If you are a CFO, CEO, CMO, CTO, CWBO, CRO, CIO & have been thinking on a career transition/change, you must be considering ways to tap your network. Given your length of experience & position of power you may be holding, you may have a high profile network that can possibly connect you to right & relevant folks to start a conversation. You must also be focussed on the perfect way to approach the network- to showcase honor the professional relationship you have nurtured over a period of time as well as your own reputation, confidence & leadership approach.
It is important to think how to start a successful conversation with your network peers. The conversation should shape up in such a way that you help them make good decisions & make it convenient for them to help you. We are sharing some insights on how can C-suite leverage their strong & powerful network:
- Approach them like a leader: Do you feel bad about approaching your network with questions such as: Do you have any opportunities? Do you know of someone who is hiring? Trust that inner instinct since at your level such questions can have negative reactions than positive. Instead of directly posing such questions, showcase the leader you are. Tell them that you are looking for new level of challenge & show how will you approach a particular company in case they recommend/endorse you :
- You can solve the problem a target company is looking to solve: Perhaps you learnt about a position/role published by a company through your network or news article. The company is facing a challenging task and is looking forward to your attention & inclination to be part of the solution.
- You have a fair chance: Contact the decision maker( not the HR folks), express your inclination to work for them & throw light on your qualification & experience. Companies are looking to hire talents across all levels.80% of jobs at C-suite level are never advertised. So adopt a strategy to limit the competition- apply even before the role is published on the job board.
- Have a great resume: This is where hiring an executive resume writer makes the difference. Getting your resume written by a professional expert will help you translate your successes & achievements into a compelling story & showcase your resume as a marketing brochure(rather than a blueprint of work you have done).
- Be positive & enthusiastic: Most C-suites are critical thinkers & they need to be careful portraying themselves as too quiet or too talkative. Take out sometime to prepare for an interview jotting down positives of what you have achieved. Building a story around your successes & achievements is a big plus.
- Evaluate your expectations: At one point in time, there are a lot of executive positions available in the market. However depending upon the fact that your network or colleagues may know of one of these positions is posing high expectation on your network. It may work once in a while, however I would never recommend my clients to increase too much reliance on your existing network. The solution is to approach your network that demonstrates your leadership & control of the situation. Given them parameters & let me evaluate how they can help you.
Besides leveraging your current network, you should also try to explore the hidden job market. Many of my clients ask me, is the hidden job market the same as networking? My answer is “ NO” Hidden job market means bypassing middlemen- both internal -HR folks & external-recruiters & headhunters. Some of the facts, we should consider:
- The traditional way of job search on the internet & various job boards gives only 1% to 3% hit rate. I am sure you must have faced a situation when you have submitted a resume for 100 odd positions & haven’t heard back from any of them. The job boards are really difficult, painful & time consuming to secure a job.
- You will never look stupid if you directly contact some one in a company without job being advertised. Believe me, companies are quite open to look at profiles which are great & have created value for their previous employers. Companies go for at least 4 to 5 steps for filling a particular position before they advertise the same job board. Consider a situation: If a position has been recently created/opened up, the company would trust its existing employees to refer to someone who may fit the profile rather than calling up a job board.
- Interview process gets shorter in case you route through an unadvertised model since you are directly talking to the decision maker from the start. You have a chance to showcase your creativity to sell your skills & how you can create value. Since you will not be going through a formal human resource department driven recruitment approach, your interview process is pretty fast & competition is relatively low.
- Ask for endorsement: Another way of approaching your executive network is to ask for endorsement &/or introduction.You can write something like this to someone in your network :
Hi Robert, I wanted to confidentially share that I am currently open to explore CEO level positions in the FMCG sector. I am considering organisations with a revenue band of US $ 800 million to US $ 3 billion. To this end, I am updating my marketing collateral & putting together a few pages of endorsements. Would you consider writing one or two line statements that speak about my ability in–?
You can tell them which skills they can talk about- strategy, restructuring, leadership, transformation & turnarounds( to name a few).
