Stop Thinking, Start Interviewing!

No, don't mindlessly apply to a job, any job in the hopes of getting an interview.  And don't slack off when it comes time to take that all important phone call--prepare, prepare, prepare (see yesterday's post, for example).  COMPANIES ARE HIRING.  If you have Healthcare IT sales experience and have even remotely considered the possibility of exploring new opportunities in the last six months, CALL US NOW at 434-817-5300.
You can reach out to Lindsey (ext 216) or Kate (ext 220)!!!

6 Ways to Ace the Phone Interview

Play the part

When you pick up the phone, pretend you’re in a face-to-face interview. Even though you could be in your pajamas lounging on the couch, wear business attire and practice good posture. You can even sit in front of a mirror and watch yourself. Your professionalism will transmit through the phone.

 

Act naturally

Some people come across as unenthusiastic over the phone because they can’t use body language to show who they are. Just because you’re on the phone doesn’t mean you need to be still and quiet. If you’re an animated talker in person, use your hands while speaking. Stand up if you feel more comfortable, and don’t forget to smile.

Stay out of Starbucks

Make sure you’re in a quiet spot to conduct the interview. If you’re on your cell, be sure to have good reception. If you’re on a landline, don’t do the dishes or check e-mail. Focus on the call and questions.

Get off the computer

Have a hard copy of your resume in front of you. You may also want written copies of your questions and the research you did on the company. Paper documents may be “old school,” but clicking your keyboard during the interview will send a “not interested” signal. You may be checking the company’s service offerings, but your interviewer could think you’re updating your Facebook status.

Listen up

Since you won’t have the advantage of reading the interviewer’s body language, your listening becomes paramount. Focus on the questions and make sure you understand them before you answer. You may also want to wait a beat after the interviewer speaks so you don’t interrupt.

Practice

Anticipate the questions you’ll be asked and rehearse your answers. If you’re usually chatty, practice curbing your responses. Typical phone interviews last 20 to 30 minutes. Use the time to impress the hiring manager with your skills, not talk about the weather.

View the original here.

This Week in Healthcare IT News

M&A, Financial Reports and Funding

7 Medical Systems -- a provider of on-demand digital imaging, electronic health record and revenue cycle management systems -- has completed its acquisition of Manager Consultoria em Informatica LTDA EPP, a Brazilian health informatics company, for an undisclosed sum...VeriTeq Acquisition -- which markets implantable RFID systems for patient identification and sensor applications -- has acquired an implantable microchip, related technology and a personal health record system from PositiveID for an undisclosed sum...InVentiv Health, a consulting firm, will acquire the promotional and medical audit businesses of SDI Health, a health care analytics company, for an undisclosed sum.

Change Healthcare, a vendor of health care cost analysis tools, has raised $9.3 million in Series C funding with contributions from several investors...Sharecare, an interactive health and wellness social platform, has raised $14 million in growth equity financing with contributions led by Galen Partners and TomorrowVentures.

Contracts

IASIS Healthcare, a Tennessee-based operator of acute care hospitals, will deploy NextGen Healthcare Information Systems' practice management and revenue cycle management systems...the Department of Defense's Defense Health Services Systems Program Executive Office has awarded a five-year, $96 million contract to Planned Systems International to provide code maintenance for its Military Health System applications; DOD's Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support has awarded a one-year, $43.2 million extension contract to GE Healthcare to provide patient monitoring systems to various military and federal civilian agencies.

Iowa e-Health -- a consortium of health care payers, providers and consumers -- has awarded a five-year, $12 million contract to Xerox ACS to implement and manage the state's health information exchange...Ellenville Regional Hospital in New York state will implement Healthcare Management Systems' clinical and financial applications...Ono Pharmaceutical in Japan has selected Medidata Solutions' electronic data capture and clinical data management applications...Westchester Medical Center in New York state will roll out QuadraMed's identity management application.

