Commandments for Conducting a Successful Proactive Job Search Campaign 1
© Copyright 2005, Ron E. Bates, Executive Advantage Group, Inc.
Many people over the years have asked me for help in finding their next job. Through the resume feedback we give to people, we try to point them down the right path with additional suggestions about how to increase/maximize their exposure to more and better career opportunities.
I thought others might either benefit from some of the same suggestions, or know someone who might. As such, I've written an article that I've called:
Ten Commandments for Conducting a Successful Proactive Job Search Campaign. This "article" is actually about 6-pages long, so I thought it made sense to break it up and introduce it over several weekly installments. I'm introducing the "First Commandment" in this installment.
Do you find yourself (or know someone) in a situation where you need or want to conduct a proactive job search campaign?Regardless of your reasons, need, or desire to engage in a proactive job search, conducting a proactive job search can be one of the most frustrating challenges for anyone at any level and at any point in their career.
Why?
Because the outcome is often a function of timing, and has nothing to do with how marketable you are. That said, increasing your marketability and exposure to opportunity only improves your ability to capitalize on being in the right place at the right time to take that next step in your career. With the right strategy and approach not only can your increase your exposure to more opportunity, you can also increase your exposure to better opportunities.
It isn't complicated, but it can be a lot of hard work and it's critical you have access to the right tools to get the job done.Use the following Ten Commandments (introduced over the next several weeks) to help you network and expedite your way through your next proactive job search.
1. It all starts with your resume if you are going outside of your immediate "friends & family" business contact network.
Most executives fall into the trap of trivializing the importance of having the best possible resume by saying, "I communicate my value and the substance of my career best in an interview." If your resume isn't pin sharp in its ability to concisely articulate your unique differentiated career value proposition by quantifying the scope and scale of responsibility and the business impact your efforts have produced in a -measurable- way for each position you've held in your career, you are dead before you even start. You will simply get lost in the pile of resumes that end up in electronic or physical recycle bins without a second thought – let alone without an interview.
You really need to understand the quality, content and format of your resume (especially for an executive) is a strong reflection of your capabilities and focus.
Executives are given a measurable scope and scale of responsibility, and they are paid to produce measurable business impact. Nobody is paid to simply produce effort.
It is amazing how many executive resumes fail to articulate this information in a measurable way. Most resumes are nothing more than unquantified statements of effort that beg the question: "That's nice, so what did that effort produce in the form of any measurable business impact?"
Don't fall into the trap of failing to articulate your measurable scope and scale of responsibility, and the measurable business impact you've driven in your resume. Also give thought to a non-traditional 1-2 page resume, and devote enough physical space to adequately differentiate your career, or risk being lost in a sea of 1-2 page vanilla resumes. Some may think this is heresy.
Want to see how –everybody– else looks? Just look at the -AFTER- "Samples" that e-Resume (examples), Career Resumes (examples), and even Monster's Resume Center (examples) touts as massively differentiating "Stellar" resumes to see how -EVERYBODY- looks when they constrain themselves to this 1-2 page criteria.
If your goal is to conform and look like EVERYBODY else and as a result - compete head-to-head in today's job market, then by all means follow their advice.
If you want to change the game in your favor and get interviews that others with the same vanilla resumes won't - then don't follow their advice. Simply ask yourself if you want to work for someone that believes the length of someone's resume is a valid hiring criterion, and make your own decision. Just be very careful in reacting to feedback that "Your resume is too long."
Why? Because the –only– person that you should listen to that comments on the length of your resume is someone that can actually benefit by hiring you. Any other feedback is coming from someone that does not need to hire you, and as such can't benefit from the information that is actually in your resume.
Stay tuned for the next installment:
2. Have the right tools for the job.
# # #Ron E. Bates is a Managing Principal with the retained executive search firm Executive Advantage Group, Inc. His search practice focuses on mission critical retained searches for pre-IPO Venture Capital backed start-ups to Fortune500 clients. He has delivered personal executive coaching projects to former SAP, E&Y, Oracle, and WorldCom Exec's responsible for multi-billion dollar business units, and co-founded http://www.cv-advantage.com/ a self guided job search oriented executive coaching process. With +22,000 direct contacts, Ron is also the most connected individual in the world on http://www.linkedin.com/. His Ecademy profile can be viewed at http://www.ecademy.com/user/ronbates. Ron can be reached at rbates@executive-advantage.com.
