Executive Resumes, Personal Branding & Executive Job Search

It's not news to anyone that job security is a thing of the past. It can start to feel as though employers are holding all the cards, hiring and laying off people at will, with no loyalty involved.

But there's another way to look at the situation. Consider yourself a free agent who can move freely between various opportunities as chances to grow your personal brand present themselves. Here are some quick tips I've summarized from Kathryn Ullrich writing in TechRepublic:

1. Look out for #1: with loyalty an old-fashioned virtue, you have the right to move to a job that works better for you

2. Be strategic: plan where you want to be within a range of time frames and chart how to get there

3. Work in step with your company goals: by aligning your work with the company's strategic objectives, your contributions will be more significant

4. Be customer-centric: not only will attention to your internal and external customers result in better products and services, but you'll be better networked for future career moves

5. Collaborate: again, build your connections while improving innovation and day-to-day work product

6. Hone your communications skills: it may sound overused, but ability to listen and express yourself effectively are core skills to almost all jobs; even individual contributors like coders will be more effective with better communication skills

7. Cross over functionally: more and more companies are looking for people who have a broader functional skillset - and you'll grow your network while you're at it

8. Expand your experience: this will give you value-added skills and a broader network

9. Find a guide: a mentor can be a great guide to planning and implementing your career progression

10. Network - now: optimize your profile on LinkedIn for job search (see previous post) and continually make connections online and off for when you need them or they need you

Here are a few more I think are important:

1. Define your personal brand: your value proposition, attributes, values, and value-adds

2. Project your brand online (see previous post)

3. Keep your eye on where the business and/or company you're in is trending; shape your career in the direction where the jobs are going to be

4. Become a subject matter expert and showcase your knowledge in a blog, on LinkedIn groups, in LI Answers, on Twitter, etc.

5. Go deep in one of the trending areas

6. Choose a function to join with IT, such as finance or sales & marketing - to give you a competitive advantage in a job search

Job search is an Always On feature of life now. Go ahead, you're in the driver's seat of your career.

The vast majority of employers and recruiters search LinkedIn before deciding whether to interview you. If you're conducting a job search, do you know how to optimize LinkedIn to your advantage? Here are a few ideas. Please add additional ones in comments!

1. After your title, add your industry (if that's the one you want a job in) and then pump it up with your brand if you wish: "Go-to SAP Project Manager"
2. In your summary, nail your value proposition and competitive advantages.
3. Use the common keywords recruiters or hiring authorities would use when searching for someone like you.
4. Put in a comprehensive list of keywords under Specialties to attract search engine attention
5. Under Experience, just hit your main achievements and contributions. Use numbers whenever possible.
6. If your title isn't the one a hiring manager would use to search for someone who does what you do, put your formal, legal title in, then a slash, and then the title that you would have in most companies: "Business Continuity Analyst / Business Continuity Manager"
7. Make your profile as complete as possible. Include links to any websites or blogs and to your Twitter and Facebook pages.
8. List all your educational institutions, training, associations, and memberships to provide keywords that may help other users find you.
9. Include a headshot. Make it professional even if it's taken from your digital camera.
10. List your interests, community involvement, and extracurricular activities. They give you individuality and make you memorable. Also, studies show that skill in one area (swimming) tranfers to perceived skill in your professional area (Program Management).
11. List your LinkedIn groups.
12. Consider which applications you'd like to download (see bottom of your profile). 
13. Participate in the Answers feature in your field to demonstrate subject matter expertise and thought leadership.
14. Join one or more groups related to your field of expertise. Contribute to it regularly. This helps your reputation as a thought leader.
15. Ask as many people as you can to write a recommendation (stick to professional contacts).
16. Recommend others. They may return the favor.
17. Consider embedding a video in your site - it's a real differentiator and allows you to show your enthusiasm and expertise in your field.
18. Connect to people you know and have confidence in.
19. Let LinkedIn mine your email addresses and give you the opportunity to invite some of them.
20. Do research on companies you are interested in working for.
21. Find names of people who work in those companies or who have worked there recently (all this can be done in a simple search).
22. Send a message or an inmail if it's available to them to ask if you could speak with them for 5 minutes to learn something about the culture of the company from within.
23. Find out any inside information you can about where the company is going that will help you tailor your message to them.
24. Go to Settings and check the box that says you'll allow inmail and introductions.
25. Go to Jobs and start using the largest job board on the Web!

