeon’s practice.

Things to Consider

Some  résumé experts recommend including a one-line description of each company you worked for. Whether it was a small, specialized firm or a major international conglomerate, it  may matter to a prospective employer.  Others maintain that if you were in medical sales, you should  detail what you were selling and to whom, particularly if you’ve served a well-known client.

resume (Photo credit: ruSh.Me)

No employer cares what you want; they only care about what they want and need. If you happen can solve their problems and fulfill their needs, they’ll love you. Eschew the self-serving 
objective statements such as “Seeking a position in a progressive company where I can utilize my journalism skills.”

Your résumé needs to show relevance. Employers are interested in the past 10 or 15 years of your work history; in some cases less. Age discrimination may also be a concern, so don’t show all 25-30 years of your work life.

A poorly formatted résumé is almost sure to end up in the discard pile. Hiring managers need to be able to quickly scan over a resume to identify if the job seeker is a good fit. If the résumé is difficult to read, it won’t be. A good résumé has a consistent format throughout, has bold headers, and is usually in chronological order – unless it’s a functional resume. Ensure your job history, specialized training and education are clearly formatted and are easily discernable.

A mistake many new job seekers make is padding their résumé to make it longer. Health care recruiters don’t want to know you once worked at McDonald’s. If the information isn’t relevant to the position you’re applying, don’t include it. It’s better to have a short résumé than to have one with irrelevant information. If you lack job experience, you may highlight your education, academic achievements and/or training, or relevant volunteer experience.

It’s helpful to look at résumés of coworkers in similar fields. Of course, there are myriad examples online. In addition to using your computer’s spell check tool, it’s a good idea to have several other people read over your résumé as well, not only for content, but for formatting as well.

A good  résumé functions as a tool and work of art, whereas a poorly constructed  résumé can be a wrecking ball and a masterpiece of self-destruction.

Rick Fromme combines entrepreneurial enthusiasm with an insider's knowledge of the medical industry to co-found MedMasters.com. Both his drive and perspective help provide health care professionals with a superior mechanism with which to communicate, network and market their strengths. Prior to founding MedMasters.com, Rick operated a highly successful medical device distributorship. Other milestones in his 12-year career in the medical industry include a key position at a medical device start-up company that was later sold to the Ethicon Endo division of Johnson & Johnson.You can also reach Rick by connecting with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Youtube. 

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