One of the worst things anyone can do when searching for a new job is sending in resumes randomly. Not only will the chances of landing an interview at one of those companies be very low, but it’s only going to prolong the job search process. Taking the time to prepare for a job search is well worth your time. It could even be valuable to visit an executive resume writer a few times to brush up your resume and get some tips on how to present it to potential employers. Here are some tips for preparing for your job search.
Personal Branding is Important
As much as employers want to know what hard skills you bring to the table, they also want to know your soft skills. A lot of this comes from c-level personal branding and can be a major factor in setting yourself apart from the competition. Your personal brand comes from your interactions with people, how you are perceived online, via social media and more. When you focus on c-level personal branding, your job search will fall into place more easily.
Do You Know What You’re Looking For?
It’s difficult to reach a goal if you don’t have a target to aim for. You don’t necessarily have to have a specific list of companies you wish to work for, but it’s important to know what you’re looking for in a company. Whether it’s the culture, the type of work they do, how you want to contribute to the growth or anything else, finding what makes you a good fit for any given company can help you narrow down and target specific companies.
Evaluate Your LinkedIn Profile
Nowadays, employers and HR managers are going to look at your LinkedIn profile when they see your resume. It may be worth your time to visit a LinkedIn profile writing service to ensure yours demonstrates your c-level personal branding clearly and doesn’t include anything that could potentially damage your chances of landing an interview. LinkedIn is an important tool for people searching for a job, so make sure your profile is cleaned up and ready to be viewed.
Start Networking Early
It’s never too early to start networking. Even if you currently have a job and may be considering a new job search soon, networking now could get your foot in the door for your next opportunity. Meeting with an executive resume writer first could be valuable, just to ensure your resume is as current as possible and optimized for success. Professional Resume Services enjoys helping executives with every aspect of their job search. Whether it’s crafting the perfect resume or cover letter, talking about c-level personal branding, LinkedIn profile development or anything else, we are here to help. Feel free to contact us if you’re in need of any kind of assistance with your job search.
Writing a resume should take a while due to the detailed nature of it. However, if you have more questions than answers as you’re writing it, then it could be taking longer than it needs to. It’s only natural for executives to have questions when crafting their resume, and a professional resume writing service can help answer all of them. No question is unreasonable, and here are some of the most frequently asked questions we hear.
What Length Should My Resume Be?
A common misconception is a resume should never be more than one or two pages. While this could be true for some professions, it’s acceptable to make it a little longer if you’re applying for a senior level position. The key is formatting the resume so it is easy to read, highlights your important attributes and doesn’t have big chunks of text. A professional resume writing service can help you trim some of your words, so each one is meaningful no matter how long the resume ends up being.
How Can My Resume Represent Me?
Focusing on your personal brand is the best way to make your resume give a true representation of who you are. Your resume gives you the opportunity to tell about your skills and accomplishments, as well as your soft skills like leadership ability, personality and more. Another way for your resume to be a true representation of you is to target your audience and write to them specifically.
What’s The Purpose of A Biography?
An executive resume biography shouldn’t simply summarize your resume, contrary to popular belief. Instead, it should be used as a tool to tell a story about your accomplishments and expand more on your soft skills. The goal with an executive resume biography is to provide employers with a vision of how you can help their company by expanding on your resume.
Is A Cover Letter Really Necessary?
Sometimes employers will read cover letters and sometimes they won’t. You never know which side the company is on, so it’s always best to just write one. When you work with a cover letter writing service, you can easily accomplish this and actually enhance your chances of landing an interview. Sending in a cover letter with your resume won’t hurt your chances, as long as it’s written appropriately. But not sending in a cover letter could get your resume thrown out immediately. Professional Resume Services is here to answer all of your questions pertaining to executive resumes and more. We enjoy helping job seekers with their resume and understand there are many questions throughout the process. If you ever have a question about your resume, cover letter or anything else, don’t hesitate to reach out to us and we will help you in any way we can.
