You may be under the impression that executive resumes are outdated thanks to the rise of networking and social media. However, a well-crafted resume can be just as effective. In today’s business world, there aren’t many people who aren’t connected at all times. That’s why when you’re sending in your executive resume, you need to make sure it’s mobile friendly. There’s nothing more frustrating for a recruiter or hiring manager than not being able to view a resume from their mobile device. If you aren’t sure how to make your resume mobile friendly, a good executive resume writing service can help.
Recruiters Work On-The-Go, Too
Time is limited for everyone. Since you only have approximately six seconds to impress a recruiter with your resume, even the smallest mistake is magnified. A recruiter may be on a business trip, on lunch break or just away from the desk for any other reason. If they read your email with the resume attached, but can’t view the resume clearly, it could be lost in the shuffle.
Make Your Resume as Easy to Read as Possible
There’s a lot of discussion about the best executive resume format, but sometimes the best one is one that’s simply the easiest to read. You don’t have to be one of the best executive resume writers in the world to make your mobile friendly resume more accessible. Mobile devices are designed to make life simpler and more convenient. Make sure your executive resume fits those characteristics to have the greatest chance for success.
Increase Your Interview Opportunities
Many professional executive resume writers will tell you having a mobile friendly resume will increase your chances for job interviews. When you make your resume and contact information easy to view on a mobile device, the recruiter can contact you immediately, rather than having to wait until they return to the office. Hiring managers want to streamline their hiring process as much as possible, so when they have a chance to set up an interview quickly, they will do it most of the time. If you have a resume that’s difficult to read on a mobile device, your interview chances will decrease.
Having a mobile friendly executive resume is important nowadays. To ensure your resume is mobile friendly, feel free to contact us to get in touch with the best executive resume writing service.
LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for professionals, but it doesn’t mean everyone utilizes it the right way. If you have questions about how to improve your LinkedIn profile development, you’ve come to the right place. Many people have legitimate questions about LinkedIn, so we’ve done our best to gather the most common questions and answer them for you here.
1. How is LinkedIn Different From Other Social Media Platforms?
LinkedIn is viewed more as a professional social media platform rather than one designed for entertainment. People use Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to connect with friends or catch up on the latest celebrity gossip in real-time. That’s not what LinkedIn is about. Any LinkedIn profile service will also tell you to clean up your other profiles so it doesn’t tarnish your LinkedIn profile.
2. What Information Should You Include on LinkedIn?
Many people make the mistake of making their LinkedIn profile look exactly like their executive resume. A good LinkedIn profile writing service will tell you to use your resume as a base for information, but go into more detail about accomplishments and achievements on your LinkedIn profile. This is your chance to show your personality a little more than you can in a resume. Use the opportunity to brag on yourself as well!
3. How Important Are LinkedIn Groups?
Be selective about the groups you join and participate in them frequently. This is a great opportunity to meet new people in your industry. If you’re searching for a job, you may find your next employer in these groups. There are thousands of different groups, so definitely use them to your advantage.
4. Can You Find A Job Through LinkedIn?
Sometimes you’ll see job postings via LinkedIn, but you probably shouldn’t rely on them. The key to good LinkedIn profile development is to get your profile noticed by recruiters or hiring managers. Even if you don’t see actual job postings, it doesn’t mean you can’t get your foot in the door to land an interview with a well-developed profile.
5. How Can You Best Utilize Your LinkedIn Profile?
Highlighting your achievements and building on your resume are the best ways to utilize your LinkedIn profile. Be sure to remove any unprofessional pictures or anything you wouldn’t want an employer to see. Be active on LinkedIn and you never know who you may cross paths with along the way.
Although these are the most common LinkedIn questions, we know you may have many more. Feel free to contact us at any time with any of your burning LinkedIn questions.
There are many reasons why you need to keep a clean executive image online, and most of them are obvious. The good thing is, in most cases, you have complete control over your online presence. The importance of c-level personal branding can’t be understated, whether you are searching for a job or have a steady career going. How exactly can you maintain a clean executive image online? Here are a few tips to consider.
Search For Your Name Online
The first thing you need to do is see what the Internet has to say about you. Do a Google search or use a search engine of your choice to look up your name. Read every result you possibly can, because if you can see it, anyone can see it. Hopefully you won’t be shocked at the information you see, but the only way you can clean up your image is to know how you’re portrayed in the first place.
