How head hunters eliminate you

from an executive job search, instantly?

One of the things I teach in Professional CV Writing is the importance of reading job adverts, but in no market is this more true than Executive employment. The reason is that the best recruiters will percolate into head hunting, and will have perfected the proven magic formula for only ever engaging with the right candidates and job applicants. Head hunters don’t waste your time or theirs, and certainly not that of their clients.

Head hunter elimination

Simply, head hunters eliminate executive candidates with their first question. The result is that you might not even speak to the head hunter, and be eliminated before you even apply for the job.

How is this possible? How could anyone determine whether you are fit for a job with only one job interview question? Even more shocking is the fact that you could be eliminated before you even apply for the job, let alone through the very first job interview question?

The answer is all in the job advert. While in non-executive jobs recruiters seek to match skills, qualifications and experiences and their resultant application, head hunters want proven result outcomes in that market.

Head Hunter focus

Head hunters get paid for disciplined research and elimination, not to act as CV factories or their knowledge of boolean search strings. Clients don’t pay between 35% and 200% of base package for a series of poor candidates, and head hunters know if that is what they turn out then they won’t get a second engagement. In recruitment, repeat business from clients is the easiest way to profitability. hence head hunters don’t cross their fingers and hope – they have a system, they use it, and they stick to it.

Throughout this process they will validate, verify, and vet you before they’ll considering presenting you  and up to two others to their client. If you read the job advert, a distilled version of the full job description, then it will say what their client seeks and want, eg:

• Marketing director in SME, who has proven track record of entry into European market
• Sales director with background in military aerospace
• Finance director who has worked on successful turn around projects
• CEO skilled in the art of merger and acquisition within the UK pet food market

When you see statements like these – and you will in all executive job adverts – the head hunter will ask you if you have a comparable or similar accomplishment to this critical factor? If your experience and accomplishment is NOT comparable or similar to the role that needs to be done and fulfilled, then you are NOT someone who will be considered for that position: end of interview! As you move further down the executive selection process, then that comparable experience will be further delved in many areas (ie: scope, size, project duration, budget, number of people, outcomes, resources, time frame, metrics, deliverables), but initially you want to be included over excluded.

How to get an Executive interview

Hence, the first things you need to say in your Executive CV is that you are a successful X in the required Y market, eg:

• Pan-european SME marketing director, who has launched X products generating Y revenue in the past three years, seeks…..
• Security cleared aerospace sales director, with track record in military sales and refurbishment
• Turn around specialist finance director
• FMCG specialist CEO, who has built his career and reputation on building new market leading organisations through merger and acquisition

You also know the first interview question: Hi, can you tell me about your experience in (what it said in our job advert)?

Head Hunter process

Does this process sound cold? Well yes, but clients pay large fee’s for the best results, and over half of a head hunters time on any brief will have been spent defining that brief with the client to make sure it is right, compared to the amount of time spent actually searching for, finding and processing potential job applicants. If recruitment becomes less human and more like a pure processing factory, then it is in the search and find stage of executive head hunting, and its because clients want timely results not piles of CV’s.

Its not that you are eliminated because you are a bad person, its because you are not the right person for this job at this company right now. Yes, you may be able to do the job, but without that direct experience you would undertake the job with more risk than the ideal candidate. High level business is as much about risk management as it is about results.

So next time you see an executive job advert that you like the sound of, read it thrice and then after making sure you have the right combination of SQE application and business results, adjust your Executive CV to make sure that you are not eliminated instantly.

Good Luck!

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If you have any questions, please call us on 0844 884 2825

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Entrepreneur CEO back to executive employee?

In this present economic downturn and resultant “slow” upturn, many self-employed or entrepreneurial people are becoming job seekers again, looking to regain a foothold in the corporate executive employment market.

Why return to Executive Employment?

The first question with such a chosen move is not necessarily finding opportunity, but explaining and justifying to yourself why you are doing this apparent about-turn? I suggest at this point that you look across your desk, over the kitchen table, or find in your wallet that tattered picture that you hold so dear. Work and employment come at best second in life to family, friends and social experiences. If you still need further explanation of why, spend a day with your family, and then worry no more about taking a great life decision.

Executive CEO employee

Now we are down to the actual job search, which is what you want to do and why. Explaining this to yourself first – my family – then needs a second explanation, which is the logical career path version you give to any future employer or head hunter you may engage with. At present, you can include an explanation that most wouldn’t normally want to include – the fact that your business failed. There are many reasons why businesses fail, but the most simple is cash flow, and that comes back to orders. What ever industry you are in, most dipped between 30% and 70% in orders in the last three months of 2009/beginning of 2010. Most business in the then current business climate didn’t expect such a sharp or large downturn, something which was more akin to the great stock market and economic crashes of the early 1900′s or the industrial action ridden 1970′s. Don’t worry, you were not the only one who suffered or hose business went under.

