Most people are very aware of the value of networking. Not only can it help you find the career opportunities you’re looking for, but it can also bring value to personal branding for senior level managers. However, networking doesn’t always have to be in the form of career fairs, conferences and other business events. There are plenty of other unique networking opportunities to help you boost your c-level personal branding, and all of them have to deal with common interests.
The Gym
Just because you aren’t going to bring resumes and cover letters to the gym doesn’t mean you can’t network there. If you’re the person who puts on your earphones and shuts out the rest of the world around you while you workout, consider removing them and listening to your surroundings instead. You never know who you might meet on the treadmill next to you.
Sporting Events
Sporting events are also common interests where you can network with a variety of people. It’s easy to get into a discussion about a particular team or sport in general, and the conversation can go in many different directions. You may not attend a sporting event with the intention of improving your c-level personal branding, but it could easily happen.
Public Transit
If you take public transit frequently, there may not be a better opportunity to network. You have several minutes sitting by the same person on your route, so strike up a conversation with them. Conversations can go in many different directions, so you may have other people around you chime in as well.
At Kids Events
Parents always feel connected with other parents when they go to their kids events. It’s extremely easy to open up a conversation when kids are involved, so take advantage of the opportunity. It’s probably not the time to talk about resumes and cover letters right away, but once you form a connection you can develop a relationship as time passes.
Bars
Again, you shouldn’t bring resumes and cover letters into a bar, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have the opportunity to talk about them. Professionals sometimes go as a group or on their own to bars to unwind after a stressful day. Sit next to someone and talk about the day. Chances are you will be able to relate to them at some level.
At Professional Resume Services, we take personal branding for senior level managers seriously and want to help you improve your brand as much as possible. Feel free to contact us for more networking tips and how you can turn them into great opportunities.
The summer generally isn’t viewed as the best time of year to drum up new business or make new connections. With many people going on vacations and spending more time traveling, the networking events are much more rare during the summer. However, this presents a great opportunity for other avenues of networking that could prove to be even more valuable. The thing about personal branding for senior level managers is you can never stop improving your brand. Here are some reasons why the summer may be the best time for you to do so.
People Are Generally More Relaxed
Since many businesses hit their slower months during the summer, you’ll notice people are more relaxed than normal. This means they should be more willing to connect with you, whether it’s finally grabbing a cup of coffee or going to brunch. Taking a relaxed and casual approach when networking during the summer can improve personal branding for senior level managers more than you think.
Use Downtime to Improve Your LinkedIn Profile
Summer could also prove to be the best time to work on your executive LinkedIn profile. Companies may not be hiring much during the summer, but working on your LinkedIn profile development during the slow periods will help you be prepared when business starts ramping up again. This is also the perfect time to get your name out there by joining LinkedIn groups, reaching out directly to connections and sending out resumes. Utilize LinkedIn as much as possible now and you’ll reap the benefits later on.
Always Be Aware of Networking Opportunities
The summer months offer some of the most unique networking opportunities when compared to other times of the year. You don’t have to be dressed in professional attire in order to make a connection. Listen to conversations at the beach, at sporting events, kids events or anywhere else you may be. As much as people say they don’t want to think about work when they are at different places, many conversations will inevitably lead that way. You never want to miss the opportunity to work on personal branding for senior level managers.
Professional Resume Services has plenty more networking tips like these to get you through the summer. Whether you need assistance with your LinkedIn profile development or identifying other networking opportunities, feel free to contact us at any time.
If you ask various people about the value of networking events, the vast majority will likely say they are very valuable. However, some people don’t even know why they are valuable. As an executive, your time is limited, so you don’t have any to waste by going to networking events that don’t provide any value to you. Of course, once you have your resume polished up by a top rated resume writing service, you’ll likely want to give it out to everyone. Here are some tips to help you make your networking efforts worth the time.
Budget a Certain Amount of Time for Networking
Time is money, and you don’t want to waste either. Since some networking events can be hit or miss, it’s best to set aside a certain amount of time each week or month for networking purposes. That way, if one event turns about to be a complete waste of time, at least the time was accounted for. However, any event is still a success if you’re able to hand out your executive resume cover letter to a couple people.
Ask Colleagues About Certain Events Before Attending
Another great way to make sure a networking event is worth your time is to ask a colleague who has been there before about it. They can go into detail about what the event has to offer so you can determine whether it’s worth your time. If you determine it’s not worth it, your time would be much better spent brushing up your resume with some of the best professional resume writing services.
Change Your Networking Strategy
You may be stuck attending a particular networking event yielding no results for you. No matter how much you like the people or the venue, it may be time to change your strategy to align more with your professional goals. As an executive, a networking event should be an extension of your career, rather than a time waster.