It happens to women a lot. It can also happen to men. You think someone's written a great recommendation for you. So many positive things are said, including: caring, collaborative, compassionate, good with people. But these turn out to be the very qualities that may put you out of the running.

Mikki Hebl's research (supported by the National Science Foundation) is published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. She's found that the words used to describe women are different from the words to describe men. Men are described as leaders, assertive, ambitious, confident, bold etc. And the "male" characteristics are the preferred ones in hiring decisions.

Her research suggests that "gender norm stereotypes—and not necessarily the sex of applicants— can influence hireability ratings of applicants." So men can be victims of these stereotypes too. The research was done on hiring in university environments, particularly in science and engineering. I would guess that this dynamic would be even more true in private industry, particularly in technology and engineering.

Lively comments on the show segment ranged from: "Women should be more like men because 'male' traits lead to business success" to "The prevailing mythology of the white male in our culture is one of dominating other groups and progressively colonizing them (slavery, Native American subjugation)." I'm paraphrasing here.

My comment is: "Studies show that work gets done better if the leader has strong “communal” skills – the Lone Ranger isn’t the successful executive after all, despite the mythology around that and the words used to describe leaders. In fact, in a Harvard Business School article, it was reported that a study found that having a high 'emotional IQ' is a better predictor of CEO success than traditional high IQ."

This is a very loaded topic - one of the commenters said that our ability to be more communal as a species will ultimately determine our very survival.

In practical terms, if you want to get a job, ask your references to describe you in terms of your individual achievement and your qualities as a leader/manager, not in traditional female descriptors. At least until the culture changes!

I couldn't resist the article "What Real Men Watch" in the Wall Street Journal, even though I should have been reading the business news! Turns out that the tv that's attracting upscale male viewers (accustomed to 8-12+ hours a day of offices, cubicles, and computers in the workplace) is reality tv described as "real men in danger" and "testosto-reality." Advertising dollars are flowing to shows like "Swamp Loggers," "Ice Road Truckers," and "Deadliest Catch."

You know, I'm a woman, but I can relate! What happens to our heads after days wrapped up in electronic, business, and technical communications - working exclusively in built spaces?

I watch my 2-year-old grandson aggressively driving his "digger" truck up the side of a dirt mound around the tree, pushing dirt in front of it until he can dump in over the other side. Very satisfying!

An element of danger, an encounter with the real resistence of the natural physical world, a great effort towards control of an unpredictable physical (not intellectual) reality - these seem to be the common elements of these shows that upper middle class guys are watching. There's a romance to blue collar jobs for them.

Where else can men who were once little boys playing with trucks in the dirt go for that element of raw physical risk and an experience of wrestling for physical control? 

Some guys I know buy, repair and ride motorcycles. Go to race tracks. Fish offshore. Run sled-dog races.

My work is all about career management. This article makes me wonder about whether what men do in their leisure time isn't a critical part of peak functioning in a cubicle world. And that maybe what folks do outside of work has a very real impact on ability to survive and thrive in the day job.

I actually think that (some) women too may need an antidote to a day spent indoors interacting with iPhones, laptops, colleagues and clients.

What I do to get this elusive high is sail off the coast of Gloucester, MA - and the emptier the bay is of boats, the fresher the wind, the better. Freedom all around. Afloat in a wind-wave-water-tide-sky environment that can change instantly - and require a physical response to avoid danger.

When the sailing season came to an end, I felt a little desperate - what are we going to do to experience wilderness in the long cold months ahead? All I could think of was snow mobiling up in the New Hampshire wilderness - I've never done it, don't know if I'd like it, but there might be thrill in it.

Not that I don't love my work. But the truth is that it's so left brain - as is so much of what many of us do. I do get a chance to be right-brain creative, too, in my work. Still....there's something missing.

You hear so much about work-life balance. Maybe we ought to be talking more about work-thrills balance. Men and women who work in built environments, what do you do for thrills? Does your career leave you hungry for something more raw? Or not?

Positive psychology is a relatively new field that focuses on what makes individuals and communities thrive. Instead of the negative psychology that is emphatically prevalent in our culture, the emphasis is on what's right about someone, not what's wrong. What makes for the person's happiness, not what causes their pain and difficulty. The successful ways they've managed their lives, not their failures.

