What executive job seekers should do to differentiate themselves in today’s job market ?

When the job market is booming, the hiring spree is much stronger! However during downward spiral, a larger proportion of executive job seekers are testing job search waters. The job market is saturated & executive job seekers( even those who are not soliciting executive resume writer service) need to do much more than speaking with handful of recruiters to land up with an interviews that can be potential fit for your skills & expertise.

To put the best foot forward & boost chances of interviews, as an executive job seeker, you need to invest in sweat equity that is no different from strategies you will deploy to be successful in your career/roles.

The following paragraphs will describe in detail how you an an executive job search seeker should go about job search:

1. Research: Use the same skills applied to identify industry, customer & competitors to identify companies, organisations & people worth targeting. Just as you identify customer needs during your detailed market research, identify company’s need/pain point & how you are perfectly equipped to solve them. Doing such an exercise will bring clarity on the next role you are seeking, why you want & whom to approach/ask for help.
2. Build relationships & network: Work on expanding network to folks in your target company & industry recruiters/headhunters & devise a strategy to get connected to them. Invites for a coffee chat, sending them connection requests on LinkedIn &/or sending them good old fashioned email are great ways to start the conversation. Please remember people get busy & will not recall your profile/put your credential on the top of the list when an opportunity arises. You can increase the chances by keeping in touch & offering anything that might help them in return( company leads/connecting with some influencer/decision maker etc…)
3. Understand & Communicate your value: Just the way you think about your achievements during the annual appraisal time, reflect on your past roles & achievements before making your profile public. What is it about you & your expertise that creates a company’s interest? What has been your outcome /impact of your initiatives in these roles. When combining your hard skills which details about your expertise with soft skills which tells about your value & character, focus on communicating what you can do for your prospective employer & why they should consider you.
4. Populate your career documents with relevant Keywords:  Most of us understand the value of making sure their efforts are impacting & influencing the right people- clients, external customers or key stakeholders. When it comes to job search, what is the better way to make sure that your value/strength comes out rather than to spell it out in your career marketing documents( resume, LinkedIn, cover letter). By weaving details unique to you with key wording into your career marketing documents, you are doing the following
   1. Help hiring managers connect the dots on how you are perfectly suited for the target role.
   2. Increase your search engine optimisation(SEO) so that your profile appears on the top of list of decision making & pass through scanning done by the application tracking system(ATS) software when you upload your resume for a particular role.
5. Optimise your ROI on job search: Executives know the importance of targeting the key markets, key customers, key systems, products & services since it yield them maximum Return on Investment & enhanced profitability. Similarly as an executive job seeker, you should target that your efforts generate maximum ROI.

As the founder and executive resume coach  at Sushant Kumar Ventures, I offer customized executive resume and LinkedIn profile writing services for modern day job seekers. Sign up here for our services/free consult.