Executive Coaching UK

One of the on trend topics of the last few years has been Executive Coaching. But is mentioning this in an Executive Job Search out of place, or is it acceptable and actually an advantage?

In the modern world there are as many Executive Coaching Solutions as there are Executive Coaching Services. It can hence be quite difficult to decide on whether you need Executive Coaching in the first place, let alone which type of Executive Coaching you should explore, let alone pay for.

Lets look at the options, from a recruitment point of view.

Executive Coaching UK

What do all companies looking for a new executive employee look for? As I have mentioned before, its all three aspects:

* Being able to answer the head hunters question: Results in doing a same/similar job before
* Technical, Social and Magnetic Fit
* The three executive differences of being a Leader, who is Respected and Connected

This is shown and confirmed in the information that creates a deep field and confirmed view of the the prospective candidate, which turns you from a job applicant into a head hunters target.

Where can Executive Coaching come into this? At two levels:

1. To enable you to reach the required levels, it is likely that you need to improve your competencies – skills, qualifications, experiences – to have the required package in the first place. This type of coaching is probably most suitable hence for middle managers and junior executives looking to advance their careers, or those looking to change markets, ie: accountant or finance director to CEO
2. Those looking to improve their peak performance, or looking to regain a previous peak level of performance. This is about style in implementation, and hence a combination of both tweaking approach as well as learning the practical implementation of new ideas. Its a bit like the “how much content can you get into this jar” debate? You already have the basics (the big rocks) and probably most of the advanced stuff (the smaller rocks), its just the focus (the sand) that needs topping up and adjusting

In taking this second element into account, and looking at the third aspect of the executive difference in recruitment – a leader, who is respected and connected – I have an alternative view on executive coaching.

Executive Coaching Companies

Every time I have looked at the executive coaching market, I conclude that it comes down to one of two choices:

* Executive Coaching Companies: most often in the form of networks
* Executive Coaching Consultants: bright individuals, some with Executive Coaching Qualifications that you may not have heard of and may not trust

The commonality with both of these options is the high cost of their Executive Coaching Fees! I don’t know what it is, but when someone mentions Executive Coaching, the numbers go through the roof. I have seen fee’s ranging from £100/hr to over £1000/hr. This can not make sense and this can not be right: why is there such diversity of pricing and by assumption, skill behind said pricing? There must be an alternative?

Executive Coaching from Marks & Spencers

I was once sat in a post-lunch seminar, you know the one where the room is too hot, and lunch was too good, so we all find it hard to stay awake. After a couple of speakers who really could teach insomniacs a thing or two about sleeping, I was frankly loosing the will to live, when a strange middle aged lady was introduced to the stage who looked like your favourite Aunt.

The first question whispered from the colleague sat next to me was “what is she likely to teach us about business”, and I must admit on first impressions he was 110% right. But the fact I am telling you the story now says different, and she woke us all up.

The lady who looked like your favourite Aunt was in fact a multi-millionaire, who made her money through telling others how to do business networking. She was an early British networking coach. Her number1 tip was to go where your customers were. So if you were selling to accountants or finance directors, go where they go. Hence why ever since I have never signed up to go to a go to a weekly breakfast meeting, such as BNI: director level decision makers just don’t do that type of networking. Tip2 was to make yourself personable – have an elevator pitch. Tip3 was to never use that unless asked, but to always listen.

Executive Coaching London

Having listened to the lady from M&S a few years before, I then turned up to an IoD meeting in London to listen to their expert on networking. His advice was to forget putting most of your time into mass meetings – even including that one at the IoD – and instead start your own networking groups of between six and eight people. These he stated were more intimate, and hence you got to know, like and trust the people around the table. This meant that not only would you would recommend them more regularly, but they would recommended you.

What does this have to do with Executive Coaching? He put up a typical agenda that his groups used, where by half was devoted to discussing business problems of members around the table. He stated that the best groups had members from different sectors around them the table, so that the potential clashes of FD v FD were avoided, and so cross-learning occurred. The result: instant, free, mutual and on the best of terms with someone who knows you and your business, Executive Coaching!

Personal Executive Coaching

Ever since, I have as a result run at least one of these types of groups. Presently I run 1.5. It was two, but someone wanted to improve themselves by running one, which they have done half the time since – perhaps planning and time keeping should be on their Executive Coaching agenda? The groups run once a month each, both for a nominal 90mins: an hour is not enough, unless you want a boy scout agenda like BNI; 2hours is just too indulgent. Chairmanship rotates around the table of six to eight people, the smaller of which has regular guests, the larger of which doesn’t – rules are up to the participants.

But what is really enjoyable about both groups is the support available to each other, for what is an input of 90mins and the cost of a breakfast per month. Some of the people I didn’t know before hand, but all I would trust and freely give information to, and hence also receive it from. Yes, its not perfect, but these people know me and my business, so they start from a position of knowledge: would I get that with a “professional” Executive Coach?

