Most people don’t think they need an executive resume writer when they’re searching for a job. It’s easy to blindly throw your resume out to employers and see which one bites. However, you aren’t doing yourself a lot of good, and you definitely aren’t saving time that way. An executive resume writer does more than just put words on a piece of paper for you. They will help you think deeply about your current career path and your goals. In order to find someone like this, you have to look for some particular characteristics.
Have Your Best Interest in Mind
When you’re looking for executive resume writing services, it’s easy to tell who has your best interest in mind versus someone who is only interested in their paycheck. It’s a good sign if they’ve been in the profession for many years. They probably won’t be able to talk about specific clients, but ask them about some of their best success stories. Their answer will go a long way in determining how much they will care about helping you. Make sure they have advanced credentials, awards and even some samples on the website so you can see their work. Talk to them. Make sure they talk strategy and focus as well.
They Explain the Process to You
If you’re going to pay good money for executive resume services, you deserve to learn more than just how to write a resume better. A good service will provide you with information and resources about how their process works, what they’ll need from you and what to expect once it’s done. Not knowing what an employer in your industry looks for on a resume won’t help you in the long run.
They Connect on a Personal Level
Some of the best executive resume writers have been in your shoes before. You will have a complete sense of trust when you realize your professional writer went through the same struggles as you. Any professional can learn how to write a resume, but actually living through the difficult times of looking for a job and trying to craft the perfect resume goes a long way in credibility. Once you develop a personal understanding with your executive resume writer, you’ll most likely be able to open up and work together to create a great resume.
If you’re planning on seeking the help of executive resume writing services, these tips should help you find the perfect writer. The important thing to remember is the first person you interact with may not always be the best choice. Just like finding a job, finding the perfect executive resume writer is a process. These tips should help you narrow down your choices a little easier.
It takes a lot of hard work and effort to craft the perfect resume. When you’ve finally got it just how you want it, you may be tempted to copy and paste the information into your LinkedIn profile. However, the two should be separated for a few important reasons. The substance of your profile can be similar to your resume, but you need to add a little more style and creativity. Here are some reasons why you shouldn’t treat LinkedIn the same way as your resume.
Repetitive Information is Boring
If an employer likes your resume, they might get online to check out your social media pages. A LinkedIn profile with the same exact information is boring. Employers want to find out new information you normally wouldn’t include on a formal resume. Tell a story or two about certain accomplishments you list on your resume. If you have a hard time distinguishing the two styles, you may benefit from LinkedIn profile writing services. Just think of LinkedIn as an extension of your resume rather than a copy of it. Create an interesting summary, make it personal (you can use personal pronouns such as “I”, “me” or “my” here. Make it uniquely yours.
Support Your Claims
Your resume is designed to make you look good in short statements. LinkedIn allows you to support those statements with evidence. If you’ve received an endorsement or a recommendation from a former supervisor or boss, include it on your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is designed to let you show your accomplishments instead of just talking about them. The more detail you go in to support your claims, the better off you’ll be.
The best place to start is listing any specific accomplishments regarding a past job. Go into detail about how you were able to accomplish something and how you helped the company grow or succeed as a result. Employers want to know how you did a task just as much as they are interested in what you did. Your LinkedIn profile is the perfect place to showcase that.
Be Conversational
Any LinkedIn profile development services will tell you to avoid resume language when creating your profile. The more conversational you are in your writing tone, the more you will relate to the person reading about your skills and expertise. If writing isn’t your strong suit, consider having a friend or a professional read over your profile before you publish it. Without sounding like you’re bragging on yourself, you need to highlight what you’ve done at past jobs and how these achievements make you a good fit for the job you’re looking for.
Developing a LinkedIn profile different from your resume may seem like a tough task. However, once you find the perfect balance between professional and casual, it won’t be difficult at all. If you need help getting started, or at any point in the process, feel free to get in touch with us.
