Getting a new job offer is exciting, especially if it comes with a significant salary increase. However, many executives only look at the size of the paycheck and don’t look at other aspects, especially if a job relocation is required. Sometimes a fresh start is exactly what an executive needs at some point in their career, but picking up and moving your family is easier said than done. Your professional resume writing service may help you land a new job in another city or state, but consider these points before you pick up and move.
Consider The Cost of Living
Understanding the cost of living in your new city will help you determine whether the higher salary is worth it. Many candidates find the higher salary is equivalent to the higher cost of living, making the move essentially a wash. Of course, everyone has their own reasons for wanting to relocate, and money may not be the only factor. You may be able to check the LinkedIn profile of other professionals in your field who live in your potential new city. Don’t hesitate to message them directly to get more information and make a new contact.
Think About Your New Commute To Work
If you don’t like spending hours every day commuting to work, then you need to consider your options. Check on public transportation, parking, high traffic areas and more. Some cities are known for having bad traffic, so you don’t want to put yourself in a situation where you have to sit in traffic for hours, especially if you don’t have to with your current job. Again, this is where checking in on the LinkedIn profile of another professional can help you gain a better understanding of the area.
How Will Your Relocation Affect Your Family?
No matter how effective you are at writing a professional resume and ultimately landing a new job, you need to consider how the job relocation will affect your family. If you are single with nothing to lose, then this may not be an issue for you. However, dealing with the stresses of moving can be difficult for a family. Whether it’s your spouse’s job considerations, children’s education or other points, be sure to cover all aspects so your family is comfortable with the move as well. Professional Resume Services is a professional resume writing service dedicated to helping executives land the jobs they desire. Relocating for a job is difficult on everyone, but many times the benefits outweigh the negatives. Be sure to contact us to learn more about writing a professional resume or for other tips about job relocation.
Writing executive resume cover letters is challenging enough. Executives may spend a significant amount of time writing their cover letter, only to have a simple mistake cost them the job. It’s easy to focus on the technical details and ensuring you’ve included the most important aspects of your skills and experience in your cover letter. However, you also have to make sure the most common mistakes are avoided. Here are the top three most common executive cover letter mistakes to look for.
Misspelled Words
Typographical errors happen, but you can’t let them happen in an executive bio or cover letter. A misspelled word could demonstrate to an employer your lack of attention to detail. Since your executive cover letter makes the first impression, some employers will assume these types of mistakes will happen in your work as well, and not hire you as a result. It’s not necessarily the fact that you made a typographical error, but not catching the error looks more concerning.
Including Too Much Information
Any cover letter writing service will tell you to keep your executive cover letter short and to the point. Employers aren’t going to spend a lot of time reading a cover letter. If they see a huge block of text on a page, they may not even read the first sentence before tossing it aside. A clear and concise cover letter demonstrates your ability to communicate effectively. Having too much information can be portrayed as having poor communication skills, which isn’t a good trait to have as an executive.
Hard-to-Read Format
The use of white space, bullet points, margins and other formatting technicalities are important. When you look at your executive resume cover letters, you should be looking at a clean page that’s easy to read. Your cover letter represents you, so if you don’t take pride in how it looks, what are you telling an employer? How you represent yourself is usually a reflection of how you will represent the company, so use a cover letter writing service if you’re struggling with how to format yours. Professional Resume Services has helped hundreds of executives write their executive resume cover letters to perfection. Mistakes are easy to make, and not correcting them can be costly for your job prospects. Whether you need to start fresh with a new cover letter, or if you only need to tweak your current one a bit, reach out to us and we will be glad to help you.
Online C-Level Personal Branding Skills That Entice Employers
You may have written a well-crafted resume, but you can’t rely solely on it to get a new executive position. The importance of c-level personal branding today can’t be understated. The executives who take it seriously and work to improve theirs will always be ahead of the curve. There are certain online c-level personal branding skills that stand out among the rest, from an employer perspective. Here are a few of those skills to keep in mind and try to demonstrate as much as possible to entice a potential employer.
Demonstrate Your Skills By Writing
You’re likely very experienced in your industry, so employers need to know about it. The first place to start is your LinkedIn profile. You have the freedom to write as little or as much as you want on your profile, so take advantage of the space. However, just be careful not to overcrowd your page with a lot of text, since potential employers won’t spend much time reading it. It may be valuable to you to hire a LinkedIn profile writing service to get your initial page set up, then you can update it as needed.
Create and Update Your Own Website
Having your own website shows you have the drive and confidence to market yourself. Employers like this attribute, since they would expect those skills to translate well to their company. You must make sure you always keep your website updated to highlight your most recently acquired skills and experiences. Consider writing a blog on your website once or twice a week to keep fresh and relevant content on your page. And always include a link to your LinkedIn profile.