Preparing for a Successful C-Level Executive Interview
Landing a c-level executive interview is difficult enough, but the challenges aren’t over. No matter how many times you’ve been a part of one of these interviews, they are never easy. Luckily, just like you prepared for writing an effective resume, you can also successfully prepare for a c-level interview. Simulating an interview is beneficial, but it’s also important to be flexible since you don’t know what questions will be asked or how much pressure you’ll be under. Here are some of our best tips for preparing for a successful c-level interview.
Think of Your Own Questions to Ask
Sprinkling in your own questions throughout the interview process has many benefits. It demonstrates you’ve done your homework on the company, if you ask those types of questions, and it also relieves some of the pressure from you. Your professional resume writing service can help you come up with effective questions if you are unsure what to ask. Just be sure to only ask a few of them throughout the entire interview so you don’t overdo it.
Practice A Calm Tone of Voice
Your tone of voice can change when nerves and anxiety take over. A cool and calm demeanor when answering questions will demonstrate your ability to handle pressure well and earn their trust. Always talk in a positive tone and present solutions to problems brought up in the interview. Never give off the vibe of being frustrated or negative, as these characteristics are clear and easy to identify.
Know How You’ll Address Salary Negotiations
The best executive resume writers can help you think about strategies when it comes to negotiating your salary. It’s best to be as general as possible, so you don’t end up with a lowball offer. On the same hand, you don’t want to demand so much that they don’t even consider hiring you. You can do this by giving a wide range you’re looking for, or even telling the interviewers roughly how much money you’ve made in the past few years. Just like with writing an effective resume, how you present yourself during the salary negotiations makes a big difference in whether you get the job or not.
Anticipate Questions
To best anticipate questions, take another close look at your resume. Your professional resume writing service likely helped you present yourself as an expert in the industry, so chances are several of the interview questions will come straight from the resume. For example, if you include some statistics or dollar amounts on your resume, you can expect to be asked about how you achieved those numbers. It’s hard to predict exactly how the questions will be asked, but you can get a good idea of the types of questions that could be asked just by looking at your resume. Professional Resume Services not only helps executives with writing an effective resume, but we also help throughout the job search process. C-level interviews can be stressful to prepare for, but we are here to help relieve some of the stress so you can feel confident throughout the process. Feel free to contact us at any time for tips or advice on preparing to have a successful c-level executive interview.
Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Your Personal Brand
If you’re trying to make a name for yourself in any industry, spending a significant time focusing on your c-level personal branding is critical. It can take years to build your personal brand to the level you want it to be at, but avoiding some common mistakes along the way can help accelerate the process and prevent it from having the opposite impact. You’re going to spend a lot of time shaping your brand anyway, so you might as well do it right the first time. Here are a few of the most common mistakes executives make when creating their personal brand.
Being Fake
People can see right through a person when they aren’t authentic. You can optimize your LinkedIn profile to make yourself sound like an expert at everything, but that will only get you so far. You have to be able to back up everything you say on your profile when you make connections in person. Not only will being fake limit your opportunities, but it could cause permanent damage to your c-level personal branding efforts.
Not Making Your Message Clear
In order to make your message clear, you have to know what you’re trying to say. The presentation of your appearance and overall demeanor either online or in-person must match. So when you optimize your LinkedIn profile, make sure your profile picture is a professional headshot rather than a more casual photo. Complete alignment with your overall message is critical to create the strongest personal brand.
Not Targeting Your Audience
It doesn’t do your brand or company a lot of good if you don’t know whom to market your brand to. When it comes to personal branding for senior level managers, you have to be able to connect with your audience in order to make a name for yourself or your company. When your audience can make a personal connection with you, then you’ll be able to effectively cater your brand toward them.
Only Focusing on Certain Aspects of Your Brand
An overlooked aspect of c-level personal branding is not aligning your business brand with your personal brand. If people don’t agree with your personal brand, then your business brand will take a significant hit. The best way to earn and keep business today is through trust, and if a consumer’s trust wavers, then your brand will not be very strong. Professional Resume Services is here to help executives not only craft the perfect resume, but also develop their c-level personal branding. There are many aspects to creating a personal brand, and we will help you throughout the process to ensure all bases are covered. If you ever need assistance or advice about your personal or business brand, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
3 Ways Executive Branding Can Help Your Potential Employers
When you think about personal branding for senior level managers, it’s only natural to think about your own career and how it benefits you. However, the company you work for also plays a large role in your own branding and vice versa. An important and overlooked factor in c-level personal branding is exactly how it impacts your current or potential employers. The strongest companies today have the best leaders at the top whose brands align with the company mission and values. Here are a few ways executive branding can benefit your employers.
