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.
Don’t Forget to Add These Soft Skills to Your Executive Resume!
There was a time when soft skills were considered resume filler—something to make the resume look longer, but not bringing any value to it — fluff. Times have changed, and companies actually use different soft skills as parameters to weed through the abundance of resumes they get. However, there is still a balance to using your soft skills to your advantage in your executive bio or resume. Here are some of the most common soft skills to add to your executive resume.
Organizational Skills
Every company likes an organized person. This is the most commonly used soft skill on an executive resume cover letter because most people believe they are organized. The reality is this soft skill needs to be on your resume, because most companies will include it in their job requirements.
Team Player
This is a good example of a soft skill where you can give real experiences to demonstrate. Talk about times where you had to give up something that benefited you to help the team as a whole. No one wants to hire a selfish executive, so make sure your executive bio clearly demonstrates how you have been a team player at your past jobs.
Great Communication Skills
The best executive resume writing services will always highlight the importance of good communication skills. At an executive level, you will have to talk to people within and outside your organization, so you have to represent the company with class. This is another soft skill you can highlight with real examples. Talk about different meetings, interviews or speeches you’ve given in the past to show how great of a communicator you are.
Find A Balance of Soft Skills and Hard Skills to Incorporate
No matter which soft skills you decide to incorporate in your executive bio, you have to find the right balance between them and your hard skills. These three soft skills are good complements to the hard skills you list on your executive resume or cover letter, so be sure to use them to your advantage. The key to incorporating the right soft skills into your executive resume is to read different job descriptions closely to see which ones they are looking for. If you aren’t sure which soft skills you need to highlight, or if you’re having a hard time finding a good balance of hard versus soft skills, feel free to contact us.
Five Ways to Make the Most of Your Next Executive Job Fair
Job fairs used to be designed for entry-level positions and students looking for their first job. However, executive job fairs have become more popular in recent years because they help executives get their name out to companies and recruiters. Whether you’re actively looking for a job or just want to learn more about different options, attending an executive job fair can be beneficial. Follow these five tips to make your experience a success.
Target Recruiters or Companies
Look at the schedule beforehand and find the specific companies and recruiters you want to talk to. Prepare yourexecutive resume cover letter by tailoring it toward those companies. This will help make an immediate impact. When a recruiter knows you have a special interest in them, they will likely return the favor and give you more attention.
Do Your Research
Research the companies you’re interested in fully, but also do a little research on other companies as well. Know the names of people you want to talk to in each company and learn about the companies’ histories. If you’re able to demonstrate to a recruiter you know about their company, you can skip that step in the discussion and move into why you would be a great fit. This will stand out much more than general discussion!
Bring Resumes and Yes, Even Business Cards
You need to be a good writer to get the attention of recruiters. They will likely receive hundreds of resumes and business cards during executive job fairs so it’s important yours stands out. Yes, people still give out business cards. If you have some, bring them. If you need to hireexecutive resume services prior to the job fair, do it.
Prepare Like You Would For a Job Interview
The biggest mistake people make is treating executive job fairs like a social event rather than a job interview. If you go into a job interview with the perfect executive resume cover letter, why wouldn’t you do the same at a job fair? This is where researching companies is critical so you can customize several cover letters for specific companies. Most people won’t take the time to make each cover letter distinct so it gives you a great chance to stand out among the group.
Be Social
Don’t just limit your conversations to recruiters. Talk to other job seekers as well to get a sense of the competition out there. You may be surprised how many ideas and tips you can receive from fellow job seekers. Socializing with people with similar interests as you will only help your development for your next executive job fair.
Close but No Cigar: How to Handle It When Hiring's Not Happening
Job searches are hard. We understand. Figuratively, you’re casting your line out in the world’s largest pond, already flanked with fishermen with just as much skill as you, and the fish headed your way are extremely choosy as to whose lure they’ll take. So what happens when you work your hardest, buy the best possible line and lures and camp out for hours chasing fish after fish, but fail to get a single bite?
Discouragement is the most frequent and understandable emotion. If you’ve been putting in applications to job after job but have yet to be hired by anyone, we realize and acknowledge your frustrations. However, you have to keep trying! Here’s what you can do to try and keep yourself afloat while your job search continues.
Check Over Your Resume
While this may sound like an irrelevant suggestion, it could very well ring true that you don’t have enough information included within your resume to push employers to hire you. Sometimes we shortchange ourselves by underestimating our skills. Sometimes we fail to see how certain skills and experiences relate to the industries we’re trying to work in, so we leave them out of our executive resume bio and flesh out the rest of what we have to offer. Go back over your resume and think about all of your qualifications, experiences and skills and whether you could have skipped over anything that could prove useful. Chances are you’ll come across something you shouldn’t have left out, but other times you may just need to tweak the wording to better align with keywords that potential employers search for.
