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The global medical imaging market has been continuously increasing over the years and is expected to rise even further. Ultrasound accounted for the largest segment of the global medical imaging market in 2010 by modality and by application, radiology accounted for the largest share. The US has been the largest regional medical imaging market but tremendous growth opportunities are offered by emerging countries like China and Japan. Contrast agent market in China has also been increasing over the years.

Rapid technological advancement has been continuously taking place in the medical imaging market because of which many advanced imaging equipments have come into existence. Aging population, urbanization, growing chronic diseases and increase in private consumption per head are some of the key factors which are driving the medical imaging market. The main competitors in the medical imaging market are GE, Siemens, Hitachi, Philips and Toshiba.

Let’s begin by looking at what procedures the OEM requires during a PM and at what intervals. “Which OEM?,” you may ask. That is the question as the PM procedures and intervals will vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Each manufacturer has specific tests and procedures they recommend be completed during a PM.

The intervals will also vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, as well as whether the PM is suggested or mandatory. As an example, General Electric states that for their premier platforms, the Logiq and Vivid E9, no PM inspections are mandatory and then defers to the customer’s quality assurance program for PM frequency.

So what is the PM frequency of your in-house program? This is often dictated by accreditation organizations such as the American College of Radiology (A.C.R.), which mandates semi-annual PMs on all ultrasound systems within an accredited department. Since there are many departments within a facility that utilize ultrasound (OB, Labor and Delivery, Urology, Cardiology, Vascular, Radiology, Breast Centers etc.), it is imperative that the systems within accredited departments are inspected twice per year using the A.C.R standards and tests.

We recommend using a standard PM procedure that encompasses all the safety and performance tests of the OEMs as well as A.C.R. when performing PMs to eliminate any margin for error and maintain uniformity. Also recommended is performing two PMs per year on all ultrasound systems to ensure safety, performance, reliability and compliance. These PMs take from one to two hours and will satisfy all accreditation organization’s standards.

Since there is no uniformity in standards from the manufacturers regarding processes and intervals, it is up to you to ensure that your ultrasounds PMs are completed in a timely and thorough manner. You may e-mail mtomory@conquestimaging.com for an electronic copy of a comprehensive, A.C.R. compliant preventative maintenance document that will satisfy the performance and safety standards of the manufacturers and all accreditation organizations.

About the author: Matt Tomory is the ultrasound support engineer at Conquest Imaging, an independent service provider of ultrasound parts, probes, service, training, 24/7 technical support and probe repair. Matt has more than 25 years of experience in diagnostic ultrasound imaging and is considered an industry expert on multivendor ultrasound service, training, and technical support. Matt writes ultrasound service manuals, performs high-level technical support, and teaches advanced level ultrasound service classes on GE, Philips, ATL, HP, Siemens and Acuson systems. He continues to teach throughout the country on “Transitioning Ultrasound Service In-House” and “On the Spot” remote training, as well as presenting ultrasound application classes (cardiology and radiology).

Since we now have all types of live brain scanning devices, we can actually see which areas of the brain are active during the decision-making process. The brain has a specific, separate physical location for cognitive, rational thinking and another for emotion. Although the areas are interconnected, they often act on their own to produce behaviors. Research shows that without the assistance of emotions, we could neither plan nor decide anything. We always react emotionally.

The amygdala is the culprit for emotional reaction that triggers the automatic response. It is the gatekeeper for the cerebral cortex, which is the thinking part of the brain. The amygdala triggers immediate, emotional responses and makes decisions without even consulting the rational part of the brain.

So what does this tell us? Research tells us that using reason and logic to attempt to persuade others is counter to how the brain actual works and thus ineffective. A quote from the Radiological Society of North America: “Could it be that there is no such thing as a rational decision when it comes to anything involving yourself?”

In his book, “The 7 Triggers to Yes: The New Science Behind Influencing People’s Decisions,” Russell Granger states that there are seven triggers that appeal to the amygdala, the center of emotional action.

The Friendship Trigger causes us to be persuaded by those who we trust and like. This is a very powerful trigger because it generates positive feelings such as trust, similar interests, dependability, fairness, compatibility, cooperation, teamwork, collaboration, etc. This is the bonding trigger. We are more likely be persuaded by those we perceive to be like us.

