You may be very, very lucky. You may land the executive job of your dreams without having to suffer through a stressful job search.
But if you’re like most executives, that’s not happening.
You’ll need to dive into the work required to set yourself up to job search well.
If things have stalled in your job search, or it’s not going as you’d hoped, follow these guidelines.
The Road Map for Executive Job Search Success
Here’s your road map to launch and run a job search that will lead you to a great-fit new gig. Each of these steps interconnect and support each other.
Click on any of the links below to go directly to that section:
Targeting
Research
Personal Branding
Executive Resume
LinkedIn and Other Social Media
Online Presence
Networking
Executive Recruiters
Job Interview Preparation
Even More Executive Job Search Strategies
Targeting
Get straight on what kind of work you want to do and which companies will provide it.
You may resist targeting select employers because you don’t want to limit your search. You want to be open to any and all opportunities.
Here’s one of the problems with this approach:
When you’re writing your resume, LinkedIn profile, etc. you won’t know who you’re writing for and what specific experience, strengths, qualities and qualifications they will want candidates to have.
So, in order to appeal to as many employers as possible, you’ll make your job search materials as generic as possible.
Being generic in these personal marketing materials, and trying to cover too many bases (or job opportunities), will probably lead to a very prolonged job search.
Targeting is also important for due diligence. You need to assess target employers to be sure they’re the right fit for you.
Overall, think of it this way: If you can’t clearly express (verbally when you network and in your written marketing materials) what you want to do and for which company, how will people know how to help you reach your career goals?
More in my post, How to Build Your Executive Job Search Target Companies List.
Research
Dig into researching your target companies and industry to determine what things you offer (accomplishments, skills, personal strengths, etc.) that your target employers need right now.
As I noted above, your resume, LinkedIn profile and other job search materials are personal marketing communications. Marketing campaigns begin with knowing your target audience and addressing specific pain points of theirs. Then you can position yourself as their problem solver for specific things.
It may seem counter-intuitive to narrow your search to specific employers, but the more you do, the more precisely you’ll be able to pinpoint the unique value you offer.
And the more your personal marketing materials and networking efforts will position you as the best hiring choice for the companies and organizations you want to work for.
Idealist.org suggests some criteria for your research, to confirm that an employer is a good fit for you:
- You like the culture and feel that you would be a good fit.
- Its mission aligns with your ethics and areas of interest.
- It meets your more practical requirements for a potential employer, such as size, location, and benefits.
- You have researched key leaders of the organization and are interested in working with them (even indirectly).
- You see opportunities for growth.
- You have attended (and enjoyed) an event hosted by the organization.
- You volunteered at the organization and enjoyed your experience. What made it enjoyable?
- You can identify ways in which you can bring your expertise to the table to further the organization’s mission, even if there is no job currently available.
More in my post, Best Ways and Places to Research Your Target Employers.
Personal Branding
Make no mistake. In today’s job search landscape, personal branding is required . . . It is no longer optional.
Executive recruiters and other hiring professionals may review the LinkedIn profiles and resumes of thousands of candidates for any given job. They often find themselves drowning in a sea of sameness. Few candidates stand out.
The wise job seeker knows that the more clearly and compellingly they can describe their overall good fit for the job and the employer, the better their chances to be noticed and contacted for interviews.
That means they need to clearly communicate to hiring professionals and their network(s) how their hard and soft skills are in sync, and how this combination of skills and personal qualities make them a good hiring choice.
And that’s what personal branding is all about.
Spruce up or refine your personal brand messaging to better resonate with your target employers.
Personal branding is the personality part of your marketing materials and communications. The stuff that generates chemistry and interest, and influences people to reach out to you, to learn more about you.
What are the character traits, hard skills, passions and values you possess that define who you are, what you’re like to work with, and how you accomplish great things? All of this, and more, goes into defining your personal brand.
There are still plenty of executive job seekers, including those you’ll be competing against, who haven’t embraced personal branding. If you do then you, your resume, LinkedIn profile and all the rest of your job search materials will make you stand out in the best way.
More in THE Personal Branding Worksheet.
