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 While some of these job postings may be legitimate, it’s hard to separate them from the ones that are outdated or not valid.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.
Going through an executive job search today is much different than it was a decade ago. The one thing that hasn’t changed is the need for a quality resume. With the competition and the tools used by companies to filter out resumes, many professionals rely on the best executive resume writers to help them out. In fact, this is one of the first things anyone should do to help get their job search started correctly. Once you have a perfect resume, you can incorporate these three strategies to give your job search efforts a boost.
Avoid Online Job Boards
It’s tempting to jump on online job boards after the best executive resume writers finish up your resume. However, even those resume writers will tell you it’s probably not the best idea. Online job boards often times have old job postings or inaccurate job descriptions, not to mention the hundreds or thousands of applicants they receive every single day. Your chances of even having your resume viewed with human eyes are slim-to-none. There’s nothing wrong with looking at online job boards to get an idea of what openings companies of interest may have, but actually applying for those jobs online isn’t usually the best option.
Incorporate Networking
Find local networking events and attend them regularly if you can. Start by brushing up your LinkedIn profile and connecting with people through it. You can even use your findings from online job boards to search for people who work at the companies that interest you. Many executives aren’t natural networkers, so starting off a conversation through LinkedIn is a great way to break the ice, make the face-to-face interactions much easier and define your c-level personal branding. Always have a business card ready and hand them out to the people you connect with the most.
Target Companies of Interest
Make a list of several companies you’re interested in working for, then do extensive research on them. The best executive resume writers will ask you what companies you believe you are a good fit for, so they can tailor your resume to them. Your list of companies can come from your networking efforts, online research, past co-workers and more. When you hand over a resume to a potential employer, they want to see what value you will bring to them. A general resume won’t give them the information they want to see, so targeting the company in your resume will yield the best results.
Professional Resume Services is here to help executives have a seamless job search. We understand going through a job search can be stressful, time consuming and sometimes frustrating. Whether you need tips on improving your c-level personal branding, updating your resume or anything else related to your search, always feel free to contact us at any time and we would be happy to help.
Getting discovered online is a critical component of any job search. In fact, the best executive resume writers will sometimes tailor your resume to incorporate more SEO (search engine optimization) terms to help your name show up more frequently in search results. But what about c-level personal branding? This is also an important piece of a job search that can’t be overlooked. Here are some reasons why you need both personal SEO and personal branding when searching for your next job.
Personal SEO And Personal Branding Go Hand-In-Hand
In order to optimize your personal SEO, you need to incorporate keywords and phrases relevant to the particular job you’re searching for. These keywords typically involve the hard skills and technical expertise required to do the job. From a personal branding perspective, employers want to know about your personal qualities to determine whether you will be a cultural fit within their organization. This could include leadership experience, how well you work with a team and individually and other personality traits. When your online presence includes both personal SEO and c-level personal branding, you’ll have a better chance of being discovered by the top recruiters and employers.
Use Both To Differentiate Yourself
While both are needed to be discovered, you can also use them to differentiate yourself from other job candidates. You may choose to work with a LinkedIn profile development expert to incorporate certain keywords to make yourself stand out, while still using proper SEO terms to be discovered. It’s a fine line between being just like everyone else and differentiating yourself online, but it’s possible to find the perfect balance when you incorporate both aspects.
Never Sacrifice Authenticity
When you think about your LinkedIn profile development and how to incorporate personal SEO and personal branding, it can become easy to fall into the trap of writing content to be discovered rather than being authentic. Sacrificing authenticity is never a good idea for your long-term job prospects, since employers will almost always ask you to validate any of your claims. When you have all the soft skills and hard skills required to land the job you desire, sometimes it just takes working with the best executive resume writers to tweak the wording to help you become discovered more naturally.
Professional Resume Services understands the challenges executives face in the digital world we live in today. One minor mistake or omission can derail your executive job search, so we are here to help ensure all of your bases are covered. Whether you need a LinkedIn profile development expert or someone to proofread your resume, we are here for you. Never hesitate to contact us at any time if we can be of any assistance with your job search.
Anyone who is in the middle of a job search has likely heard about the importance of their LinkedIn profile. However, simply having a profile isn’t good enough. Your profile can be the difference in landing an interview for a job or getting passed over. That’s why many executives turn to LinkedIn profile development services today to ensure they aren’t making any critical mistakes. Here are some of the most common questions about LinkedIn that we’ve answered to help your job search.
How Can You Use LinkedIn For A Job Search?
LinkedIn is the largest professional online network, and a large percentage of employers used the platform to make their next hire. With that being said, it’s best to utilize a LinkedIn profile writer to help you use relevant keywords and phrases, and to help make your profile as complete as possible. If you want to do it yourself, go over the job descriptions you are looking at and make sure they match up with what is in your profile. Connect with other professionals in your industry to learn more about them and any possible opportunities available. LinkedIn groups are also valuable, since they are full of like-minded people, allow you to demonstrate your personal brand to others and expand your network.
Is Quantity Better Than Quality When it Comes to Connections?