The Authority Trigger makes us perceive others as authorities and thus persuasive. We are very likely to be persuaded by those we believe have authority, power and celebrity. Since we are all sensitive to risk, the authority trigger provides reassurance and a perceived lower risk.

The Consistency Trigger compels us to act consistently within our internal guidance system, which incorporates our beliefs and past performance. The amygdala governs consistency and conformity. That is why we laugh when others laugh and look at the sky when others do. We make new decisions by framing them within recalled old memories and actions that worked well.

The Reciprocity Trigger creates a psychological debt. The law of “giving and receiving” is a very powerful influencer. We create indebtedness whenever we give anything to another.

The Contrast Trigger positions and compares alternatives so that the obvious clear choice is made. So the choices we make are determined by what we are using for comparison. What you see depends on where you choose to sit.

The Reason Why Trigger causes the amygdala to accept a valid reason without sending the information to the cerebral cortex for a rational, analytical evaluation.  The amygdala approves the reason as a shortcut to avoid all that heavy thinking.  This is the reason “limited time offers” work. They provide a simple reason for quick, unthinking action.

The Hope Trigger generates a combination of wishes and positive expectations.  Even though you have a much greater chance of getting killed by lightning than winning the lottery, people buy tickets every day. Calling a product “age defying” or “rejuvenating” sells quite a bit of it. The use of the words “secrets to…”  sell  a lot of magazines and books.

When multiple triggers are combined to influence and persuade, they become irresistible. When GE’s Jack Welch said that all GE units not number one or number two would be fixed, sold or closed it turned GE around. Even though the statement did not contain any data, facts or figures it inspired action. He used the hope and authority triggers to create powerful persuasion.

You probably have heard me say that if perception is reality, presentation determines perception, therefore presentations is 100 percent. This means that how you shape your presentation, a proposal for example, determines how it will be perceived, received and acted on. Look for ways to consciously surround your persuasive attempts with multiple triggers and you will achieve greater success.

I did not realize how wise I am until I found out about the Seven Triggers. I now know how an irrational, illogical, emotional person, as I am, can have influence and persuasion without working very hard. As many will attest, I am inherently very lazy – wise but lazy.

In the past, schools like ours have been funded on contact hours; in other words, the number of hours students spend in the classroom per semester. The more students we have, and the more time they spend in the classroom, the more funding we get. Soon, we will be funded on the number of quality graduates employed after graduation. I’m not familiar with all of the particulars just yet. But from what I understand, employers will rate the quality of the graduates they employ and this will be factored into the funding formula. So just churning out graduates like some diploma mills do will not cut it. The graduates will have to perform and be competent technicians.

This brings up an interesting dilemma. We are a public, state-funded school, which means anyone with a high school diploma or GED can be admitted. Different programs on campus have additional requirements that must be met in order to gain admittance. For example, the Air Pilot program has Federal Aviation Administration requirements that must met which include drug screening, clear criminal background, sight requirements, etc. Some community college nursing programs have separate admittance requirements also. The point being a national organization places certain admission requirements in order for a student to gain entrance to the career field – not the school.

At our last advisory committee meeting, we discussed employer requirements such as how most employers now require a criminal background check and a drug screen – and if students have almost anything show up on either one of these checks, they are almost unemployable in our field. In fact, some employers are even running credit checks and screening out smokers. Because of this meeting, we now tell all students coming into our program that if they cannot pass a drug screen or criminal background check, this is probably not the career field for them. We do not, as a school, administer these screenings. However, most of our internship partners and employers administer them or have the students get them independently and pay for them.

Currently our program maintains about a 93 to 95 percent placement rate (there are always a few students that are either “unemployable” or not flexible about relocating for a position). We attribute this high percentage rate of success to telling the students up front about these requirements and about the flexibility needed to gain employment. However, just in the past few semesters, I have had a few students “bomb out” with employers after only a few weeks or months on the job. This has not been due to their technical ability but rather performance and attitude issues such as: not showing up to work on time, displaying a poor attitude to supervisors, having a poor work ethic, lacking maturity, not showing any initiative, poor grooming standards and not having a “sense of urgency.” These few students that display these undesirable characteristics are intelligent and did manage to make their way through the program, some with relatively high grades. However, looking back, I could see where some of these behaviors had been exhibited along the way.