Executive Employer

The next issue we come to is why you now want to go back into the corporate world that you – probably – so hastily left? Any employer will be focused more on this part of the answer, as opposed to the part about why you found yourself in the job search situation. What they are looking for is what can simply be called sticky reasoning: will you stay with the company for a period, at least 12months plus for most employees, ideally 2years plus for executives? The answer you are eventually looking ot construct for any particular employer is the why them/why their sector, and what so appeals to you about that job/company. Note that the ideal answer is not just about “a job,” but about THAT company and where they are going.

Executive Employment Market

To start the process, think about your own career path three or five years hence. Where will you be, what will you be doing, and why? Part of the intelligent executives answer is based on where the market is going, and that is one very good reason to move back into an employed job over running your own company. The problem with running an SME is that it is difficult if not impossible to do both the daily “running” and the strategic “vision” thing at the same time. One normally fails, and when cash is king its the looking forward and strategy job. Probably looking back now as to why your enterprise failed, much of it could have been predictable, or even avoidable had you had time to look around and take appropriate action. But you didn’t, and one of the lessons coming out of that is that you want to work in a bigger team that enables you to play a bigger part in the market, with an organisation with scale and hence influence – something you certainly will not have had in any SME. Scale and influence with a key player who is going in the best direction is a key reason for you to stay with that organisation, over flying back to the self employed world when the economy picks up.

Executive Communication

Now, how to communicate this? If you were in the employers seat, and you saw someone coming into the corporate world from a period of entrepreneurship or self-employment, I dare say you would have doubts when met with the bare facts on a CV. I hence personally think that the best method for such executives to find employment is through both networking – you will most often be looking to work for what was either a player in that market, possibly even a former competitor; or via a select group of head hunters who specoifically focus and work in that market area. if you don’t do this, then most likely the great explanation that you have worked out in your head and verbalised, and made a great piece of written explanation on your own Executive CV, will be lost when the generalist recruiter sends a pile of 20 CV’s over to their client.

Here in example is a typical question from a entrepreneur looking to re-enter the corporate market….

Re-entering the corporate boardroom

Bob, an Executive Coach and CPRW, asks: I have an executive client who is looking to re-enter the workforce in an executive sales/marketing position. He is a 10-year entrepreneur with extensive prior experience in the sales and marketing field (at a VP level). Any advice, articles, links, thoughts regarding how to rebrand / rewrite a resume and bio to show that a long-time entrepreneur would make a great VP of Sales and Marketing? Thanks!
In answer:
Two questions any prospective employer will have re your client:

• What does he offer (to that business)?
• Why is he making the change?

If you don’t address both in any CV, then he will get rejected. Whatever the client accomplished in the last 10 years needs to be included in the final Executive CV. First in the opening summary – with two of the most recent, relevant, quantified accomplishments – and then with the remaining achievements in a separate Career Accomplishments section directly beneath the opening summary and before Professional Experience.

Once you have figured out the answer to those two questions, then understand that 2/3rds of executive positions are offered through person to person contact, and never advertised. The likely hood is that he already knows his future employer, or one of his network does.

Executive employment is not about the Executive CV, but equally about the how you find opportunities.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Talent Management, or executive team departure?

Often, when one senior executive leaves a team, he or she is followed by a group of others not long afterwards. The result, unless the departure is as a result of a new appointment, is often a gap left in an organisations operation.

The question is: is this a situation of lack of talent management by the organisation, or just the reality of modern organisations and an executive team based approach to management?

BBC talent exodus?

In example, I would like to take the case of the BBC, which also brings into the debate two others issues: pay in the post recession world, and corporate brand restrictions.

In an article yesterday on the BBC’s own website, respected media commentator and presenter of BBC Radio 4′s The Media Show Steve Hewlett explained what the departures of Jonathan Ross, Adrian Childs and Christine Bleakley could mean for the public broadcaster in the future. In this nice little interview style article, Hewlett explains that Ross’s departure was an inevitability of the BBC’s paying him so much, while Childs and Bleakley’s was as a consequence of someone having the thought that it was a “good idea” to put Chris Evans on the One Show sofa on a Friday. Hewlett makes an interesting and insightful point that a good show and hence a popular one is where the idea, backroom team and the presenters all gel. Hence, although a presenter may be good on one show, they might not be on another: Chris Evans and “Don’t forget your toothbrush” anyone?

Executive team departure

I think the opportunity could be simpler than that, and actually an issue of team. ITV Director of Television Peter Fincham left the BBC in 2007 after the debacle over the programme A Year with the Queen, in which the consequent Wyatt report was critical of then BBC1 controller Fincham. Forced to resign, Fincham headed to ITV. Fincham was brought into the BBC because it faced competition from a resurgent and popularist ITV (Pop Idol, etc), because of his base ability to produce great, compulsive and cheap programming: a 20year track record at Talkback under Griff Rhys Joes and Mel Smith showed that. The reason he joined ITV: a need to revamp a format that was both losing money and audience outside its popularist shows of X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent.

