As a career advisor and consultant, I specialize in assisting mostly senior managers because of the pain they go through when wanting to shift jobs. They will rarely see a job post for a General Manager, CEO, CFO, CMO, GM and so on, with rare exceptions. And when they actually look for executive search firms, which are specialized in these senior roles, as soon as they say the word “looking” they end up in losing their chances right there, most of the time.
Today I actually saw an executive search LinkedIn company’s page having as a slogan exactly this: “Finding talents successful where they are, not looking for new jobs..” Which clearly indicates that executive search firms are not interested in those looking to shift jobs, but to remove happy senior managers from their existing employers and well established jobs, while the ones who actually say that they are looking... lose.
Having worked previously with executive search firms, I have learnt that this is exactly the mindset that represents an executive search firm that clients will respect mostly and come back for, despite my personal opinion about it.
Now, the question goes back to: HOW TO CRACK THE CODE?
It’s a long discussion, as per my previous article “How to find an Executive Job – Caviar” there is a lot of direct information on how to break through this barrier, however on a very nutshell its’s about:
The power of networking (giving more then expecting something), much further and beyond the concept of simply attending events, exchanging business cards or connecting on LinkedIn.
Self-awareness
Dropping any ego, while keeping self-confidence and knowing your value
Being approachable and humble
Being an effective and active “approacher" - Go getter!
Having a road-map and job search plan
Meeting people for the sake of meeting to create a global network and rapport
Ps: Goes without saying that a shinning LinkedIn profile and CV is a key foundation, solid base.
LinkedIn is one of the best tools for this and I feel blessed to have met so many people face to face here, which were my connections from my LinkedIn network and also for being a catalyst for introductions, connecting people globally.
As an example, I will be in Sweden for the first time in the first week of December, and thanks to the power of LinkedIn networking I have already, asides from my original purpose to go there (self-development training from one of my LinkedIn connections) a few meetings scheduled with people I connected through LinkedIn. I cannot wait to have a full packed week of network meetings! If you are or will be in Stockholm that week and want to network, reach out to me via PM, it’ll be fantastic.
If you’d like to learn much more about how I can help senior managers land their next role across the globe and crack the code of “looking” without suffering the label of “low value” and “not interested because you are looking” please reach out! For now just make sure the word “looking” is replaced for another, to keep you on the radar of executive search firms.
There are many successful ways of doing this, and network magic is one of the key ingredients of a successful formula to land the next job. It can be quite an enjoyable process if you are flexible to learn and do it, while remaining always positive and maintaining a flexible strategic approach at all times to land the next role is indispensable!
If you haven’t yet, please listen to my interview podcast with DigitalHoos where I speak in more details about the topic:
For more information on how I help C-Suite (not limited to) land their next role:
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