Be A Social Media Guru
Utilize social media to promote your skills and improve your c-level personal branding, but be careful not to go overboard. There are several social media platforms you could choose, so be sure you use the right one. LinkedIn is always the best choice for executives, but if you use Facebook and Twitter the right way, you may find value in those as well. Promoting the fresh content from your website through social media is a great way to be active on social media and improve your online brand. Professional Resume Services not only helps executives write their resumes, but can also help with LinkedIn profile development. Building your online brand is critical in today’s business world, and we can help you get started. Feel free to contact us at any time when you’re ready to promote your online brand to entice potential employers.
Having a digital presence in today’s business world is invaluable. However, some people only focus on improving their digital brand, which is a big mistake. Business cards have been effective since the beginning of time, and it hasn’t changed. Technology has made certain things easier for executives, but there are also plenty of challenges if you solely rely on it. Focusing on writing an executive bio on your LinkedIn page is great, but you still need a business card for people to find you. Here are some important points to consider when it comes to business cards for executives.
Business Cards Are Still Respected
Whether you’re at a formal networking event, or you just happen to meet someone in passing, they may ask you for your business card. And if you don’t have one, your credibility is going to take a hit. Trading business cards is still expected for executives, so do yourself a favor and always have several handy. This practice is one of the most respected and expected methods of trading information, so you could be the talk of the event in a negative way if you don’t have a business card to offer.
Be Careful Going Completely Digital
When you learn how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, it can be easy to go completely digital in your networking efforts. The truth is other professionals want to have your information readily available at all times, rather than searching for you on LinkedIn. Even if you have your LinkedIn URL on your business card, it’s still more effective handing them a business card than just saying “look me up on LinkedIn for all the information you need.”
Accuracy Is Never A Question With A Business Card
If you verbally give someone your email address or phone number to write down, the chances of them transposing numbers or not spelling your name correctly increases. But when you have the information on a business card, accuracy is never a question. Similar to writing an executive bio, being clear and concise with the information displayed on your business card is invaluable and can improve your brand even more so than your LinkedIn profile. Professional Resume Services is an executive resume service dedicated to helping professionals with their resumes, cover letters, LinkedIn profiles and even business cards. Whether you need help simply writing an executive bio or need to start drafting a resume from scratch, feel free to contact us at any time for assistance.
As an executive, you have to give off the appearance and perception of being a well polished professional who makes few mistakes. One of the most common ways an executive can damage their reputation is by not having proper email etiquette. With email being the primary form of communication for many businesses, it’s always important to revisit some of the unwritten rules. Otherwise, even the cleanest and most impressive executive bio won’t be effective when you send it to a recruiter or even a close colleague. Here are some tips to consider.
Never Discuss Private Matters Over Email
Discussing private matters over email with anyone in a professional setting is never good. Emails never go away, and you never know when one could be used against you. If you have a private matter to discuss with someone in your office, go talk to them about it instead of putting it in writing.
Respond Timely
The general rule of thumb is an executive should respond to any given email within 24-48 hours. Not doing so makes it seem like you don’t place much importance on the sender’s email, which can give them a negative perception of you. In a way, this could go with your LinkedIn profile development as well, since people could reach out to you via the LinkedIn messaging system. Consider LinkedIn to be similar to email in a sense that timely responses are needed.
Avoid Using Slang or Jargon
If you use slang or jargon in text messages with family or friends, don’t let those words translate to email in a professional setting. You don’t need a professional resume writing service to tell you these words don’t follow the rules of email etiquette. Not only will you look unprofessional, but you may even hurt your chances at getting a raise in the long-term if you use slang or jargon to the wrong person.
Be Clear and Concise
People don’t want to read an email multiple times to determine what you’re actually saying or asking for. On the same note, keeping emails short and concise as much as possible will demonstrate your respect for the reader’s time. If you have to type out several paragraphs to get your point across, it may be time to set up a quick phone call to discuss the matter more quickly. Professional Resume Services can help you with email etiquette tips, LinkedIn profile development, writing your executive bio or anything else related to a job search. Our professionals are ready to help you no matter where you are in your career, so feel free to contact us at any time to schedule an appointment.
Most executives have a lot of experience and have accomplished many different things. However, if you don’t keep track of them all, it’s easy to forget them over the years. Tracking your work wins is important for many reasons. You may want to present the accomplishments to your boss when you think you need a raise, or you may need to update your LinkedIn profile for the first time in a while. Regardless, tracking your work accomplishments as they happen will help you refer to them quickly and easily, and here are some tips on how to do it.
Keep A Journal
Sometimes writing your accomplishments the traditional way with a pen, paper and a journal is most effective. Keep the journal handy at your desk so you can easily pull it out and add a new entry as needed. Just remember to write down as many details as you can so it’s easy to recall it when writing an effective resume.
Utilize A Voice Recorder
Don’t have your journal handy, or don’t have time to write down your accomplishments anywhere? Pull out your phone and record the feat verbally. Then you only have to remember to go back and document the recording when the time is more convenient for you.
