Asking for advice when you’re struggling with making a decision can be valuable. However, when it comes to getting career advice, you have to be careful who you’re listening to. Most people you ask won’t intentionally give you bad advice, but it also may not be very valuable to you. The best executive resume services will typically offer different bits of information than you would receive from family, friends, co-workers or anyone else. Here’s how to know if you’re listening to bad advice and what to do instead of following it.
Set Realistic Expectations
One of the most vague things anyone can tell you is the ability to be anything you want to be. Better career advice is to take a look at your skills and desires and set a more realistic path for success. It’s never a bad thing to dream about being at a certain level in your profession, but you can’t overlook the work it takes to get to that point. Start by working on your c-level personal branding and achieving realistic expectations before reaching for the pinnacle of your profession.
Don’t Choose A Career Based On Money
You may have also heard to choose a career based on the salary if you aren’t sure exactly what you want to do. This may be great for a couple of years, but it will be short-lived excitement if you don’t like going to your job every day. Instead, focus on long-term happiness by looking at the values a company offers, the culture within the organization, the opportunity for advancement and growth and more. Believe it or not, the people who are motivated solely by money are typically the people who aren’t happy with their jobs and overall lifestyle, with some exceptions, of course.
Choose Your Network Wisely
Take a look at your LinkedIn profile and see how many connections you have. Many experts tell people to get as many LinkedIn connections as they can, because you never know who you will cross paths with. However, the quality of your connections is typically much more valuable than the quantity. Having a dozen or so quality connections on your LinkedIn profile will be more beneficial to you than having hundreds of connections you don’t even know personally.
Patience Usually Won’t Move Your Career Forward
There’s a time and place to be patient in your career. Too many times you see people getting passed up for advancement by people who were more aggressive. There was a time when the duration of your tenure with an organization played a factor in promotion opportunities. However, the times have changed and tenure isn’t quite as important. It’s more important to step up and ask for more responsibilities, demonstrate your leadership qualities and make it known you want to move forward in your career. You’ll likely have much better results compared to being patient and waiting your turn. Professional Resume Services provides the best executive resume services tailored to your specific needs and desires. We are always willing to offer career advice based on our years of experience, but will never provide advice to people who don’t want to hear it. Our goal is to help you find the job and career you desire, so feel free to contact us at any time when you need us.
With the busy lives everyone has, it’s easy to lose touch with people in your network over the course of months or years. Because of this, many people think it’s inappropriate to reach back out to reconnect for various reasons. The truth is your connections are likely just as busy and may even want to reconnect as well. You’ll never know until you try, but there are effective ways to reconnect while avoiding any awkwardness. Working with a LinkedIn profile service may be beneficial before you do so, though. Your connection may not completely remember where you were the last time you spoke, so having an updated profile can give them a refresher and increase the likelihood of them responding.
Reach Out Via LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a valuable platform for many reasons, and reaching out to past connections is one of them. If the connection was a cold contact to begin with, you can simply start out by re-introducing yourself and reminding them of where you met and what you talked about. When you use a professional LinkedIn profile writer, be sure and tell them all of your past experiences so you’ll have a profile that’s as complete as possible. Most of your connections will remember you, depending on how long it’s been, but it never hurts to give them as much information as possible on your profile to help them out.
Be Personal And Honest, As Appropriate
If you had a close relationship with a particular connection, starting out by saying it’s been too long since you last talked can be a good ice breaker. They will likely agree with you and respond back with similar feelings. You could even share a personal moment that recently happened in your life, such as a marriage, birth of a child, change of career or more. Simply sparking a conversation is all it takes, and you don’t need a professional LinkedIn profile writer in order to be genuine with your connections.
Provide Them With Value
When you look on a past connection’s LinkedIn profile, see what they’ve been up to lately and share something of value to them. This could be an interesting article or another resource for their career or personal interests. Any conversation that starts off with you providing value to them, rather than you trying to sell yourself, will usually end with a greater result. A LinkedIn profile service can help you sell yourself on your profile, but it’s not appropriate to do so when reconnecting with people in your network. Professional Resume Services does more than simply help executives with writing a professional resume. Networking is a huge part of any career, and doing so the right way can help you easily reconnect with people in your network. This is often times more effective than finding new connections, so it’s well worth the time and effort. If you’re ever unsure about how to utilize LinkedIn to reach out to your network, give us a call for more helpful tips and advice.
