Rita Ashley, Career Coach. Field tested advice for executives.

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By rashley, May 26, 2009 10:35 am

Why executives should avoid being part of the herd

Would you use the lottery as your investment strategy?  Are the odds appealing?  Do you feel lucky, well, do you?

That’s exactly what you do career-wise when you submit your resume to random recruiters and recruiter groups; play the job-search lottery.

Recruiters post appeals for resumes every where from LinkedIn groups to Craigslist.  They frequent sites trolling for resumes to add to their stash.  Do you have any idea how they use them?  Do you know what happens to your contact information?

Chances are the job you want is local. Chances are the recruiter representing the company you want to work for is also local.  Why then, would you seek representation of random recruiters in distant locations, perhaps even distant countries?  And why would you seek representation along with a herd of others from across the country?

Doesn’t it make more sense to stand out from the crowd with personal contact?  As a hiring authority yourself, were you not always more interested in people to whom you were introduced rather than a faceless resume that found its way to your desk?  Who would you invite for an interview?  Someone who made the effort to find you, learn about your company and the opportunity or someone who simply sent in a resume through a random recruiter?

Hiring authorities tend to spurn unsolicited resumes submitted by recruiters; and that is what most of the cattle-call recruiters do.  They collect resumes and submit them anywhere they know there are openings.  They don’t necessarily have the job search, they are playing the placement lottery with your resume.

While that seems appealing at first blush, it is actually quite damaging to your search.  Once a resume lands in a company through a recruiter, whether the company invited submission or not, no other recruiter and certainly not the individual, can submit credentials.  You are effectively locked out of any jobs from that company because they chose not to deal with that recruiter.  And there is no way for you to stand out from the crowd; in fact you rarely know where they have sent your resume.

Once a recruiter has your resume they retain the right to earn money if you are placed where they present your credentials.  That is why some recruiters submit your resume to various job boards with their own contact information instead of yours.  You have lost control over your resume and wound up in the hands of someone who knows neither how to represent you nor how to represent the job opportunity.

If you are a sales executive the affects of bad representation are doubly damming.  You are expected to get to the right people with the right message.  What message do you send when a recruiter unknown to the company slings your resume about?

Why run the risk of being shut out, ignored or scammed when there are recruiters who actually have searches for jobs for which you qualify?   Don’t take the line of least resistance, you are not a lazy executive, so don’t be a take-the easy-way-out candidate.

The good news is, there are many reputable recruiters who do not engage in such opportunistic activities.  Learn to connect with the right recruiters.  There are many types of recruiters and the ones you want are established, respected by their clients and typically, looking for you through their network.  Learn how to be found.  No matter how compelling your resume, without an introduction, the best recruiters will ignore you.

Executives: Retain control over your resume; send it not to cattle-calls or any public forum. Participate, network but don’t expose your resume.  Use your LinkedIn profile to attract attention.

Ready to deconstruct your job search?  Use Job Search Debugged to remove the obstacles.  Learn how to vet recruiters to connect with the one that will place you.

Time to revitalize your network?  Read Networking Debugged to improve your results.  Learn how to connect with the right recruiters.

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By rashley, May 20, 2009 2:19 pm

Most of my clients are driven, successful and highly competitive executives and technology leaders.  During their job search, they are compelled to ask employers with whom they have interviewed how they compare to the competition.

• Am I in the running for this job?
• Where do I stand in the ranking?
• How do my credentials stack up compared to the others?

If asked directly, most people will tell you what you want to hear.  The data is corrupt.  Does knowing where the competition excels change your credentials?   Does knowing change your behavior?  You can’t change your own credentials and worrying about what others bring to the party is useless and demoralizing.  Your self confidence is one of your biggest job search assets. Don’t damage it by asking questions that could hurt; don’t damage your chances by making the interviewer ‘take care’ of you.

Asking ‘how am I doing’ puts the interviewer on notice you are insecure.  Why waste your precious interview questions conveying you are needy?  Why not ask instead:

• What part of your background is the most compelling for this spot?
• What are the top priorities for hiring?  Offer an example of how you have accomplished something similar.
• What do you need to know about my background to consider me for this job?

