When you get invited to interview for an executive position, you have one chance to make a great first impression. The challenging part about this is everyone has their own views on what impresses people most. Some people think using a big vocabulary will demonstrate their intelligence, but sometimes this won’t impress interviewers. Others may think working with a professional resume writing service is enough, and that the interview process is just a formality. The bottom line is you have to be careful with what you think is impressive versus what an employer thinks is. Here are some tips to help you make a great first impression in your executive interview.
Dress For Success
Some job interviews don’t merit wearing a suit and tie, so you don’t necessarily have to default to that look. Instead, dress for the position you’re applying for and make sure the clothes fit you well and you look sharp overall. You should have a professional headshot in your LinkedIn profile picture, so your attire for a job interview should be professional as well. What you wear to an interview shows how much you want the job, so dress for success and it will only help your chances of making a good first impression.
Rehearse Answers To Common Questions While Sounding Natural
Another way to impress your interviewers is to answer their questions fluidly and naturally. You can get some example questions from your executive resume writer and think about how you will formulate your answers. The only thing to beware of is sounding like a robot when answering them in the interview. The interviewers will likely be able to see right through you if you aren’t natural, so the practice questions should be used just to get you thinking about how you’ll respond, whether than preparing canned responses.
Don’t Be Afraid To Show Some Personality
Employers want to hire someone who fits their workplace culture as much as they want a person who meets all of the technical job requirements. While you need to present yourself as a professional, it’s also acceptable to have a sense of humor and show off a little bit of your personality. Your LinkedIn profile should be crafted in a way that hints at your personality type, so interviewers may be looking for it in the interview.
Avoid Desperation And Entitlement
Finally, two things you don’t want to do is show desperation or entitlement. Desperation isn’t attractive to anyone, and entitlement shows you may have some problems fitting in with other employees. So even if you do feel desperate or entitled to getting the job, be humble throughout the interview. Your chances of landing the job will decrease significantly if the interviewers sense either of these attributes.
Professional Resume Services is classified as a professional resume writing service, but we believe we are much more than that. We want to be involved in every aspect of your job search and assist you in any way we can. Making a good first impression in an interview is critical, so contact us at any time for additional tips on how to do it.
Executives oftentimes have different views on what exactly c-level personal branding is. Some see it as the best way to show who you really are and the value you bring to the table, while other people see it as being overly self-promoting. If your views fall into the latter category, then it’s important to understand personal branding for senior level managers is about much more than simply self-promotion. Here’s how you can benefit from your personal brand more than you may think.
Discover Your Purpose And Have A More Fulfilling Career
Many executives focus on c-level personal branding because it helps them learn more about themselves. They may want to be a leader, but if they become increasingly uncomfortable when they are put into leadership roles, they may realize they don’t have the personality for it. On the other hand, people may thrive when they are put into those positions unexpectedly. The point is when personal branding is at the forefront of your mind, you can learn a lot about yourself and experience a more fulfilling career as a result.
Understand What Culture Fits You Best
With employees focusing more on being happy in the workplace, the concept of culture is becoming even more important. If your personal brand involves interacting with co-workers and constantly collaborating as a team, then you probably won’t want to work for a company where the employees sit in their offices all day without coming out. Focusing on c-level personal branding can help you clearly identify which type of culture you belong in.
Build on Your Strengths And Improve Your Weaknesses
You likely know what your main strengths and weaknesses are, but chances are you will discover even more as your career progresses and you get more responsibilities. When you truly prioritize c-level personal branding, you can reflect on how your strengths can bring value to the table. It’s also important to evaluate and understand your weaknesses and work on improving them. Neither is possible without understanding your personal brand.
Become An Established Leader
Executives need to be go-to people for others within a company and even outside the company. When people view your LinkedIn profile, they should be able to clearly see your leadership qualities and see you as a valuable resource. If yours doesn’t show those qualities, then it may be time to work with an executive LinkedIn profile writer to help show your brand.
Professional Resume Services sees c-level personal branding as much more than just self-promotion. In fact, it’s actually the opposite. Sure, you have to tell people why you are valuable in order to promote your brand, but there are many more benefits to personal branding than just making yourself look good. To learn more about the concept of personal branding and some strategies to go with it, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Some things simply go out of style, and your resume may be one of them. The best professional resume writers always see resumes that look like they were written 20 years ago. And if it’s clear to those professional writers, then you can guarantee it will be clear to a hiring manager as well. Not only will an old-looking resume potentially give away your age, but it could show you’re not quite caught up with the times and hurt your job candidacy as a result. Here are some of the most common things people still do on their resume that makes it look like it’s from the stone age.
