Executive Resumes, Personal Branding & Executive Job Search

Whether you are using the services of an outplacement agency as part of your severance deal or whether you are contracting with a service directly, the watchword is "Be a Savvy Consumer." There are lots and lots of ways to waste your time, money, and optimism.

It's natural to want easy access to jobs and recruiters.There are hundreds of thousands of services offering you just that. But in my 23 years in the industry and as a close observer of trends in hiring and job search, I have seen too many people go to one of these providers with high hopes only to experience disappointment.

"Ask the Headhunter" owner, Nick Corcordilos, a gimlet-eyed observer of career-related practices, has written a post with information job seekers woiuld benefit from knowing. The post is titled: Career Scams Updates: "The Ladders, LinkedIn, Lee Hecht Harrison and More..." Here are some take-aways from Nick's article and the comments from readers.

- The Ladders, whose brand used to promise access to exclusive 6-figure jobs, has settled a class-action suit brought by job seekers who found those promises to be empty and their money wasted. The company has now drawn back from those original promises under pressure from disllusioned users. The Ladders no longer offers resume critiques and resume writing services or guarantees jobs for people in exchange for thousands of dollars.

- He reports that LinkedIn has been scamming users out of their contact lists. The company paid $13M to settle that class action suit. He considers LI just another cheap job board. He cites 10% as the percentage of job seekers who get hired through a job board. I've seen higher numbers, but his main point is a good one: conduct a smart job search (see my other blog posts) and limit job board activity to a small percentage of your time spent job searching.

- Commenters raised questions about whether the big outplacement agencies really provide value and warn people not to be taken in by high pressures sales tactics preying on job seekers' vulnerabilities. Some job seekers have valued the groups and desk provided by outplacement agencies. Nick notes that job seeker groups are free in many cities. Nick opined that the raison d'etre for outplacement firms is to provide the job seekers' former company with protection against lawsuits.

- My colleague Debra Feldman made an insightful comment about how some firms' tactics are typical of those seen in the weight loss industry: scare tactics, selling info that is free elsewhere, promising unrealistic results etc.

With all this in mind, I do recommend that job seekers take advantage of the tremendous potential value offered by top flight resume services. You do indeed pay for services. But resume consultants who are truly masters of their craft can make a huge difference in their clients' and their families' lives both short and long term.

Some of these benefits can be: faster time-to-land, ability to get a bigger job with a higher salary (upon which future raises are based!), relief from the stress on families caused by unemployment, and a new sense of the job seeker's value in the market, unique brand, and awesome contributions. All of these payoffs multiply to improve self-esteem and the ability to project a solid sense of self-worth at work, leading to faster promotions etc.

IMHO, when you consider hiring a resume service, ask how many of all the services that are listed do you really need. Some of the services, like email blasts or job board postings, may be a waste of your time, money, and hope and may even be a bad move strategically.

I prefer to offer "just what you need and no more" and charge accordingly. What you really need is: a branded executive resume, LinkedIn profile, and ROI cover letter. I include my eGuides on how to conduct a smart, effiicient job search. These eGuides provide guidance on how to use executive recruiters, how to build online ID, the steps in a strategic job search, and how to use social media and LinkedIn in job search. Other providers have different opinions on what job seekers need, but this approach works well for my clients.

The goal for the job seeker is to be able to enter the market with top flight marketing communications that sell their value and job search strategies that open doors. So, avoid the easy promises! Design your 2015-2016 communications and job search to get a great job for good money fast!

LinkedIn is a wonderful resource for career-minded professionals. Here are three things to know as you use LinkedIn:

1. Forget the personal website – LI now has the functionality to richly communicate your personal brand, and it is highly searchable by recruiters and hiring managers. Your LinkedIn profile gives you options for branding yourself across the written word, audio, video, photos, PowerPoint presentations and other documents, blogs, links etc. In addition, when someone searches on your name, your LI profile is more likely to come up in the first page of results than your personal website is (in most cases).

2. Want to find something or somebody on LinkedIn? Leave LI’s Search and go out to Google to enter your search term(s) there. LinkedIn is supposed to be improving its Search but it’s still hard to find someone in particular if they share a name with other LI members. One of many reasons why you might want to find people on LI is if they work for the company you are interested in.  You can identify potential contacts and use the method described elsewhere in this blog to seek out and secure employee referrals – a GREAT way to get a job. I've found LI Search to be helpful, though, when seeking to build a list of companies that meet your criteria.