During his time at TalkBack, Fincham produced two key shows for Channel4: Smack the Pony, and Da Ali G Show, where he worked with Chanel4′s head of entertainment, Kevin Lygo. To revitalise the BBC, Fincham was key in securing the long term contract for Jonathan Ross, creating the evening audience draw which is the ONE show, and promoting the dulcet Brummie tones of Adrian Childs from radio to television via his favourite sport, West Bromwich Albion. Where are they all now?

Media contracts last about two to three years, so its taken that amount of time for Fincham to take his own plans apart. Add in a recession, Sachsgate, and a change of productive and creative line at the BBC, and I find the result no surprise. Except on one count.

Talent management

During the “will she, won’t she” debate of Bleakley staying at the BBC or going to ITV, a Daily Mail article made an excellent point on her long term career choice. Is there any sense in Bleakley following Childs to ITV, just to become his side kick again? Plus, who wants to get up at 3am for an audience of 1.5million, when you can get up at a normal time for an audience of 6million?

I suppose £4million over three years is excellent compensation, but its been uncovered before the same thing would have happened at the BBC anyway. Pay is part of the issue here in all of these cases, but not all or even primary for most. Pay is never a case for joining somewhere else, but it is often a case for employees looking elsewhere.

I think Hewlett got his analysis absolutely right at the media level. He just missed the team management level, which was predictable and could have easily been fore seen once Fincham left the BBC, and the entertainers contracts came up for renewal under new financial restrictions. I suspect there will be more departure. The BBC because of its brand will always have talent attraction, but the proposal to shut Six Music showed that it had lost both its public sector edge and ability to find and create talent in one effort: a good decision by the BBC Trust to dismiss it.

Executive talent management

What’s the learning point here for Executives? I think its three fold. That losing talented executives who have been involved in your long term strategic plans to rivals will most often mean losing their whole team, as soon as contracts allow. Companies and boards in particularly need to know where the key team pillars are, as Fincham most clearly was.

Secondly that those in the lower rungs of the team (often the youngest) have as much to think about their own long term career management as being part of the team. I liked the Daily Mail article, but I conclude that Bleakley eventually went for the cash over the career – I think that’s what Hewlett is saying.

Thirdly, that organisations need to be aware from where talent comes from. In media, its stage, backroom teams from mainly script writers or producers, or radio. Cutting anyone of those three means less talent – eventually – in the future.

Talent Management, or executive team departure? Its the same thing.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Head hunting: lessons for executives

Head hunting is a phrase originally applied to the process of finding and recruiting top talent and executives to fulfil a senior level position, most often in a publicly listed corporation. The fees of the head hunter are high – can be as much as the executive will be paid in the first year – and the risks are equally as high in a multi-billion pound global economy.

But, and here’s the question: is head hunting any different to recruiting any other type, skill or level of employee?

While the costs may be different, both in terms of what the head hunter earns and what happens to the company if the wrong employee is hired, then there are huge consequences. Personally I know from experience there are lessons to be learnt for all executive job seekers as to how head hunting is undertaken.

Yesterday, for those of interested in the process of recruitment, a new case study took an interesting step. Canadian Maya Greene is both the first non-Brit to take the position of CEO of the Post Office (the UK’s highest paid Civil Servant, on a basic salary of £500,000), and the first woman. She replaces Adam Crozier, who has headed over to ITV to join Archie Norman‘s team. I think there are lessons to be learnt for all of us in this two person shuffle.

Firstly, lets look at the core of the opportunity/problem, and what the brief to the head hunters would be in outline. The Royal Mail, founded in 1516, is the UK’s public postal delivery service, and the UK Governments largest point of contact with the (voting empowered) general public. Royal Mail delivered 84 million items every working day and had a network of 14,376 post offices with a revenue of £9.056 billion, and profits before tax were £312 million in 2006. Since that time, profits have dropped year on year – £233 million in 2006-7 falling to a £10 million trading deficit in 2007. In 2008, the BBC reported that Royal Mail’s trading position had worsened to an annual loss of £279 million/yr in financial 2007. For the financial year 2008-9 Royal Mail had an operating profit of £321m, with all four group businesses that employ 185,000 in total in a full year profit for the first time in two decades. But it faces new competition, through both users choosing to communicate through eMail over first class post, and new competitors attacking its corporate postal revenue stream for the delivery of items such as bills and catalogues.

So what type of CEO do you think the Royal Mail briefed a head hunter in 2003 to find? They would need to be used to dealing with big organisations, and those with close or immediate Government relationships and high-contact with the public. They would need to be experienced in large structural change, process reform and inevitably down sizing; which results in a need to be a great negotiator and fine HR person. They would need to be financially aware of the needs of large corporations, and the law behind it. Plus, with the job being so high profile, they need to be a great communicator.

• Lesson1 for the executive job seeker: read the job advert, and think about what is also implied within it and the culture of the company

So why did they choose 39 year old ex-Football Association Chief Executive Adam Crozier, with a background in public relations? I know in part, that the answer lies in the fact that top level jobs are solved not through one individual containing all the talents, but teams.

• Lesson2 for the job seeker: know your strengths and weaknesses, and what type of team will/could be around you to deliver the business brief?

