How to Land That Big Job

Now that the economy is getting better, you may be ready to move up to a significantly bigger job—either in your present company, or a new one. You may have had to put up with stagnant pay raises, the worry of downsizing and burnout from handling two jobs because of productivity demands. So how do you increase your chances moving up, and landing a really great job?

According to a recent survey by Novations Selection, Development and Communication, a performance improvement firm, nearly half of U.S. companies now face an employee exodus. Several other surveys back them up, as well, and the reasons given are similar to yours: dissatisfaction with pay; burnout; pent-up demand. So this is probably a better time than ever to try to land your next big job.

Provided you can trust your boss, my first suggestion is to talk to the boss and express your concerns. An honest, ethical boss will respect your feelings and guide you to the best possible move—whether that’s inside or outside the company. If your decision is to build your career with another company, start by learning all you can about it. Check out several web sites (like Hoover’s On-Line.) Use your professional network to contact anyone in that company to learn more about the position. In either case, try to get a job description to target your campaign.

Prepare a cover letter that introduces yourself, summarizes key results you’ve accomplished in your career, and highlights to specific features of your resumé. Prepare a resume that presents a clear, relevant, persuasive picture of why you think you’re the best candidate for the position.

Then try to phone the decision-maker for the new job and ask about the process for applying. (I don’t recommend sending out unsolicited resumes; many just get tossed out. And some may wind up back on your boss’s desk.) It’s so much better when you’ve showed enthusiasm as you talked to the right person, then followed up with a personal letter and powerful resume. That way, your name may be more familiar when your resume arrives. You might have an added advantage by writing on the envelope, “As we discussed.”

Make sure your resume has key words that are linked to the job description and your level of management or technical expertise. Today, many companies use computer programs to scan resumes electronically and select only those that match the criteria for the job.

Prepare for the Interview 

Once you secure an interview, plan to talk about how your up-to-date skills would match the needs of the job. Show that you’ve read widely in the field and are current with the cutting edge of what’s going on in your field. Plan your answers to potential questions, like these:

• Walk me through that (situation, meeting, discussion, etc.). 

• What happened then? 

• How did you feel about it?

• What would you do differently if you had to do it again?

• Can you give me a specific example of a time that you acted unwisely? 

• What was going through your mind at the time?

• How did you get involved in your last team assignment? 

• What was your last big challenge? 

• What role did you play?

• How did you get that role? 

• If I were a fly on the wall, what would I have seen taking place? 

• What other key things happened?

• How do you make decisions? 

• How did you feel about the decision process you usually use?

• Tell me about one of those times when you were especially frustrated.

• Especially proud? 

• What did you do in each situation?

• What were the critical points that stick in your mind? 

• What kind of thought and planning was involved in your last major decision? 

• What do you regret most about your career?

• Tell me when and how you first became interested in _______(discipline).

• What were your thoughts that led you to major in (college major)?

• What courses were most challenging? Why?

• With (work experience), what were your typical duties and tasks?

• In what area did/do you spend the most time?

• What are your most significant skill areas?

• How did you gain that knowledge/skill?”

• Tell me about the equipment, tools, machinery with which you work?”

• What has been your most challenging technical project?”

• You have seen the job description; what seems to interest you the most? 

• How is it appealing?”

• Tell me about your specific experience with (equipment, technology, etc.).

• How do you assess your skills in relationship to this position? 

• Where are you strongest technically? How so?

• Where would you say you are you the weakest in relationship to this position?

• How has technology affected the way that you work?

• Tell me about your short and long term career goals.

• Why do you want this job?

Level and complexity of previous work

• What did your job at Acme Company consist of?

• Could you describe a typical day on your job?

• What sort of things took up most of your time on this job?

• What kind of decisions did you typically make on this job?

Extent of job responsibilities

• Could you explain just where you fit into the organization?

• Could you tell me a little about your boss’s job?

• How much contact, typically, did you have with your boss?

• In your contacts with your boss, what kinds of things went on?

• To what extent did your boss leave you alone?

• What kind of decisions did he/she expect you to make?

• What kind of staff assistance did you normally get?”

• In what areas?

Motivation

• How did you happen to go into that job in the first place?

• What attracted you to that kind of work?

• Why did you decide to make a change?

• What are some of the things that kept you working at that job?

• Describe what you would consider to be the perfect job for you— 

disregarding any past jobs you’ve had.

Attitudes and feelings

• What did you like best about the job

• What kind of things didn’t you like about the job?

• What, in the job, did you find particularly satisfying?

• How did you feel about the company as a whole?

• What did you like about the company?