Job seekers are always told to "stay positive," and for good reason. Law of Attraction theory says that like attracts like. So, if you have positive views of yourself, a positive vision of the future when you will be employed in a job you like, and positive mental habits, you will be more likely to get a great job. If you are consistently negative, you will see negative things, feel down, and execute a lackluster job search.

What are some ways you keep on the positive side? Here are 7 DAILY habits that can help.

1. Take 15 minutes before you start your day to meditate or listen to some calming music.

2. Create an image in your mind of yourself in the job you are targeting. Picture yourself hired, dressed to go to work, doing your job, eating lunch, working through the afternoon and going home.

3. As you contemplate the image, let yourself feel the relief of having landed a great job, the satisfaction from doing the job you know you can do, and any other feelings that you would have.

4. Make a list of your top 5 qualities and your top 3 career successes. Write them down. Periodically through the day remind yourself of your positive qualities that have enabled you to be successful in the past and of the times you were able to exercise your knowledge, skills, and abilities to do a great job.

5. After doing some hard aspect of the job search - for some that might be cold-calling or going to a networking meeting - reward yourself. Go to a basketball game, buy some new eye makeup, try a new restaurant, etc.

6. At the end of your day, think of 3 ways in which you made progress towards your goal that day.

7. Get the "attitude of gratitude" - spend a few minutes being thankful for your many gifts and anticipating only good things the next day.

Have you found ways of staying positive through a job search?

It may not be magic, but there is a power in it. The hard part of being positive for most people is that they have to move out of their comfort zone and the culture that are used to negative thinkging - particularly about job search.

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There are certifications in many areas, including public safety and homeland security, human resources, and auditing. To stay in IT, you can increase your eligibility for IT jobs in healthcare by getting a healthcare IT certification. Hiring in this area can be expected to be strong as healthcare delivery becomes increasingly IT-dependent.

This is a sample of my local community college's offerings: there is a new Energy Utility Technology Certificate Program meant to help meet the "urgent, long-term need" of utilities for these specialists. Utility SmartGrid initiatives will be requiring IT employees and others. Biotechnology Technician is another certification that is offered that, like the energy certification, requires an internship, giving you real-world, valuable experience with an employer that would give you an edge in hiring. Computer Forensics Certification. Dental Assisting. Many others.

Earning a valued healthcare certification may help you change your career. As the population of aging Americans grows, more services will be needed. There are many clinical-professional as well as administrative certifications in healthcare. Some in-demand jobs with certifications are: MRI technologist, radiation therapist, and nuclear medicine technologist. There are other certifications that promise to be growth areas as boomers age such as Certified Life Care Planner and Certified Life Care Manager, as well as Medicare Set-Aside Certified Consultant.

3. GET CREATIVE, FOLLOW YOUR PASSION, AND CHANNEL YOUR INNER ENTREPRENEUR. On NPR's "On Point" radio program on "Life After Layoffs," the discussion centered around a film, "Lemonade," about what the laid-off executives of a Manhattan ad agency went on to do when it was clear there were no jobs for them. One exec profiled turned his avocation into his vocation. He left Manhattan for a studio upstate and now sells enough of his paintings to live well in a less-expensive region. (The strategy of reducing your expenses and/or changing your lifestyle is one that can help you make the transition away from a big paycheck and towards a more meaningful career.) One exec became a yoga and holistic health counselor. Another became a career reinvention coach. One caller took his passion for European car parts and turned it into an Internet business.

Many people's successful alternative careers are heavily dependent on technology for making products and on the Internet for selling products and services.

Wired Magazine (Feb. 2010) predicts that a new industrial revolution is in the making "in an age of open source, custom-fabricated, DIY product design." Now that individuals are able, without a high capital outlay, to use computers and 3-D printers to design and prototype new products and then outsource custom, "small-batch" manufacturing to China, many small entrepreneurs are successfully bringing their products to market. Some examples? A kit car manufacturer. A company that makes accessories that interface with Lego blocks. Bike components. Customer furniture. Noise-canceling wireless headsets. If you have a great idea for a new product, you may be able to grow a business from your garage.

IN SUMMARY. If you are out of work and feel out of options, these new directions might spark an idea for you that could result in a rewarding new career. With the fast pace of technological change, the vicissitudes of the market, and an increasingly global economy, it makes sense for everyone - jobless or not - to be thinking about having an ace up their sleeve and an idea about how to adapt to "what's next."