Nationwide Children's Hospital in Ohio has extended for five years its licensing agreement with Streamline Health Solutions and will implement additional document management and workflow systems...QuadMed, a health care management services provider, will deploy telehealth technology from MDLiveCare to expand consumer access to QuadMed's clinic health care services.

Product Development and Marketing

HITECH Answers, a provider of online educational tools for EHR adoption, and UBM Medica, a health care communications provider, have partnered to market and distribute their products to health care professionals and consumers...CSC, a provider of technology-enabled business tools, and Softheon, a provider of health care business process optimization services, have formed a software distribution alliance to provide efficiency optimization and enhanced productivity services.

OnX, a provider of data center IT systems, and MEDSEEK, a health IT services provider, have formed a strategic partnership to help health care organizations optimize their IT investments...health IT company Mediture and medication therapy management and pharmacy services company CareKinesis have partnered to develop their EHR and pharmacy applications to improve medication management for seniors...BridgeFront, a provider of online education services, is partnering with health care consulting company Coding Institute to offer online ICD-10 training.

Personnel

Thomas Niehaus -- executive vice president for client services at Encore Health Resources, a health IT consulting firm -- has been named president and COO of the company; Dana Sellers -- Encore's former president -- will continue as the company's CEO...Doug Schneider -- former executive vice president of innovation for health care at Thomson Reuters -- has been named CEO of Connecture, a provider of online health insurance distribution and administration services.

Matthew Sappern -- former senior vice president of client sales at EHR provider Allscripts -- has been named CEO of PeriGen, an obstetrics IT company...Dennis Morrison -- former CEO of the Centerstone Research Institute -- has been named chief clinical officer at Netsmart Technologies, a vendor of mental and behavioral health care software and services.

http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2012/1/20/health-it-business-news-roundup-for-the-week-of-january-20-2012.aspx

4 Things Every Job Seeker Should Know About Facebook's Timeline Feature...

By Tony Morrison

Facebook’s hyped up new Timeline profile is here. Right now, users can adopt this new format on a trial-basis, but rest assured that this will become the standard sooner rather than later.

For a lot of job seekers, the idea of change is a little scary. After all, we all just jumped on the Facebook job search bandwagon. Now we have to adapt to a new look and learn how to use new features that could help emphasize our assets to prospective employers.

I’m here to tell you that it’s not that scary. In fact, the Timeline’s new features are great for the job seeker to share the right content with the right people, like potential employers, mentors, and colleagues.

Check out the four things every job seeker should know about the Facebook Timeline:

A picture is worth a thousand words

One of the biggest changes you’ll see in the Facebook timeline is the cover image. This large picture will be the first thing anyone sees when visiting your profile. You still have your profile picture, so your cover image can be anything from a vacation photo to a famous painting.

​As a job seeker, you want your cover image to work double-time by working for your social life and your professional brand. Make it meaningful and professional. Steer clear of anything controversial or offensive. Be creative and choose a favorite picture or statement that fully embodies who you are.​

Highlight your features

If you’ve been on Facebook for a while, you know that not all content is created equal. Certain statuses, notes, videos, and pictures are simply more important than others you share on a daily basis.

With the Timeline, you can highlight the most important content by clicking the “feature” button on the upper right hand corner of a post. Once your Timeline is up, Facebook will guess and suggest what is most important to you. I suggest you pay very close attention to what is featured and do not leave creating your personal brand entirely up ​​to Facebook.

As a job seeker, try to highlight stories that a potential employer would like to see, but aren’t so “business-y” that it bugs your friends. Highlight trips, career accomplishments, and life events that say you are a well-rounded person.

Your past is back

It was always there, but now, your Facebook past is a lot more accessible. Thanks to the Timeline, anyone can access your content since the beginning of Facebook. Don’t worry, your privacy settings are still intact, but it’s still smart to peruse what you shared way back when.

This is a great opportunity to review who gets to see what. Chances are, your initial Facebook-ing was more social than anything else, so definitely pay attention to which audiences are privy to what information.

