All Blog Posts (219)

Have you ever interviewed for a position and found out that the job has been open for what seems forever?  Perhaps you receive a call from a recruiter and it is the exact job opening another recruiter called you about months ago!  Maybe it is worse, you are half way through the interview process and…

As many of you know, I am an active Stock Investor and Trader; some of you requested that I share tidbits of investing information that I have learned over the years that may be of interest to you to help you manage your own portfolios of hard earned money! The Rule of 72 has been known about for years by…

Well, it just happened!  I encountered the ultimate loser in the world of interviewing; a top candidate (seemingly on paper), calling one hour before their first "face to face" interview to say they changed their mind.  Yep, just not showing up and stiffing the hiring manager and the recruiter!   By the…

Do you ever wonder why some people end up making 200K per year or more and others, if they are lucky, making 100K or less per year in the Medical Sales arena? Do you think it is luck, happenstance, serendipity, the moon and stars aligning just right for the high earnings individual?…

I keep seeing more and more resume's with 2 year job hops to even 1 year job hops! These apparent Job Hoppers get so upset when I don't call to interview them or respond to their resume's.  Their resume's are laced with…

Why do some people make it all the way to the final interview step, flying to corporate…

What is the biggest secret to nailing an interview using LinkedIn? YOU MUST BE A PEEPING TOM!  How creepy!  We feature a Peeping Tom as someone stalking a neighborhood at dark looking for a lit room with an open curtain with the hopes of finding some people inside and in full view.  Slowly and quietly he…

You just graduated from College and you heard that getting into outside sales is the way to make some good money and the more you sell, the more you make.  IF you pick the right company, those words are true!  In fact, getting into a solid entry level sales position can lead you into…

Remember the time when people asked you what you want to be when you grow up?   People begin to stop asking not only others, but certainly themselves the same question as they get into their middle twenties.  My question is; Why? Why do we assume that the question is only valid for those youngsters in their teens…

We have all heard the saying, "It is not the amount of money you make, but the amount of money you keep."  There are those that would not agree with that saying, buts lets face it, those people making a million a year have an easier time keeping most of it than the person making $40,000 covering basic living expenses!   So what is the effective new tax rates for 2013?  I found this insert table from taxfoundation.org, an article written by Nick Kasprak on January 3rd:

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I wrote the last article, to help Job Candidates understand how an interviewer feels when someone is talking too much in the interview!  I felt if they understood what they were doing they…

You are excited!  You just snared the first "face to face" Interview with a Hiring Manager.  You passed the phone screen and now you are on your way to the "make or break" part of the process!  You can't wait to show that manager what you know!   You have studied their website, their competitors website and called…

Michael S. Hickerson 

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Please don't get upset if you have done this costly mistake when applying to jobs On Line!  Recently I have noticed an increasing number of Job Candidates who were interested in my open positions, but had no idea if they had applied directly to the Hiring Companies website!  I simply…

I decided to recycle last years message since it was a big hit; Thanksgiving is this week and a Turkey will be center stage!  I have a habit of never writing short blogs, but this may be the beginning of me changing that up a little bit. Thanksgiving is perhaps one or our purest holidays that has been largely…

Fearing an upcoming job loss for whatever reason or worse, you are unemployed now, requires a quick and efficient plan of attack to getting another job QUICKLY! This is not the time to sit back and decide to take time off between jobs, that one month off can quickly erode to 6 months or longer of unemployment. Sales managers want to hire smart, aggressive medical sales people who would not be content taking a month off between jobs.…

I am often asked when I post a Medical Device Sales Job that requires a background in aggressive BtoB (Business to Business) Sales, "Why?" from pharmaceutical, realestate, financial or mortagage type sales people who…

Is there a way to nail the Pre-Employment test?  A way to study beforehand and beat out all the multitudes of others taking the SAME test for the SAME job you want so badly?  Afterall, many Pre-Employment are not so different from taking a College entrance exam like a SAT or LSAT test.  Right? Think…

Almost all the large companies have their own version of a Pre-Employment Test.  Some of us call them a Personality Test or a Company "Best Fit" Test.  One thing they all have in common is that most companies do value them and yes, they can prevent you from getting the job if you bomb them!  They can also…