Hence, through my use of these groups these days, my view is that really there are two services: one is Executive coaching where you need defined step development; while the second is business consultantcy. Beyond that the groups provide all the Executive Coaching that I need, through their mix of people, businesses and experiences.

Executive Coaching in Recruitment

So, how does this Executive Coaching help in recruitment? Well the groups show you practically leading and participating in a group of mutual personal and business benefit: evidence of leadership, respected, connected. Hence when the interviewer poses a problem of how do you address a difficult situation, you can evidence a support network both within your organisation, your professional network, your groups and your personal life.

Executive Coaching was an on-trend word of a few years ago, which seems – thankfully – to have now dropped off the trendy and hence far too expensive radar. There had to be a more resilient and stronger solution to someone coming in and talking to you, who had perhaps at best one qualification you had never heard of, and yet was supposed to solve all of your and hence your companies problems. Other methods are now stronger, and perhaps the actual solution to both your Executive Coaching and executive career development problem is within your own business friends network, if addressed correctly.

Good Luck!

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If you require an Executive employment solution, our MBA coached Executive CV service is personalised around you

If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a free Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Package NOT Pay

(Jobs above Package)

So, Stephen Hester has decided not to take his bonus. It was the right decision in light of the political debate that had ensued since the Thursday announcement of his £1million bonus. Is he the first private sector director to have his pay debated in Westminster, in an actual debate in the chamber? That’s too hot in PR terms.

The problem I conclude though is that Hester’s bonus had become a political football. Something to kick around the headlines of various tabloids, while not really addressing the real problem. The public perception that we are all not in this together.

My personal view in directing successful job applicants when securing their contracts, is to concentrate on remuneration package over headline pay. The reasoning for this is three fold:

1. Pay is the headline figure. Its the bragging rights down the pub number, but as long as its above what you need and is reasonable for that job, it reality its little else
2. Most companies will have a hard number around pay when they consider an offer, but little else. Hence there will always only be so far that you can push on pay when negotiating a package, before you make yourself the nearly candidate
3. Other factors make up a remuneration package over pay. What about relocation costs, what about pension rights ad medical cover, personal development and support team, and what about your family? If you just concentrate on pay, then you shut all of these off

So where next for the great Stephen Hester debate, and is this wider than just one man?

Its my concern with the later that says the current political debate has missed an opportunity, and so did Hester. I suggested in a post in another place on Friday that Hester should take his bonus, but use it to create a UK Bankers fund. That opportunity is now lost, as is the Labour front bench’s insistence on still debating his pay in the Palace of Westminster chamber.

Under the last Government, they set-up the High Pay Commission.The High Pay Commission is an independent inquiry into top pay in the private sector. It will look at the reasons for the gap between high and low pay in the UK in recent years and why this matters. So why don’t the front benches now come together, and simply agree that something needs to be done, and hence speed-up the report due from the High Pay Commission? No, easier to debate Stephen Hester’s pay in the Sunday tabloid headlines.

Is there a wider problem with executive pay? If you look at the bankers, then it seems at present that the level of pay has stayed the same, while the way in which they are paid has changed. Bankers are quite used to this. In the 1980s they got paid in exotic materials such as gold, chocolate and oil – all to avoid or reduce their taxation bills. So taking part of their pay now in shares, and having to wait three or more years to divest them hasn’t been seen as that much of a challenge. Hester’s bonus was after all due in shares.

No, the problem now comes down to the number. When the average UK employee is paid around £26,000, how can that relate to Hester’s £1,200,000 basic and £1,000,000 bonus. But is this a good debate in what is basically a capitalist society? Even Labour front benchers have come out and said that if it was Hester’s own money that he had used to start or buy the bank, then they wouldn’t have a qualm or issue about his pay level.

So are we to assume that the Hester pay debate is limited to the public sector, and hence all i this together and fair pay actually goes to a value for money tax payer debate? If so, what’s the point of the High Pay commission?

Let’s go in another direction: what other evidence is there of excessive executive pay? One of the corporate hero’s of the last decade has been the Greek born dual-citizenship Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, founder of EasyJet and Easy Group. But since he resigned from the board in 2009 over strategy differences, Sir Stelios has been in battle with the EasyJet board on a number of issues, including executive pay.

One of the facts he has brought to the table, is that in the past 10 years the board have awarded themselves £180M worth of shares in the business. As EasyJet has a FTSE market capitalisation of around £1.9Bn, that 10% of the company. Now in their latest pay deal, they propose to give themselves a further £8M shares over the next three years, just for this years performance. In a statement to the stock market, as he must do when his family and associated trusts own 38% of the company, he said:

“These guys are welcome to resign anytime. I know as shareholders we could easily replace them with talented executives and experience non-executive directors who will cost half as much in bonuses. We must take a stand against directors who seem to regard our company as their personal piggy bank to be dipped into at will. The gravy train of £180m free shares issued over the last decade must come to an end now.”

