Executive CV: do you need one?

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 - Executive CV

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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