The Lazy Executive Job Seeker

So you’re suddenly in an executive job search or planning one – by choice or because you were fired or laid off (or see layoffs looming).

You may already be aware that things look different out there than they did the last time you were seeking a new opportunity.

If you’re just starting out or, if your job search is lumbering on and you’re getting few or no job interviews or action, you may not know how to job search well.

Or you may be lazy – thinking that if you put out a few feelers and get your updated resume onto plenty of job boards, you can sit back and wait for interviews to roll in. That makes you a passive or REACTIVE job seeker, instead of the PROACTIVE one you need to be.

Or you may be misinformed – putting most of your efforts into job search strategies that yield the lowest return on your time invested. You’re ready to put in the time and do whatever is necessary, but you don’t really know what you’re doing.

The Lazy Executive Job Search

You’re a lazy, or misinformed, executive job seeker if:

1. You skipped over the all-important first steps

The first steps to land a good-fit executive job are:

• Targeting – Identify the kind of job you want and target specific companies or organizations where you want to work, that will be a mutual good fit.
• Research – Conduct research (including informational interviews) on what current challenges or problems your target employers are facing that you can help them overcome.
• Personal Branding – Define which aspects of your personality and which of your areas of expertise combine to differentiate your unique promise of value to your target employers.

If you don’t get these things under your belt first, you could easily be in for a frustratingly prolonged search.

2. The first thing you did was run straight for your old resume (if you could find it) and quickly updated it

You’re definitely a lazy executive job seeker if you merely added in your recent work experience and accomplishments to the resume you wrote 10 or more years ago. Your resume will probably be generic and won’t hit home with anyone.

It will lack targeting and therefore it will lack focus.

And an old-fashioned formatting choice can contribute to age discrimination and make you look out of date.

Before writing any of your job search materials (executive resume, biography, cover letters, etc.), you need to follow the first steps outlined above.

Then you’ll be ready to create personal marketing content that is designed to showcase your ROI and good-fit qualities, and resonate with your target employers.

That’s the only way you’ll know what kind of information needs to be in your resume and other materials.

3. You’re spending most of your job search time on the job boards

You think that job search in the digital age means hitting the job boards hard because that’s where all the job are. But you’re missing a big part of the puzzle.

You don’t understand that the best way to land a good fit job is to network your way into your target companies. This helps you penetrate the hidden, never advertised executive jobs and provides opportunities to get employee referrals.

4. You don’t want to put yourself “out there” so you don’t bother to build an online presence

You don’t understand that executive recruiters and other hiring professionals at your target companies are on LinkedIn and other social networks. If they’re hanging out there looking for candidates like you, you should be, too.

And, these hiring decision makers will Google “your name” to assess you. If they find little to no search results associated with your name, you’re as good as invisible to them. Others competing for the same jobs who DO have a strong online presence will be preferred. You’ll probably be quickly overlooked.

Get started with LinkedIn. If you do nothing else with social media, you need to be there, leveraging all that this social network has to offer, just to keep pace with your job-seeking competitors.

Then get busy building a diverse online presence that screams “Hire me!”.

5. You’ve neglected your network since the last time you looked for a job.

A lazy executive job seeker only networks when they need something from those people. You’ve been securely employed, or so you thought, so you figured you could stop networking.

You don’t realize that networking is a careerlong “give to get” endeavor.

Now that you’re looking again, you don’t have the time or inclination to re-connect. It’s too much work!

You don’t know how or where to start to rebuild a vibrant network.

The solution? Be proactive with purposeful networking.

6. You haven’t learned how executive job search works these days.

If it’s been even a few years since you last looked for a new job, you’re probably finding out how different things are now.

It’s the wise job seeker who takes the time, preferably before diving into a search, to learn best practices and how all the pieces come together.

Are you a misinformed or lazy executive job seeker?

To get all the inside skinny on landing an executive job, get my guide for today’s executive job search.