Effective Executive Job Search

The author indicates anxiety is up over increasing layoffs. I'm not seeing it in sectors outside of home building, tech, and media. Other areas continue to remain strong for executive hiring and I can't see any slowdown in the next two years.

The anxiety should not be coming from increasing layoffs, but how poorly you might be conducting your job search and as a consequence taking 2-3X what is required in terms of time to complete your job search.

Although these tips might seem very basic - I'm still shocked at how many executives violate these most simple ideas around polishing up your image for potential employers.

Here are some ideas to think about in terms of making your executive job search more efficient and bring higher speed to finding that ideal opportunity.

Most executive job seekers waste an inordinate amount of time focusing on the wrong tasks in their job search - like applying to open positions on job boards.

Barry Deutsch

Executive Job Search Coach and Master Executive Search Consultant

Some interesting thoughts on job search myths like length of resume, cover letters, and volunteer activities.

First soap box issue for executive job search - not taking the time to write a cover letter specifically addressing the expectations identified in the job ad or networking message. Pet Peeve of many CEOs.

Second soap box issue for executive job search - not taking the time to proof read your resume and cover letter. Grammer and spelling mistakes will get your resume tossed in the trash can in seconds regardless of the strength of your background.

Indeed is cutting staff and predicting a decline in job openings. Could this be a leading indicator the job market is slowing down pre-recession?

The job market in every recession over the last 30 years has shown decline in open roles before the general economic indicators start to reflect traditional recession metrics.

Your thoughts? How are you preparing for an economic downturn - or should we wait until it's already here?

My experience in coaching senior executives in their job search through our executive job search coaching program over the last 20 years is that most executive job seekers have a wild emotional roller coaster over whether they get asked back for a second interview or get the job.

Forget about what happens on the back end of interviewing. The entire focus of your executive job search should be the "top of the funnel". You should be having plenty of "at-bats" - knowing that a good percentage of those will move through the process. The risk is putting all your eggs in one or two baskets praying for a positive result.

The key issue is that most executive job seekers don't know how to fill the front end of the funnel through networking and referrals (85% of all jobs unposted at this level) to create an abudance of opportunities being presented to them.

Here's some good ideas for tools in conducting an executive job search. The one I would add to this list is a one page document listing in quantifiable format your key accomplishments of revenue you increased, headcount reduced, efficiency improved, new products launched. 2-3 sentences - what was the issue/challenge - what did you do - what was the quantifiable outcomes. Discussion of these achievements will represent 80 percent of your interviews.

A good graphic on some of the key mistakes candidates with 20-30 years of experience make in their executive job search.

Don't forget to ask me about our self-assessment executive job search matrix to determine if your job search might take twice as long as those using best-practices in their job search.

A pretty good article on the basic fundamentals of interviewing at the executive level. Unfortunately, we sometimes forget these simple elements that can make a huge difference when interviewing for an executive level job.

My perspective is that executive job search takes far too long. The rule of thumb is 6 months minimum  and could extend to a year depending on what's happening in the economy. Here's an interesting take on the issue of the length of time of job search in a recent Fortune article.

Do you find yourself making these common mistakes in your job search? 85% of jobs at the executive level are not published - they have to be discovered through networking and referrals.

Here's something I've not seen before - a mind-mapping exercise for conducting a job search. Where most candidates fail is the front end of filling the funnel with lots of opportunities - which I call "at-bats". Instead of relying on answering job ads - which is an almost impossible task (plus 85% of all jobs never get published - they are filled through personal contacts and networking) - the focus should be on networking and referrals of opportunities.

Lots of good common sense ideas related to your resume and job search. So many candidates shoot themselves in the foot by violating  a number of these basic concepts - and thus never get the stage of a first or second interview.

Excellent article on HBR about executive job search.

One great tactic of improving your self-confidence is to make a bullet-pointed list of all your achievements and accomplishments that you can actually quantify. This will then become your interview talking points and form the basis for your communication strategy with your network to uncover hidden opportunities.

Executive Job Search: I agree with the author that resumes are extremely limiting. You're NOT giving hiring executives a chance to see ENOUGH of you to decide whether to schedule an interview.

In our Executive Job Search Coaching Program we teach how to dramatically expand your MARKETING of yourself through LInkedIn as an add-on to your resume. #jobsearch

One of the key elements in a successful Executive Job Search that we cover in our Job Search Coaching Program is how to negotiate the best offer. Here's an interesting article on salary negotiations that cover several key points to get your best offer.