It is not always the person with the best resume who gets the job.  It is the person who conducts a good interview, shows they are enthusiastic about the company, the products and the challenges and the person the interviewers feel is the best fit.  Best fit often means, someone with whom I am comfortable.  Don’t make the interviewer uncomfortable by asking questions that put them on the spot.

You can’t know what the interviewers are thinking and you can’t know how other candidates interview. Without that data, you are stressing about intangibles.  Focus on you and why you believe you are the right person for the job.  Help the employer know what you know and that is more than enough.

Read about more deal killers.

• Need to deconstruct your job search for more effective outcomes?

• Just getting started and you want to do your job search right?

• Hitting a wall and need to see what others see?

• Have an issue that is becoming an obstacle?
  

• Need to get more interviews and offers from your efforts?

Read Job Search Debugged.

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By rashley, May 18, 2009 3:42 pm

And how to avoid them.

You know it is true and your frustration is apparent.  If you say it out loud, you make it true.

• Job Market is very bad.
• There aren’t a lot of jobs out there at my level.
• I have been looking for quite some time with little results.
• It’s hard to get interviews.  I am relieved to have this one.

No one wants to hire a loser.  If you make comments like these, that’s exactly how you sound.  The folks interviewing you may be friendly, but they are not your friends.  Do not confide your frustration.  When they ask about how your job search is going, and they may, say instead:

• I am delighted and surprised to see how willing people are to help.
• I am meeting many new people and find networking invigorating.
• There are openings, all those products still need to get created, marketed and sold.
• I like that companies are being very careful in who they hire.  It makes good business sense.

People hire positive, high-energy executives.  Come across carrying a cup half  full.  Discuss challenges and solutions, not problems.  And most assuredly, ask for the job.

More Deal Killers.

Author: Job Search Debugged [Rebuild your job search with field tested techniques that work]
Author: Networking Debugged [Networking is hard. Here's a guide to make it easier and give the results you need.]
Author: LinkedIn for Job Search [Free and simple to use to upgrade your online presence]
My clients get hired.

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By rashley, May 13, 2009 2:28 pm

Executives, are you using the same job search techniques you did when you were a manager or individual contributor?

Six figure income executives visit a different job search landscape from that of individual contributors and managers.

Over eighty percent of executive jobs are filled through some form of networking.  Thus, the tsunami of advice to job seekers to use social networking sites, job boards and resume submission-based recruiters is simply wrong.  Don’t get caught in a wave of desperation and give away your executive edge.

Here are just some of the errors I encounter weekly:

Executives send their resume to anyone with an email address. I am a job search coach yet half of the people who contact me to learn what I do send me an unsolicited resume.  I am not a recruiter, do not place people and have no direct access to employers.  I asked one sales executive why he sent his resume and his answer was, “You never know.”  Not a great strategy for an executive job search.

LinkedIn profile is the resume. Why would anyone call to ask for your resume if they have already read it?  There is no texture or color, just a resume.  The profile is an opportunity to create buzz; it is a marketing opportunity, not a biography.

Executives succumb to recruiters who cast gill nets for resumes on public forums.  How can you distinguish yourself with a mass resume acquisition process?  Recruiters who place executives have connections to those executives.  They expect to be introduced by way of their network; they do not use job boards or cattle calls to locate the “A” players their clients require.

Not knowing how to get an introduction, many executives resort to unsolicited email or even Federal Express to convey their resume.  As hiring authorities, when was the last time you responded to a spam-like email with a resume?  Bet you didn’t even open the attachment.   It is not unusual that subsequent emails will be blocked as spam.

And that resume you mailed, FedEx or not, will land on an admin’s desk and be forwarded to HR, not the manager.  Who knows what happens from there.

Cold calling the hiring authority sounds better than it is. Assuming you can even get through, making a pitch to an executive is typically seen as an aggressive intrusion.  Again, remember how you feel when someone pitches to you during your busy work day.  It is unlikely you will be invited to send your resume or interview, plus, the person you called is annoyed with you and will remember your name.  If you find another avenue to present your credentials, they are now seen as damaged goods.

When did you learn how to conduct a job search? Looking for a job is something most executives rarely do.  Most “A” players never have because they were always recruited.  They rarely had to ask for introductions, leads or find a recruiter.