So, a guy who is a billionaire, and happily lives between Monaco, London and Greece for tax reasons, and has a knighthood; seems to be closer to what the High Pay Commission report should be coming out with according to most people on the street, than the politicians?

Does the average person in the street feel that we are all in this together presently? No. Do they feel like executives are treating top jobs like a gravy-train? Yes. So what is to be done about it?

I can’t see that gargantuan levels of Government legislation is the way forward. Taxation and transparency is the answer: if you get paid more than X, here’s the tax you should be paying (and for some that should be transparent); and all boards should be transparent on pay, and include a shareholder vote on it. On that I think both front benches agree, its the timing and speed of legislative input that seems the greatest difference. But even if those measure are put in place, I can’t see that that cures the fairness debate.

From the board room, the answer personally should be this:

1. Is my pay compliant with taxation and transparency?
2. Could I take less this year, and resultantly employ more people?

I don’t think we would be having this debate at this highly charged political level, if more people were in work. So, rather than taking a bonus, create a job or two. If your bonus creates more than 20 jobs, your pay proportion of your package is probably out of line with current public sentiment and government focus. You might want to think about renegotiating it.

This will not be the end of the great executive pay debate, but in the mean time: don’t think pay, think package.

Good Luck!

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If you require an Executive employment solution, our MBA coached Executive CV service is personalised around you

If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a free Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Stephen Hester:

for the good of banking,

take your bonus!

I posted a piece today over at Blokes on the Blog entitled: Stephen Hester: for the good of banking, take your bonus!

In it, I argue that:

1. Hester was one of the few “clean” bankers in 2008
2. He had the right track record for addressing the problems at RBoS, having turned around Abbey National in 2004/6
3. He was appointed/approved on a contract personally approved by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown
4. The bonus he was awared went through 4steps to get to the point when it was released to the public. Its half what it was in 2010

My conclusion is that Hester should give up part of his bonus, and donate it to the start of a UK national society level banking initiative. Hester’s thing is gardening, so it could be an initiative to use gardening to get young unemployed people back into work via gardening.

But unless Hester is backed by the government, then giving up his bonus will be one futile gesture. As I say in the post, a damp squib in banking terms.

Stephen Hester knew what he was taking on when he took the job at RBoS: half the pay, twice the hassle, but as he said at the time there are few occasions in life when such an opportunity occurs. He was the right man for the job, as much as the job was the right one for him.

Did he think then that his contracted pay and bonus would be subjected to such political and media highlight? He’s a politically astute man, so I dare say that he took that “calculation”, but I am sure that even the high intensity spotlight now applied to his bonus surprises him.

I personally don’t see the current debate around Hester’s bonus as a reflection on him or its value. The previous year he got twice as much, so its not about the money.

In a great part I conclude personally its about the lack of a political opposition. So without one, the media have decided to become the coalition governments “opposition”. This has made Hester’s bonus the first of their play things.

Do directors or senior managers of companies ever take politics into consideration when taking up job offers? Much as though I conclude Hester did – it was written into the wider job specification, if not his contract – then most don’t. An old boss of mine said: “Always when taking a decision, think what you would say if this ended up as the headline in The Sun?”

Trying to PR and spin against the whole of the combined British media is an impossible task, but one which has been so far handled well by Hester: he hasn’t said a word. I expect the first comment to be made when RBoS announces its quarterly and annualised results in February, as the media heat is too hot at present. No point in playing politics when you are not a politician.

Stephen Hester is the right man for the RBoS job, but its far easier to focus on his bonus than to see the tought task that he still has ahead of him. A great pity, but that’s the way it is some times – in politics, if that’s what’s involved in the job you have taken.

Good Luck!

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If you require an Executive employment solution, our MBA coached Executive CV service is personalised around you

If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a free Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

===================================================================

Executive Appointments

We took on an usual job just before Christmas, but it reminded me greatly about the special tactics that need to be used in securing Executive Appointments.

The executive job seeker client engaged us through a Free CV Review, and asked if we could in two days create an Executive CV to win him a specific and singular post, a director designate position?

Before I answered his question, I asked him a few questions:

1. Did he have the skills, qualifications and experiences – competencies as HR people know them – to do that job?
2. Did he know why and how the company was recruiting
3. Did he have an inside contact?
4. Why that job and that company?
5. And, of course the key head hunters question: give me an example of when you have done what that job is specifically looking for?

I then said to him that it was unusual that a board director designate executive appointment was being advertised in public, so why did he think that it was being advertised? Nominally, less than 10% of executive appointments appear in public, with most secured either through head hunters or networking.

Executive Appointments are very rarely listed, you are more often likely to be approached through either a headhunter or a mutual network connection. So the question are:

• How do you be that person that head hunters approach
• And if you need to move now, how to do you create such opportunities?

In reality, its exactly the same answer to both questions. Modern employers are looking for job applicants with depth, and no more so is that true than in the executive job sector.