Are You Prepared for the Ultimate Previous Job Interview Question?
Preparing for a job interview can be just as intense as writing an effective resume. You’re challenged with anticipating the questions you’ll be asked in order to be prepared appropriately, but you also don’t want to sound scripted when you answer. The one question you’ll inevitably be asked will revolve around your previous employer. Most of the time the question is phrased negatively, such as “what didn’t you like about your previous job.” This is a tricky question for many reasons. You may have left on bad terms, so it’s difficult to say anything positive about it. Here’s how to prepare yourself to answer this question most effectively and not hurt your chances of getting the job.
Be Honest, But Not Harsh
You can’t lie to your interviewers and say your previous job was great if you know it wasn’t. You will likely mention your job duties in your executive bio, so focus on those tasks when answering the question honestly. Talk about how you wish some aspects of your role would have been different and how the role simply wasn’t a good fit for you.
Don’t Bash Past Co-Workers
Never talk bad about previous co-workers. The more you talk about how you didn’t have a good relationship with your boss or other employees, the more doubt will creep into the interviewer’s mind that you may not be a good fit from a personality standpoint. Instead, focus on specific tasks where you may not have been able to demonstrate your full skill set and how you may have been happier if you were assigned those tasks.
Be Careful When Talking About Job Duties
A professional resume writing service will get creative when explaining job duties on a resume. It’s important to put the most relevant duties on your resume, but be careful with what you talk about in an interview. The more negative you talk about job duties, the better the chances are that you’ll end up talking negatively about a duty you may have at your new job.
Make A Negative Experience More Positive
Just like when writing an effective resume, you should strive to be positive at all times in your interview. You can address the negative aspects of your previous job by using the tips mentioned above, while putting a positive spin on them. Talk about what you learned and how it made you a better person and worker as a result. Tie the entire story into why you believe you’re a great fit for the company’s open position. At Professional Resume Services, we understand the interview process is just as important as writing an effective resume. That’s why we believe we are more than just a professional resume writing service. We enjoy helping professionals prepare for interview questions so they have a better chance of landing the job they desire. For more tips like this, feel free to contact us at any time and we would be happy to assist.
How to Write and Get Great LinkedIn Recommendations
People have different opinions about LinkedIn recommendations. When you work with a LinkedIn profile development expert, they will likely tell you they are important to have from a quality standpoint rather than a quantity standpoint. Your executive LinkedIn profile should support your own personal brand in many different ways, and getting recommendations from your network can help. One tip to get the best recommendations is to write quality recommendations of your own. Here are some tips for doing both.
What to Include When Writing Recommendations
When you’re writing a LinkedIn recommendation for a connection, think about what you would want someone to say about you. Be specific when it comes to your experience with working with them, or how you know what they bring to the table. Grab the reader’s attention with the first sentence and be very clear as to why you think they will succeed in any given endeavor. And never hesitate to ask your connection what information they would like you to include in the recommendation as well, so it’s tailored appropriately.
Best Ways To Get LinkedIn Recommendations
Any LinkedIn profile development expert will say the best way to receive a recommendation is to give one yourself. People are more willing to write one if they receive one first, so go ahead and take the first step. Your executive LinkedIn profile includes a feature that allows you to ask for a recommendation as well. You can send a personalized message to your connection to request a recommendation, so take advantage of this feature. And be sure to send them a sincere thank you message when they give it to you. Or better yet, write one for them as well.
Don’t Just Hand Out or Accept All Recommendations
As we mentioned previously, quality is better than quantity when it comes to LinkedIn recommendations. LinkedIn gives you the opportunity to review your recommendations before they get posted on your profile. Don’t just accept every recommendation without reading them first. You want to make sure it matches your personal brand before accepting. On the other hand, you could harm your own reputation if you give out a recommendation every time you’re asked. Unless you worked closely with the person or know them very well, proceed with caution before writing one. Hiring managers and recruiters can tell a genuine recommendation from a fabricated one, so it’s not worth it just to make someone happy. Professional Resume Services is more than just a team of the best professional resume writers. We focus on many aspects of professional careers, from networking to relationship building to LinkedIn profile development and beyond. Being a well-rounded professional is difficult since there are so many aspects involved, but we are here to help. Feel free to reach out to us at any time if there’s anything we can assist with regarding your career aspirations.