This for me, and other instructors, has led to implement “professionalism” into the grading system of our classes. Now, attendance (including showing up to class on time) is easy to factor in. However, the other factors continue to prove to be a challenge. Project-based learning, with both instructor and peer-based evaluation is one way of grading professionalism (teamwork, cooperation, etc.) and this too is being implemented.

The new funding formula, based upon the success of graduates, will force us to look at the employability of our graduates long before they walk across the stage to receive their diplomas. This has me thinking about how to pre-screen potential students for employability factors. We are working on administration to allow us to at least require potential students to take a drug screen and do a criminal background check. But I’ve also thought about requiring an entrance interview. This of course will not catch all behavioral issues up front but it might help.

I would like to hear how other colleges and/or employers are addressing these issues. Please drop me a line at: Roger.Bowles@tstc.edu and let me know your thoughts.

I use StumbleUpon regularly, both at home and at work. Some of the sites are boring and useless, but some of the best information, ideas, recipes and blogs are ones that have come to me from StumbleUpon. I certainly would never have found most of them if not for this amazing application.

I believe that StumbleUpon has soared to such popularity because people want to learn new things. Not new useless things, but new things in subject areas in which they have an interest. I can always count on learning something new when I Stumble.

This concept of continuous learning also applies to everyday life. My philosophy is that everything that I learn eventually benefits me in some way. I am taking a Healthcare IT training program right now. I don’t work in HIT. I probably never will. But having the knowledge keeps me feeling current and helps me understand the challenges that working BMETs are experiencing. I am staying current on technology and biomedical problems, and I am able to write and educate people about the current and future challenges in the biomedical/IT world.

Who in this world believes that they will work for the same company till they retire? Or do the same job till they retire? If you have any uncertainty at all, you should do something about it. Train yourself in every way imaginable. Learn all that you can.  Become as flexible in your job skill as your time, energy and abilities allow. Your broadened scope of capabilities and skills might come in handy in your career. Even if you don’t change jobs or employers, having a broader base of knowledge often proves useful as we are asked to expand our roles into never before tried areas. But where do you go for this training, you ask?

First, I would try MIT. Yes. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (www.mit.edu). MIT has some 2,000 courses on line, free for anyone to access and learn from. They range from engineering and technology to foreign languages. They are from undergraduate to graduate level.

Or how about www.elearningcenter.com? They have 10 free courses, each two to six hours long. These  range from Excel to A+ to customer service training, and they are all free.

Or go to www.itfreetraining.com. They have lots of videos about many current computer topics.

My favorite is Slideshare (www.slideshare.net). This is a great site onto which people all over the world upload their Powerpoint presentations (and now videos). Thousands of presentations, on hundreds of subjects, are on Slideshare. I have even posted a couple, each of which have been viewed and downloaded hundreds of times.

And, of course, there is YouTube. This old favorite is not just for humor. There are lots of serious, thought provoking subjects there.

If you haven’t found it yet, there is TED. Their tagline is “Ideas Worth Spreading”. TED has video presentations by the brightest minds on the planet. The ideas are innovative, inspirational and very challenging to conventional thinking. There are a number of presentations about medical breakthroughs.

This only scratched the surface. In the age of the Internet, knowledge is no longer only for those able to pay for it. Everyone can have it if they are ready, willing and able.  There is no longer any cost of admission.

I am amazed by those people who complain that they are “bored.”  I cannot believe that anyone in this day and age could ever be bored. There is so much to learn; so much to do; so much to accomplish. There are no longer any external restrictions. The only thing stopping you from you own personal growth is yourself. So get off your keester and go learn something new today!

There is usually a direct, inverse correlation between how emotionally involved I am in the situation and my ability to rightly discern when determination has escalated to stubbornness. For things that are not going to impact me personally in a significant way, it is much easier to be objective in knowing when to let go. I have also come to realize that if there is pain associated with a prior similar experience, that discernment curve may have shifted to where my first instinct is more likely to be the right one.

If you have been reading my articles for a while, you all know I am a realist. I like to use real-world examples to help explain somewhat abstract concepts. Go back with me a few years, and perhaps you have a similar experience that you can relate to. My oldest brother had just finished six years in the Navy and moved back home, with all of the big-boy toys he had acquired: the ski boat, the dune buggy, and the ’67 Dodge Charger, to name a few. I was out of high school for the summer and looking for something to do one Friday morning. He offered me one of those ‘awesome deals’ that I was a sucker for with him. If I would wash and wax all of his toys, he would pay me twenty bucks. I had experienced his negotiation lessons a few times, and although not as good as Manny Roman, he was a pretty good teacher for that skill. The main difference in his teaching style, however, was that he taught me by burning me in some new way on every deal!