App it up

For those of us with smart phones or who have an affinity (or addiction) for social applications, the Timeline will make it so incredibly easy to broadcast what you’ve been doing. Now you can share the movies you’ve watched on Netflix, the songs you love on Spotify, and whatever fitness accomplishments you’ve reached on Nike.

As a job seeker, try to feature your efforts on business-related applications. You can share blog posts from WordPress, collaborate with colleagues on Huddle, and invite others to join a conversation on Cachinko. When employers see that you’re taking full advantage of what Facebook has to offer, they’ll be able to infer that you’ll do the same for their company.

Read more: https://www.publish2.com/organizations/4413/newswires/571/stories/5112941#ixzz1jr8UVWUJ

Things I Look for In a Great Job Interview

by Matthew Swyers


1.  Attention to detail

How many times have you heard this one, right? Pay attention to detail. Let me say it again, PAY ATTENTION TO DETAIL!

There’s a great story at the end of the movie Coming to America with Eddie Murphy. It goes something like this:

A man goes into a restaurant. He's having a bowl of soup and he says to the waiter, “Waiter come taste the soup.” The waiter says, “Is something wrong with the soup?” He says “Taste the soup.” The waiter says again, “Is there something wrong with the soup? Is the soup too hot?” The man says again, “Will you taste the soup?“ “What's wrong, is the soup too cold?" Replies the waiter.  “Will you just taste the soup?!”  “All right, I'll taste the soup,” says the waiter, “where's the spoon??” “Aha. Aha! ...”

At this point you may be asking yourself, “Okay, so what does this have to do with identifying a great candidate?” 

Not less than two months ago I received a wonderful e-mail from an applicant seeking to work for The Trademark Company. Their e-mail was personally crafted. Their note struck a wonderful tone emphasizing capability and a willingness to learn more about what we do here. Most importantly, they emphasized their attention to detail. I was sold. I was ready to open up their resume and see what they had to offer. And then, “Aha. Aha! ...”

The applicant had failed to attach their resume. In the blink of an eye all of the time they had spent preparing for this submission, researching me, the company, and the job’s requirements, vanished into thin air. Poof! 

Some CEOs may have overlooked this and just asked for the resume. But you can’t say you have an eye for detail and then fail to deliver on the point. Everything the candidate does, from their cover letter to their resume and beyond must prove that point. Otherwise they are just wasting your time. I passed on that candidate. 


Find the other 4, here.

This Week in Healthcare IT

Health IT Business News Roundup for the Week of January 13, 2012

M&A, Financial Reports and Funding

QuadraMed, a provider of health IT software and services, will acquire NCR Corporation, a provider of patient access and payment management software, for an undisclosed sum...Mediware Information Systems, a medical information systems provider, has acquired Transtem, a medical software developer, for an undisclosed sum...ManTech, a provider of support services to federal government agencies, has acquired health care systems integrator Evolvent Technologies for an undisclosed sum.

T-System, a vendor of emergency department information systems, has acquired billing services provider Practice Management Associates for an undisclosed sum...the TriZetto Group, a vendor of health payer software, has acquired Kocsis Consulting Group, a provider of payer training software, for an undisclosed sum...private equity firm Frontier Capital has acquired Healthx, a provider of health IT applications for insurers and physicians, for an undisclosed sum.

Practice Fusion, a provider of EHR systems, has raised $38 million in funding from multiple investors.

Contracts

The Health Resources and Services Administration has awarded a $78.5 million contract to IT services provider SRA International to support the National Practitioner Data Bank and the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank; HRSA also awarded Science Applications International Corporation a contract worth more than $26 million to develop and service data systems for the agency's Bureau Reporting Systems...Avera Health -- a partnership of health care facilities in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota -- is implementing MediClick's analytics applications.

Southern Tier HealthLink, a not-for-profit regional health information exchange organization, has selected health data exchange technology from Lawson Software...Nemours, a pediatric health care system in California, has deployed Saba's cloud-based applications for EHR training and compliance...BryanLGH Medical Center in Nebraska has implemented Thomson Reuters' clinical surveillance and intervention application...the Arizona Regional Extension Center has selected Navicure as one of its preferred EHR vendors.