Re-evaluate Your Prospective Jobs
If your resume checks out, you may be using it to approach the wrong positions. Again, this happens more often than you’d think! Look back on all of the applications you’ve submitted recently and make a note of what you find. While you’re doing this, be sure to consider your own skills and where you fit in terms of what the employer is asking for. Sometimes we apply to positions even when we don’t have exactly the right credentials. Other times, we simply may not yet have enough experience in the field to qualify for certain positions in it.
Invest in Some Self-Improvement
If you find a dissonance between the types of jobs you want and the types of jobs you qualify for, now is the best time to start brushing up on your professional skills so your executive LinkedIn profile (and other branding tools) will more adequately reflect your potential. You can potentially improve your professional skills by taking adult courses to learn any necessary software, researching what skills are becoming more relevant in your industry and much more.
It also helps to review the best ways to market yourself to any and all prospective employers. A professional resume company can assist you by critiquing your executive resume cover letter and much more! Be sure to reach out to your nearest and most qualified executive resume company to get back on the right track with your job search today!
According to a famous study, employers spend an average of six seconds scanning a resume before deciding whether the candidate is worth calling for an interview. To put it mildly, that’s not a lot of time. With that in mind, the clear takeaway is you need to get the employer’s attention and fast. The question is, how? Here are a few tips in executive resume writing that will get you that call.
First Things First
Your cover letter is your chance to showcase your particular talents and set yourself apart. Rest assured, they do get read! Using an executive resume cover letter is the best way to get noticed right out of the gate.
Be Professional
While your friends may call you ‘Buttercup,’ your resume should not. Likewise, your email address should not be goofy or too casual. Avoid using photos as well. This professionalism will set the tone for the rest of your resume. Location matters as well: your employer wants to be sure you’re in the same area as the job. If you need help, take a look at a few executive profiles for direction.
Keep It Tidy
Be sure the structure of your executive resume cover letter is clean and neat. The columns should be aligned, and any bullet points should line up as well. A sloppy resume will indicate you are not taking this job search seriously, and likewise, the employer will not give you the consideration you deserve.
Dates Matter
The hiring manager of a company you apply to is going to make sure your past employment dates line up. In other words, they want to make sure you don’t have large gaps between jobs. That’s a huge red flag to any employer, indicating you might not be reliable.
Be Thorough
While it’s understandable you want to keep your executive profile to the point, you need to give enough details. Thoroughly explain your past positions and what responsibilities you held while in those jobs. Also, be sure to include your past achievements.
Are You Applying for the Right Job?
It’s understandable you may be applying for a position you’re overqualified for. You may be desperate for any job at all or find pickings are slim all around. However, a hiring manager knows you won’t stick around long, and thus, your resume goes to the bottom of the pile.
Attention to Detail
While it may seem obvious, many people forget to proofread. Make sure you don’t have any grammar or spelling mistakes. Even though everyone makes these type of mistakes now and again, this is another immediate disqualifier in the six-second test.
Follow these tips and you’ll have executive resume writing down in no time, ensuring your executive profile and resume pass the six-second test.
What Is an Executive Briefing and Should You Use It?
An executive resume cover letter can be a valuable tool.
When you’re not looking for a job, but an opportunity that is too good to pass up crosses your desk, you may find yourself rushing to update your resume so you can meet the deadline and apply. In some situations, you may not have the time needed to tailor your resume to the specific employer, so what can you do when time is of the essence? A cover letter writing service can help you use an executive briefing, which is a form of executive resume cover letter.
What Is an Executive Briefing?
In short, executive briefings are cover letters for resumes that shine a spotlight on the skills you have that match what the employer is looking for. Because most employers will read through a cover letter before they move on to the resume, this is the area where it’s most important to make a good first impression. This can make it an excellent tool to help you land a job you weren’t expecting to apply for so you can take advantage of advancement opportunities as they arise.
What Are the Requirements?
In order to create an executive briefing, it’s important to make sure you understand the specific qualifications of the job. This is because you will tailor everything to the particular job to which you are applying. Once you know what the employer expects from you, use this summary to let them know why you are the perfect fit for the job. As long as your resume backs up your claims in some form, you will have just as good a chance of landing the job as if you had reworked your entire resume. While it’s always best to customize your resume, in a tight spot, this type of executive resume cover letter can be a lifesaver.