LinkedIn is a powerful networking tool for executives. With the high visibility your LinkedIn profile has, even some of the smallest mistakes could be critical. Just like with a resume, your profile has to stand out among the rest if you want to get discovered and considered for any job openings. Understanding how to optimize your LinkedIn profile will go a long way in getting the job you desire. Here are a few tips on how you can soup yours up!
1. Choose an Appropriate Profile Picture
LinkedIn is a social media platform, but it is much different from Facebook, Twitter or other platforms. When working on your LinkedIn profile development, the first thing to find is a professional photo. Your picture is the first thing recruiters will see, so make sure you present yourself in the best light. Save the picture of your family or you and your kids for Facebook. A good rule of thumb to remember is if you wouldn’t put the picture on your resume, it doesn’t belong on your LinkedIn profile. You can have a friend or colleague take a photo of you as well.
2. Customize Your URL
Your profile will automatically be assigned a jumble of numbers and letters at the end of the URL. It would look a lot better and cleaner if you added your name to the end of the URL, especially if you will be sending potential employers the link. It only takes a couple minutes at the most, but it’s a pretty important part of your LinkedIn profile development. Details like this may not seem like a big deal, but they matter to employers and recruiters.
3. Be Detailed and Truthful
Any LinkedIn profile writing expert will tell you to be as detailed as possible without stretching the truth. You have the freedom to write whatever you want on your LinkedIn profile, but employers also have the same freedom to investigate to confirm what you write is true. Trust us: they will check facts!
Unlike the typical resume, which should be fairly short, your LinkedIn profile should be more detailed. When it comes to how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, keywords are critical for being discovered. The more you write, the better chance you’ll have of using keywords to help you get noticed in the search engines.
While it may seem easy to develop your profile, LinkedIn profile writing is more difficult than it sounds. However, with some time and effort, you’ll be able to construct a profile to help get you noticed. If you need any help or advice along the way, just refer back to these three tips and get in touch with us for any other detailed questions you may have.
Constructing a professional LinkedIn profile doesn’t have to be extremely difficult. In fact, just by taking a few simple steps, you can make yourself more recognizable without being overly pushy. When it comes to LinkedIn profile development, you have to understand it needs to be constructed differently from a resume. It’s not a bad idea to upload a resume to your LinkedIn profile, but the rest of the information should be different. This is just one simple tip, but here are some of the best secrets for surviving and thriving on LinkedIn.
Avoid Being Annoying
Have you noticed all of the alerts you receive when your connections have a job change or edit their skills? Your connections also receive those alerts when you make a change! However, you can change the settings to ensure your connections don’t see every little change you make. You might want to broadcast a job change or other important piece of career information, but most people don’t care when you receive a new endorsement.
Take Advantage of Opportunities
Any LinkedIn profile service will tell you to join groups related to your career or prospective career. These groups allow you to make additional contacts and give you the ability to reach out to them without having to upgrade to LinkedIn Premium. Joining several groups will only help you expand your personal brand and get your name recognized among people within your industry.
Be Active
Joining a group is a good step, but being active in the group will make you more recognizable. However, you’ll want to avoid being the annoying person who responds to every thread and has an opinion on everything. As long as you have insightful comments periodically, people will notice you and it will significantly boost your LinkedIn profile development by giving you more connections.
Don’t Use Resume Language
Resume speak should be limited to your actual resume. Any LinkedIn profile writing service will help you rewrite anything that sounds like it came straight from a resume, especially the career summary portion. That should be unique and a bit different from the career summary on your resume. While your LinkedIn profile needs to be professional, it also has to sound conversational and tell people exactly who you are. Look at LinkedIn as an opportunity to showcase your communication skills and other skills that aren’t necessarily as apparent on your resume.
One of the toughest things people experience with LinkedIn is making their profile look professional. It’s easy to slip into casual behavior since it’s an online social network, but LinkedIn isn’t the place for making friends. If you just can’t seem to find the right language or don’t know how to construct your profile, consider reaching out to a LinkedIn profile writing service. You will always benefit from having another set of eyes on your profile and you may find out some other secrets to help take your profile to the next level!