Maricom Systems, a data management software and engineering services provider, has won a $105 million data services contract from CMS...Adventist Health in California will implement Cerner's EHR system at more than 130 outpatient clinics in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington state...the Idaho Health Data Exchange has selected Greenway Medical as the state's health information exchange administrator.

Product Development and Marketing

HealthEdge, a provider of health care software for payers, has partnered with Keane, an IT services firm, to develop performance-based software for payers...HealthLink Dimensions, a provider of physician marketing services, will add hospital-affiliated physician data to the hospital sales and marketing database from Billians HealthData...Medco Health Solutions and Castlight Health will integrate their comparison pricing tools and clinical messaging services to provide patients with a view of the cost and quality of health care and prescription drug services...Physicians Interactive, a provider of mobile and Internet-based clinical tools, and WorldOne, an online health care data collection firm, have partnered to facilitate market research opportunities between health care and life sciences professionals...Hello Health, a provider of patient management tools, will partner with wireless health network services provider Qualcomm Life to allow patients to transfer data from wireless sensors to a patient management platform.

Personnel

Missy Krasner -- founder of Google Health and a former senior communications director at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT -- has been named executive in residence at Morgenthaler Ventures, a venture capital firm...Barry Canipe -- former senior vice president and CFO for kitchen and bath products supplier American Standard Brands -- has been named CFO of Carestream Health, a provider of medical and dental imaging and health IT services; Jianqing Bennett -- general manager of computed radiography and X-ray systems at Carestream -- has been promoted to vice president of global medical sales and services.

Charles Birmingham -- vice president of corporate development of medical group CareMore Medical Enterprises -- has been elected to the board of directors of ApeniMED, a provider of clinical networking interoperability systems...Scott Johnson -- former vice president of sales at CarePayment, a provider of payment services for patients -- has been named vice president of sales at Skylight Healthcare Systems, a provider of patient communication tools.

Read more: http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2012/1/13/health-it-business-news-roundup-for-the-week-of-january-13-2012.aspx#ixzz1jNZ30anv

"Why Did You Leave Your Last Job?"

“Why did you leave your last job?” The question can strike fear in even the most confident candidate. Whether your answer is simple or complex, being asked to talk about it puts you on the spot, and it can be tricky to balance the truth while still painting yourself in the best possible light to your hopefully-soon-to-be employer.

But, it doesn’t have to be as painful as you might think.

Aside from wanting to know that you’re not a flake, your interviewer is asking this question to find out why you’re interested in the opening. So, there’s an art to formulating your response that’ll enable you sail through smoothly and come out ahead (even if the circumstances were a bit dicey!). Here’s how to craft an expert answer.

Be Honest

This should go without saying, but you absolutely have to be up front about your reason for leaving, particularly if you were terminated—a prospective employer can (and in many cases, will) call your references or your last supervisor. And if you’ve been let go, don’t panic: It doesn’t mean you’re out of the running. Your best bet is to chalk it up to a learning experience and showcase what you’ve gained from it. People are often able to overlook mistakes if you admit to them and prove that you’ve grown in the process.

Stay Positive

Even if you suffered under the wrath of a Devil Wears Prada-type of supervisor, do not rant about a previous boss or company during an interview. And if you think were laid off unfairly, you still don’t want to paint yourself as a victim. According to corporate recruiter Deborah Osbourn, it’s fine to say the job wasn’t a good fit, but be prepared to give some concrete reasons to back up that statement—for example, you want to work in a more team-oriented environment, or the position didn’t make the best use of your skill set.

Keep it Short

Once you’ve answered the question, there’s no need to keep elaborating. The longer you continue talking, the more likely you are to start opening up about things that aren’t necessary. Yes, your back-stabbing co-workers, the CEO’s anger management problem, and the company’s “creative” reporting practices are all good reasons to leave, but they’re not appropriate to share during an interview.