• Was there anything about the company or the manner in which they 

operated that you didn’t particularly like or agree with?

• How would you describe the kind of company it is?

• What kind of atmosphere or climate would you say it has?

• How much of a challenge did you find the job?

• What aspects of the job were challenging?

• How did you feel about the progress you made?

Questions That Probe More Deeply

• What caused you to consider leaving your present job?

• Describe for me a typical day on your present (last) job.

• What particular part of your job did you like best? Least?

• How did you like working in that department (assignment, office)?

• If you could have changed things, what would you have suggested?

• What’s the most difficult situation you have ever had to work in?

• If you could write you own job description, what would it be?

• This new job I’ve just described to you–what about it is most appealing? 

• How does this job compare with others you are now considering?

• What do you eventually want to do? Five years from now? Ten years? 

• What has been your greatest creative achievement?

• Tell me about your most recent creative disappointment, when you just 

couldn’t get the job done in your own way, on your own terms.

• What additional information do you think I should have about you?

• Where do you want to wind up, professionally, at the height of your career?

• Tell me why you prefer to work alone (or, in a group).

• Why do you prefer to work in a structured (unstructured) situation?

• How do you respond to criticism?

• How do you respond to strong creative direction?

•Tell me why you like specific directions (non-specific assignments).

What you the candidate should ask–

• Why is the position available?

• What happened to the incumbent?

• What are some of the primary objectives of the job?

• What are you looking for in a candidate?

• What type and how much training will be provided?

• What is a typical workday like?

• What are the skills and abilities considered necessary?

• What does it take to be successful here?

• What do you like best about _____?

• What do you like least about _____?

• How is performance evaluated?

• What are key priorities for the company/ department/job?

• What’s the process for making decisions here?

• How much independence of thinking and acting do you look for in an employee?

• Where will this job lead to?

A final thought: Follow up every interview with a thank-you note briefly noting why you’re excited about being considered for the position. It’s a great opportunity to re-sell yourself by recalling two or three key points you made in the interview. Good luck!

Job Description of a Proposal Manager - How to Use the Proposal Generator

When you begin to look at the qualifications of a proposal manager, you will want to make sure that they have a deeper understanding of what is involved in creating a proposal. They should be able to set up a proposal and know what is involved in finding the jobs desired. While this is not their main duty, it will help with the process of receiving more contract agreements. This should be combined with managing the progress of a proposal with the Proposal Generator of Sofon Guided Selling. Timing and planning meetings, monitoring the progress of the proposal and making sure that the necessary information is provided are all a part of this job description. This will help you to get more proposals while monitoring the progress of different opportunities.

When you begin to look at someone who can fulfill the duties of a proposal manager, you not only want to stop with these basic duties. You will also want to include an understanding of what requirements are for different jobs. Many times, smaller businesses allow a manager to fulfill these duties. However, if you are in a position to expand your business, then dividing proposal opportunities into a team can help you to expand. For instance, a coordinator, section manager and review leader are often divided in the team.

This helps to build the effectiveness of the proposal and the ability to focus on getting the right contracts.
As you build the team for your proposal manager, you will want to make sure that the roles are strictly defined. This will help the individual to understand their specific duties as an assistant. Making sure that they focus only on the meetings and monitoring of proposals is essential for this particular job. However, you will also want to make sure that there are ways to monitor communication with other team members and leaders in your company. If there is a potential gap, then you can offer new methods or training to ensure correct communication can help. This will ensure that the right individuals are in the place needed for the proposal that is created.

Understanding how to create the right job description for a proposal manager is the beginning to monitoring and controlling the process of proposals you are looking into with the Proposal Generator. Focusing on the duties of this individual, combined with potential duties of a team of individuals will then help your business to get the right responses while helping you to get the results desired for every proposal you are looking into.