As a job candidate, you have to know what works and what doesn’t work with your job search to ensure you make progress every single day. One of the most effective strategies for any job search is networking. With quality c-level personal branding, networking can lead you to many new connections, as well as the possibility of being referred to a company’s hiring manager. This relationship between networking and referrals is underestimated by many professionals, but the truth is companies would much rather pick from referrals than random job candidates.
Why Companies Prefer Referrals
In most cases, the speed of the hiring process is much faster when working with referrals. From an employer’s standpoint, if one of their employees refers a potential candidate, chances are they will be a high quality candidate, a good fit, have a better chance of hiring them quickly and may even lead to other quality candidates. This is especially true if the employee who made the referral understands the importance of c-level personal branding. A hiring manager is more willing to trust one of their own employees rather than a resume they received from other outlets.
Can Networking Make You A Referral?
So now that you know how important being a referral is to a potential employer, how do you become one? Networking is the easy answer. You can start by working with an executive LinkedIn profile writer to ensure your online brand is represented appropriately. You can then use the LinkedIn platform to re-engage with current connections or make new connections based on your interests. One misconception many people have is that networking is all about asking for a job. The reality is networking is about building relationships and seeing where they lead. It never hurts to let your connections know you’re looking for a job and explain your qualifications, though. While companies tend to hire referrals quicker, from a candidate standpoint, becoming a referral may take a little longer since you have to build a strong relationship with your network.
Remember A Referral Only Gets Your Foot In The Door
When you’ve ultimately been referred to a company for a position of interest, it doesn’t mean you have the job wrapped up. You have to remember there are likely other referrals that are candidates as well. Don’t put off visiting the top resume writing services, since it could be the difference in you getting the job or not. Being a referral definitely gives you a better chance of getting the job, but it’s far from a guarantee. Professional Resume Services is known as one of the top resume writing services, but we also help professionals in many other ways. Building your network and earning referrals can open the door to many opportunities, whether you’re looking for them or not. To learn more about this relationship and how you can use it to enhance your career, feel free to contact us at any time.
Is Your Lack of Personal Branding Holding You Back From the Perfect Job?
There are many things that could potentially hold you back from landing your dream job, and none of them are more notable than a lack of c-level personal branding. Having a perfect resume is still essential today, but it won’t get you a job on its own in most cases. You have the opportunity to shape your personal brand however you want. Every action you take or don’t take has an impact on your personal brand, so it’s always a good idea to keep this at the forefront of your mind. Here are some tips for effective c-level personal branding to help you land the job you desire.
Narrow Down Your Personal Brand
When you’re searching for the perfect job, it’s important to understand what the particular company values. You may be a good overall person, but companies want to know exactly what you bring to the table. Find out what the company needs and shape your c-level personal branding around it. This can include shaping your resume, LinkedIn profile, executive profile and more to ensure consistency throughout. When you narrow down your personal brand, you’ll also be able to conduct a more targeted job search and give yourself a better opportunity to land the perfect job.
A Strong Personal Brand Doesn’t Mean Boasting
A common misconception among executives is personal branding requires you to brag on yourself. The reality is the opposite is true. No one likes to work with someone who constantly brags on themselves. The key to personal branding for senior level managers is showing your authenticity. Present yourself in a way that demonstrates the value you bring to the table, rather than telling everyone why you are better than them. Let the employer decide that part, but your role is to be confident in what you offer and stand behind it completely.
Improving Personal Branding Every Day
When you have an understanding that every action impacts your c-level personal branding, it will be easier to improve it. You don’t have to attend a networking event every day to boost your brand. Being conscious about the conversations you have with anyone, inside or outside of the office, can help you maintain your brand. You never know what conversation will lead to a new opportunity, so it’s always important to keep your personal brand at the top of your mind. Professional Resume Services helps executives with their c-level personal branding efforts every day. It’s one of the most important aspects of a job search, along with crafting a perfect resume. The two go hand-in-hand for any job search, and we can help you with both. Feel free to contact us at any time to see how we can help you in all areas of your job search.