Tidy Up Your Social Media Profiles
Even if you don’t see anything negative about yourself in an online search, you still need to clean up your social media profiles. When it comes to personal branding for senior level managers, social media can be a big problem. Social media is a powerful networking tool when utilized properly, but one simple mistake can lead to much larger issues.
LinkedIn is the most powerful professional social media platform to use. Consider hiring a professional LinkedIn profile writer to make sure you are creating the best possible executive image. You never know who is looking at your profile, so you always want to look as professional and credible as possible.
Enhance Your Online Presence in a Positive Way
Engaging in active c-level personal branding doesn’t have to be difficult. There are plenty of ways to make a positive impact online, such as joining and participating in LinkedIn groups, posting in professional forums or message boards, writing professional blogs and more. All of these will help enhance your online presence in a positive way and boost your professional brand.
Creating a positive executive image of yourself online can take a lot of work. It can also be ruined with a simple post on social media. For more information on personal branding for senior level managers, feel free to contact us to help protect your executive image online.
Unfortunately, many executives never look at the privacy settings on their LinkedIn profile. While it won’t harm anything most of the time if your profile is completely public, there are some instances where it’s best to keep your profile a little more private. Even a LinkedIn profile service will tell you it’s not always advisable to share your profile with anyone and everyone. Here are a few things you should know about how and why you shouldn’t always have your LinkedIn profile viewable to the entire online world.
Restrict Your Profile if Currently Employed
If you don’t want your current employer or coworkers to know you’re looking for a new job, it’s best to restrict your LinkedIn profile as much as possible. There are many different ways to put restrictions on your profile, so a LinkedIn profile service can help ensure people inside and outside your network see the things you want them to see.
Make Your Profile Public if Unemployed
On the other side, if you’re unemployed or don’t care if your current employer sees you’re on the job hunt, you can make your profile public to everyone. Just be sure to study the art of LinkedIn profile writing, so you don’t damage your chances of landing a job with your public profile with something you’ve written.
There’s no need to keep any components of your profile private if you want to be discovered on LinkedIn by a recruiter or hiring manager. Some recruiters will bypass your profile altogether if it is heavily restricted, since it indicates you may have something to hide.
Update Notification Settings
Another important but little-known factor of LinkedIn profile development is what your connections can see regarding your activity. Some people get annoyed if they have to read about every single action you take, like joining a group, making a comment, connecting with someone new and more. To prevent annoying your connections, update your notification settings to only notify people of important things like job changes or important memos.
The privacy of your LinkedIn profile is something many people aren’t sure how to handle. You want people to discover you, but you also don’t want just anyone to have access to your information. For more tips on the challenges of LinkedIn profile development, feel free to contact us.
There was a time when soft skills were considered resume filler—something to make the resume look longer, but not bringing any value to it — fluff. Times have changed, and companies actually use different soft skills as parameters to weed through the abundance of resumes they get. However, there is still a balance to using your soft skills to your advantage in your executive bio or resume. Here are some of the most common soft skills to add to your executive resume.
Organizational Skills
Every company likes an organized person. This is the most commonly used soft skill on an executive resume cover letter because most people believe they are organized. The reality is this soft skill needs to be on your resume, because most companies will include it in their job requirements.
Team Player
This is a good example of a soft skill where you can give real experiences to demonstrate. Talk about times where you had to give up something that benefited you to help the team as a whole. No one wants to hire a selfish executive, so make sure your executive bio clearly demonstrates how you have been a team player at your past jobs.
Great Communication Skills
The best executive resume writing services will always highlight the importance of good communication skills. At an executive level, you will have to talk to people within and outside your organization, so you have to represent the company with class. This is another soft skill you can highlight with real examples. Talk about different meetings, interviews or speeches you’ve given in the past to show how great of a communicator you are.
Find A Balance of Soft Skills and Hard Skills to Incorporate
No matter which soft skills you decide to incorporate in your executive bio, you have to find the right balance between them and your hard skills. These three soft skills are good complements to the hard skills you list on your executive resume or cover letter, so be sure to use them to your advantage.
The key to incorporating the right soft skills into your executive resume is to read different job descriptions closely to see which ones they are looking for. If you aren’t sure which soft skills you need to highlight, or if you’re having a hard time finding a good balance of hard versus soft skills, feel free to contact us.
An executive job search can be exciting and stressful all at the same time. Like any job search, it can seem like you’re on a daily roller coaster of emotions until you finally land a job. If you take some strategic steps and avoid common mistakes, you’ll be able to reduce the length of your search. Using executive resume services is a good first step to get you on the right track, but before you do that, be sure to heed some of these common mistakes executives make with their job search.