Hackers change Border Express job description SALLY EVANS

POLICE are investigating a jobs advertisement by Albury truck company Border Express after it was changed to make reference to candidates with a petite figure and “DD cup breasts”.
The ad posted on Australian jobs site SEEK sought an IT developer with SQL server experience, the ability to handle mathematical and analytical problems and a “slim” waistline.
It said applicants must be prepared to undergo a pre-employment strip search to ensure they met the requirements of the position.
The ad, allegedly hacked at the weekend, was posted on British-based online tech publication, The Register, and discussed on various internet chat forums including social networking site Facebook.
Emails sent to The Border Mail described the job description as “sexist” and “lewd”.
“It does not exactly paint Albury-Wodonga and one of our major employers in a very good light,” one resident said.
But Border Express IT manager Jeff Quinn said the ad was hacked and modified after it was submitted to the jobs site on Friday afternoon.
“It certainly wasn’t a copy of the original ad,” he said.
“Most of the content was the same, but you can certainly tell the contents which have been edited out of it.”
Mr Quinn believed the alterations were the result of a security breach outside of SEEK and Border Express, which promotes itself as an “equal opportunity” employer.
He said the prank was being investigated by the website provider and Albury Police, with hopes the culprit would be caught by tracking internet log files.
“If they’re silly enough to do what they’ve done, I don’t think they would have put enough thought into covering up where it’s come from,” Mr Quinn said.
Insp Tony Moodie, of Albury police, yesterday confirmed officers were involved in investigating the matter.
“Police have made some initial inquiries and have passed that information onto SEEK to investigate further,” he said.
The ad has since been restored to its original form.
SEEK was not available for comment about the ad yesterday.

Rethinking inside sales

Inside sales departments are taking on a larger role as distributors seek to capitalize on the economic recovery

The challenging economy has caused many businesses to rethink their sales strategies, and perhaps nowhere is that more evident than the distributor's inside sales department. An evolving role in recent years, inside sales is taking on more importance in many distribution companies as managers seek to turn ordertakers into order makers in search of new business. A shift in the way customers want to do business and an overall slower sales environment are driving the trend.

As an example, downsizing at many customer locations has caused purchasing departments to shrink, giving the remaining purchasing agents little time for face-to-face interaction with outside salespeople. They're turning to inside sales instead, explains Chuck Connors, veteran industry salesman and president of hose and accessories distributor Omni Services based in Worcester, Mass. The result is a heavier reliance on inside sales for key customer relationships that foster solution-based selling.

"We see our inside sales staff as one of the strongest departments in our company—and as one of the best resources," Connors explains. "The real relationships are often with the inside salespeople. So much of that has shifted to the inside, and you've got to have a real good system in the channel for handling that."

As inside reps become more proactive and build key relationships with customers, outside reps can focus on building business with new customers and opening new markets—which can add up to a winning strategy in today's slowly recovering manufacturing environment.

As distributors struggle to create the kind of inside sales environment Connors describes, they're faced with some important questions, says sales consultant and author Tom Reilly, president of Tom Reilly Training in St. Louis, Mo. First, they must determine the function of their inside sales team. Second, they must ask whether or not they have the right people in place to do the job. For companies looking to turn their inside sales force into a proactive sales center, the answer to the second question may be hard to swallow.

"A high percentage of those already in place do not have the personality to do outbound sales," explains Reilly, who is also Industrial Distribution's Strictly for Sales columnist. "And many companies don't have the right sales management structure in place. They don't have the disciplined standards of performance that says ‘you'll make 10 outbound calls each day, and we're going to be monitoring, training and coaching [you].' They don't have those things in place to get it off the ground."

But companies like Omni Services are making the switch. Connors says skills training and coaching are key elements of Omni's inside sales program, which also sets quotas on the number of times an inside salesperson will travel with an outside sales rep on sales calls. Inside salespeople are being trained to deal with the same kinds of objections and issues outside salespeople encounter in the field—all in the name of customer-centric, solution-based selling.

"Inside salespeople need to get in the channel with the purchasing person," Connors adds. "Because we're not effective until the purchasing person views us as part of his service.

"The true measurement of success for Omni comes when the purchasing people emotionally view our salespeople as being members of their staff. Inside salespeople must be seen as being purposeful."

Golfers and caddys
Long gone are the days when inside salespeople played a supporting role to the outside sales reps' lead. As Connors explains, there are no more "golfers and caddys." In today's world, everyone's a golfer.

"Years ago, you used to put [someone] inside because they didn't have the qualities to go outside," he says. "That's changed. The quality of the person on the inside is a big factor these days."

Reilly agrees and says the process begins with a thorough job analysis followed by an accurate job description for your inside sales department. Will the reps be responsible for developing existing business? Calling on new customers? Opening new markets? Will their job consist mainly of prospecting? Will it be some combination of these?

"I would be crystal clear on what the objective is," Reilly says.

Next, determine what reps need to do to meet those objectives. For example, do they need to make 50 outbound calls per day? Will they be required to make field calls with outside reps? If so, how often? Then, determine the skill sets needed for the job and figure out whether or not you have those skills in house. If you don't, recruiting is next on the list.

Finally, determine the management structure needed to coach your inside sales team. Will the manager monitor calls? Will he or she conduct weekly sales meetings? How will he or she deliver feedback?

