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

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By rashley, November 8, 2009 9:33 pm

A few reasons some people are still unemployed.

The statistics are horrible.  Over 10% unemployment. Consultants and executives who have ‘aged out’ of the unemployment roles are not included.  Entrepreneurs who don’t qualify and interns who don’t find paid work are not included.  So the number is a lot higher than the statistic reports.

And it is those very executives and consultants who feed the economy. Laborers and hourly people don’t feed the beast.  We must get middle managers and executives back to work and spending money.  Short sales and bankruptcies are still occurring with wretched frequency.

My solution?  Revitalize the job search.  Learn how to do it right.  Stop doing what isn’t working.  I see executives uncovering great leads but shooting themselves in the foot with poor process or blind belief in job search myths.

One sad fellow called me because he had been on five interviews with five different companies and never made it to the second round.  After talking to him for just a few minutes, I knew why.  He couldn’t stop talking.

His desperation was palpable.  He wanted to make sure I knew every possible thing about him in case some one thing would trigger my response to hire him.  I couldn’t even get in a word to tell him I don’t hire people.

He sent me a resume and asked if my clients were hiring.  Bad.  Very bad.  He didn’t even know what I do.  He just sent out blind and random emails with his resume with no regard for the recipient.  His was not the first inquiry that assumed I am a recruiter or hiring manager.

Sending a resume and cover letter when none is requested is a career limiting behavior.  Not having an introduction also hurts.

Another had the opposite problem.  He didn’t ask questions or assert his competency with examples and outcomes.  He used words like, responsible for, led and managed without saying what he actually did and accomplished.

One bloke, at the end of the interview, proposed he would take the job for $50,000/year less than their range.  He was surprised and even a bit angry when they didn’t take him up on his offer to buy the job.  He overlooked that employers want the very best fit for any job opening because companies are fragile.  Clearly, he conveyed he didn’t think he was worth very much.

This horrible job market is not forgiving.  You can’t make any mistakes and you must create the most compelling job search you can.  That requires an assessment of your current method and a review of what others do that works.

• Conduct mock interviews that you can record and review.
• Practice your elevator pitch.
• Rework your resume to reflect the priorities of the job description.
• Spend hours each day in research and networking.
• Use the internet wisely to learn what you can about the company, the job and the opening.
• Reach out to others to see if you can help them.
• Ask for help with specific parameters such as the name of a company, person or domain.

Job search is not easy, but it is simple.  Keep a clear focus and don’t get so wound up attending and writing that you forget to follow up.  Make real connections to people and enjoy the ride.

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If you would like support creating your own compelling and expeditious job search, contact me. We can focus on your specific challenges and define a custom program.

My clients get hired; not brag-fact.

Perhaps you feel a proven book with field tested techniques is your first step toward an effective job search. You can download Job Search Debugged for advice that works.

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By rashley, October 14, 2009 2:18 pm

This morning my email revealed four personal messages from LinkedIn readers who responded to my comments and posts.

Each complained of overly long job searches and expressed they had no clue what is going on.  They wondered:  Blacklisted?  Are the jobs real?

Nope.  Your writing is so poor your credentials are not being considered.  Seriously, if you can’t write a decent email or cover letter how can you be expected to speak  well and represent the company?

It’s too easy to assume follow-up didn’t occur because of age, too many applicants or other spurious reasons.

Fact is, most cover letters, emails and even blog post responses demonstrate very poor written communications.  No matter how informal the correspondence, it must demonstrate you are literate and educated.  Never say, “It’s just an email.”

Be especially mindful of use of advice/advise and never use exclamation points in business correspondence.  If what you say is important and true, you don’t need to call attention with punctuation.

Don’t get cute or use smiley faces.  Read your missive aloud to ascertain proper sentence structure and word usage.  Still not sure?  Let someone proof your work.

Job Search is stressful and mistakes are easily made. Don’t let your writing mistakes prevent you from making it to the next step.

Your LinkedIn profile is often the first thing people see about you.  Tear yours apart for grammar and sentence structure.  Does every line convey a compelling message?  Can the reader immediately see what you can do for them and why you are exceptional?

Make certain your writing is excellent and you will increase the success of your job search.  Just last week two of my clients received compliments from hiring authorities on the organization and flow of their resumes and cover letter.  People notice. Make certain your communications are being noticed for all the right reasons.

Need help evaluating your LinkedIn profile?  Is your resume getting complements? Do you have a compelling elevator pitch?  Check out my web site for information on Coaching to fix those elements…

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By rashley, August 12, 2009 7:52 pm

One of my clients asked me for a template or guide for building a resume.  I responded as I always do, use the most ordinary format available; show the reader a resume with everything where they expect to see it.

Now this client has hired dozens of people in his career, executives and individual contributors, yet he was puzzled about what a standard format should look like.  I suppose that shows how little attention one pays to format when it is exactly what is expected.

Use 11 or 12 point font and one inch margins.  Only two pages allowed and forget colored papers.

Let the content be the surprise; the enticement, not the format.  Here’s the tried and true that has worked for executives and technology leaders for decades:

• Name: Centered and in bold with a larger font than the body.
• City, State: Below Name
• Phone and Email below that.
• Objective:  What do you want to do.
• Summary:  Proof you have done it with bulleted remarks about accomplishments
• Experience: Name of company, Title and Dates including month/year.
• Mention responsibility and create bullets for deliverables with metrics
• Education:  Institution, Degree and Major

OBJECTIVE: Develop and implement compelling marketing communications strategies and tactics that enable an organization to enlarge marketshare, expand their audience and surpass its competition.