There are plenty of benefits to having as many connections as possible. Your profile will rank higher in the search results, and your message will be displayed to a larger amount of people as well. You may also find someone in your network who works at a company you are interested in, or who knows someone who does. That is the point of LinkedIn… to network. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people. Most are very receptive and generous with their time and information.
Can You Perform A Confidential Job Search on LinkedIn?
The best LinkedIn profile development services can help you adjust your settings in order to conduct a confidential job search. This involves turning off notifications, limiting who can see your connections, viewing other profiles without those people knowing and more. Many executives search for jobs while still employed, and you can easily keep your search confidential through LinkedIn.
Why is A Profile Photo So Important?
No executive LinkedIn profile is complete without a professional profile photo. If you choose not to include one on yours, a potential employer has no choice but to believe you are trying to hide something. And it’s important to note that LinkedIn is not the platform to put a photo of your family or pets. Keep it simple and professional with a formal headshot for the best results.
Professional Resume Services provides LinkedIn profile development services to help make your profile as strong as possible. It’s one of the most important platforms for helping make your job search successful, so the time you spend on it is well worth it. We are here to help in any way we can, so never hesitate to contact us when you need assistance in any aspect of your job search.
Simply having an executive LinkedIn profile won’t do you much good. In fact, having an outdated profile is sometimes worse than not having one at all. If you aren’t sure how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, you aren’t alone. The good news is you can work with a professional LinkedIn profile writer (look no further!) to evaluate your current profile and help you strengthen it so you’re always prepared for the next opportunity that comes your way. Here are some basic tips to bring your profile up-to-date that people sometimes overlook.
Create And Share Unique Content
Creating unique and engaging content is invaluable today. People always look for an expert they can trust, and if you are that person then your personal branding will skyrocket. Brand yourself as an expert in your field and watch your reader engagement climb. Plus, consistently sharing your content on your executive LinkedIn profile shows you’re involved with your career and are a valuable resource for current information. You will also benefit from your profile ranking higher in the search results due to the amount of unique views your content receives.
Build Your Number of Connections
The more content you share, the more connections you will earn. An executive LinkedIn profile that’s up-to-date will always have a significant number of connections with new ones coming in every day. Your network can see when you make a new connection, depending on your privacy settings, so you’ll gain some credibility from that aspect as well. Never hesitate to target other professionals in your industry and reach out to them to connect.
Be Active And Share Updates
Once you’ve worked with a professional LinkedIn profile writer to complete your profile, be sure to stay active as much as you can. This could mean posting a new article every couple of days and sharing updates about your career, or making a new connection. These updates will help you remain on the radar to your connections, so your profile won’t turn stale. You could also consider being active in LinkedIn groups to promote your personal brand. Just be sure not to be overly active to the point where people get tired of seeing you post all the time. As with everything, balance is key.
Professional Resume Services is here to help you when you aren’t sure how to optimize your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is such a valuable tool to have, whether you’re actively searching for a new job or not. Just having a profile that’s up-to-date will help you get recognized, and you can continue working on it to build your personal brand. If you need any help with your LinkedIn profile, don’t hesitate to contact us at any time for assistance.
One of the main concerns executives have regarding their network is how to restore it when they’ve neglected it for a while. It’s typical for this to happen when you have a steady job you’re comfortable in. However, not all is lost, you can restore and strengthen your current network at any time. Updating your LinkedIn profile is a good place to start, and then you can go from there. Here are some of the best ways to restore and strengthen your network if it has gone stale.
Begin With Personal Branding
Don’t reach out to people in your network until you’ve solidified your personal branding strategy. This involves targeting and researching other professionals to determine whether what you have to offer will meet their specific needs. And you also have to know what you want in return. People enjoy helping people, so provide value and you will receive the rewards you want in return.
Reach Out To Current Connections
You’ll quickly realize other executives understand when you haven’t reached out to them in a while. A quick apology for not staying connected is sometimes all it takes to rekindle the relationship. Of course, if your intentions are to eventually ask them about possible job or business opportunities, then don’t waste a lot of time with small talk. Finding some balance in your communications is important and can improve your personal branding when you do it the right way.
Build New Relationships
Once you’ve reconnected with several professionals, start expanding your network to include new people. View the LinkedIn profile of different people in your industry and see if you have similar interests. Don’t hesitate to invite them to connect, as other professionals are usually always willing to expand their network as well.
Be Active on LinkedIn
Having a stale LinkedIn profile isn’t a good idea if you want to have a strong network. Being active on LinkedIn simply means talking to people privately, communicating in LinkedIn groups, sharing updates, posting new content and more. You don’t have to spend a significant amount of time on a daily basis with your LinkedIn actions, but when people know you’re engaged, they will more likely connect with you.
Professional Resume Services has a team of professional executive resume writers ready to help you with every aspect of your job search. The importance of having a large network today can’t be understated. Sometimes revamping your LinkedIn profile is all you need to get back on the right track of having a strong network. To learn more about how we can help you strengthen your network and boost your personal brand, don’t hesitate to contact us at any time.