Professional CV Writers use a form of words termed STAR:

• Situation
• Task
• Action
• Result

But one of the key differences between most job seekers and the executive appointment

The key difference coming out of this table is that executives show in the depth of their profile three key issues that make them enticing to employers looking for people in their field:

• Leadership and a leader in their field
• Respected in their field
• Connected in their field

Now, much as though you may think that you can tick all of these boxes, can you? That is answered by communication. Secondly, what is that employers definition of the ideal person in that position who is a leader, who is respected and connected? That is where building Rapport comes in.

So, back to our pre-Christmas client. He had all the required expertise (Leader, Respected), and he met the Recruiter posing as a Headhunter who was “handling” this recruitment exercise (Connected). I say handling as the first piece of feedback our client got was that all the other recruiters had been sending in blind CV’s to his “client”, and that secondly his client had given him very little feedback on what the ideal executive appointment for this position looked like (Rapport).

So what did we do? The following:

1. Did he have the skills, qualifications and experiences – competencies as HR people know them – to do that job? Yes, it just wasn’t communicated o his CV or in his social media profile, including his CV. Once we had revamped both sides of his professional profile, while applying for this job he got three more approaches from other headhunters
2. Did he know why and how the company was recruiting? No, but after some quick research on the company we knew why they were recruiting. In this case, six months ago they had management consultnats in, who had recommended a new startegy was required in this area
3. Did he have an inside contact? He didn’t think so at the time, but by the time he was into job application mode we had helped him develop one who acted like an internal champion
4. Why that job and that company? Simple – they looked a lot like a company that he used to work for 10years ago, who had similar growth problems
5. The key head hunters question: give me an example of when you have done what that job is specifically looking for? He had done the same job at least four times before

We also did a profile check on the recruiter and the hiring manager, and further adjusted his Executive CV and online profile to match this job application.

So what happened? He got the job, of course!

As I have said before, assuring single-shot job applications is not a strategy that we would recommend or can control the outcome of. Its is better to have a profile that fits a sector that you know is recruiting, than to target one job in one company. But if its the right executive appointment for you, then it is always possible.

Good Luck!

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If you require an Executive employment solution, our MBA coached Executive CV service is personalised around you

If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a free Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

===================================================================

Legal Executive Jobs

The key to all successful job searching, particularly in executive job search, is that people and making a connection count as much if not more than your skills and track record of delivery. No more is this more true than in two areas: sales and the professions, and hence Legal Executive Jobs.

These two diverse sectors – one based on people interaction and decision making, one an exam-based entry model which defines how far your career can progress – would seem to be at the most diverse of job search sectors, and yet in job search terms share so much in common.

But the commonality as with all job search is simple: people employ people. It is with regard to that truth, that successful recruitment in sales exeuctive jobs and legal executive jobs, that they share so much in common in job search terms.

The professions – the legal executive jobs, accountancy, medicine, architecture and academia to a lesser extent – are all what are termed in the employment sector  technical jobs. You need a certain level of qualification, membership/certification with the professional body, and experience to be able to be considered for a particular level of position. In the professions, the breadth of jobs you can apply for is mostly defined – often in a legal or membership society manner – through the level of academic qualification that you hold.

So how is it then, that after this point that job application in the professions appears to turn to the outsider on its head, and becomes a lot like sales executive job application?

I always explain it this way: you have to be one of them, before you can be one of them. What does this mean?

The simple answer is that those in the profession in one particular area stick together, and tend to engage and hence employ within themselves. If there is an area where the Coalition governments anti-”Old Boy” network policies should be aimed, then perhaps it should be at the professions.

But then again, if you look at the statistics, if you pass the academic entry level requirement, then the professions are some of the most open and equal sectors of employment in the UK. In fact in legal executive jobs, there is a huge fear about the lack of male job applicants against the continually rising tide of women entering the profession. So don’t look at the outside and come to quick conclusions. The professions are great sectors in which to work, well paid and actually easily entered, if you know how.

The simple guide for getting any job in the professions is this six-step process:

1. Know what qualifications you have: and hence what level of job that you can get
2. NEVER EVER LIE! OK, this is true of all job application, but never more so than in the professions
3. Join the appropriate professional society: pick up the phone, ring the national membership department, and speak to someone in the joining team. BUT don’t join through the national desk. Ask for a personal introduction to your local membership secretary (NB: the local society gets a credit for all new joiners; if you join centrally, they don’t get that!)
4. Meet the local membership secretary: systems change by the professions don’t. You may meet the chair person, the group secretary or the group membership secretary. But pick up the phone and arrange to meet for a coffee at their convenience
5. Be clear on your intentions: state that you are looking to progress your professional career (hence why you are joining the local society to you), and are looking for opportunities in the area of (state an area, be specific)
6. Network, network, network: now your are on the inside, network. Be their guest at the next local society meeting, or ask for similar “over coffee” introductions with those who specialise in your areas of interest. As you are now on the inside and one of them, you can access all areas and get employed quickly

Once you get to step6, I have never yet known it to take more than three meetings to successfully get a job offer. Yes, it is that quick, which did surprise me a great deal when I first understood the professions system and what was required.