3. DO take advantage of LinkedIn Publishing, a great way to showcase your brand and subject matter expertise. It is available as an option when you edit your Profile. More than 40,000 posts are published each week. Quoting Geoffrey Colon: “Publishing is the new job board in terms of getting interested third-party companies who want to business with us to connect – as well as attracting the attention of the highest caliber recruiters.”

I know as well as all of you do how hard it is to take time out of a busy professional life to take advantage of these amazing features! It’s the short-term vs long-term thing. In this case, leveraging LI’s features will, WITHOUT A DOUBT, enhance your career prospects going forward. Good luck to you (and me!) in scheduling time to make this happen.

The other day I was in the zone! I was laser focused on writing a high-impact, succinct, and ATS-friendly resume for a client with a very high-powered career in a fast-changing, highly complex industry. My mind was bearing down to understand deeply and then put into a very few words the value and power of what he brings to the table.

Then, cut to next scene! My iPhone rings. Usually I have the sense to not answer my work phone when I'm writing. Not this time, alas. 🌞

I picked up to hear the voice of an esteemed client whose project I had just completed. He asked did I have a few minutes. I heard myself pause, and in a voice I now recognize as cool, distant, preoccupied, and distracted, I replied "just a few, I'm under deadline" in a voice that conveyed, I'm too busy to talk to you. My great client understood the tone and said OK, later then.

By that time I had caught on to how I must have sounded, and I so regretted it! This is a client who has only known me as warm, 100% present and there for him, his career needs, brand, interests, and concerns. And who did he get when he called me that morning? Jean, the RMV agent! What a shock for him!

So, in an attempt to retrieve the situation, I hauled my attention away from my writing and began to focus on my client and was able to provide some valuable job search coaching for 5 or 10 minutes. My client was generous enough to cut me some slack on my falling short this time.

Still, this experience gave me pause, and this is what I decided: No more answering the phone when I am writing. Period. I know the kind of concentration it takes to write complex executive technology resumes and from now on will honor the need to protect my writing time. But I highly value being available to my clients. So, the answer is: Schedule times to talk only when I am not in my writing mode. No client needs a Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde resume writer!

What does all this have to do with you? I'll bet I'm not the only one who has trouble shifting gears suddenly.  So, if you're even a little like me, when a call comes in from a recruiter you make a quick assessment: Can I shift from what I'm doing to 100% quality attention on the phone RIGHT NOW?

At that moment, you may be putting your child to bed, cleaning up after the puppy, laughing at a comedy on the TV, programming an app, fighting with your teenager, or doing your financial planning. In any of those scenarios you could be forgiven for having your mind in an entirely different place than the world of your job search!

So, if you feel you can't make a fast switch, can't put on your professional hat, can't become present to the caller, and can't have your tone of voice express interest, warmth, and enthusiasm, you have two choices. Either answer the call and say could you talk in 15 minutes or don't answer and call the recruiter when you are composed, focused, centered, and ready for an important call. That way, you can bring your best stuff to the phone interview!

"Know Thyself" is at the heart of this. Know what you can do and when you can do it and plan accordingly. And pay attention to how your tone of voice might be interpreted wrongly and how your emotional temperature will surely be picked up on by the caller. Then you will know when the right time is to talk. Aim for excellence. Be fully present! Get the offer!

LinkedIn profile writing is a challenge. And there are ways in which the LinkedIn profile summary section is still the Wild West. The LI summary is a blank page only restricted by the 2000 character limit. There are no requirements for anything in particular, such as listing your jobs and dates. So why is it important to worry about this? And what should you do?

People know that LI is the premier business networking site. It also happens to be an almost-mandatory place for recruiters to check before exploring possible job candidates further. In addition, it provides a fairly comprehensive database of potential candidates that recruiters can search by specifying desired keywords.

Because, for professionals and executives, LI is now so critical to getting their next job, they are naturally very sensitive to how they present themselves in the summary section. And when they do a Google search on how to write the summary they may find advice and examples that run counter to how they want to present themselves.

This link will show you the typical recommendations and examples career-minded individuals will see when they look to the Web for advice on writing the summary:

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-say-in-your-linkedin-summary-statement-2014-12

LinkedIn best practice for writing the summary is to use the first person singular, that is, use "I" throughout as opposed to "Ms Jones" or using the hidden 3rd person voice such as we use in resumes ("Worked for 20+ years...") So what's the problem?

