When a job seeker realizes networking isn’t optional today, they will have a better chance of finding a job quickly. Even executives with extensive careers and who are considered to be experts in their industry have to always be working on their c-level personal branding. There are many misconceptions about networking, including the common belief that it’s not necessary to find a job. Here’s what you need to know about networking to clear up those misconceptions.
Networking Isn’t Asking For Favors
It’s natural for people to not like asking for favors, so they choose to skip networking events. However, your mindset going into a networking event should not be to ask for favors. Rather, it should be to generate engaging conversations with like-minded professionals and see where the relationship goes from there. Asking someone for a favor is not recommended since it could negatively impact your c-level personal branding.
Networking Isn’t Always Formal
If you’re intimidated by the thought of going to a formal event with hundreds of other people, then start out smaller. Make connections through your LinkedIn profile and if you make good conversations with someone, ask if they would like to grab coffee or lunch. Networking doesn’t have to be defined as attending a formal event. Making conversations with people informally is still considered networking and can even be more valuable since you have a one-on-one connection with the person.
Networking Is A Way To Tap Into Hidden Job Markets
The best executive resume writing service can educate you about the hidden job market if you aren’t aware of it. High-level executive jobs aren’t often posted on job boards or anywhere else. You have to know someone to even know there’s a job available. Networking is a perfect way to do it. Keeping up with connections on your LinkedIn profile is an effective method and could lead you to opportunities you didn’t even know were available.
Networking Is Beneficial For Reconnecting
Take some time occasionally to go through your list of connections on your LinkedIn profile and reconnect with them. You don’t have to be actively searching for a job to do so. Your connections will likely appreciate you reaching out to them just to get an update on how their career is going. It’s great for c-level personal branding to always keep your name at the forefront of people’s minds, and making simple conversations is a great way to do it.
Professional Resume Services always stresses the importance of networking to executives who visit us. We can give you tips on how to effectively display your LinkedIn profile, boost your c-level personal branding and much more. A quality resume is only one component of a successful job search, so feel free to reach out to us at any time to ensure you’re covering all bases with yours.
We all hit points throughout our career where we hit a stall or things become stale. This could be due to getting comfortable with your current position or simply not knowing what direction you want to go. Using your LinkedIn profile for networking purposes can help you find some direction and potentially lead to other opportunities. It’s natural to hit a stall in your career, but it’s also possible to move forward when you’re ready. If you know you’re ready to advance your executive career, but can’t seem to find a spark to get you going, we’ve got some tips to help you out.
Let Career Detours Be Inspirational
If your career path isn’t headed exactly how you planned it to, don’t get discouraged. Everyone will have detours in their career. Instead of looking at those detours negatively, view them as inspirational and work harder to get back on track. Revisit your executive resume biography as a reminder of where you are now and where you want to be in the future. When your path changes, look for ways to grow from it and make any adjustments you deem necessary.
Always Look For Ways To Grow
One of the biggest sparks executives experience in their career is learning a new skill. Being able to add a new skill to your executive resume biography is motivating, so consider taking an advanced course or work on projects of your own in your free time. The top resume writing services encourage people to step out of their comfort zone occasionally because it will lead to growth no matter what. Learning experiences are valuable for career growth, but you won’t experience any of them if you don’t take the first step forward.
Network With Like-Minded Experts
Networking can lead to many different opportunities and can be a big spark for your career. You don’t even have to attend a networking event with the intention of finding a new job. Simply talking with like-minded experts can give you new ideas on how to approach your career or certain projects to help you move forward. Be sure to have your LinkedIn profile updated, though, since you’ll likely want to reconnect with people you’ve met through the platform.
At Professional Resume Services, nothing is more satisfying to us than seeing executives get exactly what they want in their career. We are considered to be one of the top resume writing services because we have a wide range of expertise designed to help people advance in their careers. We understand everyone goes through a stall in their career, and we are here to help you get out of it when you’re ready. Never hesitate to contact us if you’re ready to spark your career and take it to the next level.
