Medical Assistants: New Warning on NSAIDs

So you’ve submitted a well-crafted application for that medical assistant job you applied for after completing nursing assistant certification with the Allen School.   Several days pass and you have heard nothing.  Did your application make it to the intended recipient?  Did it fall off the edge of the earth into a giant cosmic paper shredder?  Did the hiring manager’s dog eat it?  What gives?  And how can you find out the status of your application without looking desperate or like a creepy stalker?  Here are some do’s and don’ts. DO: Connect with the Hiring Manager Besides the application you sent to the email address in the job listing, you should make an effort to run down the email address of the hiring manager serving the department in which you’ve applied.  Google is your friend.  But if the Google search doesn’t yield a name and email, you can try LinkedIn or, perhaps more immediately satisfying, call the switchboard of the organization and simply ask for the hiring manager’s name and email.  Make sure you let both the operator and the hiring manager know that you’ve followed instructions first and sent the application as directed.  Note that you also wanted to reach out directly to introduce yourself and make sure they’ve received your materials. DON’T: Be a Creepy Stalker Checking the status of your application twice daily is a poor idea.  Wait maybe 5 business days after applying before following up with the hiring manager to let them know you’re very interested in the position.  Better you send an email than make a phone call since it will be less intrusive than interrupting the hiring manager’s day by phone. DO: Be Clear and Concise in your Message Say something brief like, “Last week I submitted my candidacy for the _______ position you have available.  Just wanted to make sure you’d gotten my application and that there was nothing else I could provide you to aid your decision.  I believe I am quite well-matched to the job’s requirements and I would greatly value the opportunity to speak with you when you’re ready to begin interviewing.” Don’t: Be a Spam Factory You’ve sent one follow-up message.  Now sit on your hands. No matter how anxious, or how much you really REALLY want this job, sending message after message (especially in the absence of any response) make you seem desperate and annoying.  Not exactly the kind of person anyone would be excited to hire. Do: Leverage the Awesome Power of LinkedIn To find out all the people that work within the organization, simply enter the company name into LinkedIn.  You may be surprised how small the professional community can be.  Find someone you’re connected with, or even a friend of someone you’re connected with on LinkedIn and ask for a direct introduction to the hiring manager.  You can also ask people who work in the company for inside information on the nature of the work and the workplace environment. Don’t: Stop Looking for a Job It may seem like the most perfect position for you. The one you’ve dreamed your whole life of landing.  But, it is imperative to hedge even the safest of bets by continuing to seek opportunities while your applications wend their way through the hiring process.  Despite how well-aligned things sometimes appear, the unexpected is always unexpected.  Keep your self open and in play with as many opportunities as you can. Nursing assistant certification is the first step in landing your dream job in an exciting field.

With the nation’s Independence Day festivities behind us, I thought today would be a great day to examine the ways a nursing assistant certification from Allen School enables a greater level of independence among those who complete their studies and embark on a new career as a certified nursing assistant. Geographical Independence With certified nursing assistants in high demand across the entire country, earning your certification is like printing an all-access travel pass for yourself.  Always wanted to live in the Pacific Northwest?  Perhaps you favor the warmer climates of the South or the painted desertscapes of the Southwest.  With your certification in hand, you can move to pretty much any corner of the country and hook up with gainful employment quickly. Financial Independence A job in the medical industry such as a nursing assistant role boasts far greater earning power than jobs in retail, service industries and many others.  This is why so many people of all ages decide to leave the long hours and low pay behind to pursue a career in health sciences.  Wouldn’t you enjoy the greater financial freedom that comes with a solid career trajectory and a bigger paycheck? Emotional Independence It is human nature to aspire to more.  For many people working in dead end careers, the feeling of being trapped in their own life can be a debilitating and self-esteem destroying experience.  Sometimes, it can be hard to see the forest for the trees when mired in this kind of self-doubt.  And with bills to pay and other obligations, turning the page and engaging in a new course of study for a new career can seem overwhelming.  Yet, if you ask any graduate of the Allen School who took the brave steps to become nursing assistants, they will all confirm that it is totally worth the effort and the risk involved. So this Independence Day, take stock in yourself and make the decision to liberate yourself from the confines of your current life.  A new, liberated life awaits!