Some people are just plain uncomfortable with the more personal tone of the first person voice. They may also feel that use of the first person "I" places too much focus on the self and is not modest enough in tone. Does the fact that best practice is to use "I mean that they should bite the bullet and go out there in public with an expression that feels unnatural, uncomfortable, or even inappropriate to them? No, of course not.

That being said, there are good reasons for using the personal "I" voice. It can invite the reader in to get to know you. It can convey personality, character, and other elements of your personal brand much more easily and naturally than the more impersonal, distancing voice of the 3rd person "he/she" or the more formal resume voice.

Summaries using "I" are more apt to be interesting and engaging. That is good! As in every other type of communication including ads, articles, movies, and TV shows, the personal and the emotional "sells." Even if you inject just a little more engaging direct and self-revelatory content into your LinkedIn profile, the recruiter who finds you on LI may become more interested in you and more motivated to read on.

Done sloppily, the first person LI summary can of course turn off the recruiter who may view the tone too informal or too personal.

Tricky, huh?

So, on the horns of the dilemma, this is what I recommend. Use the first person "I" in your LI summary if:

a) You can do it skillfully, professionally, and engagingly. If not, revert to one of the other options.

b) You feel comfortable doing it. If not, revert to one of the other options.

If you choose the more formal approach for writing a LinkedIn profile, you may be giving up some competitive advantage. But probably not so much that it’s worth being ill at ease with how you present yourself. Good luck with this!

If you have trouble, contact me at jc@get-job-offers.com or another professional LinkedIn profile writer for help.

- I had a lot of authority in my jobs before 2005 but since then not so much

- I stuck with one job for 10 years back in the '90s but have had really short 1-2 year stints since 2005

- I have a ton of technical skills and am a real hands-on techie (Problem is that resume is meant to apply to Project Manager, Program Manager, Director/Sr. Director of IT, VP of IT, even CIO jobs)

- I've got titles all over the map and am not clear on which one I'm seeking next

- I've got a ton of numbers showing 20 quantitative achievements in my jobs

- I've got odd titles that are not industry standard and I'm not sure how they translate to other companies

These are just a few of the stories I see constantly in people's resumes. And there is a problem with every single one of them. The problem is that the recruiter isn't interested in these stories and may well be put off by them.

If one of these is the story your resume tells, don't despair! These stories and others can all be rewritten to construct a story that will appeal to a recruiter for your target job.

What kind of stories will a recruiter be looking for? It depends on the target job, but may go something like this:

- I've got the title(s) and skills you (the recruiter) lists in the job ad and am supremely qualified for the job

- In every job, I've had one overriding achievement showing what I contributed to the company at the macro level

- I'm a consistent high achiever and you can count on that continuing in my next job

- I am differentiated from the competition by [this will vary by person and is part of their brand]. Here are a few sample differentiators: Ability to turn around under-performing groups/companies; Ability to drive organizational, technological, and/or culture change; High level specialized certifications; MBA or coursework at leading business and computer science schools; A specialty in entrepreneurial situations; The list could go on and on and the differentiator is as unique as you are

- I have a  passion for [name your passion] and, by exercising it in my job, I was able to produce [fill in] results in every role

-  I thrive in high pressure, deadline-driven environment and love the hard challenges

- I uniquely cross boundaries between technology and business strategy to make IT a strategic business partner and profit center

This is just a sampling of possible stories that would appeal to a recruiter depending on the job. And you will need to be sensitive to the specific kinds of stories desired for the specific job.

This process of developing your story may seem foreign to you and your stories difficult to figure out. If so, don't hesitate to call on a professional resume writer who understands strategy in resume writing and can help you identify your story, the one that will appeal to a recruiter for your target job.

Good luck and let me know how it goes in converting your resume story to a recruiter-attracting one!

OK, in my previous blog post I noted that employee referrals are the #1 source of hire in corporate America. This statistic comes out of CareerXroads Source of Hire Study for 2014. That means leveraging employee referrals is better than depending on recruiters to find your a job, applying to jobs on big job boards, or using specialty services like Execunet or Netshare.

Everyone knows that “networking” has always been the best way to get hired. “Employee referrals” is just a subcategory of “networking.” The BEST subcategory. It involves very deliberately networking with select employees who work for the company posting the job you are targeting.

If you know the contact, you can naturally get in touch with them and open up a conversation. But what if you don’t know them? Does that mean you have to give up on getting an employee referral? Not necessarily. If they are a connection on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter you may well be able to tap into them as a resource.

