Executive job boards have a purpose, but the chances of you landing your dream job from them are very low. Spending a significant amount of time on your executive profile is great, but the best way to display it isn’t necessarily on an online job board. Hundreds and thousands of jobs are posted on job boards every day. So when you look at the success rate of even landing an interview, you will quickly see your time and resources can be spent better elsewhere. Here are some of the top reasons why you should avoid job boards for your executive job search.
The Job May Already Be Filled
Sometimes HR managers forget to take down a job posting once the position has been filled. It’s natural to assume a job posting is active, but that’s simply not the case. If you’ve spent a lot of time on your executive profile, spending time searching and applying for non-existent jobs doesn’t make sense.
Job Descriptions Could Be Inaccurate
When a company posts a job opening on a job board, they sometimes use the same posting as they did previously, even if job duties have changed. As a result, you could take your resume to a professional resume writing service to optimize the keywords and language, but it won’t even matter. The best way to know the exact job description of a position is to actually speak to someone.
Your Executive Resume Could Be Lost
Any given executive job posting could get more than a hundred applicants. You may be the most qualified executive, but if your executive profile doesn’t have the exact keywords the company is looking for, you won’t even be considered. It’s much easier for your resume to get lost in the shuffle when you apply for a position on a job board. The better option is to hand your resume to a recruiter at a networking event.
Success Rate of Landing A Job is Low
When you look at the amount of applicants applying for any given position, you can clearly see your chances of getting the job is low. You have a better chance of getting a job if you spend the time on your LinkedIn profile development and connecting with HR managers or recruiters via the LinkedIn platform. Time is critical, so spending it wisely when searching for an executive job will benefit you in more than one way. Professional Resume Services can help you optimize your executive profile, no matter what avenue you choose to use for your job search. While executive job boards aren’t necessarily the best option, we will support you and help you as much as possible if you choose to use them. Feel free to contact us at any time if you need a professional resume writing service to help you land your next job.
Many executives make the mistake of simply rewriting their resume and calling it their biography. Including a lot of numbers, statistics and data may look impressive, but it’s not necessarily what needs to go on an executive profile. This is your chance to tell a story about your career that you can’t necessarily state on a resume. You should also reiterate and strengthen your brand when writing an executive bio. Here are some tips for what to include in your c-level executive biography.
The First Paragraph Must Grab Attention
If the first paragraph of your executive profile is bland, you’ll quickly lose the attention of your reader. Instead, start off your bio with a quote that highlights your brand, or make a strong statement to capture your reader’s attention another way. The more attention-grabbing the first sentence and paragraph is, the better chance you’ll have of the reader reading the entire biography.
Highlight Soft Skills And Attributes
You can’t include soft skills on your executive resume, in most cases. When writing an executive bio, you have a chance to not only demonstrate your soft skills and attributes, but also tie them in to how they enhance your brand and bring value to companies. Provide examples of how you’ve applied your skills in the past to bring them to life.
Support Your Success With Data
You shouldn’t pollute your entire executive profile with data, but sometimes it’s appropriate to provide some numbers for support. However, think of data you don’t already have on your resume. And instead of simply making a one-line statement to support your success, tell the story of how you were successful, including all the twists and turns. Just don’t take up too much of the reader’s time when you do so.
Provide Some Personal Insight
An executive resume service can help you write the first aspect of your bio, but there’s another point they can’t help you with as much. The part which deals with your personal life. You don’t want to get into many details about your life, but people want to know if you have a family, what ages your kids are, what your spouse does and what your hobbies and passions are. People connect with other people based on their personal interests rather than business success. When you have similar personal interests with other executives, they’ll be more likely to reach out to you since it seems like a natural fit. At Professional Resume Services, we can help you piece together your executive profile to help it flow naturally. One of the hardest parts of an executive bio is making it easy to read and captivate the reader’s attention. When you’re ready to sit down and write your c-level executive biography, consider giving us a call to help you get started.
How Executive Personal Branding Affects Your Executive Career
Working on your personal brand is more important now than ever before. Executives have typically considered their c-level personal branding as being associated with and representing the company they work for. However, the notion has shifted into marketing yourself as a person rather than as a part of a company. When you work for a company, you still need to brand them as part of your job. The key is to also know when the right time is to work on yourself as well. Not doing so could hurt your long-term executive career prospects. Here are a few ways executive personal branding affects your executive career.
Establish Yourself as an Expert
When you focus on c-level personal branding, you can establish yourself as an expert in a particular industry, rather than for a specific company. Portraying yourself as the go-to executive for many different issues can be very valuable for your career. People need someone to rely on, and if you have the expertise, branding yourself as the person they can rely on can define you in that way.
Learn More About Yourself And Your Goals
Executive personal branding goes beyond writing an effective resume. It’s easy to portray yourself in a different light when you’re representing a company, even when you know it’s not the true you. How you brand yourself could give some insight into your own self, your value, worth and what you’re capable of.