The man who hired Crozier was the tough taking Alan Leighton, ex of Asda WalMart and one of the many former students to Archie Norman – more of him later. Leighton during his period at Asda revolutionised the retailers process and systems, which lead to a drastic growth in the company. It required experience of large companies and their finances – which he gained from Norman – and a knowledge of retailing, which he had from his period at Mars. As he knew the market and had the experience above him of company technicalities, his natural people orientated nature allowed him to win over and influence the staff by verbalising the long term vision: anyone ever heard of an industrial dispute at Asda?

So in choosing a new CEO for the Post Office, one of the items on the agenda was that the overall team lacked operational knowledge of the Postal Service. That suggests that they should have been looking inside first, but the need for revolution was so great that they decided to look outside.

• Lesson3 for the executive job seeker: if you are an internal candidate, some times your strengths are wholly perceived as weaknesses. Think: how would you look new?

I conclude the wining position for Crozier was his public relations background, something which the natural talent that is Leighton may have had forced on him by his shareholder, the UK Government. Leighton would have walked out if he felt imposed on, but as he had such skills was he also contemplating himself now in the Norman role of mentor? What ever, after his appointment, we soon saw media coverage of Crozier knee deep in post and dogs on delivery rounds, as he “learnt” the business from the ground up like Leighton had at Asda.

• Lesson4 for the executive job seeker: what training does you new employer see you doing to do the job? In part, this answers the question of how they see your strengths/weaknesses

Come forward seven years, and after a dip into loss for almost their entire period in charge, the Post Office makes a profit in the last nine months of the Leighton/Crozier management. The last two years have been rife with wild cat and voted industrial action, as the change was implemented over agreed. With Leighton working almost full time in Canada on the restructuring of Canadian retailer LobLaw, HM Government appoint 63 year old Scot Donald Brydon as his replacement.

• Lesson5 for the executive job seeker: a departure at one level often precludes an arrival at another, lower level

Brydon has an excellent City reputation in plc companies, and has a track record of CEO disposal if all things are not well in the business or on the stock market.

• Lesson6 for the executive job seeker: know when your time is up! Dispear before it, rather than afterwards

The inevitable was written large on the wall, so when Norman was made chairman of the distressed commercial broadcaster ITV, it can’t be too far from the truth that Leighton pushed Crozier’s CV under his mentors nose.

• Lesson7 for the executive job seeker: its not what you know, as much who you know. Find or develop an insider

As opposed to the negative media commentary on Crozier suitability to do the job in partnership with Norman, due to their lack of knowledge of television operations – they have a great team below them, including ex-BBC controller Peter Fincham – what Crozier does have is an excellent knowledge of the needs and a contact book full of advertisers from his earlier two positions. In the business of commercial television, you need a great product (Answer = Fincham), and a revenue stream to fund it (Answer = Crozier). What ITV needs is financial stability and a new business model (Answer = Norman). If you had to pick a team who could win the fight, then that’s not far off it I would say.

Mean while, back at Royal Mail, what are the problems? Oh, just dust off the list from 2003, and change the percentages of revenue disappearing to the competition. So what’s the brief to the head hunter for a new CEO from Donald Brydon? Again, dust off the brief you gave them in 2003. But this is where I conclude Brydon got canny for both the business and politically, knowing he had less time than Leighton to change the business. What he needs is insider knowledge with outsider perspective, and someone with a proven track record of implementing vast change in a public body. That suggests to me the head hunter who took the brief probably knew there were only about a dozen at maximum candidates: CEO’s of existing postal service providers, either still publicly owned or having undergone huge revolution. I therefore conclude it was at best a European brief, with an extended ex-British Empire brief: resulting in about a dozen possible candidates.

This is the main differences between recruitment and head hunting. In recruitment there could easily be over 1000 candidates, so drop-off rates of a third between each stage of the employment process still means you have more than enough suitably qualified candidates to fulfil the job. In head hunting, when there are only 12 people skilled enough to fulfil the job, and you know probably only a third of those would presently be willing to move, the core task becomes about marketing to result in as many of those possible job applicants actually applying.

• Lesson8 for the executive job seeker: personal brand is fine, but a unique skill set in a niche will ensure you a well paid career. So, develop one!

So, the head hunters are looking for a knowledgeable market insider who has delivered revolution in their postal service, ideally with minimal industrial dispute? Name me a competitive market in the postal market, with delivered change in the core business, and an executive who has been there for a while and might like a change of scenery? Step forward the well admired civil servant turned Canadian business woman Moya Greene, who in her five year tenure at Canada Post delivered a profit in every year, while facing a market that had collapsed by 5%. Could you ask for a better hire? I doubt it, and it seems that she both fitted the head hunter brief, and the Post Office fitted hers.

