EXECUTIVE RESUME WRITING SERVICE
CAREER CORNER WITH THE JOB COACH^TM

PLANNING AND MOTIVATION ARE PARAMOUNT TO SUCCESS
The great majority of people, even highly successful C-level executives, seek new positions in a very haphazard manner.  As a result, many job hunters fail to find their dream position and simply settle for the first reasonable opportunity that comes along.  By carefully targeting the position you desire in the preliminary stage and reevaluating your plans and strategies throughout your campaign, you will avoid most of the problems and frustrations which plague a significant portion of today’s job seekers.

To succeed, however, you must be committed to achieving specific goals.  Of course, it’s relatively easy to formulate a course of action divorced from the reality of actually doing the task; particularly when you are likely to face setbacks and defeats when least expected.  While these reversals can be frustrating and shattering to the ego, you must continually move forward and never quit until you achieve your final objective.  Winners do not underestimate their abilities, since they know superior job-hunting skills can often compensate for lesser job qualifications.
 

MERCHANDISING YOURSELF BY TARGETING YOUR JOB OBJECTIVE
Achieving success with your written materials (e.g., executive resume, cover letter, leadership profile, branding statement, etc.) requires that you carefully identify and merchandise those qualifications and achievements that are most closely related to your current job objective.  In other words, to optimize the impact of your credentials with potential employers, your written communications must clearly support “who you want to be” and not “who you have been.”  This concept is referred to as “targeting your job objective,” although it tends to be ignored by a significant number of executive job hunters.  By targeting your credentials, not only will your executive resume create an interest on the part of the employer to see you, but it will continue selling for you throughout the entire interview and negotiation process.

In order to make your executive resume produce, you must also use it in a very skillful way.  Since timing is so critical, and the competition is so fierce, luck will play a significant role in your job-hunting activities.  In fact, your chance of reaching a company at the exact moment they have an opening for your specific background is slim.  This means it may take hundreds, if not thousands, of personal contacts to generate a single job offer.  None of this, however, means you can’t be much more successful than the average job hunter, provided you remember that the more contacts you make, the more potential opportunities you will be able to explore.
 

INTERVIEW PREPARATION EQUALS SUCCESS
People who are prepared invariably become masters of the interviewing process.  This is critical since everything you do in a job search campaign will be wasted if you don’t convert interviews into job offers.  All the work you do preparing quality written materials, all the networking, all the contacts with executive recruiters and venture capitalists, and all the mailings and telephone calls directly to potential employers are designed to generate interviews.  You then have the opportunity, in a face-to-face meeting, to reinforce the interviewer’s positive impression of you, while learning more about the position and the hiring company.  An interview is a two-way process where both parties are learning and evaluating, and if you are genuinely interested in the position, your ultimate objective is to secure an offer.

Most of the hiring executives with whom you meet will be professionals interested in hearing what you have to say.  Others will seem extremely opinionated and may even appear biased against your candidacy after meeting you.  But regardless of the interviewer’s personality, your goal is to build confidence and rapport, and convince the person that you are a talented, high achiever capable of handling all aspects of the job.  In short, you must paint a picture of a successful and likeable executive who is best qualified for the position.
 

YOU WILL NEVER WIN THEM ALL

Job hunting is very much a numbers game, which makes it hard, time-consuming work.  It involves knocking on doors even when you do not know if there are any opportunities inside.  Those who arrive at the right time, those whose personalities mix well, and those who appear best qualified are the ones who tend to get the job offers.  Throughout your job-search process, a positive, action-oriented frame of mind is essential, or your experience may be less than pleasant.  In job hunting, there can be a very fine line between success and despair.

You will learn from your experiences and if you feel you have been unsuccessful at an interview, don’t waste time regretting the experience.  The most successful job seekers continually attack the employment market, even with the knowledge that they are going to lose quite often.  They also pursue optimistic goals, but have enough common sense to concentrate on avenues where they can avoid most of their competition.  Above all, they fully comprehend the importance of using a targeted, high-impact executive resume to grab each reader’s attention and maintain a competitive edge throughout their job-hunting campaign.

CAREER TRANSITION WHITE PAPERS FROM THE JOB COACH
The employment search techniques presented in the following white papers are designed to help improve your career transition skills and shorten the time required for you to find the ‘ideal’ job.  Each article focuses on a specific area of the job search process, and offers possible strategies, methods of approach and insights that are essential for success in today’s highly competitive job market.  We urge you to read the articles thoroughly, as they will help you to achieve your career goals in the most efficient and productive manner.

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