Not Including Links To Social Media Accounts
The top resume writing services will always suggest including links to your social media accounts, assuming they’ve been cleaned up. Your LinkedIn profile definitely needs to be one of the links. You can consider incorporating Twitter, Facebook or other platforms if you use them to promote your personal brand or expertise, such as with original articles. Employers today want to know more about you than what’s on a resume and cover letter, so including these links is essential.
Not Conveying Your Personal Brand Clearly
When the best professional resume writers look at your resume, they need to see exactly what your personal brand is. Older resumes are typically generic and lack any type of branding throughout the content. Conveying your personal brand can be as simple as explaining your expertise, your overall views on workplace culture and what you believe in and stand for. Personal branding is not an optional component for resumes today.
Including An “Objective” Section
Every executive resume service today will delete an objective section if they see one on a resume. By submitting your resume to an employer, you are implying your objective, which is to get a job. You don’t need to reiterate it on your resume. Instead, use the space to show why you are the best candidate for the job. Hiring managers aren’t necessarily interested in what you want, but rather, want to know what you can do for them.
Including Your Street Address
Putting your street address at the top of your resume was acceptable more than a decade ago, but not today. The best professional resume writers will only include a name, phone number, email address and maybe a link to a LinkedIn profile. Anything more than that just clutters up the resume and is essentially useless to a hiring manager.
Professional Resume Services is here to help you modernize your resume to increase your chances of landing the interview you desire. Crafting the perfect resume can be difficult with the technology employers use to filter out resumes, but having a modern one is a great first step. If it’s been a while since you last created or updated your resume, feel free to contact us for an evaluation and see how we can help you modernize it.
Things can be going great for you when all of a sudden your company goes through layoffs and you don’t make the cut. Sometimes the best situations can change instantly like this, which is why personal branding for senior level managers is so critical. You’re essentially always supposed to be networking with other professionals to enhance your brand and be better prepared for unemployment, should the situation arise. The good news is your c-level personal branding doesn’t have to suffer if you don’t have a job, and here are some tips for keeping it alive and well.
Fill In Employment Gaps
When you lose a job, it’s usually best to take some time off to reevaluate your goals and find the right fit. The only problem is this can lead to employment gaps of several weeks or months. These gaps don’t look good on a resume, so finding temporary work, freelancing, volunteering, obtaining higher education or certification courses and more can help fill them. If nothing else, filling the employment gaps in these ways will demonstrate you are still serious about your profession and are constantly enhancing your skills before finding the right opportunity.
Reconnect With Your Current Network, Then Expand
You may choose to work with a professional executive LinkedIn profile writer to get your profile up-to-date and ready for a strong networking effort. It’s easy to let your network get stale over time when you are comfortable with your job. However, everyone usually understands this, so there’s no harm in reconnecting with people. By reconnecting with your current network, you may be able to naturally expand it by being introduced to new people. The more people you talk to, the better your chances are of improving your c-level personal branding and finding a job you didn’t even know was out there.
Leverage Social Media
Having an online presence is essential in today’s professional world. While social media can be a complete disaster if you aren’t careful, it’s also one of the most valuable resources you have at your fingertips. Use it to demonstrate your knowledge by commenting on articles, joining LinkedIn groups or promoting your own organic content through a blog or other platform. The more you build a positive online presence, the better your c-level personal branding will be and the quicker you’ll be discovered, most likely.
Professional Resume Services believes personal branding for senior level managers is one of the most important characteristics of any job search. Your personal brand shows who you are and why you would be valuable to any given company. Neglecting to enhance your personal brand while unemployed is a major mistake, so contact us at any time if you need assistance or tips on how to continue working on it.
Whether you’re currently unemployed or you have a job and are starting to covertly look for a new one, LinkedIn is a valuable resource for you. Recruiters are constantly searching on the platform to find the candidates they think would fit the opportunity they have available. When you optimize your LinkedIn profile in the right way, your name will show up in the searches more often than not. Simply having a profile isn’t good enough nowadays, so working with a professional LinkedIn profile writer can help take yours to the next level.