Everyone has a personal brand, whether they know it or not. It’s important for everyone to clearly define their personal brand, but it’s especially critical for high-level executives. As C-level personal branding has increased in importance, the myths surrounding it have also grown in number and prevalence. The truth is many people believe these myths, which can negatively impact their personal branding. Here are the top five myths you should know about, and most importantly, shouldn’t believe.
Myth 1: Your Personal Brand Is Equivalent to Your Reputation
You’re allowed to keep your personal life separate from your business/online life. You may have a completely different reputation with your family and friends than with your business colleagues, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
Myth 2: Personal Branding Isn’t Necessary
Many people underestimate the power of personal branding for senior level managers. Just like a reputation, it takes some time to build a solid personal brand, but it can also be ruined in a matter of seconds. If you think personal branding isn’t necessary, think again.
Myth 3: Personal Branding Is Manufactured
C-level personal branding is only effective if it’s not fake. People who try to make themselves sound better than they really are will only hurt themselves in the long run. Top executives can see right through manufactured personal branding so you won’t be doing yourself any good to create a false personal brand.
Myth 4: Personal Branding Takes a Lot of Time
The art of personal branding for senior level managers isn’t as time consuming as people make it out to be. Yes, you have to work on it a little bit, but you shouldn’t have to spend extra time on your personal brand. Every email you respond to or phone call you take either helps or hurts your personal brand. Just be conscious about your actions and your personal brand will essentially develop itself.
Myth 5: Your Personal Brand Makes You Look Selfish
You may try to make yourself look good on a resume or cover letter, but C-level personal branding is different. As a top executive, you likely have many leadership roles. Being a good leader is one of the best ways to give your personal brand a good image. If you’re able to help others do their jobs better and advance in the rankings, how could you possibly seem selfish?
Most people focus on polishing up their resume, but don’t spend much time thinking about their personal branding. What are you known for? What do you excel at? Many top resume writing services will emphasize your personal brand in your resume, which actually makes it even stronger.
Every company has different positions within each organization. The job duties of those positions can vary from company to company, so you have to be specific as to what job you’re looking for on your resume. A marketing director at a small firm may have multiple job duties, while a marketing director at a large corporation might only be in charge of one aspect. That’s why targeting your executive resume is critical to get the job you want, and the guidance from an executive resume writing service may be essential. Here are some tips on how you can target your executive resume.
Know What You Want
If you try to be general in your resume and make it seem like you’re the jack-of-all-trades, you probably won’t get much recognition. Executive resume targeting means you need to show you have one particular skill mastered and are seeking a job requiring those skills. When you’re as specific as possible, you are more likely to receive responses from companies regarding the exact position you’re looking for. The best professional executive resume writers are crafty when it comes to being specific to the job description and using the appropriate keywords to help get you recognized.
Differentiate Large and Small Companies
Some people want to work for a large corporation, but some want to start at the ground floor. Whichever you prefer, it needs to be clear and evident in your executive resume. Make it known you want to use your skills to help a start-up company grow into a larger business, and are willing to wear multiple hats to get it done. Alternatively, you could say your skills are a better fit for a large corporation where you sit behind your desk all day and make the current operations run more smoothly behind the scenes. Some of the top rated resume writing services will help you target the ideal fit for you, as long as you are clear with them regarding what you want.
Lay Out Your Criteria
Sometimes the best thing applicants can do is to be specific about what they want in a job. However, when you include a section like this, you have to be very careful. If you are overly specific, you might significantly narrow the amount of potential responses you get. You could talk about the work environment you prefer, the size of the company, how you like to interact with co-workers and clients, the type of management style you like and so on. There’s a fine line between being specific about your criteria and being demanding. If you’re having a hard time differentiating the two, then you may benefit from the assistance of an executive resume writing service.
Targeting your executive resume could be the difference between getting the exact job you want or just settling for whatever is offered to you. Feel free to contact us if you need any assistance or guidance when you’re working on targeting your executive resume.