Boost Your Company’s Brand Recognition
Associating a person with a company is becoming more common nowadays. Consumers want to be able to relate and engage with a brand. So when you have established a solid brand for yourself, the company you work for will benefit from it as well by having a cohesive brand recognition. An interesting concept is when an executive leaves one company for another, and how the move impacts both companies. Most of the time the actual person isn’t affected much, but consumers have a decision to make whether to follow a person or to be loyal to a company.
Create Trust For Everyone
Trust is essential to boost your c-level personal branding. There’s no surefire way to damage your company’s reputation than by being seen as an untrustworthy person. On the other hand, when a company has a reputation of trustworthiness, and your brand is aligned with those values, everyone as a whole will benefit. Authenticity is essential in today’s business world, since consumers can identify a fraud from a mile away. The more people who believe what you say, the more trustworthy you and your company will be.
Expand Reach Through Connectedness
One way to boost personal branding for senior level managers is by being engaged with your LinkedIn profile. Connecting with others online is a great way to increase brand recognition, trust and expand your company’s reach. Simply being active on social media in engaging ways will naturally improve your brand. Just be careful with everything you put on the Internet, since one misstep can damage the brand you’ve worked so hard to build. Professional Resume Services is here to help executives with their c-level personal branding. Whether it’s by optimizing your LinkedIn profile or creating a stellar resume for a networking event, we are here for you when you need us. To learn more about executive branding and how it can benefit you and your company, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
In the past, having a strong personal brand was seen as a luxury to put yourself ahead of your competition. However, as technology and the digital world in general has advanced, boosting your c-level personal branding is a necessity to keep up with the competition. And if you aren’t careful, your brand will be shaped for you. Personal branding for senior level managers doesn’t happen overnight, and you can’t stop working on it once you’ve reached a certain point. It’s an ongoing process that needs nurturing and attention at all times. But why is this so important? Here are some things to consider about designing your own personal brand.
Manage Your Reputation
Your online reputation means more than just about anything else today when it comes to c-level personal branding. People can say whatever they want to about you on the Internet. Managing your reputation means seeing what is being said about you and taking the necessary steps to clean up any of the negative comments and build on the positive ones. And any time you are active on social media, make sure every single comment or post reflects your brand in the way you want it to be perceived.
Create Content Based on Your Brand
Many executives write books, articles or blogs to boost their c-level personal branding. It doesn’t necessarily matter which one you choose, but it does matter how the content is presented and perceived. Content creation is a great method for increasing exposure, but using the right means for sharing the content is also important.
Have Instant Credibility For Future Jobs
When you’ve designed your brand effectively and manage it appropriately, you’ll have a ton of credibility for any future job you hold. Combine your c-level personal branding with using the best executive resume writing service and your options will be wide open as far as potential employers. Of course, if you’re currently happy at the job you have now, then you can still continue to boost your credibility to enhance your brand and the company’s brand.
Design Your Brand So Others Don’t
When it comes to personal branding for senior level managers, if you don’t work towards designing your own brand, then other people will do it for you. This is a challenge many executives with high visibility have. With the digital world we live in today, people are more expressive than ever before. Opinions can quickly be perceived as factual, and can quickly damage your reputation if you don’t manage it and constantly work to design it. Professional Resume Services takes pride in being the best executive resume writing service, but we are more than that. We want to help our clients with every aspect of a job search, or simply provide tips on how to boost their brand. Our focus is always on helping you achieve your goals, so feel free to contact us at any time to see how we can do so.
When you first sit down to write your resume from scratch, it’s normal to sit there for several minutes before you write your first word. Where to begin writing an effective resume is difficult, especially in today’s competitive world. But even if you have a resume you’ve used in the past, chances are some significant adjustments need to be made if you’re searching for a new job. This brings up the point of targeting your resume to match the specific job description you’re looking at. You probably have heard from an executive resume service that it’s important to do so, but in what ways are you supposed to match them? Here are some tips to consider when writing your resume.