Omni's inside salespeople attend regular sales meetings where accounts are reviewed in light of the rep's goals and the company's expectations. Inside reps are taught to pay attention to customers' buying patterns, for example, with an eye toward what customers are buying and how frequently they are buying it. For example, if an inside sales rep notices that a customer submitted 10 purchase orders for similar products in one month, he or she can suggest consolidating those purchases to save money.

"Instead of just sitting back and waiting for the game to come to them, we're coaching them to take the game to the customer," Connors explains. "They're going to help the buyer, or the purchasing person in the supply channel, by watching trends."

The inside/outside connection
As inside sales reps take on a more prominent role, the relationship between inside and outside sales can become even stronger. Many distributors pair inside and outside sales reps for support on mutual accounts or territories—and that's not a bad model, Reilly says.

"A good inside sales rep can really provide a lot of direction for the outside rep," he says.

And a good inside sales team can help improve a company's overall sales efficiency. Reilly advocates freeing up the outside sales force by slicing off the bottom 10 percent of their customer base and giving it to inside sales.

"There are [good] opportunities there if you have a good inside sales rep who will make outbound calls," he says.

Connors has a similar philosophy. As inside sales reps become the go-to source in customers' purchasing departments, outside sales reps' time is freed up to develop new customers and new markets.

"You've got to pave new roads and go make it happen," Connors says. "Our outside staff should be trailblazing with new customers and new markets.

"That said, we still have strong relationships between our outside sales reps and our existing customers. But a lot of that has shifted, and the inside person, as I said, is just as much a golfer as the golfer—there's no more caddy. These days, the customer is running lean, the distributor's inside and outside staff is lean, so you've got to focus and have the appropriate energies in the appropriate places."

And much of that comes back to the customer, who is, in the end, still king.

"It truly is a different type of inside sales work these days," Connors adds. "And you  need to treat it that way. If you treat all customers the same way, you  may not have the appropriate sense of urgency required. And the purchasing agent may say, ‘this isn't the right company for me.'"

As the role of the inside sales department changes, so do the qualities and characteristics of the people needed for the job. In most cases, experts say these professionals no longer take a back seat to the outside sales reps, so the qualities needed to succeed in both jobs are increasingly similar. In their book "How to Hire & Develop Your Next Top Performer," Herb Greenberg, Harold Weinstein and Patrick Sweeney, of management consultant firm Caliper, identify five characteristics required to succeed in sales. They are:

Empathy: the guidance system. "...in order to sell effectively, you must understand how a prospect or client is feeling while still maintaining your own sense of identity, your own purpose and your own objectives," they write. "A salesperson simply cannot sell without this invaluable and irreplaceable ability."

Ego Drive: the motivational force. "Ego-drive is a special quality that makes the salesperson want and need to make a sale in a very personal way," they write. "Individuals with ego-drive feel that the sale has to be made. So the prospect is there to help fulfill a personal need."

Service motivation: the emerging factor. "While the ego-driven individual derives personal gratification from getting the yes, the service-motivated individual derives the same gratification from receiving the ‘thank you,' ‘you did a good job,' ‘I appreciate that,' and so on," they write, noting that often times, these two qualities do not exist in the same person. However: "What is becoming more and more true is the fact that success in selling increasingly demands that an individual possess at least some degree of both of these motivations."

Conscientiousness: the discipline from within. Conscientiousness can be internally or externally driven, the authors say. Regardless, "People with either type can be outcome-oriented, tenacious, responsible, adept at follow-through and good at their word,"-all of which are required of a good sales rep.

Ego-strength: the key to resilience. "Ego-strength is the degree to which an individual basically likes himself or herself," the authors say. "If an individual possesses a high level of ego-strength, then failure can motivate the person toward the next try."

Job Description Examples

Job Description Examples

A mini exercise bike is just a perfect solution in a compact bit of kit. A small exercise bicycle is capable to sit below a desk or flanking the sofa. It is a great workout even while watching a television and or eve while you are seated right next to a computer set.

The mini bike also dominates an ideal way for users who have partial movement in getting physical pursuits for such routine. The user may, if he likes can place the device on top of the table and convert the latter to give an arm workout too.

The device has a modifiable resistance. This small workout bike enables the user to take pleasure in burning down optional extra calories. Non-slip grips are then furnished. This will keep the bike in place. Also, a built-in mini computer console a display of time to monitor the progress on the calories burned up. The LCD computer is set to calculate time, calories and distance, non-slip foot grips and manual adjustable resistance.

Online recruitment tip – get back to basics

Social networking is all well and good. And most, like me, have jumped on the bandwagon for good or bad.

