Once you succeed at the executive level, the job hunting process changes.
A typical resume doesn’t make the right impact, and a standard cover letter does nothing to captivate or inspire readers. If you have been representing yourself with boring, ineffective documents, take a stand for your career. Throw them away.
In order to earn respect as a top manager in a competitive economy, you must refine your presentation and market yourself with clarity, authority and commitment. Instead of contacting recruiters and companies with a ho-hum resume and cover letter, you need something more powerful, more comprehensive. You need an executive profile.
Like a resume, a good executive profile will integrate three things — your personality, experience and goals. However, despite a few similarities, this on-paper presentation is not something that you should confuse with a basic resume. It is a stronger, more influential document, built on executive-level language and a few extra pages of crisp, engaging content.
Ready to step up your presentation? The following guidelines will help you create a job-winning profile:
Include the essentials, plus a little extra. Executive profiles consist of a success-oriented work history (two to three pages) and supplementary materials, such as a short biography (one page), and separate lists of awards, patents, client lists and achievements. Be as brief as possible. Demonstrate that you are worth the company’s money. Leave everything else out.
Enhance layout and content. To outshine other candidates, you must make the right impression — quickly. Choose a professional and appealing format, and tell the truth about your career in a way that showcases your accomplishments, expertise and potential contributions.
Your industry and position will help determine the best format and language. For instance, if you lead the North American sales operation of a major company, make your profile match the culture of a sales organization. Be bold and energetic. Focus on profitability and market share.
If you serve as executive director of a health care system, try a less vibrant format and generate text that highlights relationships, financial analysis and improvements related to utilization and the bottom line.
Avoid two things — modesty and arrogance. Many executives make the mistake of over- or under-selling themselves and their achievements. This is no place for modesty or conceit. They obscure success.
Your objective is to present yourself with professionalism while proving that you are the ideal person for the job. What constitutes proof? Information about businesses established, products launched, money saved, revenue earned, markets expanded, new processes developed, problems solved and other quantifiable results.
Move forward with confidence. All job seekers have the same goal in mind — to secure a high-paying job offer as rapidly as you can. Once you reach the executive level, there are additional tools at your disposal that can help you make a significant impact with company decision makers.
If you really want to expedite your job search, take the time to create an executive profile, or hire a professional writer to prepare one for you. It will attract attention, support your claims during the interview process, and ensure that you are taken seriously as a leadership candidate, long after the interview ends.
Send your job search questions to Eve.GetAJob@gmail.com.
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