Executive Resume
Most executives don’t know how to write an executive resume for today’s job search.
All too often I see resumes that look and read like the ones I was writing 15-20 years ago.
If you’re sticking to a resume with the same look and kind of content you’ve been using for decades, you’re probably in trouble.
People assessing you through your resume will probably peg you as older right off the bat, and that could increase your chances of experiencing age discrimination.
It’s time to modernize your resume for today’s job search.
Charge up your resume with the kind of information that positions you as the right fit for the employers you want to work for.
Put yourself in the shoes of the people reading your resume. Make it easy for them to get to the meat right away. Don’t hide things on the second page that will wow them. Put your best stuff above the fold on the first page. That is, in the top third or half of the page.
Use storytelling to better connect people to the value you offer and more vividly indicate what you’re like to work with, how you get things done, and what great results you’ve gotten for past employers.
More in my post, How to Write An Irresistible Executive Resume in 10 Steps.
LinkedIn and Other Social Media
Get busy on LinkedIn (especially) with both passive and proactive strategies, and other social channels.
If you can only carve out time for one social networking platform, make it LinkedIn. LinkedIn is THE place where social meets job search, career and hiring. It’s where most recruiters and other hiring professionals source candidates like you.
Create a robust LinkedIn profile by fully populating every applicable profile section. Here are a few things to work on:
- Get plenty of the right keywords into your profile content for the LinkedIn search engine, but make sure it’s still a good read for human beings.
- Pay special attention to customizing your profile headline. It is one of the first things people will see about you on LinkedIn.
- Upload a professional-looking headshot. This and your headline follow you everywhere on LinkedIn.
- Use the Featured section of your profile to post videos and other visuals to catch people’s eyes and express your brand messaging.
- Post updates regularly and comment/react to other people’s updates.
Network like a pro on social media
Networking on LinkedIn should be your priority but, if possible, spend time on other social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.)
Bring all kinds of people into your network . . . and proactively keep yourself and your personal brand top of mind with them. Here are some suggestions:
- Executive recruiters in your niche
- Hiring decision makers at your target companies
- Other employees at your target companies, at almost any professional level
- Influencers in your industry or niche
- Business associates and vendors you’ve worked with
- Current and past colleagues
- Alumni
- Colleagues involved in the same volunteering and community projects
- Friends and associates
More in my Essential LinkedIn Guide for Today’s Executive Job Search.
Online Presence
What happens when you have no online presence, or not much of one?
Without a diverse online presence that reinforces your personal brand and value to the companies you’re targeting, executive recruiters and hiring professionals may pass you right by, in favor of others who DO have a vibrant online footprint.
These people source and assess talent by what they find about them online. They’re looking for plenty of information about each candidate, and they want “social proof”, to validate the claims these candidates have made in their resumes and other personal marketing materials.
If you’re in a job search and have little or no online presence – that is, a good number of positive, solid search results when your name is Googled – you may be invisible to them.
OR, if you have a common name, you need to clearly distinguish yourself online among the sea of same-named people.
OR, if you have the same name as someone who has done something awful to discredit their name (and thereby your name, too), you need to distinguish yourself from what exists online about them.
Self-Google to see what they see
Google “your name” right now and see what recruiters and hiring professionals will see when they’re assessing you as a candidate.
Candidates who have a more vibrant, diverse online footprint are typically viewed as more desirable.
Savvy job seekers know they want to have at least some relevant search results for “their name” on the first page of results. Your LinkedIn profile, if it’s robust, could be one of them. But you’ll need to work on building up more search results.
The more things people find about you through search, in the early stages of hiring, the easier you make it for them to see your good-fit qualities.
Make it a practice to self-Google regularly, so you can run damage control if you find negative search results about you.
More in my post, Is Your Online Presence Strong Enough to Compete in Executive Job Search?
Networking
You’ll network better if you take this advice to heart:
“Networking is just having a conversation. It’s not about asking for a job or a favor.”
Communication and gender bias experts Andrea Kramer and Al Harris confirmed this:
“Truly effective networking is not about trying to sell a product (usually yourself) to as many people as possible in the hopes they will refer customers or clients to you, make introductions, facilitate transactions, or pass on information.
