Executive Job Search

Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 - Executive Job Search, Executive Search, Executive Search and Selection

Executive Job Search

Executive Job Search is different from other types of Job Search, this post addresses the why and where of, and how to get the job that you seek quicker.

What is an Executive?

Firstly, what is an executive? Nominally it is defined by income level, but also at the generally defined income level of above £50,000, you will find fewer public job adverts and different routes to employment being used by employers. You will also find different types of Hiring Manager, with Chairman and CEO’s replacing department heads and project leaders.

Executive Job Search model

The model I will use to explain the differences is based on our 5 Steps To Employment model:

Now, lets explain the ain differences.

Position in Executive Job Search is Strategy

It is true of all forms of jobs search, but particularly so in the Executive Job Search sector: position is strategy!

Do not build a job search around a Martini based “any time, any place, any where” answer. Don’t pose the employer, head hunter or recruiter with a problem of searching through both your Executive CV and online profiles to try and figure out if you are right for their job. Position yourself up front to fully engage, using the STAR-type Executive CV Writing form.

What’s the downside? There isn’t one. In a full jobs market and when in a process of Executive Search and Selection, employers and Head Hunters only put forward the best candidates who wholly fill the whole head hunting brief. Unless you meet that brief similarly as a 100% fit, then you won’t make the small group designated to undertake a Telephone Interview.

Business Solution Positioning

To get employed in the executive sector, positioning value is key. While most job seekers have to position as an X in a Y market, with the executive sector there is an added factor: Z.

While accountant in the manufacturing sector works in the professional job seeking market, in the executive sector the Z factor is the type of market condition that you set yourself in. These are:

• Start-up
• Growth
• Profit Improvement
• “Save the Titanic” (accountants, insolvency practitioners and specialist directors only)
• Change Management

Why is this important? It shows what type of business problems that you solve, and that is really what any employer will be engaging the eventual successful candidate for.

This then covers the key differences between Executive Job Search and other forms of Job Search, and specifically What to do before the process of Executive Job Search.

How to find Executive Jobs

The first question to to answer at this stage, is are there any Exec Appoitments available? Unlike in normal job search where you could check the job boards for 50+ jobs, even checking the websites for the leading Executive Search Companies won’t reveal much.

The key is to search the news feeds in that sector for recent placements, particularly professional associations. Can you find similar market sector and executive level positions being filled, in the past six months? If you can find one at the plc/international level, and at least six other placements (ie: one per month), then it would tend to suggest that its a live employment market in most sectors/levels, and worth exploring.

Who should you the target? Use the Head Hunters main tactic, and look for executive teams who have been in place for three to five years. These are teams that went in with a particular business brief, and nominally should have fulfilled it. These are now businesses that probably need fresh thinking, and executives looking to move on.

The problem is, that you can’t just walk in and demand that someone leave to give you a job. This is where a key differential comes in with Executive Job Search.

Executive Job Search UK

Executive Jobs have always have had a more push-pull nature, (ie: Head Hunters find you; in equal volume to you searching for Executive Jobs), over all other job search sectors. Due to the power of the internet now making candidate sourcing easier, the rest of the employment market is catching up with the Executive market, that has also moved further towards being found over job application.

Having positioned yourself to take best advantage of the more push-pull nature of Executive Job Search, the question is: where do you look for Executive Jobs? The key now in executive job search and application is simply networking. This is both online and offline, in physical meetings.

This is part of a communications plan to key persons, who can assist inwidening your job search. Note that two-thirds of Executive Positions are fulfilled by recommendation and networking, through others. Hence as well as acting as reference points for Head Hunters and companies, they act as reference points for companies which are in the same sector and may be searching for new executives.

Executive Job Interview

Executive Job Interviews are simple, if you have correctly positioned yourself in the first place. Organisations are seeking to employ executives who can deliver risked-business results, in the form that they want. The executive interview therefore is in part focused around your previous experience of doing the same thing as they require, and how you achieved that?

The second part is about people, specifically team ethics and culture. The key question to answer is, do they want you to keep doing the same, or change something? In part that is indicated by the business challenge faced, but not always and never wholly.

For more details, read the post on Assessing ability in the Executive Job Interview.

Executive Package

The key in closing any Executive Employment agreement is to finalise your Cotract of Employment. The key here, as I keep saying from my side as a Recruiter, is package NOT pay. If you focus too much on the headline pay figure over the overall package and job opportunity, then you will simply loose the opportunity. Having spent a lot of time getting to this point, you should know how difficult the process of executive job search can be, and secondly if you want that job or not. So why lose it over a few headline numbers?

Executive Summary

I hope that you have found this post useful in your Executive Job Search. The three manin key differences are:

1. Positioning as a business solution is key. This needs to be confirmed in all profile information and communication, specifically your Executive CV
2. Only 10% of Executive Positions will be advertised, while 2/3rds are fulfilled through networking
3. Interviews are focused around your competence to deliver the required business solution, and your approach to people

Good Luck!

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One Response to “Executive Job Search”

1. Rupert Tappin Says:
   May 17th, 2012 at

   There is some really great material and content on this site, Thank You! Regards, Rupert

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