Why would a networking contact on LinkedIn (LI) or social media be interested in referring you if they don't know you? Many companies offer monetary rewards to employees who refer a candidate who ultimately gets hired. The reason employers are willing to pay for referrals is that hiring this way results in high-quality hires who are more likely to do well in the company culture. Using company employees as sources also is more cost-effective.

So how exactly do you go about introducing yourself to someone who is unknown to you or who is a relative stranger on one of your social media sites? You probably don’t want to just email them with a request like, “Hi! I’m a VP of Sales for the Americas at one of your competitors, can you refer me for the job of Global VP of Sales your company just posted?” It’s a little too abrupt and doesn’t give the employee much information to help build her confidence in you as a candidate.

Try an engaging, respectful approach like this: “Hi, I see that we are third-degree connections on LinkedIn. In fact we both know [Bill Jones]. He’s a great guy – we worked together back at [Raytheon]. I wanted to introduce myself to you because I’m interested in applying for the open job [Lockheed Martin] just posted. And I wonder if you could take a look at my resume and tell me if you think my background looks interesting for the job. I’d welcome any advice you may have, either by email or in a brief 5-minute phone call.”

If you get a positive response from this employee, thank them. If you feel the general reaction was positive, you might then ask, “ Do you feel that you have a good enough sense of my background to refer me to the CEO (or whoever would be the hiring manager for the job)? If the answer is in the affirmative, then express your appreciation and email your resume, having incorporated any valuable suggestions. Remember, as always, to tailor the resume to the job and industry, including keywords.

Once the resume hand-off is achieved, make sure to write a thank-you email and extend an offer to help the employee in any future situation where they might want a referral. These last steps are very important! They align with the basic rule of all good networking: Givers Gain.

Why use this time-intensive, relationship-building route when just firing off a resume to a posted job ad is so quick and easy?

Because candidates who come in via employee referrals have a one in 10 chance of ultimately getting hired. With job boards it can be more like one in 100 or one in 1000. Which odds do you prefer?

If, when you approach a new contact with this method you don’t get a response, try again with another employee. Be persistent and take advantage of the #1 Source of HIre in corporate America. Get a touchdown! 🏈

Jean Cummings

If you answer this one question correctly and act on its implications, you are well on your way to a great job! Here it is:

1. What is the #1 source of hire for coporate America?

a) Job boards

b) Employee Referrals

c) Executive Recruiters

d) Career Site

 The right answer is b! This has profound implications for your job search. It means that if you are spending most of your time on job boards, you are not searching efficiently. It also means that if you ignore this channel, you are giving up on your biggest advantage.

Here are some of my recommendations:

• Track your time to see if the largest percentage of time you spend on job search is spent on tapping into employee referral networks at the companies you are interested in targeting. If it is not, do an in-course correction.
• If you see a job posted on a job board you want to apply to, go ahead through the specified channels and submit your ATS-friendly (Applicant Tracking System-friendly) resume and cover letter. BUT, at the same time, tap into your networks to find someone within the company to connect with - the ultimate goal being an employee referral.
• Ask the employee if they feel they know enough about you to refer you - and make sure they have your excellent branded executive resume. If they say they do, then request that they hand deliver your resume with their referral to the manager who would be directing you in the job. (HR will already have your resume from their system.)
• If you don't know of a job opening but are interested in working for a specific company, go through the process above anyway. This is a fabulous way to job search! If the senior manager is even thinking about hiring, you have a huge advantage. Getting in before a job hits the job boards gives you tremendously better odds.

I will be writing more on where to find employee referrals and what to say in my next blog post. Stay tuned!

Do you sometimes just scratch your head because you know you'd be great for the job and you think your resume communicated your qualifications but nobody on the other end "gets" it?

If the impassioned even embittered debate on Twitter and Facebook about whether the above dress is gold and white or blue and black tells us anything, it's that we don't all see the same reality.

I'm afraid this is a rather profound truth and is at the basis of many human misunderstandings. For instance, ISIS sees the world differently from your average Westerner. This ability to look at conditions in the world and perceive radically different things is surely tragic for humanity.

What about the typical spousal debate about money? It's obvious that legal tender is "seen" in different ways by different people. That's why studies show that having very different views of money is a very common cause of divorce.

It's worth pointing out here, though, that without this very human, built-in variety of perceptions we would have no great art, music, drama, or even cosmology to excite, awaken, inform, and inspire people. How often we "see" a new reality when confronted by great art!