When does the system apply? In two types of job applications:

• New graduates
• Experienced professional looking to move to the local area: apply the same system, but at step3 just ask for the introduction to the local membership secretary

What surprises me, is that more professionals have yet to figure out the same system for themselves. Yes, a poor Executive CV will as always let you down and not work, but as important is the human connection and building rapport. The professions, and particularly Legal Executive Jobs, are one of the best examples of that: you have to be one of them, before you can be one of them.

Good Luck!

===================================================================

If you require an Executive employment solution, our MBA coached Executive CV service is personalised around you

If you want to check the suitability of your existing CV, then get a free Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

===================================================================

Executive CV: do you need one?

As an executive job seeker, I want to ask you a very serious question: do you actually need an Executive CV? Now the simple answer is yes, and you need one very early in the job search process. But the reason for asking this question is actually a key answer to the most effective job search tactics, and will result in you sending less time on a job search.

An Executive CV or a Bio?

I got a note from a friend recently, which read:

Help! I need a CV done, alas those in la la land (aka corporations) tell me they need one!! I would have thought they would know about a small company called Google, but hey it appears not. Still I need to put one together.

My friend is a speaker on a particular topic, he is not looking to get employed, so I knew that he did not need a CV! What he wanted was a bio, a short one A4 sheet maximum piece of text that is a marketing orientated version of a CV, and focus most on the what you can do for others (ie: sell), than the Result of what you can deliver in a job.

A CV is the answer to an employment process

I know from experience that a CV is the answer to an employment process. Hence if someone is asking for a CV from you, they are asking you to agree to enter an employment process.

There in lies the problem!

Modern employment processes make all job applicants feel isolated and remote from the employing organisation, let alone the hiring manager. So by submitting your CV at any part of job application, you are agreeing to be assessed as part of that organisations standard employment process. Employment processes are run by Human Resources people, and nice as though many of them are, they are not on most occasions the hiring manager. HR people have different agendas to Hiring Managers, such as:

• Corporate age profiles
• Pension deficits
• Union and workforce agreements

In fact a whole pack of issues that having little to do with whether you are the right person for that job, and more to do with secondary issues around corporate management. People are the most important asset in a business, but people processes are not.

Your chances of employment get lower after submitting your CV

The outcome of a people process is that you instantly raise your chances of not getting employed by that organisation. Having navigated your way past the jobs boards (12% chance of being hired), and through networking skills to the hiring manager (between a 35% and 65% chance of being hired), you then agree to set yourself back to a 12% chance by agreeing to conform to a standard employment process.

An Executive CV has value, so leverage it

I speak to many executive job seekers, who on first starting a job search assume that the answer to their problem is to submit their Executive CV to as many recruiters and head hunters as possible.

The problem that they don’t recognise is what it says about them: desperate job seeker!

Recruiters and head hunters will be your best friend if you have the right package of skills, qualifications and experiences that they require to fulfil their latest client brief. If all they needed to do was tap into a database and find the right CV, then why would their clients pay them at all? Hence they need to get out and find the right person – head hunting – by using various methods to find the right potential group of executive job applicants.

I always ask CV Writing clients how many times they have been approached by head hunters or recruiters in the last 12months, as it is a good indication of how well their profile and networking skills are working. In summary, if you have a profile, and your SQE fits a executive position brief held by a competent head hunter, then you should be being approached and found. If you are, your Executive CV has value: to that head hunter, and probably to others.

So should you, when approached or when seeking employment, simply hand it over to anyone who asks for it? No! What you are saying to that recruiter or head hunter is desperate job seeker. For them simply giving you a title, a location and possibly a vague outline of package, you were willing to hand over your CV into their process. Basic questions before you hand over your CV in a 1on1 meeting should include what type of executive position that they are recruiting for, and what type of relationship that they have with their client. If you can’t answer those questions, then you are grossly devaluing your ow personal brand.

When to submit your Executive CV?

The simple rules of the game, are:

1. Do you need to submit a CV? What is the requirement, purpose or outcome of the process? if its employment then you will need a Executive CV, if its marketing then you will need a Professional Bio
2. By submitting your CV, you agree to be subjected to that organisations standard employment process. This will greatly reduce your chances of employment if undertaken too early in the process
3. Submitting your CV without being asked, simply communicates to a recruiter, head hunter or employer that you are a desperate job seeker. In doing so you will have severely degredated your personal brand, and hence chances of employment
4. Never hand over your Executive CV until you have met either: the hiring manager; or someone who is talking directly and regularly to the hiring manager. Unless you are sure that that executive position is right for you, and you are close enough to the hiring manager, then simply do not submit your Executive CV

Your Executive CV is an important part of the employment process, but its not the only part. By using it incorrectly or too soon will say as much about you, and hence affect your chances of employment, as what is written within it.

Good Luck!