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” That’s the key to landing the perfect executive job nowadays, in addition to flawless executive resume writing. With the amount of job boards online, newspapers and employment agencies, it’s nearly impossible to get recognized if you apply for a job through one of those avenues. Networking is the best way to find out about job openings and get your foot in the door. That’s why personal branding for senior level executives is critical for career growth. In fact, many companies won’t even post their job openings anywhere because of the vast amount of applications they receive. Here are some tips about how networking can be an effective way to land your next executive position.
Start With Who You Already Know
Make a list of all the people you know. This should include family, friends, colleagues and anyone you have come in contact with recently. Sit down and actually think about conversations you’ve had with those people. Your cousin may not work in the industry you’re interested in, but you might recall a discussion you had with him about a friend of his who is in the industry. LinkedIn is a great way to make connections through mutual friends. If you aren’t familiar with LinkedIn, it is worth your time to look into a LinkedIn profile service as soon as possible.
Strike Up Conversations
Whether you’re in a long line at the grocery store or waiting to be seated at a restaurant, start a conversation with the person next to you. Ask them what they do for a living. You never know, you may just be talking to your next boss! The point is you’ll never meet anyone who can help you get your dream executive job if you don’t talk to people. You don’t have to be outlandishly outgoing, but just making small talk could lead to something much larger.
Check Out Conferences and Events
LinkedIn and other social media outlets may not be the best way to find a job, but they are perfect for knowing what’s going on in the industry. A LinkedIn profile service can help you identify the ideal conferences and events to attend. Bring your resume or business cards to the event and hand them out to a few people. You definitely don’t want to be remembered as the person who talks to everyone, though. Instead, just meet a few people at each function you attend and see where it goes.
Just because you meet a perfect connection who could get you a job doesn’t mean it will happen overnight. Be careful when casting a wide net in your network, because you don’t want to be known as the person who’s fishing for any job. If you have any questions about how to network or the best ways to grow your network, feel free to get in touch with us for some tips!
As you probably already know, software engineering jobs are in demand, but there is also a pretty saturated talent pool. The competition is so strong, you may think you have the best resume, but one minor mistake could get yours thrown out of the pool and you’ll never know it. There isn’t one specific key to writing an effective resume to get you hired in the software engineering industry, but there are some steps you can take to give yourself the best chance at landing the job you want. Here are some things to consider when constructing your resume.
1. Highlight Your Website or Blog
We aren’t just talking about social media accounts here. If you want to be a software engineer, but don’t have your own personal website, it’s time to get one immediately. Even the best resume writing service won’t be able to highlight your attributes if they don’t have something tangible to point to. This is one of the best ways to showcase your talents and abilities and let your work speak for itself.
2. Don’t Be Generic
You don’t have to create an entirely new resume for every job you apply for, but you do need to at least tailor it to the specific position. When writing an effective resume, you need to make the employer see that you know what the position entails. If the job description asks for qualifications with documentation, systems analysis, data usage, product specifications, work processes, etc., detail clearly in your resume how you have done that. If it asks for special skills like liaising with, or training users, show how you’ve worked with users in previous roles. Follow the job description for clues as to what needs to be a priority on your resume.
3. Craft a Good Cover Letter
Some of the best cover letters are short, sweet and to the point. No recruiter is going to spend time reading a cover letter extending any longer than a few short paragraphs. A cover letter writing service can help you pinpoint what needs to be written in the letter to ensure you catch the reader’s attention. If you don’t have a good cover letter, there’s a chance your resume won’t even be seen.
4. Use Proper Keywords
Many recruiters will scan your resume and cover letter for keywords related to the open position. If you don’t have any present in your resume, it will likely get pushed to the side or trashed. Keywords can be difficult to identify, but they are critical to include. Again, use the job description to help you find the keywords. Consider hiring one of the best resume writing services if you struggle with the keywords. You definitely don’t want missing keywords to be the reason why you don’t get a shot at the job you want.
We know creating the perfect resume can be difficult, so if you have any questions along the way, feel free to get in touch with us at any point in the process!