Genuinely effective networking involves establishing mutually interesting, satisfying, and productive relationships with a limited number of strategically selected people. When people start to view networking in this more limited, focused, self-controlled way, they typically start seeing it as an engaging, enjoyable, and highly valuable activity.”
Network with a purpose
Connect more deeply (virtually and in-person) with the people you already know and relied on in the past – friends, colleagues, various associates, current and former customers/clients, vendors, fellow members of professional associations, etc.
Think of all the people you know, across various aspects of your personal and professional lives. Zero in on the ones who will most likely be able to help you.
Circle back to them and briefly apologize for not re-connecting sooner. Find out what they’re up to and update them on what you’ve been doing. But don’t rudely burst into a request for them to help you get a job. Reconnect first and revive the relationship.
Practice “give to get” networking. Don’t expect favors without giving something in return. Do something nice for them first. Networking (online and in-person) that works for everyone is all about helping, sharing, finding common ground, and being a good listener.
You should also make a habit of reaching out to new people to expand your connections and open yourself to more opportunities.
More in my post, How To Network Better.
Executive Recruiters
Although you shouldn’t rely entirely on recruiters to get you into a job, you do need to form relationships with a number of recruiters and work well with them.
- Re-connect with the recruiters you’ve used in the past
- Ask your network for recommendations
- Search LinkedIn for executive recruiters
- Check your trade or industry associations for referrals
LinkedIn is a haven for recruiters. They’re busy networking there, posting updates, and sourcing and assessing candidates. It only makes sense that most of your networking efforts should focus on connecting and networking with the right recruiters on LinkedIn.
But you need to reach out to them in the right way.
According to the Undercover Recruiter, here are some questions and requests you should avoid when reaching out to recruiters:
- Can you help me find a job?
- Do you have any job openings that fit my profile?
- Can you review my resume and send me your edits / feedback / suggestions?
- Can you please send me John Doe’s email address / phone number?
- Do you know anyone at Acme Company?
- Can you endorse / recommend me?
Instead, here’s what goes into InMails that get the attention they deserve:
- A clear objective, request, or call to action
- Modesty
- Messages that are personal, accurate, and specific
- A measure of polish
More in my post, Secrets Executive Recruiters Can’t Tell You and Tips for Working with Them.
Job Interview Preparation
Start by reviewing your initial targeting and research work so you’ll be at-the-ready with plenty of details about the company you’re interviewing with.
Find out what issues and challenges your industry is facing. Determine who the subject matter experts and key thought leaders are.
Since virtual interviews have become more the norm, you’ll need to prepare to ace them.
Prepare to intelligently answer questions like “What do you know about our company?” and “Why do you want to work here?”.
You also want to be prepared to ASK intelligent questions about the company. Beyond the intelligence you’ll gain with your questions, many interviewers are not very proficient at interviewing. Be ready to fill in awkward gaps in the conversation with information you really need them to know about you.
Learn about the company’s past performance and future plans so your interview will be more interactive.
More in my Guide to Executive Job Interviews: The How-To’s, Why’s and Best Practices.
Even More Executive Job Search Strategies
To round things out, job search strategist Hannah Morgan posted a list of job search activities that will help you get a handle on things you should be doing:
- Research and explore new career opportunities
- Read industry publications and newsletters
- Research industry and occupation information
- Create a personal marketing plan
- Join professional association groups and attend meetings
- Volunteer
- Contact your college/university for job search resources and alumni groups
- Contact people in target jobs and at target companies
- Create interviewing preparation folder
- Draft templates for Thank You letters and Cover letters
- Attend a Job Club or networking group for job seekers
- Set alerts on “job posting boards” and career pages
- Arrange informational meetings
- Attend seminars and workshops
- Enroll in online training classes
- Attend virtual job fairs
- Attend virtual networking events
She suggests that you create a realistic weekly plan including these activities.
And More About Executive Job Search
Does Your Online Presence Scream “DON’T Hire Me”?