Executive Jobs

Monday, June 1st, 2009 - Employment, Executive Recruitment, Executive Search, Job Search, Recruitment

Executive Jobs

Do you you know what an Executive Job is? If you were to describe one, do you think you could – and would this be reflected if I read you Executive CV for that ideal executive position?

What business function would it fulfil, what level of responsibility would it have, what scale of budget and number of staff, and who would it report to – the shareholders or main board?

Having described your vision of what an Executive Job is, have you then tested whether that job exists? Yes, the adverts in the Sunday Times Jobs Supplement may look interesting, but are they advertising the type of Executive Job you seek; and are they actually real jobs?

The problem with any high-prestige word is that much like a candle in the middle of an African jungle, they attract activity. Others recognise this, and use the attraction principle to either get more people interested in their proposition, or use it to harvest those who are attracted to what could be a false light.

Unfortunately, the recruitment sector is probably one of the worse in the commercial world for using such marketing techniques to both attract more applicants, and also harvest applicants for their database.

So how can you make sure your vision of an Executive Job actually exists?

Job Search

The first task is to test the market, and thanks to the plethora of Job Boards, this is now far easier than it was ten years ago. The largest job boards such as Monster have plenty of listings, but few Executive Jobs. So search the specialist job boards such as The Ladders and the websites of the Executive Search and Head Hunting firms, particularly those that specialise in your sector.

Could you find you definition of your next ideal Executive Job? If you can not, then either that’s because there is something in your list which is tightening the results. If this were a non-executive job, I would suggest that anything less than 20 search results would mean changing either the geography, the skill set/experience or the industry (in that order). But with Executive Jobs you need to ease each item one at a time.

If you can’t find your definition of what you seek, then it probably doesn’t exist, and you need to widen your view of that next ideal job

Job Application

If you see an interesting job, or one that is similar to that which you seek, avoid being a victim  of CV harvesting by the less scrupulous firms. Create a new free eMail address first (gMail, hotmail or Yahoo are all fine), in your own name or close to it, and give that as your contact point. You may also want to consider buying a new Pay As You Go cellphone. When you contact the firm, ask three key questions:

• What is the sector/division being hired for – you don’t need/they won’t give names unless it is in the advert, so just sector/division
• What are the top three/five key issues being sought ion the ideal candidate
• In what time scale would the candidate start

If you get unconvincing answers to one of these, then there is the potential that either the position is created to harvest CV’s, or has already been filled and the organisation is just keeping it open to – harvest CV’s!

Good Luck!

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