Executive CV Writing Service

As both a recruiter and a CV writer, I am often asked what should a good Executive CV Writing Service include? I will try to answer that here, but its probably not going to say what you think it will, but it will tell you as an executive job seeker what I now know that you need to get employed.

Executive CV Writing

I never got into the CV writing business to actually write CV’s! I know that may seem strange, but from experience, and if you think about it, it makes sense. The first lesson that I learnt about the recruitment business was that it does pretty much what it says on the packet: recruitment. That is the considered process of placing people in jobs.

As CV Writing is part of that process of getting people into jobs, it is hence part of recruitment. But if CV Writing wasn’t part of the recruitment process, would anyone write a CV? There is a simple answer to that, and its to look at the various job seeker forums at the amount of pain and detailed questions that all job seekers ask when considering or actually writing their own CV. CV Writing is a pain in the butt task, but as its part of the recruitment process, its got to be done.

So when job seekers look for a CV Writer, they most often do it for two reasons, and its in this order:

• To remove their own pain, and just get themselves a CV
• To buy in expertise

The more senior a job seeker gets, and particularly in the executive market, the more towards the second area they look for assistance in writing their CV. But the single reason that all job seekers who employ a professional to do their CV, is the realisation that they don’t want a CV, they want a job.

Let me say that again: job seekers don’t want a CV, they want a job!

Best CV Writing Service?

It was through that realisation that I concluded that the process of chasing the question what, which or whom was the Best CV Writing Service was an interesting process, but actually for the job seeker gained little.

If you think about the CV in its constituent parts and process, then its a:

• Factually based sales document
• Which highlights in historic role/skills format
• Your suitability to do work for your existing or former employers

In other words, what has it got to do with job application for another job? Hence why the most modern job application techniques talk about demonstrating your skills doing the job not work history!

Executive employment form the employers perspective

Lets take this one step further: if you were the potential new employer, would you want to hear about old and past achievements, or those most relevant to your advertised position? Better still, why not get the job applicant to tell you the employer how they would do your job?

As a result of this conversation, you would realise with the right candidate that the job you were advertising was in actual fact the wrong job, and that there were more and better commercial opportunities out there.

This latter question/answer and realisation is in actual fact the path of the head hunter. You don’t want an employee Mr Customer/board director, you want a risk-assured business result. The question is, which person can give you that result, or possibly an even better one?

CV Writing Service UK

Does any of this then sound like CV Writing? No.

So if that’s the case, why do so called Executive CV Writers talk about and market on the basis of “better and more experienced CV Writers” creating your CV? Because in actual fact, as an executive, you never wanted a CV in the first place, you wanted a job! Plus the employers you want to talk to don’t care about the quality of the paper that your Executive CV is written on, they care about the business result you can provide to them.

Executive CV Writing Services

The simple answer is that a modern and comprehensive Executive CV Writing Service focuses on:

• The executives business ability and desired market
• The right job application techniques to position their client in front of the decision making executive board
• The eventual Executive CV, and confirmation as that person as the right candidate for that executive job

When you add in that fewer than 10% of all CV’s and job applications are processed via paper, and that less than 10% of all executive positions are ever advertised in public forums (newspapers, job boards, etc). The question doesn’t become what quality of paper your CV is printed on, but how your Executive CV Writing Service can get you in front of the right executive board?

The basics of a modern Executive CV Writing Service

Have you understood the difference in the modern age between the old Best CV Writing Service marker, and what a comprehensive Executive CV Writing Service should include? Then going back to the basics of what a CV is – a sales document that answers a risked business decision – does your Executive CV Writing Service offer to put you in front of the right executive hiring decision makers?

If not, you need a better and fully comprehensive Executive CV Writing Service. Good Luck!

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For a confidential executive career discussion,

giving you a personal guide towards a more fulfilling career or success executive job search,

request our complimentary Confidential Career Discussion service

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Executive Coaching

photo credit: UF Digital Collections

I have to admit, before you read this piece, that I am highly cynical of the majority of Executive Coaching. This is wholly based on one element: the term has been market spun by the Executive Coaches from an excellent internal company practise, to a piece of marketing hype.

Resultantly, on at least a weekly basis, we are asked to write Executive CV‘s for executives and directors who have paid large lumps of their redundancy package to someone who on average seems to have a piece of base level NLP training behind them and a degree in an arts-based subject. These people have no right to use the term coach, which is traditionally an experienced hand in that sport who guided the young players to success.