So, who has come out of this the better? I think Crozier is in a better job that is more suited to his talents than he ever was at Royal Mail, and will probably shine. I have placed a bet on him by buying ITV share. At Royal Mail I think the challenge was just too big, and the team with Leighton was inspired and undoubtedly delivered, but not to the level required on many levels. But Greene to me seems like a wise bet by Brydon: you do what you know, and I’ll know as chairman I’ve done my job. Brilliant choice, great management, and superb head hunting.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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

Executive CV Examples

Many executives, directors and job seekers when considering a job change, look around the internet for Executive CV Examples. This is either to find CV templates they can use on which to create or update their own Executive CV, or find a Professional CV Writer whom they then can instruct.

I hence decided as a Recruiter and Professional CV Writer to do the same myself, and search Google for the term “Executive CV Examples.” Firstly, I have to say that the number of Executive CV Samples was low – summarised as one repeated. But it did give a good insight into what the unsuspecting Executive could see as good, and in fact find in use in actual job seeking didn’t work.

Using the principles that we outlined in the article Executive CV Writing, lets analyse some typical Executive CV Examples.

The sample below is the singular most copied Executive CV Example that I found on Google Image Search:

Executive CV Layout

When analysing a CV, while from a Professional CV Writers view point CV Format and CV Layout come last, when first seeing a CV these are the factors which create first impact with the recruiter or employer. On the whole, the layout is fine and clear (a simple test of clarity: does it look good when held at the end of your reach?), and looks easily readable. But there are two problems on layout and format which take it back from perfect.

The second issue is the number of bullets which we will come to later, but the first is the choice of font. Analysis has shown that most readers prefer certain fonts over others. The core issue is over clarity of the font’s ability to be read, particularly in letters involving strokes above or below the line, curves and dots. Hence Arial and Times New Roman score high, while more calligraphic and stylised fonts score low. Secondly, we have trends as to what is in or out of vogue/style. Younger and more creative people tend to either like more computerised or creative fonts, while the over 40’s like the traditional writing fonts. Your font choice is your font choice, but remember that it is more about the reader and that they can easily read the text, over your style choice and hence what it conveys. The final point on fonts in this example is the multiple use of different fonts. Most advice says stick to one or two, where as this examples uses at least three (header, sections, main body).

Executive CV Writing

Now let’s get to the text. Firstly, the name and contact details are easily found and read, and should be repeated on a never seen page2. However, the footer doesn’t repeat the details or show the total number of pages: things easily get lost in many HR departments!

An opening profile/statement is a good focal point, but whether it should be titled or not, and if so what, is a debating point among many Professional CV Writers. However, what is the profile focused on: the job seeker, or what they offer to that company/job? As we can not see the advert to which the CV was focused it is difficult to conclude fully, but the title and the text points at the job seeker over the job. This is a key point of disengagement with the target employer.

I have outlined before, a personal profile is a good/essential opening, but it must be focused around the job being applied for, and customised on each job application. The formula we use is: I am; I do/deliver; I seek. Analysis against this formula shows a good but too action power word packed opening (why use CAPS? It is an insult to the reader and consequently suggests a lower skill level). After that it falls off into power word oblivion.

Now lets come to those bullets in the job write-up. The use of bullets is great to both create impact and highlight key deliverables/successes. But using 22 bullets on page1 means they lose their impact, and it feels more like a machine gun touting typist’s massacre! If you are going to use bullets, then most Professional CV Writers would guide towards five, with eight at maximum per job. Why? It communicates to the reader what was important, and your focus on it. 22 just says you thought you would add everything plus the kitchen sink in.

Five of those bullets are easily removed, by using a STAR format write-up for what the job was responsible for delivering to the business. As an account manager, who was/were your key client/s, and what did you achieve above your target? Describing the job you were assigned to do and saying you achieved it is not as impressive as highlighting the items you achieved above your target.

The second group of bullets can now be addressed, and easily pruned if the position of the hiring employer is taken. The key question here is: what is important to the hiring employer, and secondly what was achieved beyond the defined role? We can not easily identify the second item, but we can grade the points on the first issue, that of the hiring employer.

Any hiring employer will look for deliverables in the order of how quickly they delivered cash to the organisation. This is similar to the way in which an accountant would place cash deliverables in a set of company accounts, the Professional CV Writers version of stock, debtors, cash. Hence for a commercial organisation, the order of preference is nominally:

• Money generated
• Customers won/market share gained
• People managed/developed
• Costs saved
• Products/services developed
• Strategic initiatives

Note that in the whole of the 22 bullets and the entire page, only once does a £/$ sign appear. Sales people live and die by their targets and achievement against target, giving me the thought that this may not be a successful sales person, and more of a relationship developer: hence the line “Devising selling agenda for…”

One therefore has to question why the revenue achievements and the claimed fact that all targets were surpassed are so low in the bullets? These are core job issues and key to a hiring employer.

If we then get into some of the bullet wording – much of which has been split to create two points out of one achievement, something which should never be done; the difference between a great and effective Professional CV and the rest, is the inbuilt verification. Hence use of the word successfully is worthless unless it is qualified, which it never is. If it was a success, then it would have an output business result in terms of: cash, customers, people, costs, products, strategy; which could be stated. None have, so these look like interesting but unverified claims, and hence could easily be dismissed.