Some people change their strategies by attending morning events rather than evening events. You could also switch from a larger event to a smaller event. Whatever isn’t helping to move your career in a positive direction should be reevaluated.
Professional Resume Services is in business to help executives like yourself succeed at networking events. Whether you need to rework your executive resume cover letter, or if you just need other resume advice, feel free to contact us at any time.
One of the biggest questions for many executives is whether it’s worth bothering with referrals when searching for a new job. Some people feel it’s unnecessary, especially if you have a lot of work experience. However, with the importance of networking in today’s business world, referrals ultimately go hand-in-hand. Even executive resume services will tell you to find the best referrals you can and combine them with networking to accelerate your job hunt. Here are answers to the common question of whether referrals are worth it.
The Right Referrals Can Help
You can’t just ask anyone for a referral and expect them to help you get the job. The best cover letter writing service will suggest to reach out to someone you know and trust, like a former boss, co-worker or simply a professional contact who knows you well.
The secret is to not only find referrals you know well, but also find people who have a mutual connection within the industry or company you want to work in. Companies want to hire people who they know or think they know well. Having a mutual connection is the best way to create that spark.
Don’t Focus Solely on the Job With Referrals
If you don’t have any mutual connections off the top of your head, you can use a service like LinkedIn to find them. The best resume writing service can help you locate different leads to get started with the process. You just have to remember these potential connections are people, too, and you won’t seem very approachable if you start talking about yourself right off the bat.
Instead, take a personable approach and give the person compliments on their profile, accomplishments and anything else you see. You’ll likely get a better response as a result and can talk more about achievements and how they got there before talking about yourself.
Talking to a Hiring Manager About a Referral
When you have a solid referral or two, you’ll have to talk to the hiring manager about them. A cover letter writing service can help you say all the right things about your mutual connection in the cover letter, but it’s up to you once you get an interview. Figure out what common traits you share with your mutual connection. If the hiring manager feels like they are hiring someone they know, you’ll be more likely to get the job.
Professional Resume Services has helped executives get the best referrals to expedite their job search. If you’re unsure whether you have the right referrals, or if you need the assistance of executive resume services, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Networking is one of the most valuable actions any professional or executive can take for a variety of reasons. Whether you have a job you like or are seeking a new one, networking has plenty of value. However, if you don’t network properly, you could find yourself frustrated at the lack of success it’s getting you. Networking can work for everyone, but it doesn’t mean you can just go through the motions and land your dream job as a result. Here are some of the most common mistakes executives make in their networking efforts.
Not Warming Up Your Contacts
It can be easy to lose touch with your professional network. With such a busy schedule, combined with not personally seeing your connections frequently, contacts can quickly and easily go cold. However, the key to c-level personal branding is to always work on improving your image and brand.
Any LinkedIn profile development professional will tell you if you reach out to a cold contact and act like you just saw them yesterday, your efforts won’t yield very good results. Just like you have to build a relationship with any new contacts you make, you have to warm up the relationship with current contacts.
Being Too Vague
When you visit the best executive resume writing services, they aren’t going to tell you to be vague on your resume. The same goes with networking. If you don’t enter a networking event with a clear goal in mind of why you’re going, you’ll leave with an empty feeling. Before you even attend an event, write down a list of things you want to accomplish, and most importantly, what you’re looking for in your career. Anticipate questions people may ask you so you know how to answer.
Networking With The Wrong People
It’s also possible you’re simply talking to the wrong people. In most cases, if you’re new to an area or industry, you can’t talk to your past connections and expect to get anywhere. That’s why LinkedIn profile development is so critical in networking, since you can make connections no matter where you are. There are plenty of LinkedIn groups available to help you get acquainted with the right type of people before you even meet them.
Professional Resume Services provides not only the best executive resume writing services, but can also help with your LinkedIn profile development. Feel free to contact us if you are struggling with your networking efforts in any way.
LinkedIn is a powerful tool for professionals and executives—when used correctly. One of many ways you can properly utilize LinkedIn is by participating in different groups. Joining a few groups can boost your LinkedIn profile development, since you’ll naturally gain more connections as a result. However, you have to be careful with how you approach these groups. Here are some great tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and expand your network by joining groups.
Choose Your Groups Wisely
You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn, but you don’t have to actually join that many. Consider joining groups related to your industry, your social life, interests, hobbies, school affiliation and other similar groups. The more groups you join with relevance to your interests, the better chance you’ll have of expanding your network properly with people you can relate with.