We don’t do coaching at CV4.biz, and there are two reasons for this:

• I don’t believe we are best positioned to give broad life advice when our business is placing people: tactical positioning yes, strategic choice no
• It is not core to our business of recruitment, executive search or CV writing

We therefore strictly implement a policy that Executive Coaching should remain in the hands of experienced third parties. Hence, if someone approaches us who we feel would benefit from Executive Coaching, we can provide contact details of Executive Coaches who do match up to our standards and have more than an NLP certificate behind them. We also don’t take an introduction fee for this service from the third parties, requesting evidence that it is donated instead to a charity – as I said, we need to be neutral on such issues

Executive Career Coaching

The executive career is high pressure, and the need for either guidance by an experienced senior director or third party has always been part of the business world. Most large plc companies have an Executive Coaching programme, and it surprises me that many more graduates don’t ask about such programmes before making their final career choices. However, the largest application is in advancing middle managers into Executive Jobs, and lower level executives into Director Jobs.

To gain the third party input element, most plc’s use trusted and pre-selected third parties, who operate in a closed conversation agreement: ie – the third party is approved by the company, but the conversation is private between the third party and the executive

SME companies are squeezed to pay what are frankly large consultancy fee’s to these trusted third parties, and so the executives are often left without third party input. How could this be gained, on both a company and personal level?

Executive Networking:

One of the questions I always love asking people who seek advice on finding an Executive Coach, is to find out what they know about the founding of Lloyds of London. This was a group of rival business men who under wrote the export and import of goods to the British Empire, most of whom met in a coffee shop called Lloyds. As most did business with both the same customers and between themselves, a group agreed that it would be a wise idea to have a common building where they could all do business and network.

Hence on a corporate basis, my view on Executive Coaching is that there are many options to address the need for third party input, without resorting to a certified Executive Coach: yes, even asking your rivals to come in have a conversation. Often this can be achieved by attending trade associations and shows, and either presenting at or listening to other companies in the same area of with the same problem. I would also suggest that bringing in an experienced hand – perhaps retired form the industry – as a consultant would also be of greater immediate and long term benefit over employing an Executive Coach. For guidance on this, read the excellent Mike Southon book Beermat Entrepreneur

Career Coaching

On an individual basis, the is also the need for third party input. Apart from talking to colleagues and friends, and making use of networking, there are additional passive options available for addressing both operational and career issues.

With regards career management, both recruiters and Executive Search firms provide passive career coaching – its is in part why we an Executive CV Service, so we could pick up on people seeking career change. They can provide advice both on what the market looks like, and what career options you have both in the immediate and longer term.

Executive Coaching

However, accepting that some will want to choose Executive Coaching as their choice of way forward, what are the key elements to consider? having worked with a number of Executive Coaches, the following would seem minimum requirements:

• Coaching is as much about skill as communication, and there are few below the age of 40 who would have the developed communication ability to be a coach
• Look for a coach who has chosen a successful coaching career built on top of a successful business career
• Seek confirmation of certification. Yes, anyone can set themselves up as a coach, but membership of a coaching professional society – many of which are American based – is essential
• Find coaches by recommendation over searching through Yellow Pages or Google. Always ask about introduction fee’s between your introducer and the coach
• Once you find a coach, ask for an initial meeting before paying out any money. Successful coaching is about chemistry at its core, but don’t expect a best friend – they need to be your independent eye

If you want a recommendation or an introduction to an Executive Coach, please just ask – 0844 884 2825

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 free Professional CV review at our sister site CV4.biz

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Total Executive Package

In this current economic climate, many who are forced or choose to move are having to take a drop in salary, particularly if they have a weak Executive CV.

This logical move for career or employment reasons in this economic climate, but has always been a large aspect of Executive Career management. Most executives are faced at some point during their career with a corporate to SME job change in order to gain longer term fulfilment and reward. So, how do you handle this situation?

Firstly, be aware that you may have to take a drop in direct remuneration in the first place, but understand why you are making this choice. If life was wholly about work, then money as a reward would come higher in negotiating goals. But the fact you want to provide more for your family, and spend more time with your friends – both of whom you gain more from – means that we need to get life into perspective and balance.

• Money is a temporary thing: it is simply a reward for donating your time to do someone else’s job.
• Time is an irreplaceable resource. It is how you effectively use your time which defines how fulfilled a life you will have

Goals + Package = Reward

Accepting that anyone can become a millionaire these days in what ever they really want to do, it is what you use that money for which gets you what you want in life. Hence although the money may be better or worse, if you have to effectively work twice as many hours or spend large amounts of time away from home, what is the total life and hence job return?

Always, before making any career choice, think:

“If that’s my goal, how quickly can I reach it using pathA over pathB?”

I get further clarity for most clients by asking them:

“What will you be able to write on your CV/resume in 2years time, if you took that job?”

If you have clear goals, then the skills and experience you gain will provide the rewards – on both a personal as well as resultant financial level – that you desire.

