Since becoming engaged in the job search process I have found “ageism” to be more real than not and that long-tenure at one company, where my experience lies, is actually not regarded highly by employers. Can you provide input on whether job-hopping is now en vogue and advise how I can show the breadth of my experience positively on my resume?

Potential employers are looking for breadth of experience and aptitude for working in different environments. If you can show movement within the company such as promotions and working in different divisions/departments then you can narrow the gap between you and someone who has worked in a variety of different companies. You should also be able to demonstrate that you were set up in roles that had an increased set of challenges and professional growth. When you interview, give examples that show you have the ability to be flexible and your tolerance for change, as well as your ability to generate new and creative ideas to show that you haven’t been blinded by working in one culture for so many years.

As far as job hopping there are many factors that influence it, among which are age and industry.

According to the Bureau of labor statistics (job openings and labor turnover survey 2005), the average American between the ages of 18 and 38 has held 10.2 jobs and younger individuals are more apt to change jobs. Another, earlier study showed that more experienced workers of the 45-54 range worked for the same company three times longer than 25-34 year olds.

I have found that executives who work in technology, private equity backed companies and turnarounds have changed jobs more. Stock options and the fast rate of advancement in technology make this more common and acceptable.

Job hopping may be more common but it’s not always the most desired by recruiters or potential employers. It can raise concern about a person’s ability to navigate politics in a corporation or their potential for boredom. For this reason, I always advise clients to add a line to their resume as to the reason for their transition if they have frequent moves.

Categories: Executive Career Management, Executive Resumes, Interviewing, Recruitment Trends, Rubin's Cube - Career Q&A
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The concept of branding is well known for such things as consumer products, companies, and employment experiences. Consider these examples:

As a leader in career management, BlueSteps has partnered with CareerSI to develop the ‘Resume Renovation’ project. Each month we will feature the resume of a BlueSteps member with a complimentary review by CareerSI’s experienced resume writer and noted author, Danny Huffman. For confidential, personalized expert resume advice, BlueSteps members can also contact CareerSI directly at www.careersi.com.

Apply for a complimentary Resume Renovation
Each month we will select a BlueSteps Member from a different industry to participate in this feature. If you currently work within Professional Services and would like to receive a complimentary Resume Renovation which will be featured on www.BlueSteps.com and within our monthly newsletter, please contact cweekes@aesc.org with a copy of your current resume. All personal and sensitive information (such as contact details, employer names and dates of employment) will be censored to uphold confidentiality. Look out for next month’s newsletter when we will feature the resume of a BlueSteps Member currently working within the Manufacturing industry!

After kicking off this project last month with the resume renovation of AESC President Peter Felix, we now turn our attention to Della Giles, Director of BlueSteps.com.

Resume Renovation – Della Giles, Director, Bluesteps.com

Globalization has impacted employment with a blizzard of resumes for every available position. To stand out from the drift of others, a resume must tell a story with brevity for immediate impact or be lost to the storm. Fortunately, CareerSI certified writers are experts at developing and marketing material known for immediate impact and optimal results.

Della’s original resume skips her story and quickly bogs down in a line of bullets detailing passive responsibilities and duties. She has an impressive list of skills, but she’s expecting the potential employer to connect the dots instead of presenting a complete and compelling case to call her in for an interview.

Please click here to view Della’s original resume.

The Challenge – To surface the story relating her superior value to an employer:
In Della’s original resume you have to read between the lines; her hook, the two lines below her objective, is Della-centric (“I am seeking…”) and industry restrictive (“not-for-profit trade association”). The hook should not be about Della, but about what Della can do for the company who hires her.

Primary elements requiring attention:
The “hot zone” – the top third of the resume that proves the claims made in the hook – is absent in Della’s resume. Our first priority was to capture her story during our confidential interview, fusing her character with her experience as well as industry expectation in the hot zone; very easy in Della’s case, because it falls neatly into three “chapters”.

Equally important is to adopt an aggressive tone. Despite Della’s British humility, the resume is about her value to an employer, not her personality. Employers aren’t looking for tentative performers, and, as evident in her rapid rise to directorship and her stellar accomplishments, Della is not a tentative worker – that needs to come out in the resume.

Please click here to view Della’s renovated resume.

The strategy:
Della’s hook positions her to launch and transform e-commerce in any industry, not just associations, and it makes her very appealing to brick-and-mortar companies wanting to expand into the Internet. Those are pretty big claims though, so we immediately prove them with quantifiable data in the following three “chapters” of her story, carefully phrased to keep the industry broad to maximize transferability.

Drastically different than the traditional template resume, this executive resume is designed to be skimmed as well as read. Read “down” and you’ll see the first few words that catch the eye still tell the story - “Grew a startup subsidiary e-business”, “Transformed an organization”, “Drove innovative marketing”.