Recruiters conclusion

The key issue for any Executive CV, is: does it create enough opportunity, measured by the number of recruiters/employers calling you? Less than 1 telephone interview per 10 job applications, and you should conclude that your job application problem is either in your CV or in the jobs you are choosing to apply for. This Executive CV Example for me suggests an over written candidate. Hence as a recruiter it would depend on how many good candidates I had in the telephone interview pile as to whether this job applicant would receive a telephone call back.

Any job seeker can get a CV format from the internet, and create their own CV. One of the essential tests then is to get three friends – at least one female and one male – to read and critic it for you. You could also use of free Professional CV Help service at CV4.biz. This will enable you to create a better job application, measured by the ratio of the number of job applications to telephone interviews your receive. But what ever you do, do not go grabbing any old CV Example, and just sending it – it just won’t work, and you don’t know what you have grabbed in the first place.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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

Executive CV Writing

I am often asked, what is the difference in Executive CV Writing to Professional CV Writing? To which the answer is simply: subtle. But, if summed up in three words, the answer is accountable business delivery.

Executive history

The biggest issue is actually job applicants dragging in too much of their work history, which creates two problems:

• HR managers and board selection committees only care about what you have delivered in the last three to five years, not the fact that you started out as an apprentice some years ago
• Old CV Formats, which for junior positions focus on the jobs duties – the what you were supposed to do – over the what you achieved/delivered. This is then repeated in the updates, and hence makes them look like a manager over an Executive

How does the Professional CV Writer overcome these problems?

Executive CV: a job or a business?

Jobs are about doing a specific piece of work. Who specifies what work is to be done? A manager. So if you are doing a job, then the accompanying CV focuses around the job duties and outputs, and highlights your accomplishments/awards.

A manager is also doing a job, and is responsible to an executive. But the manager is responsible to the executive, and has the ability – delegated power – for both specifying what is done, when, and by whom. The manager classically manages manpower, money and materials, within a time frame. A good interviewer will test what level or capability of manager you were by testing and probing these elements: who defined what, what were you responsibilities?

Responsible v Accountable

An executive runs a mini business, and is accountable for the business deliverables. This goes beyond a manager who is responsible to the executive, as the doing of the task is purely delegated downwards, while the accountability and its potential failure still lies with the owning executive, who is accountable to the board.

What happens if the job or task goes wrong? The manager is disciplined, possibly moved sideways or demoted. If the job or task the executive is accountable for is not delivered, then they miss bonus payments and are probably dismissed.

Business deliverables v operational steps

If we go back to the job, then the job description combined with the operational procedures will define what task is done how, and in what order. The wider scheme and operations on the shop floor are defined by the manager, who says how many people are doing which task at what time. If I am writing a CV for a worker, then I focus on the job task, the duties they undertook beyond the brief, and the awards/rewards of such.

For the executive, there is but a business brief: achieve these business deliverables. A job description is a far more business goal orientated and flexible document over a an HR task of modification and copy N times.

Executive CV: writing focus

The Executive CV therefore focus on title, business brief and allowed resources (how many men, how much material, how much money controlled by whom?), and resultant business outputs. Did you:

• Expand the business: take the business into new markets
• Deliver the business: the only area where task could possibly come in, but focus on a win/gain
• Maintain the business: solve problems and hence improve brand image
• Finances: save money by cost cutting, efficiency improvement or gain additional sales
• Represent: PR or major event, lecture or speech?

Finally, who you were responsible for, who were you accountability to? There is a huge difference between plc chairman and a regional board, but position in chain and hence accountability is key.

Executive CV Format

Before we come on to CV layout, one of the problems in many CV formats is that of over bulletting. While bullets can and should be used, over bulletting means that their impact is lost. Much while all of these accomplishments may seem important to you, are they to the job advert of the hiring employer?

Secondly, in an Executive CV, over bulletting indicates that you just don’t know what is important, and hence thought you would include it just in case. Does this indicate detailed think, complex thinking, or just a lack of focus? If you were the employer, most likely the latter.

Finally, every CV needs to engage, and therefore needs a focal point. The most successful way I have found of achieving this is a personalised Elevator Pitch: I am,. I do/deliver, I seek. Without focus, then what is the purpose of the rest of the Executive CV?

There is a lot of talk in the employment industry about power words. But, if a CV is written correctly with focus and engagement in mind, then the power words are in there naturally. These are the ones the employer wants to see, not the after thought additions

Executive CV layout

A professional CV writer focus on words first, knowing that a good CV is defined by a combination of both CV Layout and words. But knowing that the HR professional, recruiter or Executive Headhunter is unlikely to be impressed by a CV layout – these people see upwards of 2000 CV’s per annum – they know that the real engagement and employment success is in the words. Hence, Professional CV writers start with the words, and then focus on CV Layout and CV Format.