Focus on Keywords in The Job Description
The best professional resume writers will print out a job description, grab a highlighter and mark each keyword they can find. These keywords should describe the particular candidate the employer is looking for, as well as the strengths and skills you possess. Once you identify them all, plug them into your resume as high on the page as possible. Include as many keywords as you can, but be careful not to stuff too many of them in to make it sound unnatural.
Think About How A Potential Employer Reads Your Resume
It’s easy to talk about your past experiences and accomplishments. The biggest mistake professionals make is talking about previous achievements that aren’t relevant to the job they are applying for. When writing an effective resume, you have to write it while thinking about how a potential employer will read it. They want to see what value you bring to the table specifically for their company, and don’t necessarily care about anything else. By looking closely at the job description, the best professional resume writers can identify what’s appropriate to mention and what should be avoided.
Discover What You Truly Want From A Job
A common misconception about writing an effective resume is it should be more general instead of focused. The idea is the more general your resume is, the better your chances are of landing another open position, even if you don’t qualify for the one you really want. This can lead to a sloppy resume and an unfocused job search effort. Taking the time to truly discover what you want from a job, from a salary standpoint, cultural standpoint, work/life balance and more will help you target your resume. Professional Resume Services is an executive resume service that helps professionals write resumes that stand out. We will always ask for the job description of any job you are interested in and tailor your resume to match it. Our professional resume writers have experience in many different industries, so never hesitate to contact us if you need assistance with yours.
No matter how strong you think your resume is, there’s always room for improvement. Even the top rated resume writing services will write, proof and edit any given resume multiple times before it gets into the final form. Sometimes it only takes some minor tweaks, but other times a complete overhaul is necessary. In order to make your resume stand out, here are some secrets to strengthen it.
Utilize Keywords Properly
Potential employers look for keywords at the top of every resume. When you’re writing a professional resume, it’s important to use unique keywords that stand out, rather than using general ones used by every other applicant. Instead of saying you are a “team player,” write about a specific project in which you were a team leader and had to collaborate with others in your organization. The exact keywords can come from either the job description or the industry you work in, but the focus should be specific and unique.
Balance The Design of Your Resume
The best executive resume format will stand out, but not go overboard. The perfect balance incorporates white space and not having big blocks of text. Your goal is for your reader to glance quickly at the resume and notice something different about it. Even a two-second pause is enough time to get the reader to think about reading more. Bullet points are also critical components when writing a professional resume, and it’s easy to incorporate them when you have more than two sentences in any given section.
Control Where Your Reader’s Eyes Go
The top rated resume writing services you use will help you dictate what the reader actually looks at. The strongest resumes have two different parts to them, even though it’s just a single resume. Having a quick visual appeal when the reader glances at it is the first part. But then the content has to be interesting and relevant for the reader to continue reading – the second part. Using bold text, italics and underlining are easy ways to draw your reader’s attention to important points you want them to see. Without these small visual cues, the information you want them to see may get looked over without a second thought. Professional Resume Services is one of the top rated resume writing services for a reason. We are always looking for ways to improve the resumes of our clients, even if we created them from scratch to begin with. By incorporating these secrets into your resume, you’ll have a stronger and more engaging document for a potential employer to read. Feel free to contact us at any time for more tips on how to improve your executive resume.
One of the worst things anyone can do when searching for a new job is sending in resumes randomly. Not only will the chances of landing an interview at one of those companies be very low, but it’s only going to prolong the job search process. Taking the time to prepare for a job search is well worth your time. It could even be valuable to visit an executive resume writer a few times to brush up your resume and get some tips on how to present it to potential employers. Here are some tips for preparing for your job search.
In the past, having a strong personal brand was seen as a luxury to put yourself ahead of your competition. However, as technology and the digital world in general has advanced, boosting your c-level personal branding is a necessity to keep up with the competition. And if you aren’t careful, your brand will be shaped for you. 