Next, her education not only backs up those claims further, it provides a visual break between the hot-zone and the career progression. Within her employment history, responsibilities and duties – which can be assumed from her title – are dropped in favor of strategic initiative-result statements reinforcing hot zone claims and serving as interview spring boards.

Total Package – In Conclusion:
The average executive looks at a resume for less than ten seconds. You only have moments to grab a decision-maker’s attention and relate your intrinsic value. If the top-third of your page doesn’t do the job, you won’t get the job.

Della’s original resume, though filled with tasks she delivers with superior skill, failed to make her case. The final renovated resume depicts a dynamic story of transferable value only hinted at before.

Take a few moments and reflect upon your resume. Does your executive resume tell a dynamic story of metric and immediate value? If you are not receiving results, now may be the perfect time to renovate your resume. Contact an executive CareerSI consultant immediately for a free resume evaluation at resume@careersi.com.

Danny Huffman is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), Certified Employment Interview Professional (CEIP) and a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC), as well as co-founder of Career Services International (an executive career management company catering to senior and six-figure professionals. As an experienced executive writer and noted author, Danny has assisted thousands of professional across the globe.

Categories: Executive Resumes, Uncategorized
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As a leader in career management, BlueSteps has partnered with CareerSI to develop the ‘Resume Renovation’ project. To kick off this new feature, AESC President Peter M. Felix worked with Danny Huffman at CareerSI and had his resume renovated. The question we all ask ourselves is will I really see value in having my resume written by a Professional Resume Writer? See for yourself as the proof is in the before and after documents below.

Resume Renovation - Peter M. Felix, President, AESC

As times have changed, so have marketing strategies. In an era of immediacy, resumes must aggressively display value and bottom-line contribution.

The challenge with Peter’s resume was that it lacked an aggressive and metric approach and an immediate call for action.

Please click here to view Peter’s original resume.

The Challenge - Visual display and prioritizing data while developing a metric-based document:
Peter’s original resume, though three pages in length, was thin, lacked measurable accomplishments and did not maximize the top third of the resume (the hot zone). Omitting irrelevant or outdated information while quantifying contributions, I chose a one-page resume to be the effective option.

Peter displayed unique qualities hidden in his original document. Unfortunately, the fact he was a proven and well-respected industry expert was lost. My goal in this campaign was to highlight his breadth of knowledge so the reader felt compelled to make direct contact.

I decided to show readers instant ROI by displaying direct results in the hot zone.

Primary elements requiring recognition:
The original objective, career summary and skill set were packed with pertinent information but this was not revealed in an aggressive, marketable manner. Given current marketing strategies, formatting and revision was a necessity.

Please click here to view Peter’s ‘renovated’ resume.

Retained original elements:
Education and awards preceded employment history and this approach worked well; given the prestige associated with the universities, I followed the same approach but decided to slightly alter the layout of the details into a reader and space-friendly format.

Secondary elements and comments:
An exhaustive CV approach has not been visited in the United States for many years, and many global/international executives have not updated their material during this time. Peter was in the same situation. As industry expectations have changed, the original resume lacked a senior-executive perception due to the CV format. Additionally, several discriminatory concepts needing attention included age (going back 40+ years) and use of pronouns. Resumes are an aggressive selling agent, not a long-winded exploratory expedition.

Regarding employment history content, there were effective numbers in the original document but much remained hidden or were misplaced. If not renovated, these quantifiers would have been lost if not for a resume renovation.

Total Package - In Conclusion:
The quality of a resume is determined by the action it generates. Given today’s instant return/gratification business paradigm, resumes must market ROI and call to action immediately.

Materials lacking power are discarded within seconds. Peter’s original CV, though loaded with great information, lacked a catalyst triggering the reader’s decision to act. Ultimately, the final result was a resume that positions the client as an executive who can lead, expand streams of revenue and deliver substantial results.

Danny Huffman is a Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW), Certified Employment Interview Professional (CEIP) and a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC), as well as co-founder of Career Services International (an executive career management company catering to senior and six-figure professionals. As an experienced executive writer and noted author, Danny has assisted thousands of professional across the globe.

Categories: Uncategorized
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New and updated features of Version 5 will include:

• A much broader choice of function and industry descriptions to select from when creating or updating your Executive Profile, as well as the option to specify any relevant work permits that you hold. This will enable you to more accurately represent your experience within your Executive Profile and provide more detailed career data for researchers using the BlueSteps database to locate candidates and sources.

• The integration of our new Blue Kroll feature allows executives to verify certain key pieces of their work history using Kroll Background Check. If you choose, this information can then be shared with our member search firms, providing a third party guarantee of your experience and achievements that helps you to stand out in searches made across the database.