Complete Your Profile
During your LinkedIn profile development, you’ll see a status bar on the right hand side of the page telling you how complete your profile is. Follow the basic steps to make your profile 100% complete. The reason is because completed profiles are more visible in searches, and will be more attractive to recruiters. Sometimes you might only get to 85 or 95%. Don’t sweat it if that is where you are at. Often times, LinkedIn wants you to include things that just don’t make sense to add (in my case… early experience that was basically waitressing while in college).
Think About What Recruiters Search For
Once you’ve completed the basics of your LinkedIn profile development, it’s time to take it to the next level. Using keywords and buzzwords relevant to your job or industry throughout your profile will make your profile show up more often in searches. One secret I’ve learned from recruiters is they often don’t search for job titles, since titles can vary among different companies. Instead, recruiters search for specific skills and expertise, so those are more important than trying to match a title to what you think a recruiter wants to see. While you want to make sure all of your skills are displayed, you also want to make sure the text in your profile flows naturally.
Always Develop Your LinkedIn Profile
While LinkedIn may indicate your profile is complete, you should always look for ways to develop and enhance it. A professional LinkedIn profile writer may suggest being active on your profile at least weekly or more often if you’re in the middle of a job search. This doesn’t mean you have to do a complete overhaul, but it could simply mean joining a new relevant group and making new connections in the group. There are many ways to optimize your LinkedIn profile, and all of them are important for attracting the attention of recruiters. Make sure that even if you become employed, you stay active on LinkedIn meaning commenting or posting. You don’t want to neglect your network, you want to nurture it.
Professional Resume Services looks at the big picture of job searches, while also focusing on the tiniest details. Your executive resume is a critical part of your job search, but LinkedIn is quickly becoming equally important. With the competition for high-level jobs being at an all-time high, attracting recruiters is more critical now than ever before. No matter where you’re at in your job search, don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you need any advice or tips.
The holiday season is quickly approaching, which means company holiday parties around the country are starting to take place. These parties offer great opportunities to mingle with co-workers you don’t normally have a chance to talk to and socialize in a stress-free environment. So why do you hear about so many holiday parties going wrong? There are plenty of missteps you can take, so preparing in advance can help you avoid those mistakes. Here’s a guide on how to enhance personal branding for senior level managers at the company holiday party, rather than ruin your reputation.
Choose Your Attire Wisely
Your executive resume writing service will suggest dressing for the company holiday party like you would dress for a job interview. This means knowing what attire is appropriate and being careful to not overdress or underdress. There’s no need to wear a full suit at some parties, but it’s also usually not appropriate to wear jeans and a shirt. Most of the time you can’t go wrong with business casual attire.
Be Prepared To Mingle
If you’re nervous about talking to people you don’t necessarily talk to at work, start off by talking to people you are familiar with. Just remember to mingle with others as well throughout the night once you break the ice a bit. Keep conversations short and upbeat and talk to as many people as you can. Some of the best personal branding for senior level managers comes at the holiday party, when other employees can see their superiors in an environment outside of the office.
Know Your Limits
Food and drinks are often plentiful at company holiday parties, but it’s important to limit yourself. This is especially true when it comes to alcohol consumption. A couple of drinks is perfectly acceptable to loosen up a bit. However, you don’t want to be the person everyone is talking about the next day because you had a little too much to drink. Set a limit before you go to the party and stick with it for a better overall experience.
Shake The Right Hands At The End
Never forget to thank the host at the end of the night. And it may also even be valuable to shake the hands of your managers or bosses as you depart as well. If nothing else, they will remember when you left the party, which is more important than you think. Sometimes the best personal branding for senior level managers involves being polite and thankful, so don’t underestimate the importance of it at your holiday party.
Professional Resume Services is here whether you need a quality LinkedIn profile service, a top resume writer or even if you aren’t sure what to wear to your company holiday party. We want to help you with every stage of your career, and are always willing to provide our expert advice on a wide range of subjects. When you follow this guide, you’ll have a successful and memorable holiday party experience you won’t regret. Feel free to contact us at any time for other tips or advice.
People have different perspectives on company holiday parties. Some dread going to them every year, while others have waited for this day to come since the last one ended. Regardless of your opinion, company parties are generally seen as a requirement to attend. And since you’re going to attend, you might as well use it as an opportunity to enhance your branding rather than hurt it. Here are the top four company holiday party mistakes employees and executives make that they later regret.