1. Failing to Target Your Search
At first, it may seem like a good strategy to cast your net far and wide. However, this method doesn’t produce great results most of the time. The top resume writing services will suggest tailoring your resume to specific companies, rather than trying to write a general one. Resume targeting is a key aspect in an executive job search, but it’s also one of the things executives fail to do.
2. Not Networking
The days of sending in a resume online and getting a call for an interview the next day are virtually over. Executive resume services suggest handing your resumes to people in person at networking events, rather than replying to an online job post. The power of networking should never be underestimated, but you would be surprised at how many executives don’t see the importance.
3. Being Unprepared
Always be prepared, whether you’re networking or doing anything related to your job search. Being prepared means cleaning up your social media profiles, enhancing your online presence, visiting with executive resume writers and more. You need to be prepared if a potential employer decides to contact you.
4. Not Changing Strategies
Just like you have to adapt to the ever-changing business world, you have to change job search strategies occasionally also. Doing the same thing over and over again can get frustrating when you continue getting similar results. Be open to changing your executive job search strategy if you aren’t getting the results you desire.
5. Spending Too Much Time or Not Enough Time
Searching for an executive job is a full time job itself. However, just like an actual job, spending too much time or too little time doing it can lead to underperforming. Find a good balance and speak with executive resume services if you find yourself hitting a rut in your search.
Sometimes executive resume writers can help you avoid mistakes in your job search before you make them. Feel free to contact us with any questions about other mistakes to be aware of.
Going through a layoff is never easy. However, depending on how you handle it, you could end up in a better position in the long run. The main thing to remember is you never want to burn any bridges with your past employer. Layoffs happen for a variety of reasons, so there could be a chance for you to return in the future. Once you get laid off, however, the top resume writing services should be used to help get your resume brushed up. Here are some other things to keep in mind when dealing with an executive layoff.
Accept it With Dignity
Accepting the fact that you’ve been laid off can be difficult. In order to bounce back better than ever at your next venture, you have to be able to accept the layoff for what it is. Working with professional resume writing services can help with the process, since you’ll be forced to think about your achievements. Once you’ve come to accept what’s happened, you’ll be better equipped to move forward.
Figure Out Your Next Steps
Take some time and figure out exactly what you want to do. Did you already have a plan B just in case a layoff happened? Or did the layoff completely catch you by surprise with no backup plan? In either scenario, you have to really think about what you want to do next and don’t rush into a decision you may regret later.
Don’t Feel Sorry For Yourself
A layoff can damage your self-confidence. However, feeling sorry for yourself won’t do any good and it definitely won’t help your chances of landing a new job. You need to craft specific resumes that get you hired, so get back in the game as quickly as possible to restore your confidence level.
Network to Get Back in The Game
Networking can work wonders after a layoff. You would be surprised at how many people can relate to your situation, so talking with other executives can help you handle your layoff much better. Just be sure to visit the top resume writing services before you get deep into networking, so you can pass along a resume while you’re there.
A layoff can be a difficult and life-changing event. Feel free to reach out to us for professional resume services to help you feel better about your layoff.
March 3, 2017: Professional Resume Services is pleased to announce a member of their writing staff has been granted a Certified Executive Resume Master (CERM) award, as bestowed by Career Directors International. This award comes with the title of “Certified Executive Resume Master,” currently held by 18 resume professionals internationally, including owner, Erin Kennedy. With this title comes the security that a professional resume writer is one of the highest-ranked in the industry—as well as increased trust from executives looking for job search assistance.
To qualify for the CERM award, the resume writer in question must first receive one of the following certifications: ACRW, CMRW, MCRS, CARW, CRS, MRW, CMRS, CPRW, and/or NCRW. They must also possess a sizeable portfolio displaying their expertise in the major aspects of executive resume crafting, such as formatting and personal branding. Once these criteria have been met, the executive resume writer can apply for the award. Applications require a fee, completion of the CDI Executive Competency Review and four samples of previous work pulled from the applicant’s professional portfolio. After four weeks, the applicant will receive notification of their award status directly from the CDI.
Through this new achievement, Professional Resume Services obtains further accreditation and proof of their industry prowess. You can learn more about their services by calling 810-664-1933 or visiting their official website. Congratulations to the winning writer for this outstanding accomplishment!
