Peggy Mckee

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Peggy McKee is a recruiter, career coach, and the founder/CEO of Career Confidential, a website dedicated to equipping job seekers with the knowledge, tools, and techniques to get the job they want fast.
Career Confidential features blog articles with job search advice, and offers more than 30 products and tools to assist job seekers in selling themselves for the job.

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Peggy McKee is a recruiter, career coach, and founder/ CEO of Career Confidential, a website offering tools and advice for job seekers. Her mission is to help people be strong, confident, and successful in the job search. She is constantly pushing the envelope of new and exciting ways for job seekers to reach their goals. She speaks on job searching, hiring and retaining talent, business development, and leadership.

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Career Confidential is a rapidly growing job search training company based in Texas that specializes in providing job seekers with powerful and customizable tools and techniques to get the jobs they want fast.

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Your career background is in sales. Does that mean your job search advice applies only to sales jobs?

Absolutely not. One of the biggest things I teach is that the job search itself is a sales process, whether you're in sales or you're not. The job search is a transaction where you're the product that you're trying to sell to your customer, who is the hiring manager, or your future boss. You have to find him, get his attention, and show him why he should choose you over all the other products out there. And it turns out that many sales and marketing techniques work very well when applied to the job search. They help job seekers stand out in a positive way and get them into the jobs they want faster.

What is the best way for job applicants to stand out?

Be +1. And I don't mean Google's +1. I mean, go a little farther, be a little stronger, bring a little more to the table than the other job candidates. They're your competition. If you want to win, you've got to be better than they are. Now, lots of job seekers get discouraged when I say that, but it's not that hard: If a good candidate turns in her resume as is, you should spend some time tailoring yours for the opportunity. If a good candidate spends 2 hours preparing for an interview, you should spend 3. If a good candidate sells himself for the job talking about how he meets their qualifications, you should talk about how you meet those AND you offer some other benefit.

Is that why you recommend that job seekers bring a 30-60-90-day plan to their interview?

Absolutely. That's a "+1" thing to do. You're taking a step that's above and beyond what's expected. And a lot of people get freaked out about 30-60-90-day plans because that's another "sales" tool, but it works beautifully in any job interview. It's really a very simple way to show your potential boss that you know how to set goals, that you know enough about this job to set relevant ones, and that you have a plan for success so he doesn't have to worry that it's a risk to hire you. Because he can see that it isn't. He can see how much benefit you're bringing to the company, even if you don't have a lot of experience.

You recommend that job seekers forget about applying online and go straight to hiring managers. What does that mean?

It means that because everybody and their dog have an internet connection and they're all on Monster and Simply Hired and all the other job boards out there and they're seeing the same jobs you are. For you to be able to stand out in a crowd of thousands like that is just about impossible. And on top of that, most jobs are never posted. So the only way to find the unadvertised jobs and get in front of those thousands of people applying online is to find the person who's going to hire someone in that position, that's the hiring manager, and contact him directly. Job seekers get unbelievable results when they take this approach.

Are there any other things that job seekers can do to be more successful?

Well, I teach job seekers to be really aggressive in their search, and I think that's different from what other people teach. But I think that your job is one of the most important things in your life—it provides the money that determines where you live, what you eat, what kind of car you drive, where you go on vacation, everything. So it's worth it to invest in yourself through reading, tools, whatever, to educate yourself and sharpen your skills in order to get the best job you can get. Job seekers ought to be using everything at their disposal—social media, people they know, job shadow opportunities, and so on—to get to their goal. I don't mess around. I'm a big believer in educating and informing yourself, talking to people, jumping on opportunities, and developing the confidence to sell yourself for the job.

Other interviews/quotes from Peggy McKee:
CNN:In the job hunt, the stigma of being laid off is hard to erase
Brand Yourself Blog: Interview With Peggy McKee From Career Confidential: How to be +1 (With Video!)
CAP TODAY: Social media in labs—hook, line, and sinker
Denver Examiner:How to get a better job faster

Your career background is in sales. Does that mean your job search advice applies only to sales jobs?