Keep It Simple
The most important factor to remember when creating these cover letters for resumes is to keep it simple. Your resume should still do most of the talking for you. All you really need to do is list the job’s requirements along the left side of the paper and match it with your skills point by point. Be sure to include your email address and the job title and any identifiers assigned to it. This format should capture the attention of the hiring manager and increase the chances you will be contacted for an interview.
A cover letter writing service should encourage you to customize your resume to meet the requirements of any job you are applying for, but you don’t always have time for this task. If you are interested in applying for a job you found unexpectedly, you may need to consider an executive briefing. This type of executive resume cover letter can help showcase your skills in relation to a job’s requirements and help increase the chances of landing the job, even if you don’t have the time to update your resume.
An executive resume writer can help you explain gaps.
When you hire an executive resume writer, it can be tempting to leave out information regarding times of inactivity when it comes to your employment. In most cases, there’s a legitimate reason for time gaps. Perhaps you needed time to take care of an elderly parent, a sick child or just took a sabbatical. However, leaving these gaps of time unexplained can cause employers to have doubts or negative suspicions about your resume.
Why Gaps Have a Negative Connotation
Each company may look at resume gaps in a different light. There are some businesses interested only in your specific skills and aren’t concerned at all about gaps. However, for more competitive fields, even a single gap can take you out of running for a key position. Even though gaps occur for a variety of reasons, employers may have their own view of them. If you leave huge gaps unexplained, the other party is left with only their imagination as to why they exist. It is always better to explain gaps in your employment history.
Why It’s Not Advisable to Lie About Gaps
It’s likely just about everyone has been tempted to lie about gaps. For some, this means slightly adjusting dates to fill in the gaps; others try to fill in the gap by falsifying information. Either way, you are taking a big chance of discovery. Most legit businesses are going to take the time to explore your information thoroughly and are likely to find gaps on their own. This decreases the likelihood of your employment because it tends to raise too many questions and doubts.
Lying about gaps in employment can have many negative repercussions, but none as serious as if you are applying in a small industry. Smaller businesses make it easier for word to travel about any discrepancies. This can leave you with a tarnished reputation for many years, making it difficult to gain employment.
What’s the Best Way to Cover Gaps of Time?
The best way to deal with gaps is to be honest and upfront in your executive resume bio. Simply tell the truth about gaps. By providing explanations for why you were between jobs, you establish trust in the relationship. It’s much better to explain in your executive resume bio or executive resume cover letter that you took some time to raise your children or simply took a sabbatical than to remain silent about why the gaps exist.
What About Terminations?
What if the gap in employment exists due to a termination? Be truthful about why you were not a good fit for previous employers and use the opportunity to explain how you used the time between jobs to develop or maintain job related skills.
It can be important to work closely with a professional resume service who can help you create a complete resume. It’s imperative to create a gap-free document, from the executive resume cover letter to a complete and thorough resume.
Update Your Executive Resume Before Your Job Hunt Begins!
An executive resume service can help you update your resume.
If you’re ready to start looking for a new job, you need to make sure your executive resume and cover letter are prepared as well. Whether you use an executive resume service or you choose to handle it on your own, it’s important to update your skills before you start submitting your resume to prospective employers. The last thing you want to do is miss out on interviews because you didn’t include your most recent, relevant skills.
A Chance to Reflect
Rushing around to improve your resume as you are applying for jobs can be a stressful experience, which may result in leaving important information out. However, when you work with an executive resume writer before you even begin your job search, you can take your time to reflect on your past experiences and provide the skills and other information needed to help employers make the right hiring decision. Taking extra time to reflect on your previous work and determining how it fits into your future employment will ensure your resume is ready when it comes time to apply.
A New Year and a Fresh Start
As the New Year approaches, it can be a great time to make a fresh start, especially if you aren’t satisfied in your current position. This makes a great time to brush up your executive resume and cover letter so it’s ready to go once you make the decision to begin applying for new positions. Think about your goals for the future and tailor your resume to land a job that will help you meet those ambitions.
Put a Positive Spin on It
Staying positive is essential when you’re working on resumes that get you hired. An executive resume service can help you create a positive overall feel to your executive resume. While writing a resume may seem relatively straightforward, how you word things can reflect negatively or positively. To help make sure your resume sounds as positive as possible, make sure you work with an executive resume writer at a time when you’re in a good mood and eagerly anticipating your new position.
You don’t have to wait until you are searching for a job to update your resume. In fact, an executive resume service will tell you it’s best to regularly update your resume so it’s ready to go whenever you are. Your executive resume and cover letter should always be ready so when you find a position you would prefer, you can make a few minor changes and submit it.