The advantage of stating with the words of CV is that is they are correct, then they will be minimised, leaving the maximum amount of space in CV Layout. A worker CV is often cramped full of doing the job details, and long lists of Hobbies and Interests. An Executive CV which focus on accountable business deliverables merely highlights that they know what is important in business and what is not, and hence communicates and engages at a different level.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Creative Director Job

The competitiveness of industry and commerce has resulted in the need for business leaders to take different approaches to both creating difference and assured return on investment, resulting in the creation of more positions for the Creative Director Job.

However, when job seekers see the Creative Director Job as their goal, and seek such employment, what do employers seek in the ideal candidate?

The Creative Director Job?

The job of the Creative Director is to maximise the final output of a creative process to both match and exceed the client brief, by bringing their own creative experience to bare on the interpretation of the brief and its communication to the in house team, and then leading and supporting the internal creation process to bring about a successful client delivery through both on time, to brief and commercially remunerative to all parties.

Where as creative director jobs started out in pure creative industries such as fashion, advertising, media and entertainment, its has transposed itself as a more commercially successful interpretation of the project director position in commercial industries where pure process delivery is not sufficient to meet client or company requirements. There are hence now developing creative director job opportunities in industries such as games, and hence web and software development. There are also creative director jobs at high level positions in motor vehicle manufacture and yacht design, where design and style are core to a brand, and the need for interpretation and being beyond the competition create the need for a greater creative input.

Creative Director background

Much like in project management, most creative directors come from within the industry for which they eventually hold the position. A basic foundation in arts, forms and graphics, either studied to degree level or learnt through floor-up apprenticeships; are then nominally followed by successful team and individual project work within their chosen market sphere.

Many modern creative directors recognise that although they are primarily employed for their historic and often industry award recognised creative ability, it is as a team leader who creates successful business results that the step up to a creative director position will be gained. If an aspiring Creative Director seeks the position, and yet can not show team interaction and leadership, then their ability to consistent deliver will be questioned by any employer.

Creative Director CV

While for many industries and positions a 2page nominal CV could gain them a job, the Creative Director Job requires more thought and evidence of capability through the job application process. Nice paper in different colours just won’t work.

Much like an old style portfolio, the creative director job application needs to show evidence at each level of capability, creativity in the application itself, and with communication throughout. In summary, in needs to be a mini-client experience of what you would deliver in working for that company or organisation.

In the modern world, we are internet driven to a large extent, and although more connected technologically as a society, less so on a communication level. It is for that reason that when most client briefs will require an online element, any prospective creative director needs to have an online portfolio addressing all key issues. This means it must be creative, evidenced and communicative.

There are many creative people who have highly creative personal websites, but they fail to engage for one or all of these reasons. While modern marketing relies to a great extent on the marmite effect or either love or hate, but at least getting a reaction; such a reaction in the potential employer will limit your final opportunities.

Creative Director employment

It is hence key to be both individual and to apply to organisations where the “love that” reaction overwhelms the potential “no thank you” marmite outcome.

This means that although creation of an online portfolio is essential, much like a CV written in isolation can be marketed and sent to employers, successful employment is only gained through research of the company and interpretation of their needs.

This is much like a creative director would on first engaging with a client brief, before meeting them: research, market, understanding and hence communication, with an outcome of agreed brief. It is only through this process and its realisation at the employer, that your assured delivery will be seen to be capable, and hence greatly improve your chances of employment.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Executive Vacancies

When Executives and Directors go searching for Executive Vacancies, the question most required to be answered is: where can executive vacancies be found?

While employment opportunities for many non-executives appear to have opened up in the modern internet driven world through the numerous job boards, is the search for Executive Vacancies still dominated by who you know, networking and executive headhunters?

Executive Job Boards

In the time before the internet, the opportunities to find employment were restricted for executives to either networking, headhunters or national newspapers. Non-executives found most of their jobs via local newspapers, whose advertising revenues have been decimated by the flourishing jobs boards industry.

However, surveys for the past few years have shown that job boards only account for 12% of successful new employee placement. The question therefore is, why should the job board hype not match the survey reality?

While there was a real and up front cost in the old models of job advertising, the number of diversity of job boards has through resultant competition driven the cost of advertising on them to as close to zero as possible. It is hence easier for recruiters and headhunters to both CV fish, and let adverts repeat. The result is that a survey of a job board showing 128 jobs in a particular geographic area, resulted in 12 actual jobs available in that geography at that time.

While the job board hype may be different from the reality of finding Executive Vacancies, there are ways in which you can be found and placed using the internet.

Modern Job Search

The old model of job searching has in reality moved to the internet, with many local newspaper groups now owning many of the “competing” job boards covering their former locality. But what the internet has allowed is job searching models to become both larger and more diverse in terms of opportunity, and quicker to finding Executive Vacancies.

The three basic models of finding a job are still:

• Them to you: you are known to the organisation, or your network acts as your advocate, or you are known/found by the Executive Headhunter
• You to them: you know who you are and what you offer, and have a clear idea of the type of companies you wish to work for. Through networking you create a path to propose a business solution
• Response to Job Adverts: now driven by job boards over newspapers, the result of the internet has increased competition in this sector from an average of 20 job applicants per vacancy to around 50 per job, with many rising as high as 100+ applicants in the credit crunch

It is now with specific regards Executive vacancies, that it is made more possible and easier to create an opportunity with a desired employer via the internet than at any other time.