This time, I was prepared, or so I thought. In addition to the cash, I threw in the request that he teach me to water ski that weekend. He agreed, and I should have known by the size of his grin that I was in trouble. I got busy and did my part, carefully washing and waxing for the entire day. I was not as fragile as I looked, thanks to the hours of working on the family farm, and I think I used every bit of muscle and endurance I had that day. I was determined to get everything finished, to meet his expectations, when he got home that evening. (There’s the determination part.)

It was beautiful that Saturday. Two of my sisters were home that weekend also, and the whole family was planning to spend the day at the river. The fishing and picnic supplies were packed into the pickup, along with those who would start the day on the riverbank, where we would all meet up later. The boat was loaded with fuel, snacks, drinks, and everything needed for a relaxing day on the water, and we were off. I had watched my older brothers and sisters as they learned to ski, so I knew the basic theory and physics of the process. In my head, I was convinced I would be up and going in no time. They had all learned, so really, how hard could it be? We got out to the calm water, and over the side of the boat I went, drifting with the current as I put the skis on. The boat circled back around to bring the rope to me, with instructions from everyone about how to position myself, how to hold on tightly to that rope and let the boat do the work. Right, got it. The boat took off, pulling me onto my feet with ease, except my upper body kept going too far forward. I did a full face-plant into the water, still holding tightly to that rope! When I finally realized that the reason I couldn’t breathe was because the boat was still pulling me, I decided it was time to let go of the rope. I had stopped sputtering by the time the boat came back around. They were all laughing, of course, and asking if I wanted to try it again. Determined, I said yes. They suggested that perhaps I needed to lean back on the skis a bit more as the boat was pulling me up. Attempt two; floating calmly and in position, just as I had seen each of them do many times before. My brother hit the throttle and I went flying forward with the skis cutting cleanly through the water in front of me. Just one problem, I was leaning back so far I couldn’t stand up. There I was, again with a death grip on that rope, so the boat was dragging me through the water on my back side. That time, after a few hundred feet, my brother cut the throttle and circled back around to tell me, “Hey, stubborn, if you don’t make it up at take-off, just let go of the rope. It won’t hurt as bad!” I did learn to ski that day, and actually made it up on my fourth try. More importantly, though, I learned the whole philosophy of how, sometimes, you just have to let go, so you can start again and do things differently.

There are many aspects of my professional life where I find that concept useful, too. When I decided to leave the security and instant gratification of the role of technician, in effect, I chose to move from being a passenger in the boat to being the one on skis. I had accepted full responsibility for trying to make the right things happen for my team, and for helping the organization move forward with its Healthcare Technology Management program. Just like the transition from watching the others ski, to actually trying it myself, it was not as easy as it looked. There have been a few face-plants along the way. Those were usually the result of my thoughts getting too far ahead of my actions. The plan may be good, but if it is not carried out correctly, there will not be a successful outcome. It is always a fine line between when to push forward, and when to let the momentum of the situation dictate the rate of change.

There have been plenty of times I landed on my backside, too. Those were usually when I was resisting some idea or change, whether it was prompted by a fear of doing things differently or by a determination to keep doing things the way I had done them in the past. There’s where that fine line between stubborn and determined comes in, again.

Another lesson from this experience has to do with self-confidence. Even when you are confident in your abilities, there are more times than not in our profession where you will be required to demonstrate your skills, not just talk about them. If you want the same compensation and recognition that others have gained through their achievements, you will have to prove yourself just as they did. It was not enough for me to have watched my brothers and sisters learn to ski, I could not claim that accomplishment until I actually did it myself. I had to put in the time and effort, and feel the pain along the way. The same applies to the younger members of our profession. You have greater opportunities to achieve more than any of us ‘old timers,’ but you must pursue that individually. Even if someone is there to toss you the rope and hit the throttle to launch you forward, you have to get to your feet and keep your balance during the ride. If you learn a few new tricks from your adventure, then you are probably on a course for a successful career.