But chasing the next best thing in online recruitment practice shouldn’t be at the expense of traditional procedures. A good, well-written job description is still important. We still see some atrociously written job ads on Nurses.co.uk andCarehomejobs.com. We’re on a mission to change this. So before you start tweeting, check this out. Let’s walk before we run!

Below are some great online recruitment job posting tips. We’ll be taking them with us to the events we’re attending in 2010. So this is a sneak preview…

Healthcare Online Job Posting Tips - Use our expertise to write winning online job ads

We see thousands of ads that are poorly constructed. Here are some of the most common problems:

• Not enough detail
• Poor English
• Too broad
• Duplicated job postings
• Too prescriptive (sell it, don’t just tell it!)

By following this guide you’ll save time, get more applications, and be a better online recruiter!

Get busy

• Spend more time on the healthcare job boards that work
• Post all your new vacancies
• Post specific jobs, don’t post a one-ad-fits-all job
• Repost jobs at least once a week
• Mondays are the busiest day so get active on Mondays
• Know your keywords for each job

Great Titles catch the eye

• Make job titles clear
• ‘RMN Care Home Manager’ not just ‘RMN’ or ‘Home Manager’
• Include keywords in job titles
• Avoid exclamation marks or unusual characters

Winning Job Ads Get Good Applications

• Unique Content. Write interesting, informative and unique job descriptions
• The job you post on one site should be different to the job you post on another
• Know your keywords and use them
• Prescriptive: Tell the job! Key competencies, person specification, salary, location
• Descriptive: Sell the job. It’s not all me! me! me! and what you want!
• Brevity is king. Keep it brief. Web wants clear and brief
• Post to form fields correctly (‘£25000 per hour’ is not really a healthcare salary)
• Don’t spam, users hate seeing the same job posted many times

Analyst Job Description

The obligations analyst is the person who has the main dependability to draw out, analyze, authenticate, specify, verify, and manage the real needs of the project stakeholders, including customers and end users. The requirements analyst is also known as a requirements engineer, business analyst, requirements manager, system analyst, or simply analyst. The requirements analyst serves as the conduit between the customer group of people and the software growth team through which requirements flow. A requirements analyst is involved at some level throughout the entire system or software development life cycle. Upon organization of the requirements baseline, the focus is shifted towards the management of the requirements requirement and proving the execution of all requirements. The requirements analysis function is a project role, not necessarily a job title. The role may be executed by a dedicated requirements analyst or split among multiple team members who have other major job functions, such as a project manager, product manager, or developer. The requirements analyst is responsible for seeing that the tasks are executed accurately.

Skills:

• Meeting skills, to talk with persons and groups about their needs and ask the right questions to surface necessary requirements in sequence.
• Listening abilities, to understand what people say and to perceive what they might be uncertain to say.
• Logical skills, to seriously assess the information assembled from multiple sources, reconcile conflicts, decompose high-level information into details, abstract up from low-level information to a more general understanding, distinguish presented user requests from the fundamental true needs, and distinguish solution ideas from requirements.
• Facilitation skills, to lead requirements elicitation workshops.
• Observational skills, to authenticate data achieved via other techniques and depiction new areas for elicitation.
• Writing skills, to communicate information efficiently to clients, marketing, managers, and technical staff
• Organizational skills, to work with the huge collection of information collected during extrication and analysis and to cope with rapidly changing information.
• Interpersonal skills, to help bargain priorities and to determine disagreements among project stakeholders.

Knowledge:

• An accepting of modern requirements elicitation, analysis, requirement, confirmation, and running practices and the ability to apply them in practice, knowledge with requirements engineering books and resources
• An accepting of how to observed obligations engineering according to numerous software expansion life cycles in a team environment.
• Information of product running concepts and how venture software products are positioned and urbanized.
• Function domain information is a plus, to have trustworthiness with user diplomats and be able to work efficiently with them.

Responsibilities:

• Work with the product manager or project sponsor to document the product’s vision and scope.
• Identify project stakeholders and user classes. Document user class characteristics. Identify appropriate representatives for each user class and settle their responsibilities.
• Draw out requirements using interviews, text analysis, requirements workshops, storyboards, surveys, site visits, business process narratives, use cases, situations, event lists, business analysis, spirited product analysis, task and workflow analysis, and/or viewpoints.
• Write requirements specifications according to standard templates, using natural language simply, clearly, unambiguously, and succinctly.
• Crumble high-level business and user requirements into functional requirements and excellence, specified in a suitable stage of factor appropriate for use by those must base their work on the requirements.