So how do you become as expert at job search as you are at doing your job?  The successful look for advice from experts, ask for help and listen to any critique they can garner.  But there is so much bad advice out there, how do you know what will work for you?

Vet the advice the same way you would vet any vendor; check references.  Ask if you are the target audience.

Examine their credentials.

• Do they have experience hiring people like you or working directly with hiring authorities (Not HR)?
• Have they been an executive?
• Do they have a track record and time in service?
• Is that resume writer experienced with hiring people who do what you do?
• What do hiring authorities say about resumes from that service?

Be especially careful with advice you find on public forums. Most of it is directed towards people less senior in their career.  There are more of them and that is the sweet spot for most advice and employment service providers.  Much advice is offered by people who consider their advice, ‘giving back’ not realizing they don’t have the experience or world view to know if their advice is appropriate for others and in this job market.  It is akin to the CTO taking the advice of the product manager on how to architect an IT revitalization.

Take care to protect your brand. If you are a qualified senior executive, be selective in your job search techniques; you are judged by the company you keep and your process.  Vet the advice and vet the people who represent you.  Be as selective and careful in your job search as you are when you run your organization.

My solution: You wouldn’t be reading this blog if you weren’t looking for job search advice.  You checked my bio or have read my blogs and LinkedIn comments so you know you can trust my insights.  Now it’s time for you to take aggressive action on your job search to get the interviews you want and the offers you need.  Deconstruct your job search process and rebuild it from the ground up.  Purchase Job Search Debugged to walk you through an effective executive-level job search. Learn from hiring authorities and an industry insider who tells you where the rocks are and how to avoid them.  The book is specific to executives and has received rave reviews from my clients as well as general readers.

Join my LinkedIn group, Employment advice for executives.  Use the search box under find a group and enroll.  Executives only, no recruiters or other service providers.  Just advice, discussions and job lead sharing.  Ask questions, tell folks what resources work for you and gather with peers for support.

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By rashley, May 3, 2009 5:50 pm

Executives, Would you like to be caught for that big six figure job?

Let’s say you want to catch a sturgeon. Each day, you pay someone dearly to motor a boat to deep waters where there are sharks, deep sea anglers and dragon fish; lots of activity, many fish, but not one sturgeon in the bunch.   You are worn out and demoralized from trying.  You use your best equipment and you know you know how to fish; but still, no sturgeon.

If you want to catch a sturgeon, you have to fish in cold water lakes and rivers. Submitting your resume to job boards, corporate websites and all those LinkedIn recruiting sites is a bit like fishing for sturgeon in deep ocean water.

This is not another fish tale; you want to land a job? Go where the employers are looking for candidates.  You have to know how to be found because they are certainly looking.  There are jobs out there in spite of what the media and your unemployed friends tell you.  All those products need to be created, marketed, supported and sold regardless of our weakened economy.

Don’t believe for one moment that you chum the waters with resumes to countless job boards, resume sites and corporate websites.  All that accomplishes is you bloody the waters to become prey for sharks.  Those public resume aggregators receive thousands of resumes from job seekers; you have no opportunity to stand out from the crowd, to be seen.  And many are scams, identity thieves, and just plain bogus.  That’s why you rarely hear back and if you do, you rarely make it to the first interview.

Referred and recruited candidates trump random submissions every time. It is your job to do everything you can to get found, to be wanted.  Know the resources sophisticated employers/recruiters use and increase the possibility you will be lured into an interview.

One very smart internal recruiter caught the biggest fish possible for her employer.  Her success demonstrates the typical methods hiring authorities use.  She ignored all the website-submitted resumes gathering dust on her virtual desk; in fact, she never looked at them.

Her company had an EVP spot and needed an excruciatingly specific track record and skill set.  She knew the best use of her time was to talk to only those people with that skill set.  She located the top five companies who had the metric she needed then located the names of the execs responsible for that success.

