Executive Job Search Top Mistake #4 of 6 – Unwilling to Get Current
Executives, you have great experience, skills and an ability to do so much more in the future. You just need to catch up to some trends in the job seeking process today.
I’m Dana Manciagli, author of Cut the Crap, Get a Job! and I want to give you three homework assignments to help you get and stay current to compete for new career positions today:
- Resume Refresh — Undoubtedly, you have years of experience, skills and success stories. To get current, you need to re-build your resume to convince, no SELL, the future employer that you have the right set of transferable skills that makes you the best candidate for that job. Make an investment in two things: time and money, in that order.
- Time: Spend time thinking about your career goals, and the key skills you want to highlight, and your “brand”. Look at resume templates on Microsoft.com or multiple other websites to see samples or to download.
- Money: If you do not feel confident that you can build a much more relevant, modern and powerful resume, then pay someone to do that! There are so many great resume-builders, resume coaches and experts on the web.
- Be Found Online — If you’re not on LinkedIn, you don’t exist. From executives I coach, I hear “LinkedIn is for the younger generation”, or “I’m in a few recruiter’s data-bases so I’m good.” Use LinkedIn’s tutorials and get to a 100% profile as soon as possible! Within 5 years I predict that positions will not be posted but we will be searched out by hiring managers through social networks.
- Show Credibility –Enhance your LinkedIn profile with written validation from current or ex-peers, managers, senior executives, and influential executives. Yes, it’s awkward asking for this but think of it as the old “references” we had in case we were asked.
Executive peers, you will never know that one thing that helped you win your job. Equally, you will never know the one thing that got in your way, either. Have confidence in your skills, and simply assure you are not only current with the new era of job search, but that you stay current into the future. Good luck!