Have you ever felt like you were spinning your wheels during your job search? You may be putting forth a lot of effort but not moving forward as quickly as you’d like. Sometimes it’s best to take a step back and evaluate your strategy and make some alterations as needed. If you need to, get advice from an executive resume service or a professional LinkedIn profile writer to help you jumpstart your searching efforts again. Here are a few great tips to help you speed up your job search.
Focus On Your Personal Brand
Every action you take should boost your c-level personal branding. Whether it’s at a networking event, writing a resume, developing your LinkedIn profile or anything else, your brand should always be front and center. If recruiters or hiring managers can’t get a good sense of who you are as a person or a worker, they’ll be hesitant to take the next steps with you in the job interview process. Focusing on c-level personal branding is only going to benefit your job search efforts.
Network Online And In Person
Networking has always been an essential part of a job search and will continue to be. You can network around the clock if you want to with platforms like LinkedIn. In fact, many people start conversations on LinkedIn before meeting at a formal event, just so there’s already some familiarity there. Just be sure to have a professional LinkedIn profile writer review your profile to ensure you’re not making any critical mistakes inadvertently.
Target Your Resume
An executive resume service can help you target your resume to the employer you’re interested in. You can send out as many resumes as you want, but if it’s too general then companies will see right through it and toss it to the side. Resume targeting is critical today, so it’s well worth the time and effort to find out exactly what a company wants and how your skills fit.
Build A Positive Online Presence
You have to assume any potential hiring manager is going to do an online search for your name. This is another reason why working with a professional LinkedIn profile writer is important. They can emphasize certain keywords to ensure your profile shows up high in the search results. Do an online search for your name and clean up anything that doesn’t demonstrate your overall brand.
Professional Resume Services understands how frustrating it can be not knowing what employers want to see. Our executive resume service goes beyond simply writing error-free resumes. We can work with you throughout your job search, answer any questions you may have and make any tweaks along the way. If you’re ready to speed up your job search and get into the job you want quicker, contact us to see if there’s any way we can help.
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.
Most people have heard the phrase, “it’s not where you start, but where you finish.” This is true in many aspects of life, but when it comes to an executive job search, how you start will have a significant impact on your success. Whether you’ve held one job for several years, are looking to change to a different industry or any other situation, the top resume writing services will caution you to take the time to do your homework before diving in. Here are some of the most important facts you need to know before beginning your job search.
Companies Search For Unique Talent
The competition is very high for executives, so employers know they have the opportunity to be selective. Not only will companies look for candidates with the most experience, but they will also consider the specific value every candidate is unique for. This is where your c-level personal branding enters the picture. Companies need to be able to clearly see what you stand for, what hard skills and soft skills you have and what unique value you bring to the table.
Most Job Openings Are Hidden
If the first step in your job search is to scour the online job boards, you’re making a big mistake. While some of these job postings may be legitimate, it’s hard to separate them from the ones that are outdated or not valid. Plus, with companies receiving hundreds of resumes through online job boards every day, your chances of getting noticed are slim. The best professional executive resume writers always suggest tapping into the hidden job market, which typically involves networking. This could mean attending local events, reaching out to connections on LinkedIn, touching base with past co-workers and more. Most of the top jobs today aren’t advertised, so you have to get your name out to companies of interest in other ways.
Hiring Managers Always Check Social Media
If you’re going to work on your c-level personal branding, the first thing to do is clean up your social media profiles. Every hiring manager is going to look at all of your social media accounts for any potential concerns they may have about you. If hired, you are going to be a direct representation of the company, so they will make sure you will represent them well before even considering you as a candidate.
Professional Resume Services is known as one of the top resume writing services, but we also enjoy providing tips like these to people beginning their job search. A job search today is much different than it was a few years ago, so it’s important for executives to understand the landscape before proceeding. If you ever have any questions about where to begin or how to continue with your searching efforts, don’t hesitate to contact us for advice.