• A range of industry-leading information and resources covering all aspects of the retained search industry and the executive job market. Content will be provided by our AESC member search firms and industry leaders, and will include original worldwide industry reports and surveys conducted by the AESC. You will also be able to track search activity across a variety of markets and view continuously updated search activity data from the BlueSteps database.

• The new Resume Renovation project will allow a BlueSteps member to receive a full complimentary resume review with our sponsor CSI, which will be featured on the website and in our monthly newsletter.

• New online training courses provided by our AESC Campus department and industry leaders will offer education and learning based around career management topics including executive compensation and personal branding.

Categories: Executive Career Management
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Howard Nestler has concluded an in-depth study of the executive job market as it concerns what he terms ‘premium’ executives and has come up with some surprising discoveries.

“Most executives I’ve observed are breaking all the rules of ‘brand marketing’ when they promote themselves and then wonder why it is that it takes so long to get a job,” says Nestler. He goes on to point out that, too often, the job an executive ultimately finds is not as rewarding as their previous one.

Nestler cautioned a group of individuals interested in executive marketing against using conventional methods when navigating the executive job search market. “Everybody gets a job,” Nestler told them, “sooner or later. Sadly, it’s usually later and, generally, it’s a position that is a step down from the candidate’s last engagement.”

Nestler makes the point that when executives default to using a resume as a means of promoting, they have given up all the advantages that their skill, intellect and experience have provided them. “They become part of the crowd,” Nestler asserts. “Imagine a political candidate running for office by merely circulating a resume.”

“An executive must begin to see himself or herself as a product with discernable qualities and characteristics that set them apart from the many options a company has in today’s job market.” Nestler goes on to say that, “Executives must then headline their campaign with these qualities, which is something a resume does not do.”

It is Nestler’s observation that when an executive promotes by way of a resume, they turn themselves into a generic product that will result in a generic placement. This may be alright for rank-and-file job candidates, but not for men and women of superior capability and intellect who are looking for a challenge in an engagement rather than a set of chores.

Nestler believes that the very first impression a CEO has of an individual will set the tone for everything that is to follow. He says that, “That first impression will dictate what priority the candidate will be given and will most certainly affect the offer made to that candidate.”

Howard Nestler,
New York, NY. PRWeb, February 2007

Categories: Executive Career Management, Executive Resumes
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Writing Resumes the Way Executive Search Consultants Like to See Them

Resume writing has long been the subject of experts teaching the tricks of the trade. The good news is that there are things that you can do to make your resume more attractive to search consultants. But beware - there is nothing that can dress up a mediocre track record to make it look stellar.

Search consultants want to be able to grasp information quickly – they see thousands of resumes in the course of a year. They don’t want the long introduction, the obfuscating descriptions or the emotive words such as “a results oriented executive with hands on experience of managing growing companies” (a statement which has communicated very little.)

Instead there is a lot to be said for simplicity, clarity and clear targeting. A short description of jobs held, indicating size of company, responsibilities and major achievements will quickly help the search consultant to make some summary judgments in the screening process.

By all means add a short covering letter indicating the kind of appointment you are looking for, and of course ask if the consultant could spend a little time on the phone with you. After that, it’s all about serendipity - the right job at the right time.

II. Do’s and Don’ts in Resume Writing

Do:

list positions held in reverse chronological order (most recent at the top)
use bold type fonts to highlight the company name and the position that you held (position can be in italics)
keep it short - preferably one page, but as long as it reads quickly then by all means use two
highlight key achievements
include bullet point information describing the nature and size of the organization
include academic prowess
add a great (but very short) covering letter customized to the reader describing why you warrant attention; even better send the letter first without the resume – that way you stimulate interest without giving away too much information up front.
Don’t:

indulge in introductory statements about your career or your career goals (do that very quickly in the covering letter - then you can modify each letter according to the reader)
list every achievement in your college and high school career
use long-winded narrative
employ generic descriptions of your achievements – be specific.
Common Misconceptions: The reader is interested in all details of your career; the reader has time to read and assimilate information; the resume is crucial to opening the door – it often isn’t, but the covering letter may be.

Resumes don’t get jobs, you do; therefore work out how to communicate what makes you different or special. Also, don’t forget that a search consultant is a different audience to a potential hiring organization.

III. Making your resume work for you

Most executives forget all communications theory when it comes to writing about themselves. They become focused on describing everything they have ever done rather than applying simple but well proven rules such as – defining the audience, defining the purpose of the message and then defining the message itself.

The resume is purely and simply a medium of communication. Make it long and obscure and you will lose your audience – just as with a presentation. Make it to the point and highlighted with key messages and you will succeed in getting your message across.

Don’t try to put the whole message in one document. Parcel out information as and when you know your target audience is ready to receive it. Most senior line and HR executives have little or no time to read voluminous resumes or CVs. When received they will either have their assistant dictate a standard reply or the papers will be referred to the recruiting division to be lost forever.