Observe Group Conversations
Once you join a group, you might not want to jump right into conversations. People in groups are generally familiar with one another, so they may not like it if you barge in on their discussions. Instead, sit back and observe conversations for a few days or a couple of weeks. See how the group members interact with one another, so you’re able to fit in more naturally once you become more active in the group.
Introduce Yourself
After you’ve made your observations and determined the group is a good fit, make a nice introduction to the group. Tell them to visit your LinkedIn profile to learn your background, but also tell them things about yourself that aren’t on your profile. The more you tell about yourself, the wider range of people you’ll be able to relate to. When you’re trying to boost your LinkedIn profile with more connections, relating to people is the best way to go.
Be Active
When you’ve introduced yourself, be sure to reply to any comments welcoming you to the group. From that point on, people are at least familiar with your name and would enjoy having you in discussions. One mistake people often make is not being active in a group, so other members will forget about you. Activity in LinkedIn groups is the best way to expand your network.
Professional Resume Services is dedicated to helping professionals and executives boost their LinkedIn profiles by giving the best tips on LinkedIn profile development. Feel free to reach out to us any time for tips on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile and expand your network at the same time.
If you’re new to LinkedIn, or just noticed the endorsements feature, there are some things you need to know. Recruiters and hiring managers take all endorsements with a grain of salt, but they still usually won’t hurt your chances of landing an interview. These endorsements can come from former or current co-workers, friends or even family members.
The point is to highlight your skills and post them on your LinkedIn profile for everyone to see. Many LinkedIn profile development services will help you manage your endorsements so you can highlight the important ones and make your profile stand out more. Here are some things to keep in mind about LinkedIn endorsements.
Manage and Edit Your Endorsements
Sometimes your family members or friends will endorse you for a skill without even knowing if you’re good at it. Recruiters may view that negatively since it’s possible you’re using them to boost your endorsements. The key to good LinkedIn profile writing is to highlight the professional endorsements from people you’ve actually worked with in the past.
Return the Favor with Endorsements
If a colleague endorsed you for a skill, be sure and return the favor and endorse them with one of their skills as well. LinkedIn profile development services suggest staying as active as you can on LinkedIn to show you are well connected. Endorsing others will help give you a better professional reputation.
Endorsements Show What Professionals Think of You
LinkedIn endorsements should be thought of as completely separate honors than recommendations. A recommendation is generally a few sentences stating what a person is good at and how they can bring value to a company. An endorsement is just a quick acknowledgement of a skill without any explanation. Still, other professionals will take notice if you have several endorsements and may contact you if you are endorsed in a skill they require.
Don’t Take Endorsements Too Seriously
The main thing the best professional resume writers will tell you is to not take LinkedIn endorsements too seriously. With the social media world today, everything seems like a popularity contest with how many “likes” you can get on a post or a picture. LinkedIn doesn’t work that way. They are nice to have, but don’t get too down on yourself if you don’t have multiple endorsements coming in every day.
LinkedIn profile writing can be tricky. We understand the struggle some executives have, so feel free to contact us if you are ever uncomfortable with how your LinkedIn profile looks.
When it comes to networking, you don’t always have to step completely out of your shell to meet new people. One of the common misconceptions people have about networking is you have to attend professional events to make new contacts. However, sometimes you can make a professional contact just by living your daily life and being friendly. Here are some unique ways you can expand your network without having to attend a professional networking event.
1. Volunteer
Volunteering is always good to do anyway, but you also never know whom you might meet in the process. Strike up a conversation with your fellow volunteers and learn a little more about their life from a personal and professional standpoint. Plus, volunteering will help with your LinkedIn profile development and you can connect with other people who have volunteered with the same organization (possibly in other cities as well).
2. Go to the Gym
The gym generally isn’t a place people expect to make good networking contacts. However, just talking to the person next to you could lead to good conversations about a variety of topics. Just don’t be overly pushy when trying to strike up a conversation. Sometimes people want to stick to themselves when they’re at the gym, so be sure to recognize these cues and don’t bother people who want to stay to themselves.
3. Church Groups
Most professional resume writing services won’t ask you to put any church organizations on your resume, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t valuable for networking purposes. Depending on how active you are in your church group, you could make some lifelong friends and quality business contacts just by participating in events.
4. Just Be Friendly
You don’t need a LinkedIn profile writing service to tell you friendliness is the best way to make good connections. You can network just about anywhere you go. The grocery store, the park, restaurants and anywhere else could be perfect for networking if you are friendly. Most people don’t mind talking to other people and being friendly. You never know where the conversation might lead. There are a lot of interesting people in the world who could help your professional growth; you just have to find them!
You don’t have to be skilled at LinkedIn profile development in order to grow your network. For other networking tips and to learn how you can approach people in a professional manner, feel free to contact us at any time.