And if you’re leaving on good terms and are simply looking for a new challenge, that’s all you need to say on the matter. If the interviewer wants more information, she’ll ask you to expand.

Focus on the New Job

The best way to conclude your response is to spin it back to what’s most important—why you are interested in the job you’re interviewing for. “The person interviewing you wants to know that you want that job and will be interested in it for a while,” says Osbourn. “You would be surprised how many people are unable to clearly express their interest in the job.”

Highlight job duties for the new position that spark your interest (“in my last role, I didn’t have much opportunity to collaborate with other departments, so I’m excited about working on cross-functional teams here”). And definitely beware of citing any dislikes from previous jobs that are clearly defined in the job description for this role. Hated cold calling prospects? Be sure that’s not listed as a requirement before spouting off!

Remember, every question you’re asked is a chance to showcase your qualities, personality, and interest in the position. You’ve already passed the initial screen, and the interview is your time to shine. So when asked about your previous job, just keep your answer short, honest, and positive, and you’ll be on to the next question in no time (and hopefully, the job!).

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dailymuse/2012/01/09/the-secret-to-answering-why-did-you-leave-your-last-job/

10 Simple and Powerful Body Language Tips

The effective use of body language plays a key role in effective leadership communication. From “The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help – or Hurt – How You Lead,” here are ten tips I’ve learned during the past two decades of coaching leaders and their teams around the world:

1) To boost your confidence, assume a power pose

Research at Harvard and Columbia Business Schools shows that simply holding your body in expansive, “high-power” poses (leaning back with hands behind the head and feet up on a desk, or standing with legs and arms stretched wide open) for as little as two minutes stimulates higher levels of testosterone — the hormone linked to power and dominance — and lower levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.

Try this when you’re feeling tentative but want to appear confident. In addition to causing hormonal shifts in both males and females, these poses lead to increased feelings of power and a higher tolerance for risk. The study also found that people are more often influenced by how they feel about you than by what you’re saying.

2) To increase participation, look like you’re listening

If you want people to speak up, don’t multi-task while they do. Avoid the temptation to check your text messages, check your watch, or check out how the other participants are reacting. Instead, focus on those who are speaking by turning your head and torso to face them directly and by making eye contact. Leaning forward, nodding and tilting your head are other nonverbal way to show you’re engaged and paying attention. It’s important to hear people. It’s just as important to make sure they know you are listening.

3) To encourage collaboration, remove barriers

Physical obstructions are especially detrimental to collaborative efforts. Take away anything that blocks your view or forms a barrier between you and the rest of the team. Even at a coffee break, be aware that you may create a barrier by holding your cup and saucer in a way that seems deliberately to block your body or distance you from others. A senior executive told me he could evaluate his team’s comfort by how high they held their coffee cups. It was his observation that the more insecure individuals felt, the higher they held their coffee. People with their hands held at waist level were more comfortable than those with hands chest high.

4) To connect instantly with someone, shake hands

Touch is the most primitive and powerful nonverbal cue. Touching someone on the arm, hand, or shoulder for as little as 1/40 of a second creates a human bond. In the workplace, physical touch and warmth are established through the handshaking tradition, and this tactile contact makes a lasting and positive impression. A study on handshakes by the Income Center for Trade Shows showed that people are two times more likely to remember you if you shake hands with them. The trade-show researchers also found that people react to those with whom they shake hands by being more open and friendly.

5) To stimulate good feelings, smile

A genuine smile not only stimulates your own sense of well-being, it also tells those around you that you are approachable, cooperative, and trustworthy. A genuine smile comes on slowly, crinkles the eyes, lights up the face, and fades away slowly. Most importantly, smiling directly influences how other people respond to you. When you smile at someone, they almost always smile in return. And, because facial expressions trigger corresponding feelings, the smile you get back actually changes that person’s emotional state in a positive way.

Click here for the rest of the article by Carol Kinsey Goman.