Make sure you also develop the wisdom to know when to let go. Conceding, when your efforts are not yielding the desired results, is only a blow to your ego. Those blows are never as painful as the face-plants, and the bruises to the ego do not last as long as the ones from landing on your backside. Even if you are not able to relate to the whole water skiing experience, I hope this example has helped you visualize the art of knowing when to hold on and when to let go. The same outcomes may eventually be accomplished either way. Just recognize that, to some extent, you can choose the level of professional pain you want to endure as part of your journey to success.

One of the most important trends that The Cloud refers to is the concept of utility computing. Over the last decade many aspects of basic computing have become very much a commodity; data processing, storage, and networking have become orders of magnitude cheaper to acquire, easier to integrate and less complicated to operate and/or support. This is easy to see in our consumer devices with relatively inexpensive smartphones, which have more computing power than high-end workstations did a decade ago; the same pace applies to the back-end infrastructure components of virtualized server farms, storage arrays and network hardware.

Because of this, many advanced infrastructure operation companies can sell CPU processing, disk storage and networking as commodities with straightforward pricing structures (pennies per GHz of processing per hour, pennies per GB of disk storage per month, pennies per Mbps of network transmission, etc.) Thus, just like other utilities, computing resources in The Cloud have become relatively simple, inexpensive products that can easily be purchased and consumed.

In addition to utility computing, The Cloud refers to the next layer on top of building-block infrastructure components to actual computing services such as software, platforms and whole provisioned infrastructure units. Commonly, these are referred to as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure (or IT)-as-a-Service (IaaS). Some of the buzzword busting needs to take place here because essentially these concepts aren’t all that new or exciting. What has occurred, much like in utility computing, is that these concepts as a market can be priced, provisioned, purchased and used in a much simpler, straightforward, consumer-oriented service approach than before. So traditionally if an organization wanted to setup a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software system, they would buy the software package, buy extraneous required software (i.e. database, web server, etc.), buy the hardware systems to run it all on, install and configure the hardware and software, then operate and maintain the system until the useful life was through.

Nowadays, there are numerous SaaS vendors who sell software services (such as CRM) running on their own platforms, in their own datacenters, which are accessible using a web browser on the Internet. The entire infrastructure, hardware, software, backups, maintenance, support, etc. is all hosted in The Cloud by the SaaS vendor and in a matter of minutes they can provision a unique installation for a customer and charge a flat usage fee. This doesn’t absolve the need the vendor has for all the same back-end computing components, but to the customer it’s all running in The Cloud and they don’t necessarily have to bother with it, just use it. This isn’t exactly new as a concept, since most people have use Cloud-hosted webmail for email services for quite some time.

Just as not all clouds are bright and fluffy, in the computing world there exist some dark and ominous aspects that can create risky situations. First and foremost is connectivity. Cloud-hosted systems and applications rely on moderate-bandwidth, low-latency Internet connectivity. A properly engineered application running on a server connected to the same dedicated network as your workstation should be extremely responsive and seamless with which to interact. However, depending on network conditions on the Internet, which may be outside of the control of both you and your Cloud service provider, many Cloud-hosted systems may be unresponsive and sluggish. This isn’t to suggest that a locally-hosted system cannot also be sluggish, but that if a local system is slow the IT group may have end-to-end ownership and authority to fix the problem, where if the problem is somewhere on the Internet between you and the SaaS provider, the provider may not be able to even diagnose – let alone fix – the issue.

Another dark cloud to be aware of, especially for health care, is that of data loss and confidentiality. For systems hosted locally, it’s relatively easy to logically track where the data is and shouldn’t be much more difficult to physically track it. A local engineer can find the database or filestore where the information exists, trace it to physical servers and storage systems, then make note of specific backup media which contains duplicate copies. However, in The Cloud, data may be scattered across numerous locations, in different countries, and side-by-side with other businesses (even competitors.) It’s very important to know what responsibilities (if any) the Cloud providers have in securing data, backing it up, restoring it in a timely manner and destroying it when finished. Much of this is extremely easy to take for granted, especially if it’s happening out-of-sight.

As a simple example, think of your e-mail stored in a free webmail system: What if you logged in tomorrow and all your e-mail was gone? Would the vendor be obligated to get it back for you? What if they couldn’t? Or what if you found all your e-mail content mirrored on a public Internet site? Did the service provider have an obligation to keep it private? Unfortunately, most contracts I’ve reviewed for Cloud service providers, even at the enterprise level, don’t include some basic security provisions.