With that later point in mind, and aiming at a career over immediate cash income, most executive reward systems are hence based on a package over a direct scale of immediate cash income. Packages can consist of almost any element that the company considers that they they need to provide to the executive in order to obtain, retain and enable them to work most effectively in that role/position. Board and director level posts can still include moving costs, but golden hello‘s I think in light of the many media stories during this economic downturn will be removed. Executive reward packages will move to a combination of immediate goals, and longer term strategic outputs. This will lead to post-position reward schemes, which remove the risk of paper profit payments, and recognise the fact that immediate executive effort doesn’t always and is not most securely provided as immediate cash.

Therefore, when an executive is approached by an Executive Search firm, it is hence worth while if the job sounds interesting to ask them to outline the total package expectations you would have. Most head hunters will never give away initially the company or position they are searching for, so why should you tell them your salary if it is not in the public domain?

Total package I always say to Executive CV clients is an issue to be assured of by the Executive Search firm, and not given away by the executive at the earliest possible time. The longer you are kept inside the appointment system, the more the employer wants you, the better your negotiating position: so why give away your salary? Always test the edges and the limits, and ask what the previous incumbent or similar level executives are presently remunerated at – but never give away your salary. The moment the executive candidate states their salary – and not total package – that will then define the highest point at which the employer offers will start.

Salary reduction is a part of the current economic cycle, and has always been part of the executive career. But a position which takes you where you want to go, and total remuneration package which shows business return and rewards loyalty, should be the focus of where the successful executive negotiates.

Good Luck!

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For a confidential executive career discussion,

giving you a personal expert guide towards

a more fulfilling executive career or successful executive job search,

request our complimentary Confidential Career Discussion service

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Chief Executive CV

I like writing Chief Executive CV‘s. They are all fun, envisioned and driven: the reasons that got them there in the first place. The best of them also know and are open about what they are good at, and therefore what they need in a team around themselves.

However, when pitching to write a Chief Executives CV, the question always comes up: how long will it be/how many pages?

This often surprises me, as surely a CEO has learnt its not about length or size, its about results? However, on listening to them, I hear the same old story:

• You are not the first CV writer I have talked to, and you won’t be the last: fine, I am happy with competition!
• The other guy said he could do it for half the price: did I expect a different requirement from a Chief Executive to that from an unemployed steel worker, who also seeks value? No – not that the price will change, but what we put it it can and should
• The other guy said he would make it this long

It is on the last question that I get interested. Is a CV’s effect based on length, or its ability to get you interviews for the jobs you want to do?

On CV4.biz, I talked about the case of Neville Keithley, the ex-MD at Glasgow-based publishers Archant Scotland which publishes local and regional papers such as The Extra, The Advertiser and The Gazette. So frustrated was Mr Keithley at his job search, he paid the grand sum of £3,000 to put a quarter page advert in The Telegraph. The result: he got two interviews!

Mr Keithley had talked to recruiters, CV Writers, Job Coaches, employers, etc. He stated that in 2000+ applications, he had had few interviews and no job offers – hence the last ditch effort with The Telegraph advert.

In the blog, I have explained about the modern job search: it is multi-channel marketing, in that it is a push exercise (to the employer), as well as a pull exercise (employers looking for your skills). As a result, I under took a few simple and free exercises, and less than five days later if you searched for the phrase “Neville Keithley” my input resulted in 7 out of 10 first page Google results. I still have six of those first page results a month later, and have had one order for an Executive Portfolio as a result – nothing heard yet from Mr Keithley, who I would still be happy to help, if he asks.

Executive CV writing is about the same basics as every CV: it is a sales document, no more and no less. Like every other CV, the candidate needs positioning and then the communication of their skills into an appropriate system. Note I didn’t say CV, I said system – so how big is your CV in the modern job search becomes as relevant as how long is a piece of string.

However, the one thing that is different about a Chief Executive CV is confidentiality, and hence the choice of system by which they are marketed and found is key. Blatant selling in both the Executive CV and system could break previous employment confidentiality (which for a CEO could last decades, and have legal and cost implications), reduces employer desire; and hence increases the period of unemployment

If the Chief Executive has a position lined up, and they just need a CV for a board interview, then pitching against the jobs requirements becomes key. The effective Executive CV needs to answer all of the job requirements, and probably needs a strategy pitch/presentation as well

If the Chief Executive is looking for a new position, and has suitable contacts, then a 2page Executive CV is the first step. Anticipation of the next stage questions by the potential employer need to be taken into account, with a portfolio CV backing up the initial approach

If the Chief Executive is know to be openly on the market and looking, then additional options need to be brought into play: networking, direct approach to both employers and executive recruiters, personal website, etc.

So, is the question “how long is your CV” relevant? Only in the modern world and current market in the context of how quickly did you gain your next position – and that is what we here at Executive CV are focused on.

Good Luck!

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For a confidential executive career discussion,

giving you a personal expert guide towards

a more fulfilling executive career or successful executive job search,

request our complimentary Confidential Career Discussion service

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