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giving you a personal guide towards a more fulfilling career or success executive job search,

request our complimentary Confidential Career Discussion service

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CV Distribution:

Why it doesn’t work, particularly for UK Executives

As participative residents in modern society, we all know on a daily basis how much junk mail we get on the door step, let alone spam in our eMail box. It is annoying, time consuming, and resource wasting. In summary, mostly it’s irrelevant. So why does it keep coming?

Because, in light of the costs versus the amount of business it creates, it is cost effective. Simply, in business terms, junk mail and spamming works. Much as though the industry average rate of response is between 1% and 3%, the cost of dumping 1000 flyers on your communities doorstep, or 10,000 eMails, is cheap. In example, 1000 flyers might cost as little as £200 to print and distribute, with the biggest costs now being in design and creation. But multiply the number of flyers by 100′s or 1000’s, and even design becomes a relatively small percentage cost.

So why do Executive Job Seekers still think that CV Distribution of their Executive CV work for them? Simply because such tactics are normal operation in the North America. Hence similar CV Distribution services have started up in the UK since the 2008 recession, offering paid-for CV Distribution to Executive Recruiters.

CV Distribution Services

What’s the result? Well in our recruitment business inbox, between 10 and 100 new CV’s per day. When we place around a 100 new people per year, do you think that we need all those CV’s? No, so most of them go in the junk mail bin.

If we need a new job applicant, where do you think we – and just about every other bespoke recruiter and head hunter – goes? The answer in priority order is:

1. Candidates we have placed: we go and ask people we have placed who they know that could fulfil this new position
2. People in the industry we know
3. We undertake a Boolean search: using tactics deployed on open Social Media sites, starting with LinkedIn

In summary, we avoid all of those CV Libraries and CV Distribution services simply because of one driver: our own business!

Three recruiters and out rule

There is a hidden rule in the recruitment business, particularly the Executive Recruitment business, called the three recruiters and out rule. So, let’s say in example you are looking for a new executive position, and you call our office. After a few pleasantries and some general chit chat, we ask you a few things in this order:

1. Who are you, and what’s your situation?
2. What are you looking to do next, and why?
3. The key headhunters question: give me an example of when you have achieved the desired business outcome in this market?
4. How many other people have you talked to?

You can do as well as the best CEO or director in the world on the first three questions, and be the brightest and best candidate for my client ever. But tell me or any other head hunter in question4 that you have already spoken to at least two or three other recruiters/head hunters about similar positions, and I’ll be as be as nice as apple pie to you on that telephone conversation, but never will I put you in front of my employer client. Why? Because of one of two reasons:

• Your are a desperate job seeker: you have fallen into Any Job Will Do syndrome, and will just about anything to get employed
• You have compromised my fee: by registering or talking to three or more recruiters, I recognise that your Executive CV is in play. Hence if I put you forward to my client, either they may have your CV already, or they may get a duplicate copy from another source. The result of which is that either I won’t get paid, or I will get paid a half fee

So that I don’t run that risk, I won’t be putting you forward. Like many recruiters, I conclude that my reputation in front of my client of not putting a candidate forward that everyone else has, will be better in the long run; and secondly, that I don’t waste effort in a compromised fee.

CV Distribution Services

So why does CV Distribution work in North America, and not in the UK? Simply because of geography and hence distance. The United States has a population six times that of the UK, in an area 50 times bigger. The result is that their recruitment system is much more reliant on:

• Finding out who is willing to move to that area: hence CV Distribution
• Telephone interviews: distances are large, even planes are expensive

In the UK, you can legally drive from Lands End to John O’Groats in less than 24hrs. If you as a job seeker really want that job, you’ll get in a car or on a train and get in front of that employer.

But specifically in the Executive Recruitment market, if you are who you claim that you are in your market place, and really are a leader, then if I make contact with people in that geographic area and ask around, then your name should come up. So who needs CV Distribution?

Executive Networking

One of the techniques we use in our Executive CV Service is that of proactive job application: targeting, researching and then networking into the employers that you really would like to work for. This means knowing what your long term career desires are, and than making your personal brand clear: an X in a Y market place as I like to put it. So do you think that a recent job request that I saw on People Per Hour will really work:

• Seeking a new Interim Management assignment/project
• Require mailing list of Chief Executive officers/Managing Directors/high net worth individuals of Small/Medium sized businesses ideally in North-West England that my CV can mailed to
• Target employer is usually businesses that require additional support to undertake a “sort out”, rationalisation, sale, integration etc
• I have an extensive career of business success that has included acquisitions, disposals, and/or additional safe pair of hands at Board level
• Have worked in numerous industry sectors; management skill set can usually work irrespective of specialist trade knowledge

This sounds more like a lazy junk letter marketing exercise to me, than a true “I know what I offer, I know what I am, therefore I know who I should be speaking to” interim executive job search. In the current market place, when interim rates are down and the number of interim executives are up, I can’t see this executives job search being a short one.

