Medical Social Network News: Medical Job Applicant

Showing posts with label Medical Job Applicant. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Why Join a Medical Staffing Network?

By Rick Fromme

Your former colleague told you that after she’d joined an online medical staffing network, she soon found a new position at a major medical center. She loves her new job; the pay’s better, she gets an extra week

Yes! (Photo credit: Joe Shlabotnik)

vacation, tuition assistance, and her benefits are more comprehensive than yours.

Now your curiosity is definitely piqued. Even though you already have a professional profile on LinkedIn and you periodically attend networking events and conferences in your specialty, you’re wondering, “Should I join a medical staffing network?

The answer is a resounding “Yes!”

By joining a medical staffing network and having your résumé available to potential employers and health industry specific recruiters, you stand the best chance of career security and advancement — whether you’re actively looking for a new position or not.

Health Care Jobs Are Happening

Senate Passes Insurance Industry Aid Bill (Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com)

Consider this: For medical recruiters especially, online networking and searching plays an increasingly critical role in sourcing active and passive candidates who possess the right skills sets for particular specialties in health care and medicine. Whether it’s in medical and pharmaceutical sales, to numerous clinical specialties such as nursing, physical therapy, physician assistants, and sonographers; to health care IT specialists, to administrators and even physicians, recruiters and would-be employers are always looking for key talent. As I wrote in an earlier blog, "Health Care Jobs Outlook is Jammin'!" health care is one of the most dynamic sectors of today’s job market today and will continue to be within the next decade as well. There will be a continual need for skilled professionals in health care for a long time to come. That’s why you want to have your résumé and contact information readily available for employers and recruiters to access anywhere, and anytime.

Since staffing agencies, recruiters, hiring managers, and providers use medical staffing networks to post jobs and search for qualified potential job candidates in medical social networks, you have to be where they’re looking. By having your résumé and qualifications in a medical social network database, you ensure your qualifications are seen by hundreds of people searching for someone of your background and skills. Regardless of your specialty, joining a medical staffing network makes promoting yourself on a consistent basis easier. Think of it as having your own 24/7 and 365 day-per-year press agency.

To Niche Their Own

Joining a medical staffing network such as MedMasters.com gives you the benefit of belonging to a professional niche network that’s industry specific, plus provides the benefits of a comprehensive job board and social networking site — focused solely on the health care industry. General sites such as LinkedIn are more of a jack-of-all trades network, so it’s easier for your information to get lost amongst the millions of other people and professions.

The Right Tools to Get the Best Job

Beautiful Tools (Photo credit: geishaboy500)

MedMasters was created by health care industry professionals, for health care industry professionals. Your membership provides access to its medical professional directory, its ever-expanding social hub, and gives you access to the sites other unique features:

MedMail
MedConnect Groups
Professional Assessments
Video Résumé

A MedMasters member’s MedMail box is set up to do most of the tasks found in popular email systems, but also facilitates real-time alerts such as MedConnect requests, job alerts, candidate alerts, and MedMatch alerts. Upon receiving a message, members receive a MedMail notification, which they may choose to respond to immediately or at a later date and time. It’s easy to sync your MedMail account to your mobile device since your MedMails are relayed to your email address. When a recruiter is trying to contact you about a given job opening, most people want to respond as soon as possible. MedMail facilitates the instant communication process.

MedConnect Groups facilitates the ability for members to network, share ideas, and discuss important topics with professionals of similar interests. There's no limit to the number of groups a member can join. Most open groups aren't restricted to only one's peers. Premium groups consist of peers, the industry's top recruiters, and leading employers.

There are nearly 45 broad-based groups as part of MedMasters' Groups: Allied Health Lounge, Allied Health Opportunities (premium), Clinical Specialist Lounge, Clinical Specialist Opportunities (premium), Nurse Practitioner Opportunities (premium), Health Care Executive Suite, Medical Product Development, Healthcare Information Technology, many specialty specific groups and others. There are also more “'socially enjoyable” and general category groups for Socializing, Humor, Fun & Interesting, Medical News Forum, Medical Events and Conferences, Mingling Singles and others.

Assessments are available to all of MedMasters’ professional members at no charge. Furthermore, you can choose to post your results on your MedMasters’ profile page. MedMasters’ assessments and methodologies are based on 40 years of data and research. They provide both individual members, as well as employers, human resource solutions that are proven, measurable, and provide optimal results.

Companies use the results of your assessment to evaluate and compare you (and other candidates) with their top employees. Employers cull from MedMasters' membership database, using the assessment results of its top performers as an objective benchmark. The closer your assessment findings match the companies’ best performers, the more likely you’ll be able to succeed at the level of the firms’ most valuable employees. It’s a win-win situation for both you and the company.

Video camera in action. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the primary goals of any job seeker is to distinguish him or herself to become the target of potential employers’ radar. There are several different ways to do this. One that’s gaining a lot of popularity is through video résumés. Numerous studies have shown people respond better when shown something rather than being simply told. Furthermore, people would rather watch a video than read verbiage. By having your own video résumé, you can personally highlight the reasons why you’re the ideal candidate to any potential employers or recruiters. It will allow you to make a favorable impression from the get-go.

In this article, I discussed some of the numerous advantages of joining a medical staffing network. Sites such as MedMasters.com provide health care industry professionals a niche job board as well as an interactive professional social network — both of which are highly advantageous to job seekers and hiring entities. I also detailed some of the unique features you can find in MedMasters such as MedMail, MedConnect, Assessment Center and the ability to post video résumés. If you found this article useful, please post your comments below. I encourage you to also share it with your colleagues and recent graduates from accredited health care programs and medical schools.

