Executive Appointments

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 - Executive Appointments

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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