She used a variety of resources to vet her suspects.  She first examined the corporate website for a bio and product information. Next, she used LinkedIn just to get an idea of former employers, quality of references and an overview of how these suspects saw themselves as represented by their summary.  She then looked at blogs and any number of other internet contributions from each of her suspects.  She needed someone who was beyond reproach technically, but who had a leadership style that demonstrated collaboration.  The tone and type of contributions (brand identity) she discovered narrowed her search to only two candidates whom she called to introduce herself.  She used a Boolean string to find direct contact information which interestingly, was also on the blogs she read.

Executives and technology leaders are in a different class from most candidates.  Do not be confused by all those recruiters who cast gill nets for new connections and make an appearance on every public forum trolling for submissions.  You are a rare breed and the recruiters who can place you are not to be found in their ranks.   If you are a big fish, avoid these recruiters.

Many jobs will be filled by the hiring authorities themselves through their network and online efforts which are not largely different from the resources recruiters use.

Quality employers and recruiters look for successful executives and technology leaders to recruit.  They have a network of long-term connections; they are not hit and run artists who collect (and ignore) resumes.  And these recruiters make anywhere from 20-30% of all executive level placements.  These are the recruiters by whom you want to be caught.  You have to swim in waters where they fish.

Blogs: Many experienced recruiters prefer to set alerts and search blogs for quality candidates. They use Boolean strings to isolate exactly the skills and requirements they need. They look for comments made on specific topics and they look for blogs on point to their client’s needs.

Clearly, if so many recruiters, both internal and external and hiring authorities in general, are looking for quality candidates on blogs, you need to be found there.

1. Answer questions using your full signature and LinkedIn profile address.
2. Write a blog of your own and keep it professional and on topic for your brand identity.
3. Create strategic alliances with other bloggers topic-adjacent and share links to each others sites.
4. Answer questions, start discussions and link to your site as a news article on LinkedIn and use your blog as part of your signature.

Social networking sites: Clean up and maintain your LinkedIn profile.  It is the first place people look once they have your name.  And some crafty employers use LinkedIn search tools to find people with certain former employers, titles and skill sets.

Twitter, Facebook and  others are, in my view, best used as a job search resource by job seekers young in their career.  You will read a lot about how they are used for job search, but your job search is different.  There are fewer jobs for executives and technology leaders than individual contributors and those employers tend to use more sophisticated options.

That having been said, do maintain your profiles and use the sites to promote your personal brand.  It’s like chicken soup, it couldn’t hurt.

Conferences and trade shows: Most companies set aside time and resources during conferences to cast a line to hook great candidates.  On more than one occasion when I was a recruiter, I was invited by clients to attend conferences with them to look for and qualify suspects my client could interview for key positions.  Today, even more resources are spent at conferences to locate industry-specific experts.  Be one.

1. Attend all conferences, trade shows and seminars where your target employer may be.
2. Volunteer to promote or organize the event
3. Offer a strategic employer your services to assist with booth duty
4. Attend your brand-specific topics and ask provocative questions
5. Come to each session early and linger to meet people
6. Stay in the radar of conference organizers as a prospective speaker or moderator
7. Write a brand-specific white paper to present or have available to attendees

Community: Many hiring authorities look to the community, both business and other for prospective employees.  They want to connect with people with shared values and interests.

1. Volunteer in organizations for which you are passionate
2. Attend business community events and engage.  Working to create and lead programs is a better advertisement for your brand than simply attending.
3. Participate in every and all alumni group for which you qualify
4. Become a mentor.  Get better visibility by helping others who succeed.

Your network: Job search by multiplication is accomplished through your network.  Employers ask the people they know and trust for referrals.  Big fish swim with other big fish.  Be that referral.  It is not enough to let your connections know you are looking for a new job.  You increase the chance they can actually help if they know what help looks like.

1. Hone your elevator pitch so everyone knows what you will be hired to do
2. Ask only for what your connection can deliver easily
3. Remember to return the favor
4. Stay connected but don’t badger; pay attention to their needs not just yours
5. Connect with and maintain relationships with a few good recruiters
6. Contentiously maintain your personal brand

And most important, maintain the big-fish attitude. If you are unemployed while looking for that next great job keep your spirits up; unemployment didn’t change your credentials or the value of your experience.  Just like that 100 lb sturgeon, focus on what you are going toward, not what you are going away from.

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