Absolutely not

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WOW, you did it again! Since signing up for CC job seeking advice, I have been offered THREE positions. Yes, that's right, THREE positions! I followed every word of your advice and it produced the results for me.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. It was the best investment I've ever made in myself! - Connie Buurma

It is that time of year to express gratitude to those who made difference, and I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your videos on using Linked In. This is a challenging economy and your approach works! I followed your process making a few changes to suit my personality and the types of opportunities I was pursuing. The results...

multiple job offers! You guessed right, this drives the price up! 25% increase in base compensation, first year guarantee income of a significant 6 figure amount! The opportunity [to] achieve significant wealth!

Your approach works! This is a good job market if you work it right, and you do. - Kirk Bromberg

I got a job! Thank you all so much for your help. I have used the tools and in less than 2 weeks I went on 3 interviews and received written offers from each position. I took the 3rd position and had my first day today! WOW! Awesome support, tools and coaching from Peggy, Carl and the rest of the Staff.Thank you! - Dustin Long

Everyone of your podcasts is full of extrordinery tools that are putting me a step ahead of the competition. Even though I am a seasoned Executive with quality experiences in the job market i spent months in the dark.I now realize my success in the job search is worthy of partnering with a real pro. Thanks for all I am learning! The interviews have started to roll and aim sure a great offer is right around the corner. - Kevin McGuire

Peggy was the guiding light for me in the darkest of hours. I approached her when I started looking for a change. She had just one session with me which went a long way in helping me land the job I am currently in. Peggy asked me the right questions and redesigned my resume according to the answers I gave.

She showed me the right way to look for a job change, gave me tips for the interview and most of all, she taught me the art of following up after the interview with her 30-60-90 day plan. I recommend Peggy to everybody who is looking for a career change and is sincere enough to walk her talk. - SaumitraRahatekar, Business Development Manager, Medico Labs Inc.

I am happy to report that I have landed a job with the State of Idaho, administrative support in the International Business Division. Thank you for all of your support, encouragement, and for providing the tools necessary to put into the full-time search effort.

I originally found Peggy's videos searching on You Tube. A month or so prior, I had blown a second interview on an inside sales position with Regence BlueShield. Simply the deer in the headlights syndrome for some of my behavioral interview answers.

Being depressed about this for weeks, I mean laying around in my PJ's, dazed and in a real funk. I finally got out of the pity party and found your videos, ultimately leading me to sign up for total access, which has really made a difference, and so worth the investment.

I feel so much more confidence and felt hope, that there would be light at the end of the tunnel. After almost a year of unemployment, the rejection can wear on you. I had 20 interviews over 11 months, but only felt I did a great job on the last 2 of them, thanks to my study of your materials.

Attitude is everything! My resume was okay (it was generating interviews), but I did tweak it with more keywords based on your suggestions. What really helped, was studying my answers to questions and practice. It's really amazing - you know yourself, but putting it into words when you're nervous and so much is on the line, is really difficult. It was nice to hear you say that I wasn't the only one that was having this difficulty.

Thank you again for all you do and sharing your knowledge. I will spread the word and share my good fortune of discovering you. - Karen Parnell

You can really tell when someone cares about the work they do and is willing to put their time and experience to work for you. Peggy provides a consistency in service and advice that is often not found even outside the realm of recruiting.

She will provide you with the confidence and knowledge you need via instructional videos, an in-depth blog, and personalized advice throughout the interviewing process.

I highly recommend her services and am happy to have had the opportunity to work with her. - Chris Dwyer, Pharmaceutical Sales Representative

I used Peggy's 30-60-90 day plan and got the job of my dreams within 6 weeks. Her system works if you just use it and it is easy to implement.

I have recommended her to several friends looking for jobs and I really hope that they believe what she says b/c it works. Highly recommended! - Denny Basham, Global MBA

I'm one of those people who gather information from every corner of the universe and then distill it down for my own consumption. Having gone through that process with my job search strategies, I found that Peggy McKee has the best, most forward-thinking and effective information. She is 'Best Practices' job strategizing. The information she offered helped me to land my dream job after my very first interview. I'm in California where the effective unemployment rate (including those just recently graduated, those returning to the job market after a lengthier time away, and those who simply do not fit the statistical model for how the unemployment rate is calculated) is one in five (20%). I had age issues (I'm 59), I hadn't worked in 1 1/2 years due to health issues, so I was not among the candidates most likely for immediate hire. I started my new job last week and I could not be happier. Thank you, Peggy. – Jennifer Toland

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Peggy is an annual speaker at the University of Oklahoma Price College of Business on topics ranging from personal branding, networking, job search strategy and more.