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Would u leave a copy of your brag book....

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Excellent idea on the PDF. I'd never thought of it. I've never gotten a brag book back yet even when I've given it to someone within my company. That's why I keep 3 extras at all times.
 




I'm curious about the ethics. Aren't the rankings proprietary information? I can understand leaving copies of awards, rec letters, etc., but what do you do about number info from former companies?
 




Anonymous said:
I'm curious about the ethics. Aren't the rankings proprietary information? I can understand leaving copies of awards, rec letters, etc., but what do you do about number info from former companies?
Click to expand...

I would think that a listing something like "Joe Jones -- ranked #4 in nation, #1 in region or a ranking by product categories would be okay; or something like "met goals 18 of last 19 periods" would not violate proprietary information.

Once you start providing numbers, such as sales dollars, market share or lists which include other names other than your own, you probably are in trouble.

I like the idea of only providing this via email/PDF.
 




Anonymous said:
I'm curious about the ethics. Aren't the rankings proprietary information? I can understand leaving copies of awards, rec letters, etc., but what do you do about number info from former companies?
Click to expand...

I don't leave copies of company reports/rankings etc. in a brag book, just like you said proprietary.
 




Sorry in advance for the long post. Hi 10 year DM here and find this topic very interesting and I’m somewhat shocked that ‘brag books’ are still being used.? The brag book thing is very 1990’s and if you are interviewing with a company or manager who expects them I would suggest you proceed with caution. In this day and age you can manipulate any document to say whatever you want it to say, which most hiring managers know, and it would be far too time consuming for a manger or HR staffer to disprove any suspicious claims in a brag book, so many if not most, companies will not take nor look at a brag books anymore. The last three companies I worked at all had policies in place forbidding asking for or utilizing brag books in the hiring process. Second as a PP stated any document from your company is the confidential property of said company meaning you have no right to reproduce and disseminate anything provided to you from your company, unless otherwise stated, except for letters addressed specifically to you. You ‘own’ your W2 and paystubs and it is pretty easy to gauge one’s success from seeing what the bonus payouts and base salary are, and what your raises were from year to year. Performance review are OK, and it is a bit of a grey area as to who “owns” them, but obviously they too can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say. Generally I will look at original bonus paystubs and an original yearend paystub if I have any questions about claimed success etc. With that being said I usually never ask for them as a good interviewer can generally tell if someone is over exaggerating.

Also run away from the DM’s and companies that want you to produce a 30-60-90 plan for the job you are interviewing for. First you are giving them free consultancy work for a territory, which none of us should be in the business of giving things away. Think that they don’t read them? Think again. What company wouldn’t want to read a 30-60-90 day plan from 15+ experienced, successful and tenured reps? It’s free labor for them and even if they glean only one new insight from each plan they read that could be 15 or more free ideas they got. Second, there is no way you can wright an insightful 30-60-90 plan without having in-depth knowledge of all the variables that will be present in this new job. Like I said before you may have one or two spot-on ideas in a plan but to put together a deliverable document for a job that you do not currently work in is ludicrous. What I ask for from reps I am interviewing and what you should counter with if you are asked for 30-60-90 plan, is instead of giving the hiring manager a 30-60-90 day plan for a job that you do not yet know the details, nuances, and company resources at your disposable, give them your business plan for your current job so long as you do not divulge any proprietary things from your current job. Keep it 30K foot and do not get to detailed. All we are looking for is, can this prospective employee think strategically and tactically, and can they articulate their vision for the job/territory verbally and on paper.

At the end of the day most of the ‘tangible’ things you bring to the interview, like brag books, rankings, president club photos(yes people have done that more than once) really have little effect on whether you get hired or not. Most of the time it is fit and feel, as anybody who gets an interview already has the resume, the education, the experience, etc. or they wouldn’t make it to the face to face.

The best advice I can give is be open and honest, knowledgeable, and personable. Those things will always trump a brag book, rankings, and president club wins…
 




Anonymous said:
Sorry in advance for the long post. Hi 10 year DM here and find this topic very interesting and I’m somewhat shocked that ‘brag books’ are still being used.? The brag book thing is very 1990’s and if you are interviewing with a company or manager who expects them I would suggest you proceed with caution. In this day and age you can manipulate any document to say whatever you want it to say, which most hiring managers know, and it would be far too time consuming for a manger or HR staffer to disprove any suspicious claims in a brag book, so many if not most, companies will not take nor look at a brag books anymore. The last three companies I worked at all had policies in place forbidding asking for or utilizing brag books in the hiring process. Second as a PP stated any document from your company is the confidential property of said company meaning you have no right to reproduce and disseminate anything provided to you from your company, unless otherwise stated, except for letters addressed specifically to you. You ‘own’ your W2 and paystubs and it is pretty easy to gauge one’s success from seeing what the bonus payouts and base salary are, and what your raises were from year to year. Performance review are OK, and it is a bit of a grey area as to who “owns” them, but obviously they too can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say. Generally I will look at original bonus paystubs and an original yearend paystub if I have any questions about claimed success etc. With that being said I usually never ask for them as a good interviewer can generally tell if someone is over exaggerating.

