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Title: Owner and Director of Executive Search and RecruitingCompany: Global Edge Recruiting Associates LLC Education: Nursing diploma, Cox College; Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Southwest Baptist University-St. John’s College of Nursing; Master of Human Resources Development, Webster University; and certified Senior Professional in Human ResourcesCareer switch: Wilkerson launched Rogersville-based Global Edge in 1997 after 11 years in nursing.Contact: denise@globaledgerecruiting.com
Title: Owner and Director of Executive Search and Recruiting
Company: Global Edge Recruiting Associates LLC
Education: Nursing diploma, Cox College; Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Southwest Baptist University-St. John’s College of Nursing; Master of Human Resources Development, Webster University; and certified Senior Professional in Human Resources
Career switch: Wilkerson launched Rogersville-based Global Edge in 1997 after 11 years in nursing.
Contact: denise@globaledgerecruiting.com

A Conversation With ... Denise Wilkerson

Posted online
You launched Global Edge 15 years ago. What does the company do?
We are an executive search firm that specializes in sales and marketing positions for major medical companies. We are a very small business. It’s me and my husband, Randy, and we have some part-time people who work with us on occasion when we have an excessive load of searches. The companies are our clients (and) we’re a detective agency for the clients to find candidates with certain skill sets for them. We customize our fees based on what our clients’ needs are, the search and how many jobs they’re giving us.

What is a key challenge in recruiting right now?
The people who have jobs and we try to recruit may be … afraid to move. (As recruiters), we’re looking for those certain skill sets, and there may be only 10 people in the country who have those skill sets. Maybe they’re happy where they’re at, or they’re scared to move to another job. That would be our challenge … to entice them to come to a different company.

How can job seekers effectively market themselves?
The résumé is the first thing that someone sees. … Within a couple of seconds, they’re going to make a judgment call on whether they want to see that person.
They’re looking for winning attributes. Has the person gone above their job?

In sales, it’s did they meet their quotas or go above their quotas? Were they able to go on reward trips? How successful were they in their jobs? A lot of times, I counsel people (who) make their résumés look like a job description. … What an employer wants to see is, if you’re responsible for (something), did you save the company any money? What did you do that helped the bottom line?

A résumé needs to be very results-oriented. I always tell people to list the company they worked for, the dates, a little description of what they did there, and below that, (bullets with) their key achievements at every single job that they held.

What simple mistakes can cost someone a job opportunity?
Not sending a thank you note. … It can be an e-mail, but what it needs to be is a follow-up.

If you’re out of sight, you’re out of mind. That doesn’t mean you need to send 10, but you do need to send, within 24 hours, something that says, “Thank you for your time. These are the reasons I’m interested in the position, and this is what I can bring to the table if you hire me.” Something professionally written that reiterates what you talked about in the interview. … Poor eye contact, lack of enthusiasm – and enthusiasm is probably the biggest thing that people don’t realize.

They go for a job and maybe they’re not too excited when they walk through the door. … Then toward the middle of the interview, they think, ‘Oh, I do want to work here.’

They’ve lost that opportunity, because the moment they walked in they weren’t enthusiastic. Go to a job interview like you want the job for sure. … The other thing is closing. At the very end of the interview, people forget to shake the hand and ask for the job.

What are some mistakes employers make with applicants?
I think the most important thing on the employer side is at least getting back to the person within seven to 10 business days to say, “We’re still interviewing,” or “We’re not sure you’re the candidate for this position.”

I think candidates want more than anything just to know that if they didn’t get it, they didn’t get it, so they can move on. I think the worst think employers do is just leave people hanging.
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