How to Find a Great Executive Career

Searching for an executive job use to be a bull market. And, just like the ever-changing stock market can go from bull to bear, the executive job market changes, too. In the past, recruiters and headhunters were plentiful in their offers and companies would advertise and announce new exciting positions which would result in multiple interviews. Times have definitely changed…

Fast forward to today—the market for an executive looking to make a career jump is more competitive than ever. How is one to move up the ladder with so many great candidates in an executive “bear market”?  Here are some practical tips to help you with your search.

• Don’t expect them to come looking for you.
There is nothing worse you can do than wait for opportunity to come looking for you. True opportunity doesn’t do the looking… if anything, it sees candidates that are waiting for the job to come to them as a pitiful approach. If you’re serious about moving on, a passive approach will not work in this competitive climate. You have to be actively searching and creating the relationships that will benefit your overall career. So if you’re serious about searching for the job you want, you may wonder how…

• Quality is better than quantity
Your first proactive response to searching for a career change may be to post your resume to one of the many job boards online. Not so fast, however: although responding to posted positions on job boards or mass-mailing your resume may seem like a good place to start, it is only marginally effective. You may waste a lot of your time and effort in doing this only to find out that the job or the employer is not what you really want. The true goal is to find quality opportunities over quantity. Creating relationships with reputable search firms can help you with this process.

• Brush up your resume
For employers, the sea of resumes they receive often looks the same. Keep in mind that your resume projects who you are. If you want to seem sharp and motivated, project yourself in a way that provides a solution to your prospective company’s needs. You must show your potential and your focus and back up it up with your accomplishments.