Also run away from the DM’s and companies that want you to produce a 30-60-90 plan for the job you are interviewing for. First you are giving them free consultancy work for a territory, which none of us should be in the business of giving things away. Think that they don’t read them? Think again. What company wouldn’t want to read a 30-60-90 day plan from 15+ experienced, successful and tenured reps? It’s free labor for them and even if they glean only one new insight from each plan they read that could be 15 or more free ideas they got. Second, there is no way you can wright an insightful 30-60-90 plan without having in-depth knowledge of all the variables that will be present in this new job. Like I said before you may have one or two spot-on ideas in a plan but to put together a deliverable document for a job that you do not currently work in is ludicrous. What I ask for from reps I am interviewing and what you should counter with if you are asked for 30-60-90 plan, is instead of giving the hiring manager a 30-60-90 day plan for a job that you do not yet know the details, nuances, and company resources at your disposable, give them your business plan for your current job so long as you do not divulge any proprietary things from your current job. Keep it 30K foot and do not get to detailed. All we are looking for is, can this prospective employee think strategically and tactically, and can they articulate their vision for the job/territory verbally and on paper.

At the end of the day most of the ‘tangible’ things you bring to the interview, like brag books, rankings, president club photos(yes people have done that more than once) really have little effect on whether you get hired or not. Most of the time it is fit and feel, as anybody who gets an interview already has the resume, the education, the experience, etc. or they wouldn’t make it to the face to face.

The best advice I can give is be open and honest, knowledgeable, and personable. Those things will always trump a brag book, rankings, and president club wins…
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting this.
It is good to see that there are some managers out there with common sense.

Your best point is the idea of not giving away anything for free. That applies to recruiters as well, that want to gather resumes or interviews for companies where you are not even given a chance for the job.

Networking is where it is at in this job market, and once you get enough experience, you really should be confident in your work history and abilities and pick and choose.

I would also add to NEVER bring a brag book or anything like that.

Just bring the resume and see if the job is a good fit for YOU. The worst position to be in is when you take a job that is not a good fit, just for the sake of taking a job, only to find out six months later that the boss is a loser and the company is terrible.
 




Anonymous said:
Sorry in advance for the long post. Hi 10 year DM here and find this topic very interesting and I’m somewhat shocked that ‘brag books’ are still being used.? The brag book thing is very 1990’s and if you are interviewing with a company or manager who expects them I would suggest you proceed with caution. In this day and age you can manipulate any document to say whatever you want it to say, which most hiring managers know, and it would be far too time consuming for a manger or HR staffer to disprove any suspicious claims in a brag book, so many if not most, companies will not take nor look at a brag books anymore. The last three companies I worked at all had policies in place forbidding asking for or utilizing brag books in the hiring process. Second as a PP stated any document from your company is the confidential property of said company meaning you have no right to reproduce and disseminate anything provided to you from your company, unless otherwise stated, except for letters addressed specifically to you. You ‘own’ your W2 and paystubs and it is pretty easy to gauge one’s success from seeing what the bonus payouts and base salary are, and what your raises were from year to year. Performance review are OK, and it is a bit of a grey area as to who “owns” them, but obviously they too can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say. Generally I will look at original bonus paystubs and an original yearend paystub if I have any questions about claimed success etc. With that being said I usually never ask for them as a good interviewer can generally tell if someone is over exaggerating.

Also run away from the DM’s and companies that want you to produce a 30-60-90 plan for the job you are interviewing for. First you are giving them free consultancy work for a territory, which none of us should be in the business of giving things away. Think that they don’t read them? Think again. What company wouldn’t want to read a 30-60-90 day plan from 15+ experienced, successful and tenured reps? It’s free labor for them and even if they glean only one new insight from each plan they read that could be 15 or more free ideas they got. Second, there is no way you can wright an insightful 30-60-90 plan without having in-depth knowledge of all the variables that will be present in this new job. Like I said before you may have one or two spot-on ideas in a plan but to put together a deliverable document for a job that you do not currently work in is ludicrous. What I ask for from reps I am interviewing and what you should counter with if you are asked for 30-60-90 plan, is instead of giving the hiring manager a 30-60-90 day plan for a job that you do not yet know the details, nuances, and company resources at your disposable, give them your business plan for your current job so long as you do not divulge any proprietary things from your current job. Keep it 30K foot and do not get to detailed. All we are looking for is, can this prospective employee think strategically and tactically, and can they articulate their vision for the job/territory verbally and on paper.

At the end of the day most of the ‘tangible’ things you bring to the interview, like brag books, rankings, president club photos(yes people have done that more than once) really have little effect on whether you get hired or not. Most of the time it is fit and feel, as anybody who gets an interview already has the resume, the education, the experience, etc. or they wouldn’t make it to the face to face.

The best advice I can give is be open and honest, knowledgeable, and personable. Those things will always trump a brag book, rankings, and president club wins…
Click to expand...

As a fellow DSM I could not agree more with this post!

By the time you get to showing me a 'brag book' or your 'plan,' I have already made up my mind if you are right fr the job! I am looking to see if you can sell me on why you are right for the position - basically if you cannot achieve this then I will not believe that you can sell in the field either. If your numbers in your brag book are great but I do not see that reflected in your interviewing skills - you will not be offered the job. I don't care if the numbers are real or not. We all know that reps can have challenging situations to deal with and conversely there are circumstances when a rep just has to show up to make sales. I want a can do attitude.

I know that many sales managers and directors are stuck back in the 90's and require brag books etc. In fact I conducted an interview with a very strong candidate and the sales director (who was mainly observing) asked for sales data. The candidate politely declined citing that they could not provide company proprietary information. The director did not want me to offer this candidate the job based on this alone! What a dinosaur. I instead saw someone who was not easily intimitated and who was able to demonstrate ethics. Anyway, I won the debate and offered them the job. They turned out to be one of the best hires I've ever made. I rest my case.

Ditch the brag book and the generic 'plan.'
 




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