3 Strategies for a Successful Executive Job Search
Going through an executive job search today is much different than it was a decade ago. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the need for a quality resume. With the competition and the tools used by companies to filter out resumes, many professionals rely on the best executive resume writers to help them out. In fact, this is one of the first things anyone should do to help get their job search started correctly. Once you have a perfect resume, you can incorporate these three strategies to give your job search efforts a boost.
Avoid Online Job Boards
It’s tempting to jump on online job boards after the best executive resume writers finish up your resume. However, even those resume writers will tell you it’s probably not the best idea. Online job boards often times have old job postings or inaccurate job descriptions, not to mention the hundreds or thousands of applicants they receive every single day. Your chances of even having your resume viewed with human eyes are slim-to-none. There’s nothing wrong with looking at online job boards to get an idea of what openings companies of interest may have, but actually applying for those jobs online isn’t usually the best option.
Incorporate Networking
Find local networking events and attend them regularly if you can. Start by brushing up your LinkedIn profile and connecting with people through it. You can even use your findings from online job boards to search for people who work at the companies that interest you. Many executives aren’t natural networkers, so starting off a conversation through LinkedIn is a great way to break the ice, make the face-to-face interactions much easier and define your c-level personal branding. Always have a business card ready and hand them out to the people you connect with the most.
Target Companies of Interest
Make a list of several companies you’re interested in working for, then do extensive research on them. The best executive resume writers will ask you what companies you believe you are a good fit for, so they can tailor your resume to them. Your list of companies can come from your networking efforts, online research, past co-workers and more. When you hand over a resume to a potential employer, they want to see what value you will bring to them. A general resume won’t give them the information they want to see, so targeting the company in your resume will yield the best results. Professional Resume Services is here to help executives have a seamless job search. We understand going through a job search can be stressful, time consuming and sometimes frustrating. Whether you need tips on improving your c-level personal branding, updating your resume or anything else related to your search, always feel free to contact us at any time and we would be happy to help.
What to Change on Your Executive Resume When Applying to Multiple Jobs
We’ve all been a part of a job search before where you put so much effort into writing an effective resume that you want to send it out to as many companies as possible. This is actually one of the worst things you can do, since the resume is most likely generic in nature. Hiring managers can easily identify a generic resume and will toss it out as soon as it’s identified. For the best results, the top resume writing services suggest tailoring each resume you send out to the actual company you’re sending it to. This may seem like a huge time investment, but when you know exactly what to change, it’s not as daunting of a task as you think. Here are some of the main things to consider changing when you apply to multiple jobs.
Locate Appropriate Keywords
The same types of jobs will have different job descriptions. In a world where every resume has to pass through ATS to get into the hands of a human, you have to use the right keywords for each job posting. Read through the entire description and pick out all the soft skills, hard skills and job-specific skills you can find. Then look at your resume and incorporate as many of them as possible without making it sound unnatural.
Add Statistics
Take these keywords to the next level and add an eye-catching statistic whenever possible. Hiring managers like to see percentages or dollar amounts on a resume because it puts your words into perspective and makes you sound much more credible and specific. Simply saying you boosted your company’s bottom line the past three years doesn’t have the same type of impact as saying you increased the bottom line by 10% one year, 13% the next year and 15% the following year. Your executive resume service will ask you to provide them with these statistics so they can incorporate them throughout the resume as appropriate.
Tailor Your Skills To The Company’s Requirements
Do some research on the company’s website before altering your resume. You may be able to identify their areas of need and be able to point them out. Companies and hiring managers don’t necessarily care what you did at your previous jobs. They just want to know what value you will provide their company. The top resume writing services can help you with using your past experience to demonstrate how your skills will transfer to their company and create similar results. Professional Resume Services helps executives with writing an effective resume every day. Having a unique resume for every job you apply for is extremely valuable and well worth the time and effort. Many times you don’t have to significantly change your resume. A few tweaks and additions here and there can make a big difference. If you ever need assistance with your resume, don’t hesitate to reach out to us for tips or advice.