SUMMARY:

• Created advertising and communications strategies and tactics that measurably lifted brand recognition by one-third in first year.
• Produced suite of sales force communications tools that focused efforts on specific referral-source audiences to maximize sales funnel, increase close ratios by 35%.
• Repeatedly delivered marketing outcomes praised by internal and external clients through effective collaboration, precise planning, timely execution and superior communications.

EXPERIENCE:

Washington Employee

Directed targeted marketing collateral programs for xxx Channel. Developed materials through collaboration with internal and external partners. Migrated 300+ marketing materials to two new intranet platforms, managing content revisions in tandem with technical conversion of PDF templates. Monitored mortgage industry updates to shift marketing strategy plans to capture new sales opportunities.

• Collaborated with eight peers across three teams to simultaneously update content and migrate 200+ collateral items over seven months to a new, more powerful system.
• Content and technology improvements yielded 10% higher average sales nationwide for 2,000+ loan consultants..
• Built sales force self-paced training presentations and event planners for loan consultants to host real estate agent networking sessions to cultivate mutual relationships for warm leads.
• Managed 100+ item catalog of direct mail, customizable items for campaigns-on-demand marketing system in compliance with federal direct mail laws and secured brand integrity; interfaced with assigned agencies to implement ongoing enhancements, monthly reporting analysis.
• Created 11% lift in direct mail usage by sales staff. Metrics for key campaigns netted $24+ million new loans.

EDUCATION:

University of Memphis, Memphis, 6/2002 TN Bachelor of Business Administration | Major: Marketing Management

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By admin, October 7, 2008 1:12 pm

Suresh was skeptical. As my most recent coaching client, he had not yet learned that my advice works. He downloaded “Blog to a Job” from the “Free” page on my web site, but didn’t create a blog saying, “I don’t believe people are going to do an Internet search to find people at my level.” I badgered him into compliance knowing the blog would work to attract employers with real jobs looking for his exact qualifications.

Imagine Suresh’s surprise when after three days, his blog had over 60 hits and he was contacted directly by a CEO who had a job that mapped to Suresh’s resume. The CEO said he has an ongoing search (feed) for key individuals and Suresh’s credentials were spot on for the opening he had. Unfortunately, the job required relocation which Suresh wasn’t interested in, but he did ask for and received referrals from the CEO.

Suresh created a Boolean string for Google and his own resume came up first. And that is how employers and recruiters use search engines to discover both active and passive candidates (prospects). To learn more, go to web site for your own download to learn how to Blog for a Job to let employers find you.

Need more assistance? Consider Job search tools that work from Job Search Debugged.

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By thejobcoach, May 4, 2008 4:24 pm

Everyone has an opinion on resumes but no one disagrees they are your most important marketing tool.

Read More

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By thejobcoach, May 4, 2008 4:03 pm

Candidates worry about how to write a great executive resume.  They know there is a lot of competition and good jobs are scarce.  What is the best way to attract the most attention to land an interview?

The most important insider tip to write a great executive resume is to know as much about the company and the job description as possible.  When the executive resume reflects the actual job opening and the needs of the company it will be read.

There is no recipe for a singe great executive resume; a new one is created for each job. The key is not only to stress the needs of the particular job, but to omit extraneous information. Think of the resume as a marketing tool.  The executive resume should be short and to the point; it is an overview of your fitness for the job, not a biography.

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By thejobcoach, April 29, 2008 7:33 pm

When most people set about to write an executive summary, they do so in terms of themselves, what they need, what they want or worse, what makes them most proud.  In fact, if you want to write a great Executive Summary, you need to write about what the reader needs and wants.

A sample of a typical executive summary reads like this: “Accomplished marketing executive with 18 years experience in the storage device arena.”  And, “Respected Executive with distinguished 20-year career guiding cross functional teams in design, redesign and implementation of technology solutions.”

At first blush you may say, “What’s wrong with these executive summaries.”  They are exactly what you are familiar with.  But they miss the point.  What is the most important aspect of your background the hiring authority needs to know about you in order to continue reading?  They certainly don’t need to know how many years in service you have, especially if you are in the 45+ age group.  They only need to know what you accomplished in that time.

Your executive summary must be compelling. Tell me what you can do for me.  Don’t tell me you are a self starter or creative.  Show me what you did to demonstrate these characteristics.  Let the data speak for you.

Renn Zaphiropoulos, founder of Versatec and later a VP with Xerox has said, “Don’t tell me how hard you worked, don’t tell me how long you worked, tell me what you accomplished.”  And that is exactly what your executive summary should do.

Sample Executive Summary

Executive Summary: Senior sales executive who builds teams who consistently beat quota expectations. Produced a sustained new business growth rate of 17% and same client sales growth of 21% over the last eighteen months. Specialize in new territories, new niches and new products.

Executive Summary: Directed all operations for early-stage technology company doubling annual revenues to $50 million by capturing new markets and negotiating major contracts which will yield up to $18 million over two years.

Executive Summary: Bottom line-focused technology executive with a track record of cost-saving and innovative solutions to complex problems.  Architected and led two major releases and over a dozen minor updates in the last 12 months on time and on budget while developing new technologies and supporting existing customers.

If you can write a compelling executive summary similar to the sample executive summaries above, the reader will do more than scan your resume.  And that is the reason to write the best executive summary you can create.  Need help crafting your own? Here’s where you can find help.

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