So what does all this have to do with your resume? Well, if your resume evokes in the recruiter an entirely different picture of who you are professionally than you thought you were projecting, your candidacy in not apt to go any further.

Many people "perceive" that they are telling the hiring authority that they have the a,b, and c skills and experiences required for the job. But is the recruiter seeing that also? Usually not.

This dilemma is the reason why you as a job seeker need to throw away many of your personal preferences in writing your resume. Instead, follow these simple rules:

• Weave the exact keywords or key phrases you find in the job ad into your resume's profile and the descriptions of your job responsibilities
• Take the key skills the job ad specifies and, in addition to weaving them in, provide examples of using them in your jobs
• Put information the recruiter wants to see in the expected places on the resume: Summary, Experience, Education

Yes, this means customizing every resume you send out to the exact key words and key phrases in the particular job ad.

If you folllow these rules and construct an ATS-friendly resume (see recent blog posts + free example), you will be in a good position to have your resume retrieved by the recruiter in a search.

So, if you don't want your "blue and black" dress to appear "gold and white" when the recruiter wants to see "blue and black," observe the above conventions!

This may seem like a blog post title that seriously overreaches. But, there is a sense in which there is one simple, essential ingredient to job search success. This is it:

Visualize your goal.

It's not enough just to have a goal, although that appears to be critical for success in job search as in just about everything else. It's also important to paint a picture in your mind of what your goal would look like, feel like, sound like, etc. Brain science suggests that the brain is stimulated in the same regions whether we are only visualizing or actually experiencing a state of affairs.

Srinivasan S. Pillay, M.D. is a master executive coach to Fortune 500 leaders who examines new findings in brain science and makes suggestions for business behavior in his book: Your Brain and Business: The Neuroscience of Great Leaders.

If you want to explore his ideas in depth, Dr. Pillay discusses a range of compelling ideas to emerge out of brain research that have the potential to enhance leadership success.

But for those of us who aren't F500 executives, goal visualization holds great promise as well. The US Olympic Committee has increased the number of psychologists on staff 600% over the past 20 years in recognition of the importance of training athletes mentally to achieve their goal. Read more at Business Insider.

For years I've been coaching clients on how to interview to get the job. One key ingredient in my coaching is to encourage clients to visualize before the interview starts that they are already in the job and functioning with authority as part of a productive team. In visualizing these states of affairs, they are feeling confident, "in their element," collegial, knowledgeable, valued and have a sense of belonging and of liking their colleagues. The impact of this kind of visualization on a client's body language, energy, attitude towards the interviewers, and general affect can be profound.

People promoting visualization as a success tool suggest that by visualizing the goal the person is actually preparing the brain to understand and proceed on the steps that need to be taken to reach the goal.

In job search, the individual can visualize the ultimate goal - being an employee at their company of choice - and also visualize performing the steps required to meet that goal: connecting with people from the company or recruiters on LinkedIn, leaving a message for a hiring authority, meeting with key networking contacts, writing two letters a day to specific hiring authorities at specfic companies, etc.

The time required to do this kind of visualization daily is not more than a minute. See if it works for you in helping you get the job you want!

Jean Cummings

Here's where I see resumes and job search going:

ONLINE

O: Over 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn to source and vet candidates | Over 80% use social media sites like Facebook or Twitter to rule applicants OUT

N: Neglect building your online footprint at your peril | Unless you have a robust online footprint, you will be disadvantaged in the job search over candidates who do

L: Love your job and want to keep it? Stay abreast of the trends in your industry, keep learning to keep up, and watch the career moves and ongoing training of your peers online

I: Innovate on the job so you can write about it in your LIP (LinkedIn profile), on your website, in tweets, on Facebook, or display it on Youtube and Pinterest | Bring something distinctive to the table

N: Never give up the job search - there is always something you haven't tried in the world of online job search | There's also a world of potential contacts and ways to connect with hiring managers and employees online

E: Engage with people in your function or industry space online by responding to their online activity and getting the word about on your professional interestss

Want to get started? Go beyond your executive resume and build your LIP to 100% complete and go to about.me and build your profile there. After that, you can be endlessly creative in building your brand through words, pictures, slides, videos, and infographics.

Want to also try something new? Explore SwitchApp.com by Apple - very cool. And keep an eye on LinkedIn's new acquisition: Bright. Wisewords. RaiseYourFlag. CareerSushi. Good luck!