First get the attention of your target audience and then communicate. Try a very short introductory letter or, if possible, a telephone conversation. By attracting the attention of the target in this way your resume can be used as back-up or an aide-memoire once they have shown some interest in listening to you.

Work out to how to stimulate that initial interest and you will make real progress in your networking.

But feel free to send a full resume from the outset to Executive Search Consultants. By filling out a profile at www.BlueSteps.com you can quickly make your career information available to the best executive search firms worldwide. You can then attach a full resume to the profile. AESC Member search firms can access your brief profile and then download a copy of your resume if your initial information matches a current search they are conducting.

Association of Executive Search Consultants

Categories: Executive Resumes
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I have been searching for a new job for almost a year now and am wondering if there is something in my CV and /or background that is holding me back.
My professional career started in a treasury business; first as a dealer and then as a treasury manager in one of the most international engineering companies in Finland. Following this I moved to a public listed company which was unfortunately taken over by a larger firm leading to the elimination of my position as treasury manager. However I remained in the company as a Business Controller, predominantly in charge of the international growth projects (acquisitions); going on to become both the Business Controller of the press distribution division and the Director of the International operations of the same business area.
During the last six years I have been working mostly with the acquisition projects; heading market studies, entire business plans, commercial deal negotiations, valuations and takeovers/integration projects. As well as dealing with the daily routines of running businesses in five former Eastern-European countries, with turnover of approximately EUR 90 million and with personnel of almost 600.
Last year I received many good job offers through BlueSteps. All of which were unfortunately based abroad which is unsuitable for me as I have 3 small kids. I still regret passing up one job offer, which I received approximately 3 years ago from one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in Scandinavia, for the position of Director of Finance.
For the last year I have been searching for a MD position in small/medium sized companies. I feel I have broad enough experience with this type of position and I don’t have any particular preference for an industry. I haven’t yet had the chance to show my skills in a MD position, but I would certainly like to do that sooner or later. Any advice or comment on my background and what I am looking for?

I want you to take a step back and re-read your question from the position of an outside observer. If you do this with honesty you will see that your question is not really a question at all, but rather a discussion; and while interesting, it raises several points and detours that could confuse and lose your audience.

Let’s look at the big picture. If you had a job offer that you now regret you did not take, that leads me to believe that you may not have fully thought out or articulated what you really wanted at the beginning of your search. Since most searches end up having unexpected twists and turns and opportunities that you did not consider at the outset, it is advisable to outline some unexpected opportunities and think about how you would react to them; and this is the key, before you are presented with them.

You need to determine what your goals are and prepare a concise outline of who you are and how your experience can solve problems for future employers. You need a compact elevator pitch that has impact. This will come after you have worked your background into hard hitting storylines that have meaning. When confronted with a work problem what did you do? What actions did you take and what were the results? After you have searched out your work experience you will have several storylines to work with. Now work them over until you distill the essence from it. Now you will have the ammunition for relaying relevant elevator pitches in your search.

If you do this and re-write your question, how would it look? I am looking forward to reading that question so please do some homework and feel free to write again and we can go back together and explore your background further.

Categories: Executive Career Management, Rubin's Cube - Career Q&A
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Is a well written 1st person narrative resume style acceptable? Some recruiters obviously prefer a bullet style resume while others prefer a narrative style. Should I have two?

Yes a well written 1st person narrative resume is acceptable, and further it is suggested that you have both. I think that this approach is a good way to develop hard hitting story lines that have impact. Further distilled, these story lines become background for developing a traditional bullet point style resume.

The narrative and bullet point style resumes can become circular and reinforce each other. Reading a narrative style resume before an interview will help the job searcher when it comes time to expand on those bullets that the interviewer is reviewing.

Categories: Executive Resumes, Rubin's Cube - Career Q&A
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I left my previous employer, initiated by them but mutually agreed, in mid-January. Given my seven years of company experience, they requested and I agreed to continue to work as a paid, retainer-based consultant. As I am still actively engaged (as a 1099 resource instead of FT employee), is it reasonable to state that I am still “with” my previous employer, or do I have to amend my resume to denote my change in employment status?

Let’s think about this from the employer’s perspective. What would you think if you found out that a prospective employee had offered information in their resume that was questionable? The facts suggest that you are no longer a FT employee. Transparency and clarity play to a person’s character. I would suggest that it is appropriate to list the change in employment status on your resume. That said there is a reason why your employer is offering you this work. You are adding value to your former employer. Now let’s examine this value you are providing and search out some talking points on this work that you will be proud to outline in an interview. By the way you structured this question, your gut was telling you something and my recommendation is that you follow your instincts on this one.

Categories: Executive Resumes
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