Drinking Too Much
Many holiday parties will have an open bar, which means the possibility of over-drinking is high. Drinking too much can lead to saying things you don’t necessarily mean, acting inappropriately and doing things you’ll later regret. It’s perfectly fine to have a couple of drinks while you’re socializing, but if you continue to drink throughout the night, mix in some water as well–and eat! Not only will you feel better in the morning, you’ll also protect your c-level personal branding reputation. You don’t want to be that person that everyone talks about the following Monday.
Eating Sloppily–or Not Enough
Take advantage of the great food available to you, but don’t go overboard. Be conscious of the people who will come up to greet you and always have a free hand available. And remember your manners, as you don’t want to be the person who spits food out of their mouth while talking to others. As tempting as it is to load up on food, try not to overindulge. Also, you do want to make sure that you eat. You may be the type that maybe in social settings, or out of nervous energy drinks a lot of wine or coffee. Either of those in large quantities aren’t good for your system. Make sure you eat something to soak up the liquids you are consuming.
Complaining & Socializing
You wouldn’t complain during an interview, and the same is true at a holiday party. Whether you’re complaining about work, the food at the party, the environment or anything else, no one wants to hear it. It’s not the time or the place. Turn complaints into compliments and you and the other attendees will have a much better experience. Make a conscious effort to talk to people from different departments, people you know by face, but never had a conversation with them. At a company party I was at (I was in medical sales way back when), I made an effort to talk to the accounting/payroll department and the shipping department. I had heard of the names of these people, but never met them. Yet, the accounting department wrote my checks and the shipping department were the folks who shipped out my supplies and made sure everything got to where it needed to go on time. Meeting them all really solidified the camaraderie you create when you work with a team. It was fantastic. After that, it was much easier to call any of them to inquire about vendor invoices or find out where the product was.
Not Arriving On Time or Staying Long Enough
You can guarantee the top executives, managers and supervisors are taking note of who shows up, when they show up, and how long they stay. The rule of thumb is to arrive within 30 minutes or so of the start time and stay until the party is over, to the extent it’s possible. Showing up an hour late, eating some food, drinking a couple beverages and leaving early isn’t going to look good for you. Make plans ahead of time to block off the appropriate amount of time to stay.
Professional Resume Services is more than just one of the top resume writing services. We enjoy and take great pride in helping people with every aspect of their career, even if it’s giving out the best practices for holiday parties. This is the time of year to appreciate your co-workers, bosses and having a job in general, so make the most of it. And never hesitate to contact us if we can help in any way.
Every executive should know their resume and LinkedIn profile should be treated differently. If not, it’s one of the first things executive resume services will point out. But what about the summary section of each? Many people make the mistake of using the same summary for both their resume and their LinkedIn profile, thinking a hiring manager won’t think twice about it. The truth is hiring managers look at both and want to see different information to learn as much as they can about you before calling you in for an interview. Here’s how to differentiate your summaries.
Your LinkedIn Summary Should Be Longer
Your resume needs to be condensed as much as possible. If you’re like many people, you tend to be a little too wordy on your resume, so executive resume services can help tighten up your sentences for you. On the other hand, a LinkedIn profile writer will tell you the more detail you can provide, the better off you’ll be. You want to be specific with your strengths, what you bring to the table and offer a brief summary of your career up to this point. Think of your LinkedIn summary as a way to pull back the curtain a bit and give a recruiter or hiring manager a glimpse of who you are outside of just a name on a resume.
Formal vs. Informal Tone
Part of your LinkedIn profile development should be writing in an informal tone and showing a bit of your personality. In other words, when a person reads your LinkedIn summary and then hears you speak, they should be able to easily identify you as the same person. Of course, an informal tone can’t be confused with unprofessional, because you still have to present a professional demeanor on your LinkedIn profile. Just tone it down a bit from the formal language used in your resume summary.
Why It’s Important For These Summaries To Be Different
A hiring manager wants to know as much as they can about you upfront before they even invite you for an interview. So if you simply copy and paste the text from your resume summary to your LinkedIn summary, it either indicates you aren’t taking your job search seriously or you may have something to hide. This is why a good LinkedIn profile writer will create their summary separately from their resume summary, while still pointing out all the important facts about them.
Professional Resume Services knows exactly what hiring managers and recruiters look for in high level candidates. Job candidates may not think their resume or LinkedIn summary is important, but the reality is both are looked at closely. If you’re in need of some help with your LinkedIn profile development or anything to do with your resume, feel free to reach out to us at any time for assistance.