Get Feedback From Peers to Improve Your Brand and Career
One of the best ways to improve c-level personal branding is to always seek feedback from colleagues and peers. You may believe you are taking all the right steps to market yourself appropriately, but you don’t know how you are perceived by others unless you ask someone you trust. Most executives won’t volunteer this information to you, so asking for feedback could open your eyes to some changes you need to make when representing yourself.
Link Your Online Brand With Your Personal Brand
You could be hurting yourself if the person you say you are online doesn’t match the person you are in real life. When you optimize your LinkedIn profile, don’t just write things to make yourself sound good. People will read your LinkedIn profile and have a general perception about you. That perception has to come close to matching in real life, so be sure the two are linked closely and accurately. At Professional Resume Services, we always work with executives wanting to improve their personal brand. We understand the importance of personal branding when it comes to career advancement, job searching and other aspects. Feel free to contact us if you need any tips or advice on branding or any other aspect of your executive career.
Avoid These Mistakes When Seeking a New C-Level Position
Seeking a new c-level position takes a similar approach as searching for a job of any caliber. Without the proper preparation and going through the necessary steps, you may find your search to be more difficult than it needs to be. No matter how polished your executive profile may be, you still have to follow the same steps as everyone else to be considered for a high level job. Here are some of the most common mistakes c-level executives make when seeking a new position and how to avoid them.
Misunderstanding The Process
Whether you’re searching for a c-level position or an entry level position, the job search and hiring process will be very similar. You have to do research about the company before applying for a job there. Having all of the skills and qualifications doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the job. You still have to sell yourself and show how you add value to any given company in order to stand out.
Not Having The Right Strategy
It may have been a long time since you last looked for a new c-level position, so the same strategy may not apply. The first thing you should do is optimize your LinkedIn profile. Many recruiters will find candidates on LinkedIn, whether they are searching for a job or not. Furthermore, you can almost guarantee a hiring manager will look for your LinkedIn profile as soon as they receive your resume. If your strategy is to just send out as many resumes as possible, you’re heading down the wrong path.
Not Building Relationships
The power of networking is instrumental in landing your next c-level position. Building solid relationships is more important than building a solid executive profile. The old saying, “it’s not what you know, but who you know,” applies to c-level positions as well. Thinking your resume speaks for itself is another common mistake executives make.
Making it About You, Not the Company
Companies don’t necessarily care about you when they are hiring; they care about what you bring to the table. Many executives try to make themselves sound good, whether it’s on their LinkedIn profile or an in-person interview. However, what you really need to do is show how valuable you will be to the company based on your experience. The information and qualifications are the same, but the way you present everything makes a huge difference. Professional Resume Services is here to help you avoid common mistakes to give you a better chance at landing your next c-level job. Whether you need help optimizing your LinkedIn profile, updating your resume or anything else throughout the job search process, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Switching careers is never easy. When you have years of experience in a certain industry and want to make a switch, just think about how much more competition you’ll have. However, sometimes a career switch is necessary from a personal and professional perspective. Writing an effective resume can help ease the transition, but there are several other tips to help you handle a career switch effectively.
Enhance Your Education
Depending on what career you are switching to, you may benefit from taking educational courses. Not only will this give you a deeper knowledge of your new career, but any executive resume service will tell you it will make your resume stand out more. Combining relevant education with your professional experience in your previous career could end up being more valuable than you initially think.
Charge Up Your Networking Efforts
You should have been networking in your previous career already. No matter how much you’ve networked in the past, a career switch is the perfect opportunity to put it into overdrive. Networking can help you improve your c-level personal branding to get you in the career you desire. Recruiters want to meet people with a variety of skills today. Even if you may not be experienced in a particular industry, you may have a skill they are looking for and not even know it until you network with them!
Consider How Current Skills Apply to a New Career
You may not believe your current skills transition into your potential new career, but you could be surprised. An executive resume service can help you highlight these skills on your resume so they will stand out. The key to writing an effective resume is showcasing skills that transition well to other industries. Recruiters look for those types of hard skills and soft skills, so be sure to incorporate them as much as possible.
Be Persistent, But Not Too Persistent
Never give up on your career switch efforts. Companies may not be hiring at the time you connect with them, but it doesn’t mean they will never be hiring. Check in with them frequently enough so they remember your name, but not so frequently where your name annoys them. At Professional Resume Services, we help executives switch careers every day. Whether it’s writing an effective resume, providing tips on improving c-level personal branding or learning how to effectively network, we are here for you every step of the way. Feel free to contact us if you need advice of any kind regarding your career switch.
Networking events can be intimidating, especially if you are an introvert by nature. But for executives, networking is crucial to landing the job you want in the future. Sometimes even the best executive resume writing service can’t help you get the job you want if you don’t take the necessary steps to connect with people in your industry. Here are five effective ways you can break the ice and make yourself known at executive networking events.
1. Arrive Early
When you arrive early, there will be fewer people present. This will make approaching people less intimidating, since there is more of a one-on-one interaction. Plus, you could meet someone who is extroverted and can introduce you to more people as they arrive, so just follow their lead if that happens!