The keys in the Executive Employment market place are:

• Know what you offer, in which market, as a business result
• Market your brand and results, but keep your Executive CV in your pocket until you see or are offered the right opportunity

Much as though our America cousins use CV Distribution, it doesn’t work over here and you will get rejected, resulting in a longer job search.

Good Luck!

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For a confidential executive career discussion,

giving you a personal guide towards a more fulfilling career or success executive job search,

request our complimentary Confidential Career Discussion service

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I have written before about Executive Recruitment, but this short post – and the associated video which you can access above – addresses the key differences in Executive Recruitment versus Professional and Blue Collar recruitment.

Executive Recruitment: how different?

The first place to start is the how of Executive Recruitment. There are five ways to get employed, in which ever income or experience sector that you sit:

1. Doing the job already: promotion
2. Known To: Working with (client, supplier, competitor); Recommended (networking from); Head Hunted
3. Applied directly to the Hiring Manager: networking to
4. Recruited/found: Being found = Personal Brand, mostly through recruitment
5. Responded to a job advert

Most people presently think that job search is easy as there are 1000′s of jobs posted out there, right? The problem with the job boards for all job seekers is that your chance of getting a job via a job board is, at best, 12%. In the executive sector, that gets even worse, as only 1 in 10 jobs are ever advertised in public. The old rules still apply, and most executive jobs – over half – are gained through recommendation and networking.

What is the employer buying?

The difference between Executive recruitment and other forms of recruitment is bes shown in what the employer is buying. While in most types of recruitment the employer wants you to show defined competencies in action (Competencies = Skills, Qualifications, Experiences), in executive recruitment they are the buying a risked business change result. 

Positioning Executive value

I have written about this before, but there are five types of executive positioning value that employers and Headhunters search for:

IT Director Jobs

As I have talked about before on this blog, the pinnacle of most peoples career will be a director or executive job. While the generics of the Executive Job Search are fairly easy to understand, the specifics of a particular market can be quite individual. As a recruiter in the IT market place, I feel well qualified and versed to identify what those are in regards IT Director Jobs

Director Job Search basics

The basics to note with every executive level of job search are:

1. Know what you want, and that people are recruiting for it

2. Accept that push marketing – searching jobs boards, calling recruitment agencies – generally won’t work as 90% of executive jobs are never advertised

3. Resultantly, pull marketing and specific company targeting is the answer to employment. This is best done via networking

Routes to IT Director Jobs

The first thing that an analysis of IT Directors Jobs will provide, is the diverse routes that varies people and organisations have taken to gain IT Director Jobs. IT Directors don’t need technical backgrounds or even understanding, they simply fulfil two key roles:

• Daily fulfilment of services (ie: up time measurement and responsiveness = capacity)

• Periodic delivery of new services via expansion/replacement projects

And that’s it! Note a complete lack of knowledge of XYZ systems or technology. Boards and CEO’s couldn’t care less if a system was delivered on wet string. The key questions are always: does it work, and is it delivered on time and to budget?

Therefore, an Executive CV needs to be written specifically around you and that market. Hence an IT Director CV looks more like a bespoke form of a Project Director CV. But there is one exception.

Finance managers as IT Directors

Most IT Directors, if not reporting into the board report into the finance and accounting director, many non-IT background IT Directors are either ex or part-trained accountants. In these cases, the organisation sees  the IT function as a series of recurring investments. and not some form of new super technical system!

There are also some excellent arguments to see IT as really a business finance function. In my time as a Telecoms and IT specialist, over half of the projects delivered were to either improve or provide finance tracking functions across an organisation. When most organisations talk about IT enabling an organisation, what that actually means is that they can more accurately track the money and cash flow across the group, and hence have instant management accounting information available by the minute.

IT Job networking: suppliers are key!

If a company is looking to make a step in its IT system, and that means deploying a particular technology, then it will often have engaged consultants and preferred suppliers. Now the whole project team has to deliver the vision, but the organisation doesn’t yet have the knowledge or skills internally to both make the project technology step or then keep it running/delivering. The conclusion is that they need a new IT Director, where can they find one?

Most often, rather than then appointing a Recruiter, the company asks the consultants and preferred suppliers if they know of any existing IT Directors looking for jobs? Hence when working with new technology on delivered projects, keeping contact with the chosen suppliers can often be the best course to enabling a new position.

IT Director CV

So these question is, what should an IT Director CV include? As I stated above, the key issue often comes down to something which is an IT bespoke version of a Project Directors CV: series of projects delivered on time and to budget. Secondly it should focus on business results: user base delivering a success business operations. Thirdly its about value for money: cost reductions and value improvements.

These three simple rules also show why non-technical persons can gain and hold IT Director Jobs.

These rules and the different job application technique needed for executive jobs can be seen in the following executive job search question….

IT Director Job Search: how to approach it?

John asks: I guess this is a myth – posting CV/resume in job boards doesn’t help for senior level (Director/VP) job searches. How different will it be if one used Ladder or ExecuNet? Is social networking a better option? I know there isn’t one answer to this – Thanks!