Maybe you’re about to turn 50 and have been downsized from your lifelong career in a disappearing industry.  Or maybe you’re just out of high school, like the subject of this incredible article about a 17 year old who invented a radical and brilliant new medical product.

Consider young Joe Landolina, the 22 year-old who invented “VetiGel” when he was just 17.  Vetigel, a gel applied directly to wounds, stops bleeding within seconds and heals wounds altogether in just minutes!  Landolina invented the algae-based polymer in his gradfather’s lab and has parlayed his breakthrough into Suneris, a biotech company that manufactures the gel. Last week, Suneris announced that it will begin shipping VetiGel to veterinarians later this summer and the article suggests humans won’t be far behind. 

The implications for you Joe should be eye opening for you.  Regardless of your age or the preconceptions about where you should be along your career trajectory at any age stories like this serve to illustrate that the only prerequisite for success in life is the drive to succeed and a healthy dose of sustained effort.  You could become a medical assistant at age 21 as easily as you could at age 55.  You could earn your certification as a nursing assistant beginning fresh out of high school or after having racked up decades of workplace experience before deciding (for whatever reason) to embark along a new career path.  

Shortcuts in life rarely if ever pay off for those who try to use them.  Circumventing the trials and tribulations involved in achieving anything worthwhile is a dangerous game that can lead to lots of unintended consequences.  Take for example the case of a company called Career Excuse.  The company provides its customers with glowing professional references from entirely bogus jobs at entirely fabricated companies.  So rather than actually getting a job, gaining valuable work experience and using that to propel one’s career forward, Career Excuse customers simply fork over $200, put bogus job histories on their resumes and then Career Excuse provides glowing recommendations for their customers when hiring managers call to check the reference. Studying to become a certified nurse assistant requires long hours of study and hard work to master the course requirements.  After graduation, certified nurse assistants must earn jobs in their field and capture experience the good old fashioned way: by slogging through the sometimes difficult experiences which build upon their credentials.  If they work hard, they can certainly parlay a first job into a better paying second job.  They can move up within an organization and achieve in correlation to their merits. What do you think of a company that helps lazy folks fake their way into jobs?  Read this article to learn more about this eyebrow raising company.  Can you imagine what kind of danger a poseur in the medical field would represent to their patients?  The consequences could be catastrophic.  You’re much better off getting a solid nursing assistant certification with the Allen School and then wading into the career world, rising or falling on your own merits.

One of the best things about studying to earn nurse assistant certification is the job opportunities that open up once you’ve earned your diploma.  You’ll find there are plenty of job availabilities and you’ll hone your skills at resumes, interviews and the like.  You may even find yourself in the enviable position of having one job offer come in while you’re waiting to hear back from another opportunity where you’ve already interviewed. So what do you do if you prefer job ‘B’ but the hiring manager from job ‘A’ calls first to offer you the position?  Believe it or not, this happens more frequently than you’d expect – especially for certified nurse assistants who remain in high demand. Jacqueline Smith at the Business Insider has a good set of rules for handling this scenario with tact and aplomb.  Her article is titled, “How to Politely Postpone Accepting a Job Offer” and it provides numerous nuggets of great information.  You can read the article here for the details but some of the key takeaways are:

• Show excitement and gratitude
• Make sure you’re fully aware of all the details (like hours, salary, benefits, vacation, etc.) and ask for more information about the job as a way to stall for time
• Offer a definite time in which to provide your response: “Can I get back to you in two days?”
• Mention that you’re also considering another offer
• Make sure to accept or decline the job in writing

There’s a lot more good tidbits of information on this subject in the Business Insider piece.  Don’t make the mistake of burning bridges in the medical community when there are solid, tactful ways to protect your best interests.