Download A Reliable App
There are several apps for your mobile device you can download to keep records like these. Any executive resume writer will tell you to document more details than you think is necessary, because you can always filter through them later and only include the most important ones on your resume or LinkedIn profile.
Update Your Resume
Keeping a running update on your executive resume is probably the best way to keep track of your accomplishments. It will make the process of writing an effective resume much easier when it’s constantly updated. You may choose to write more information than needed on a resume and edit it later, or you can keep it clean and make a simple bullet point entry every time you accomplish something new. Professional Resume Services wants to help make your resume writing experience as seamless as possible. When you work with an executive resume writer, you’ll understand the importance of tracking your work wins and how to display them prominently on your resume. Be sure to contact us if you are in need of help with any aspect of writing your executive resume.
Ask Yourself These Three Questions Before You Resign
It’s completely healthy and natural to take a step back and evaluate your current job situation occasionally. This is especially true if you used to be happy going to work every day, but now your attitude has changed for some reason. The knee-jerk reaction is to immediately start looking for another job, and possibly even resign from your current position abruptly when things aren’t going well. However, before you visit the best resume writing service to help brush up your resume prior to resigning, consider these three questions.
What Do I Not Like About My Current Job?
Sometimes things aren’t really as bad as they seem, but sometimes they are. Taking a step back and truly identifying why you aren’t happy can help you determine whether the issues are fixable. You may just need to talk to your boss about a particular issue that’s been bugging you for a while. And if it’s been a long time since you’ve received a raise or a promotion, consider bringing it up in a professional way. Don’t simply jump into updating your LinkedIn profile to declare your intentions to find a new job until you know exactly why you don’t like your current job anymore.
Is My Salary Comparable To Similar Executives?
The feeling of being underpaid is difficult. Sometimes you would feel better if you didn’t know what other executives with similar experience make. When your executive bio is similar to another executive’s, you naturally expect to be paid a similar salary. Get an idea of comparable salaries by looking at job boards and networking with others. If you truly are being underpaid, discuss the matter with your boss if you like everything about your job other than the salary. If you’re viewed as a valuable executive, you could get a significant raise to stay.
Am I On The Right Path To Achieve My Goals?
You should have both short-term and long-term goals as an executive. If you’ve been stuck with the same job responsibilities for a while, but have higher aspirations, then it may be time to look at a different company to give your executive bio a boost. However, some businesses move slower than other businesses, so if you’re getting valuable experience, you may consider sticking around to see where it takes you. Of course, as with any position, you have to be happy in order to do a good job and put yourself in a better position for advancement. If you’ve answered all of these questions and still feel like you need to resign, Professional Resume Services is here to help you. We provide the best resume writing service, no matter what your current situation is and what your goals are. If you’re in need of any type of assistance in relation to your executive job search, feel free to contact us at any time.
The Top Ways to Safeguard Your Executive Online Brand
You can significantly help your executive job search if you have a positive online brand. Many employers today will do an online search for a candidate’s name. If you have a lot of negative things about you, or don’t have much of an online presence, you’ll hurt your chances of landing an interview. The importance level of personal branding for senior level managers is very high. Companies want to hire executives with a positive online brand, since they are viewed as an advocate for the company. Here are some of the top ways you can safeguard your executive online brand to ensure you have a positive image.
Search For Your Name Online
You should do an online search for your name at least once a week. The best way to protect and enhance your c-level personal branding is to know what information is out on the Internet for everyone to see. If a potential employer is going to search for you online, you should also take the time to do it yourself and clean up anything you don’t want to show up in the results.
Your Online Brand Backs Up Your Claims
If you’ve already talked to a potential employer, chances are they are going to search for you online to see if they can verify any claims you made. Don’t tell them you worked for a certain company or have a certain level of experience if it’s not displayed on your LinkedIn profile or other places. Even worse, inaccurate or contradictory information will deem you as being untrustworthy and can damage your personal brand even more.
Have A Professional Social Media Presence
The best way to enhance personal branding for senior level managers is to have a positive and professional social media presence. Employers today look for candidates who are active on social media, so they can be valuable for finding new business or even new candidates. A positive social media presence is critical for c-level personal branding today, so don’t take it lightly. Be active as much as you can and always portray yourself as a professional. Professional Resume Services is here to help you, whether you need assistance in writing an effective resume or improving your personal brand. Our experienced professionals can help you with every step of your job search process, so never hesitate to call or email us at any time for assistance.
Getting a new job offer is exciting, especially if it comes with a significant salary increase. However, many executives only look at the size of the paycheck and don’t look at other aspects, especially if a job relocation is required. Sometimes a fresh start is exactly what an executive needs at some point in their career, but picking up and moving your family is easier said than done. Your professional resume writing service may help you land a new job in another city or state, but consider these points before you pick up and move.