In answer:
As a recruiter in the IT market, I’ll give you some thoughts.

Firstly, upper management employment opportunities are not like every other job application. While most jobs are gained by the job seeker apply (push marketing), most upper level jobs are fulfilled by pull marketing (your capability and track record). Plus, as there are fewer of them around, the competition is higher.

So the conclusion comes down to either general or specific target company networking. If I asked you which were the 50 companies you most wanted to work for, what would the answer be? For most, be they executive or any other type of job seeker, they have not got a clue.

That equals time and frustration, and using “executive” job boards like the Ladders. See Nick Corcodilos blog entry on The Ladders: leave well alone, its expensive push marketing repeating job adverts available elsewhere.

Act like an executive should. Pick a goal with a time scale; take an approach that will build a job seeking personal network; trust it, brief and listen to it; target some specific companies; and then work the plan using coffee and conversation over the internet.

If I can help further, please just ask – Good Luck!

===================================================================

For a confidential executive career discussion,

giving you a personal guide towards a more fulfilling career or success executive job search,

request our complimentary Confidential Career Discussion service

===================================================================

Executive CV Writing Service

As both a recruiter and a CV writer, I am often asked what should a good Executive CV Writing Service include? I will try to answer that here, but its probably not going to say what you think it will, but it will tell you as an executive job seeker what I now know that you need to get employed.

Executive CV Writing

I never got into the CV writing business to actually write CV’s! I know that may seem strange, but from experience, and if you think about it, it makes sense. The first lesson that I learnt about the recruitment business was that it does pretty much what it says on the packet: recruitment. That is the considered process of placing people in jobs.

As CV Writing is part of that process of getting people into jobs, it is hence part of recruitment. But if CV Writing wasn’t part of the recruitment process, would anyone write a CV? There is a simple answer to that, and its to look at the various job seeker forums at the amount of pain and detailed questions that all job seekers ask when considering or actually writing their own CV. CV Writing is a pain in the butt task, but as its part of the recruitment process, its got to be done.

So when job seekers look for a CV Writer, they most often do it for two reasons, and its in this order:

• To remove their own pain, and just get themselves a CV
• To buy in expertise

The more senior a job seeker gets, and particularly in the executive market, the more towards the second area they look for assistance in writing their CV. But the single reason that all job seekers who employ a professional to do their CV, is the realisation that they don’t want a CV, they want a job.

Let me say that again: job seekers don’t want a CV, they want a job!

Best CV Writing Service?

It was through that realisation that I concluded that the process of chasing the question what, which or whom was the Best CV Writing Service was an interesting process, but actually for the job seeker gained little.

If you think about the CV in its constituent parts and process, then its a:

• Factually based sales document
• Which highlights in historic role/skills format
• Your suitability to do work for your existing or former employers

In other words, what has it got to do with job application for another job? Hence why the most modern job application techniques talk about demonstrating your skills doing the job not work history!

Executive employment form the employers perspective

Lets take this one step further: if you were the potential new employer, would you want to hear about old and past achievements, or those most relevant to your advertised position? Better still, why not get the job applicant to tell you the employer how they would do your job?

As a result of this conversation, you would realise with the right candidate that the job you were advertising was in actual fact the wrong job, and that there were more and better commercial opportunities out there.

This latter question/answer and realisation is in actual fact the path of the head hunter. You don’t want an employee Mr Customer/board director, you want a risk-assured business result. The question is, which person can give you that result, or possibly an even better one?

CV Writing Service UK

Does any of this then sound like CV Writing? No.

So if that’s the case, why do so called Executive CV Writers talk about and market on the basis of “better and more experienced CV Writers” creating your CV? Because in actual fact, as an executive, you never wanted a CV in the first place, you wanted a job! Plus the employers you want to talk to don’t care about the quality of the paper that your Executive CV is written on, they care about the business result you can provide to them.

Executive CV Writing Services

The simple answer is that a modern and comprehensive Executive CV Writing Service focuses on:

• The executives business ability and desired market
• The right job application techniques to position their client in front of the decision making executive board
• The eventual Executive CV, and confirmation as that person as the right candidate for that executive job

When you add in that fewer than 10% of all CV’s and job applications are processed via paper, and that less than 10% of all executive positions are ever advertised in public forums (newspapers, job boards, etc). The question doesn’t become what quality of paper your CV is printed on, but how your Executive CV Writing Service can get you in front of the right executive board?

The basics of a modern Executive CV Writing Service

Have you understood the difference in the modern age between the old Best CV Writing Service marker, and what a comprehensive Executive CV Writing Service should include? Then going back to the basics of what a CV is – a sales document that answers a risked business decision – does your Executive CV Writing Service offer to put you in front of the right executive hiring decision makers?

If not, you need a better and fully comprehensive Executive CV Writing Service. Good Luck!

===================================================================

For a confidential executive career discussion,

giving you a personal guide towards a more fulfilling career or success executive job search,

request our complimentary Confidential Career Discussion service

===================================================================