Executive Vacancy tools?

On the back of the diversity in online networking, various online tools have come to the fore to offer assistance to Executives to find and land Executive Vacancies. These premium paid for services, most notably lead by TheLadders, generally promise whole job search systems. Delivered online, these provide CV rewriting, Executive profiling and optional Executive Coaching. But most valuably, they market to include the inside track on what are billed as hidden and exclusive job opportunities.

However, is this true? Various inside commentators and media outlets including the Wall Street Journal and The Times now question the source of the claimed hidden and exclusive jobs, with many being found first on job boards including Monster, before they appear on executive services including TheLadders.

Even if the claims of the various Executive Vacancy tools were true, the answer is that the amount of “exclusivity” of a job vacancy is defined by your competition. When most Executive services now have in excess of 10,000 members, that doesn’t sound very exclusive!

Inside Executive Vacancies

Going back to the basics of job search, there are two new opportunities which are brought about by the internet for finding Executive Vacancies. Both are reliant on you having a clear view of yourself, and your value to deliver business value, which is then communicated and found via online networking.

Before the internet, Executive Headhunter searches were limited by their network and address book. These methods would mean that to find a list of 10 suitable executive candidates could take a month or more. Now using techniques such as Boolean search, they can search popular business social networking sites such as Doostang, LinkedIn and Google profile to find suitably qualified candidates in minutes. The key therefore to being offered one of these executive vacancies is having the right personal profile and business outputs, best communicated in a personal elevator pitch.

The second method in which it has been made easier to create Executive Vacancies is to go one step further in your own ideal job search process, and define the companies you wish to next work for. Having the right profile on the popular business social networking sites, means that you can create your own inside advocate using informational interview techniques. This results in you knowing more about the company, and hence if they are right for you know who is hiring or who to pitch yourself at; probably with a personalised introduction.

Both these of modern methods result in real exclusive opportunity in finding and gaining Executive Vacancies. With lower competition and direct on the employer communication, they result in a higher chance of executive employment.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Senior Buyer Jobs

The number of Senior Buyer Jobs has increased in the past few years, with increases in both legislation and organisations needs to widen the interpretation of what is best value, purely from price to include many other factors.

But what is required of a job seeker to both be capable of, and successfully gain a Senior Buyer Job?

Buyer Jobs

The basics of buying is the purchase of goods required by an organisation. While in a junior or trainee position, this involves the administration of an often agreed contract under a senior buyer. But to advance, the job seeker must show other aspects of their own capability.

While buyers in the past when seeking new jobs could focus their Executive CV purely on a successful track record of bringing best price to a company’s bottom line, with the tendency of organisations to both seek closer supplier partnerships, and to outsource non-core functions, best value has wider interpretations for all along the integrated supply chain

This is hence why many companies now when seeking to appoint Senior Buyer Jobs, will look for and hence specify in their job adverts those who have passed the appropriate entry requirements and professional development of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply. Even basic Associate membership will show that you take your profession seriously, and your development within it.

Senior Buyer

The key differences between a Senior Buyer and a junior in terms of their job description, are normally seen in terms of their responsibility covering the areas of:

• Product: complexity and technicality
• Contract: just supply, or a service element combination of design, supply and maintain
• Scale: of units and contract length/duration
• Finance: purchase or payments on staging, associated with total value

But the key aspect that a recruiter or HR team will seek in the best Senior Buyers to appoint for their advertised Senior Buyer Jobs, is in:

• How they assessed best value for that organisation in that product or service, and hence why they came to that supplier decision and resultant supply contract
• How the Senior Buyer built and interacted with their team, both internally and with the chosen suppliers.

Senior Buyer CV

In Professional CV writing, the most used form in creating an engaging and hence interview winning CV is that of STAR, short for: Situation, Task, Action, Result.

In a Senior Buyer CV, like in many Executive Jobs, the successful candidates CV not only displays their own wide capability and adaptability in assessing what is best value for that product or service in that company, but also focuses on showing the aspects of their experience that are most required by that job.

Resultantly, the successful CV focuses not on the duties of the job, but on the business output requirements of that company and that buying decision to provide the resultant best value decision.

The successful Senior Buyer CV therefore focuses in its write-ups on two areas:

• Situation and Task: assessing the product or service requirement for best value, showing option assessments and hence choices. This could possibly be undertaken using a Balanced Scorecard
• Action and Result: the delivery of the best value decision, in a timely manner, via appropriate working both internally and with the chosen suppliers

This type of write-up is then added to by displaying different aspects of the buying and post-buying cycle, showing – as defined by the job being applied for – both different combinations of products and different combinations of decision making in both assessing best value and resolving supplier disputes.

Hence in modern CV writing for Senior Buyer Jobs, one CV can not successfully be used for applying for every position. The Executive CV must be tailored and adapted to that job application.

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 Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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