2. Bring a Friend or Colleague With You
You shouldn’t always hang out with the person you know at a networking event, but it can help to break the ice. Inviting other people into your conversation could help get the ball rolling for other conversations and introductions, where you could eventually split away from your friend and meet new people.
3. Be Prepared With Questions
Any executive resume service can help you come up with questions to use at your networking event. Questions are the best ways to break the ice, because people are generally more interested in themselves than you. Just listen to other executives talk about themselves and their accomplishments, and ask engaging follow-up questions, and you’ll seem like a networking expert.
4. Be Approachable
No one wants to talk to a person standing in the corner with their arms crossed or their hands in their pockets. If this is how you stand when you’re uncomfortable, then print out some copies of your executive bio and hold onto them. This will help you look more approachable and someone may even ask what you’re holding!
5. Be Yourself
The best executive resume writing service will tell you to be yourself on paper and in person. If you’re naturally introverted, embrace it and find ways to break out of your shell. This is a much more effective way of breaking the ice rather than trying to act like an extrovert. Most executives will be able to tell a fake person right away, so don’t let that be you. Networking events are perfect for meeting new people to help you land the job you desire. If you need help or advice about attending these events, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Some Important Things to Consider When Changing Careers
Most people have considered changing jobs or careers at least one time during their life, no matter how many years of experience they have. There are a wide variety of reasons why you may be looking for a career change. Money, time, stress and overall happiness are some of the main reasons people look for a change. But before you plunge into a different executive role at another company, consider these points.
1. Weigh the Long-Term vs. Short-Term Benefits
Sometimes you have to sit down and look at your executive experiences to see what you’ve accomplished in your current role. Look at where you started and where you are now. If you think you’ve reached the top at your current company, but want more, then another company could offer a better long-term solution. However, some of the short-term requirements may not be as attractive in a new role, such as increased travel or longer hours.
2. Look at the Pros and Cons of Each Career
Breaking out the pen and paper for creating your pros and cons on whether or not you want to change. You can do this before or after having your executive resume written, but most people do it afterward so they can generate more ideas. If you’re strongly considering a change, then the pros of a new career will likely be longer by default. However, focus more on the cons when you look at your current job and really think about how bad those cons really are. Sometimes you may overcook them just because of the frustrations of other aspects of the job as a whole.
3. Understand the Value of Your Network
It takes a good amount of time and effort to build a large executive LinkedIn profile with a lot of connections. Depending on how much work experience you have, it’s best not to drift too far away from your connections when choosing a new career. If you choose to do so, then you should always keep in touch with them in case the grass isn’t greener with your new chosen career.
4. Your Personal Feelings and Happiness
A career change is a huge decision. When you look at your executive resume bio and you aren’t happy with what you’ve done, it may be time for a change. Not even money can cover up unhappiness and negative feelings toward your job most of the time. If that unhappiness comes home with you at the end of the day, it’s time to seriously consider moving on from your current job. We know how difficult it is to even consider a career change. We are here to help you at any point in the process, so don’t hesitate to contact us.
Don’t Include These Soft Skills on Your Executive Resume
There’s nothing more unattractive to a recruiter than generic language in a resume. That includes soft skills as well. Executive resumes should be specific and show exactly what you bring to the table, not just the soft skills most people will throw on their resume just because they sound good. The best resume writing services will tell you to scrap most of the soft skills, even if the job description requires them. Here are some of the most common soft skills you should avoid on your executive resume.
Team Player
Hard Worker
Detail-Oriented
Self-Motivated
Dynamic
Results-driven
Think outside the box
What do all of these soft skills have in common? A lot of people think they have them, so they just put them on their resume with the hope they’ll get recognized. There’s no way yours will stand out among the crowd when it uses the same language as the rest. If these are the only skills you can think of, consider using professional resume writing services when you’re ready to update your resume.
Why Don’t These Soft Skills Work?
Even if a job description requires certain soft skills, it doesn’t mean you have to use them in your resume. Instead, wait and describe those skills when you land your interview. Your resume is supposed to stand out among the rest, so your chances of getting noticed on paper will increase if you avoid them all together.
Skills to Use Instead
An executive resume service will ask you for examples of work you’ve completed recently at your current job. The reason is because they want you to use specifics instead of generic soft skills. Instead of saying you’re a hard worker, describe a situation where you stayed late or got up early to get a project done on time. Conversely, explain a time where you had to think outside the box instead of just writing the phrase.
It’s also important to remember the job you’re applying for. You may have skills that sound great in your current job, but they may not be a good fit for the job you want. This is where the help of professional resume writing services comes into the picture. They can help you identify what skills and experiences transfer from your current job to your new job, and recommend specific keywords to get you noticed.
If you’re unsure about what soft skills you should be putting on your resume, if any, be sure to get in touch with us. You will likely spend a lot of time writing your executive resume, so it’s always good to have a professional to review it and make suggestions!