Rick Fromme combines entrepreneurial enthusiasm with an insider's knowledge of the medical industry to co-found MedMasters.com. Both his drive and perspective helps 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 may also reach Rick by connecting with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Err Cover: Problems Writing a Cover Letter? Here’s Help!

By Rick Fromme

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: P-40 Warhawk with "sharktooth" nose (Photo credit: Chris Devers)

Ok, so you’ve read my previous blog, “Résumé Rules for Health Care Industry Applicants,” checked out its Related Article section, and, after hours of word work, you now have a well-crafted résumé. Well done!

What else is left to write right? Your Cover Letter, of course.

Alas, the conundrum of the Cover Letter. Most of us have had to wrestle with this challenging element of the job application process. Writing them can be a pain in the “S” as we Strive to Succinctly Sell our Salient Skills to a Specific Someone Successfully.

It’s not easy to accomplish all the S’s stated above. But in knowing more about the objectives of a well-crafted Cover Letter, you can better accomplish — here comes another “S” word — this Sisyphean task.

Sisyphus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cover letters do make a difference, even brief ones. But just like the faux pas of smacking on a wad of double bubble gum during your interview, you never, ever want to send a standard form cover letter with an opening statement such as, “Enclosed please find my résumé.” And while not being too informal, you may want to include an anecdote and, if appropriate, inject a little bit of humor.

All this in a tightly constructed document of about 150 to 200 words.

Not the easiest of writing chores, even for professional writers, let alone for someone whose skills lean more towards the clinical, diagnostic, treatment or sales side. It reminds me of an anecdote one of my college professors was fond of repeating. (See? I was able to include one!) Senator Abraham Lincoln was writing a letter to a colleague where he began, “Dear Sir, forgive me for the length of this letter, but I did not have the time to make it shorter.”

Objectives of the Cover Letter

Personalization: It generally offers the job seeker an opportunity to personalize and target their resume to a particular person. This is one of the major strengths of a cover letter. While a résumé is detailed and succinctly organized, it can be impersonal. When submitted without an accompanying cover letter, it can give the wrong impression; that is, the job seeker is just doing a résumé blast campaign. While it takes more work in today’s world of online applications, ideally you want to identify a specific person to whom you can send your cover letter. (By the way, this is one of the numerous advantages of networking on a niche site such as MedMasters, where you can make connections and more easily contact specific individuals.)

You want to target your cover letter to a specific individual within an organization, preferably the person who’s most likely to have decision-making authority about the position you’re applying for. Never address a cover letter with the ambiguous salutation, “To Whom it May Concern.” If necessary, contact the company to obtain your target’s name, its correct spelling, their title, and correct email.

Directing Attention to Skills: It allows the applicant to direct particular attention to specific skills that are important to the reader. One of the questions a well-crafted cover letter addresses from the outset is, “If we hire you, what can you do for us?” It allows a potential employee to highlight particular skills or accomplishments that are especially relevant to the position. While that specific skill may be among many cited in the résumé, its emphasis in the Cover Letter communicates several key concepts: A) The applicant has researched the company and the position; B) S/he has identified some of its specific needs; C) It verifies the applicant is ideally capable of fulfilling them. Using a handful of bullet points in this section of your cover letter is appropriate and useful, as Succinctly is one of our target “S” words.

Belgium-6193 - Radar Dish and Searchlight (Photo credit: archer10 (Dennis))

Clear Statement Indicating Reason for Interest: It enables the applicant to clearly state why the organization is in their “want to work for” radar. This objective is the “yin” to the above objective’s “yang.” Whereas the above objective highlights a specific skill or set of skills, here the applicant is stating where and how the organization can best utilize those skills. It also demonstrates the candidate has researched the organization and is industry savvy as well.

Creates Professional Proactivity: It opens the door for further communication and follow-through. Depending upon the organization and the nature of the application process, this aspect of the cover letter facilitates the job seeker’s ability to initiate the exchange of further communication. It gives them some input into the Who, What and When of the application process. Who is the job candidate taking the initiative. What refers to future actions and follow-ups. When is the decision and availability of the applicant.

Other points to consider:

· Proofread carefully before sending. Better still, get other people to proof it as well.

· Mention mutual contacts. (This can be an effective opening line such as “Jane Smith from Medtronic recommended I contact you about the medical device sales position at Johnson & Johnson.”

· Even though today’s Cover Letters are usually an email with an attached résumé and sometimes other documentation (awards, examples of work, letter of recommendation), it’s best to use more formal prose. Avoid using common email abbreviations such as “u” instead of “you.”

· Minimize your use of superlative adjectives. (Your project was the best, you were the quickest to finish paperwork, you had the highest success rate of closing sales, etc.)

· Orient your letter to a specific position, but don’t copy the job description’s exact verbiage.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (soundtrack) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are numerous websites and pundits who provide very good information on how to write effective Cover Letters, some of them citing examples of “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” for you to peruse. Extrapolate from the best, and, when appropriate, use some of those examples as models for your own.

In this article, I cited some of the difficulties and challenges of writing effective Cover Letters. I then described the main objectives of a well-written Cover Letter and also listed additional points to consider. If you found this article helpful, please post a comment and share.

Rick Fromme combines entrepreneurial enthusiasm with an insider's knowledge of the medical industry to co-found MedMasters.com. Both his drive and perspective helps 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 may also reach Rick by connecting with him on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and YouTube.