In the end, the Cloud is a new term for an existing concept, Internet-accessible computing systems. I was amazed just recently at a health informatics conference to see a PACS/DICOM Cloud vendor! So, be prepared to deal with it in clinical engineering as the trend continues and new computing processing and storage service markets crossover even in to the modalities you work with.

You would be surprised that in the world of social media and high-tech tools, the use of common courtesies has declined, especially in a candidate’s job search process.  Thank you letters fall in the category of common courtesies that few candidates think about doing. Sending a well-written thank you letter after a job interview is a common courtesy that is a must and can be the key to getting a job offer! It sets you apart as someone who has good manners, is interested in the job, and is serious about your career. I know of many circumstances in which it was the personalized thank you note that made the difference and got that candidate the job offer.

I am a bit old fashioned, and I still believe in thanking people even for the little things they do, whether it is in business or in my personal life. I am constantly surprised that only a few people bother to thank the people who helped them along the way. Not only those who provide advice and information, but many don’t even bother to write thank you notes after telephone interviews, or even worse, after face-to-face interviews for new jobs.

In this day of technical savvy and social media mania, I realize the idea of physically writing a thank you note may sound dreadfully old fashioned. Guilty as charged. While I accept the new technology and am almost comfortable in my use of newer technology and social media, I am still very old fashioned when it comes to hand-written note cards. Yes, I remain loyal to old-fashioned habits!  But honestly, there is something special about receiving a handwritten note card, especially since most people today are using e-mail, texting and social media to communicate.

During the hiring process, follow-up communications and professional courtesies are extremely important. Employers will judge a candidate’s ability to communicate effectively during every phase of the interview process. Therefore, whether handwritten or typed and presented on special paper, a thank you letter stands apart from the cluttered inbox with a deluge of e-mail messages. More importantly, it lets the recipient know that you care more than the average person because you took the time to send a personalized note.

Your thank you letter is an opportunity to reinforce the fact that you want the job as well as to show your appreciation for the interview. You should view the thank you as a follow-up “sales” letter and this is one way to demonstrate your effective communications skills. Keep in mind, though, that the thank you note should be brief and to the point. A couple of brief paragraphs are sufficient to reiterate your interest in the job and your enthusiasm for the company.

In addition to thanking the interviewer for his or her time, you have the opportunity to restate why you are an ideal candidate for the position and how your qualifications can make significant contributions to the hiring organization. Try to recall something specific about your interview experience so that the letter does not look like a generic letter.  This letter is the perfect opportunity to clarify anything of importance that you neglected to answer as thoroughly, or as well, as you would have liked. Your final paragraph should restate your appreciation for being considered for the position.

Be sure to carefully proofread the letter and make sure you have the interviewer’s name spelled correctly. While the letter may be one more opportunity to impress an employer or hiring authority, it is also another chance to submit something with a typographical error or a misspelled name. Like every document you present to a potential employer, it should be treated as meticulously as your resume and cover letter. Be extra careful with e-mail: Your message is still a business communication, which means it should be professional, well written, appropriately formal (including appropriate salutation and closing), and error-free.

You should send a thank you letter as soon as possible, no more than one or two days after the interview, and when you do, you will be viewed as one of the few candidates who exhibit professional and common courtesies. This simple characteristic reflects your core values and beliefs and can make an impact on everyone!

In today’s high-tech world, handwritten notes are very rare and when I receive one, I really appreciate and treasure it. In fact, I keep most of them filed in my office still today!  Of course, I do feel sorry for people who have to attempt to read my handwriting. While the handwritten note was preferred in the past, the delivery method today remains somewhat controversial. Some people prefer e-mail over snail mail.

I know many people prefer to do everything electronically, and it does avoid the worry of poor handwriting or lost snail mail. When the company is making a hiring decision quickly, it is very appropriate to send an e-mail thank you message to ensure the hiring manager receives your message promptly. But whichever method you choose, make sure to send those thank you notes!

I realize much of the content of this article is about sending thank you letters after job interviews. However, common courtesies should be imbedded in your everyday life, whether business or personal. A simple thank you for opening a door or even for the little things that someone may do for you, goes a long way.

To succeed in today’s workplace, use common and professional courtesies to give you the competitive edge to stand out from the others. Sending a well-written thank you letter after a job interview is a common courtesy that can be the key to getting a job offer. So be sure to send those thank you letters and be the person who stands out above the rest!