Many people over the years have asked me for help in finding their next job. Through the resume feedback we give to people, we try to point them down the right path with additional suggestions about how to increase/maximize their exposure to more and better career opportunities.
I thought others might either benefit from some of the same suggestions, or know someone who might. As such, I've written an article that I've called:
Ten Commandments for Conducting a Successful Proactive Job Search Campaign. This "article" is actually about 6-pages long, so I thought it made sense to break it up and introduce it over several weekly installments. I'm introducing the "First Commandment" in this installment.
Do you find yourself (or know someone) in a situation where you need or want to conduct a proactive job search campaign?Regardless of your reasons, need, or desire to engage in a proactive job search, conducting a proactive job search can be one of the most frustrating challenges for anyone at any level and at any point in their career.
Why?
Because the outcome is often a function of timing, and has nothing to do with how marketable you are. That said, increasing your marketability and exposure to opportunity only improves your ability to capitalize on being in the right place at the right time to take that next step in your career. With the right strategy and approach not only can your increase your exposure to more opportunity, you can also increase your exposure to better opportunities.
It isn't complicated, but it can be a lot of hard work and it's critical you have access to the right tools to get the job done.Use the following Ten Commandments (introduced over the next several weeks) to help you network and expedite your way through your next proactive job search.
1. It all starts with your resume if you are going outside of your immediate "friends & family" business contact network.
Most executives fall into the trap of trivializing the importance of having the best possible resume by saying, "I communicate my value and the substance of my career best in an interview." If your resume isn't pin sharp in its ability to concisely articulate your unique differentiated career value proposition by quantifying the scope and scale of responsibility and the business impact your efforts have produced in a -measurable- way for each position you've held in your career, you are dead before you even start. You will simply get lost in the pile of resumes that end up in electronic or physical recycle bins without a second thought – let alone without an interview.
You really need to understand the quality, content and format of your resume (especially for an executive) is a strong reflection of your capabilities and focus.
Executives are given a measurable scope and scale of responsibility, and they are paid to produce measurable business impact. Nobody is paid to simply produce effort.
It is amazing how many executive resumes fail to articulate this information in a measurable way. Most resumes are nothing more than unquantified statements of effort that beg the question: "That's nice, so what did that effort produce in the form of any measurable business impact?"
Don't fall into the trap of failing to articulate your measurable scope and scale of responsibility, and the measurable business impact you've driven in your resume. Also give thought to a non-traditional 1-2 page resume, and devote enough physical space to adequately differentiate your career, or risk being lost in a sea of 1-2 page vanilla resumes. Some may think this is heresy.
Want to see how –everybody– else looks? Just look at the -AFTER- "Samples" that e-Resume (examples), Career Resumes (examples), and even Monster's Resume Center (examples) touts as massively differentiating "Stellar" resumes to see how -EVERYBODY- looks when they constrain themselves to this 1-2 page criteria.
If your goal is to conform and look like EVERYBODY else and as a result - compete head-to-head in today's job market, then by all means follow their advice.
If you want to change the game in your favor and get interviews that others with the same vanilla resumes won't - then don't follow their advice. Simply ask yourself if you want to work for someone that believes the length of someone's resume is a valid hiring criterion, and make your own decision. Just be very careful in reacting to feedback that "Your resume is too long."
Why? Because the –only– person that you should listen to that comments on the length of your resume is someone that can actually benefit by hiring you. Any other feedback is coming from someone that does not need to hire you, and as such can't benefit from the information that is actually in your resume.
Stay tuned for the next installment:
2. Have the right tools for the job.
# # #Ron E. Bates is a Managing Principal with the retained executive search firm Executive Advantage Group, Inc. His search practice focuses on mission critical retained searches for pre-IPO Venture Capital backed start-ups to Fortune500 clients. He has delivered personal executive coaching projects to former SAP, E&Y, Oracle, and WorldCom Exec's responsible for multi-billion dollar business units, and co-founded http://www.cv-advantage.com/ a self guided job search oriented executive coaching process. With +22,000 direct contacts, Ron is also the most connected individual in the world on http://www.linkedin.com/. His Ecademy profile can be viewed at http://www.ecademy.com/user/ronbates. Ron can be reached at rbates@executive-advantage.com.
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