With the busy lives everyone has, it’s easy to lose touch with people in your network over the course of months or years. Because of this, many people think it’s inappropriate to reach back out to reconnect for various reasons. The truth is your connections are likely just as busy and may even want to reconnect as well. You’ll never know until you try, but there are effective ways to reconnect while avoiding any awkwardness. Working with a LinkedIn profile service may be beneficial before you do so, though. Your connection may not completely remember where you were the last time you spoke, so having an updated profile can give them a refresher and increase the likelihood of them responding.
Reach Out Via LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a valuable platform for many reasons, and reaching out to past connections is one of them. If the connection was a cold contact to begin with, you can simply start out by re-introducing yourself and reminding them of where you met and what you talked about. When you use a professional LinkedIn profile writer, be sure and tell them all of your past experiences so you’ll have a profile that’s as complete as possible. Most of your connections will remember you, depending on how long it’s been, but it never hurts to give them as much information as possible on your profile to help them out.
Be Personal And Honest, As Appropriate
If you had a close relationship with a particular connection, starting out by saying it’s been too long since you last talked can be a good ice breaker. They will likely agree with you and respond back with similar feelings. You could even share a personal moment that recently happened in your life, such as a marriage, birth of a child, change of career or more. Simply sparking a conversation is all it takes, and you don’t need a professional LinkedIn profile writer in order to be genuine with your connections.
Provide Them With Value
When you look on a past connection’s LinkedIn profile, see what they’ve been up to lately and share something of value to them. This could be an interesting article or another resource for their career or personal interests. Any conversation that starts off with you providing value to them, rather than you trying to sell yourself, will usually end with a greater result. A LinkedIn profile service can help you sell yourself on your profile, but it’s not appropriate to do so when reconnecting with people in your network.
Professional Resume Services does more than simply help executives with writing a professional resume. Networking is a huge part of any career, and doing so the right way can help you easily reconnect with people in your network. This is often times more effective than finding new connections, so it’s well worth the time and effort. If you’re ever unsure about how to utilize LinkedIn to reach out to your network, give us a call for more helpful tips and advice.
As a job candidate, you have to know what works and what doesn’t work with your job search to ensure you make progress every single day. One of the most effective strategies for any job search is networking. With quality c-level personal branding, networking can lead you to many new connections, as well as the possibility of being referred to a company’s hiring manager. This relationship between networking and referrals is underestimated by many professionals, but the truth is companies would much rather pick from referrals than random job candidates.
Why Companies Prefer Referrals
In most cases, the speed of the hiring process is much faster when working with referrals. From an employer’s standpoint, if one of their employees refers a potential candidate, chances are they will be a high quality candidate, a good fit, have a better chance of hiring them quickly and may even lead to other quality candidates. This is especially true if the employee who made the referral understands the importance of c-level personal branding. A hiring manager is more willing to trust one of their own employees rather than a resume they received from other outlets.
Can Networking Make You A Referral?
So now that you know how important being a referral is to a potential employer, how do you become one? Networking is the easy answer. You can start by working with an executive LinkedIn profile writer to ensure your online brand is represented appropriately. You can then use the LinkedIn platform to re-engage with current connections or make new connections based on your interests. One misconception many people have is that networking is all about asking for a job. The reality is networking is about building relationships and seeing where they lead. It never hurts to let your connections know you’re looking for a job and explain your qualifications, though. While companies tend to hire referrals quicker, from a candidate standpoint, becoming a referral may take a little longer since you have to build a strong relationship with your network.
Remember A Referral Only Gets Your Foot In The Door
When you’ve ultimately been referred to a company for a position of interest, it doesn’t mean you have the job wrapped up. You have to remember there are likely other referrals that are candidates as well. Don’t put off visiting the top resume writing services, since it could be the difference in you getting the job or not. Being a referral definitely gives you a better chance of getting the job, but it’s far from a guarantee.
Professional Resume Services is known as one of the top resume writing services, but we also help professionals in many other ways. Building your network and earning referrals can open the door to many opportunities, whether you’re looking for them or not. To learn more about this relationship and how you can use it to enhance your career, feel free to contact us at any time.
