Over the course of the last decade, I’ve supported “Joe” during 3 separate job searches. While he fortunately landed a new role each time – his searches grew shorter and he landed more quickly with each consecutive effort.
Below is a blow-by-blow of each of Joe’s 3 job searches – the good, bad and ugly – so you can see for yourself how things panned out.
Executive Job Search #1: Duration 20 months
Joe held tight to his IT PMO leadership role during the recession. After several rounds of brutal company-wide workforce reductions and reorganizations, he was weary and felt more than a little bit shaky about his own job security.
He landed a role with a third-party provider that offered him a:
- 10% pay bump.
- A chance to leave a toxic and exhausted workplace environment.
Here’s What He Did:
As an Executive Resume Writer, he hired me to write his resume and LinkedIn – but never updated the LinkedIn we’d written for fear of alerting his company that he was looking.
Joe spent 12 months applying online to roles he came across during his spare time. He used the resume we wrote to apply to lots of different IT roles from PMO Executive to Service Delivery Manager to IT Portfolio Manager.
He never adapted his resume to meet each role’s unique needs. He applied to about 150 jobs – which over the course of the next 16 months earned him 10 phone screens and led to about 4 in-person interviews. He was a finalist for 2 roles and lost out on both. One to an internal candidate and one because he had a rotten interview (long story – but due to rescheduling he had to squeeze it in at a really bad time).
How he FINALLY landed? He was chatting with a fellow baseball coach who it turned out was in IT staffing. He knew about an opportunity and asked him to apply. He did, and the rest is history.
Takeaways:
Joe’s “spray and pray” method of job search failed him on many levels. He failed to customize his resume for opportunities. His interview success was a bit more successful – but the bottom line was he didn’t have enough eggs in his basket.
His LinkedIn didn’t help him either because it didn’t reflect his skills and capabilities.
In the end, it was a chance conversation, rather than a strategic plan, that finally helped him land.
Executive Job Search #2: Duration 12 Months
Joe had been working for the past 2 years as an IT Service Delivery Executive in charge of leading a complex IT integration for a Fortune 100 bank on behalf of a third-party provider. For his next target – he wanted to return to banking.
One year later, he accepted a role with a bank that offered him a:
– a 20% pay bump
– a lateral move
– the chance to work with an old boss.
𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝:
After contacting an executive resume writer (me!) to update his resume and LinkedIn, Joe knew the best place to start was to touch base with his network. Every time he spoke with someone, he ended the call by asking for the names of 3 others.
He faltered, however, on his elevator pitch. He considered himself a jack of all trades – and articulated himself as such in informational interviews. The result? His colleagues had a hard time pointing him in the right direction or advocating for him on the inside.
This went on for 8 months – and Joe felt as if he was spinning his wheels.
Further exploration revealed he’d emerged as an expert of sorts in 2 specific areas of Technology leadership. Not only were these 2 areas of interest to him, his research revealed the job market for them was strong!
Once clear on his goals, he was able to refine his pitch. This led to an informational interview with a hiring manager whom he kept in touch with, and who reached out to him 2 months later to let him know a newly created job posting was about to go out.
Joe applied the day it came out and received a call 2 days later. He then participated in about 2 months of interviews (phone screen, zoom, in person, panel interview and one last one-on-one).
He negotiated as salary that was a bump for him – but later learned that the range for this role was higher than he’d imagined.
Once employed with the company, salary raises were incremental and earning a next-level promotion was known to take years.
Takeaways:
Joe’s lack of a career target impacted his ability to network effectively and efficiently. His failure to research salary ranges for his role and location meant he left money on the table which he was unable to recoup.
Executive Job Search #3: Duration 6 Months
Joe had been in his role as a Tech Executive for 3 years and was unhappy for the past year. He began to take action in March. Just 6 months later, he accepted an offer with a Fortune 100 that gave him:
– a 50% pay bump
– a next-level promotion
– the chance to stay working remote for at least one year.
𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝:
Once he was crystal clear on what he wanted to do next and the types of companies he felt might be a good fit:
#1 Updated his resume and LinkedIn profile — this is where I came in. 😉 Because he keeps his fairly current, rather than a lengthy rewrite, I was able to ensure his were in tip-top shape in just a few days.
#2 Touched base with friends, former co-workers and colleagues from top-tier consulting firms — as their network is often far-reaching in his line of work. For the past several years, he’d been in the habit of keeping in touch, but this time made THE ASK for their help and for names of people to speak with.
#3 Every time he got a name, he connected and asked for a chat. At the end of every chat, he asked for more names.
#4 Chats led to an opportunity, a call from an internal recruiter, and a series of individual and panel interviews for which he prepared several stories to be able to explain his wins in a persuasive way.
#5 After one round of negotiations (he’d done his homework so knew the range and his target), he accepted a verbal offer.
#6 He was THEN asked to apply for the job online — and the written offer arrived via FedEx 2 days later.
Takeaways:
As indicated earlier, I consider this approach to be an executive job search gold standard. Below are my 5 takeaways.
#1 He was clear on his target and conveyed this with his ask
#2 Didn’t let his resume and LinkedIn get too dusty (as his executive resume writer — I’m happy to share some credit for this 😉.
#3 Kept his network warm and primed
#4 Used informational interviews to expand his network and learn about opportunities
#5 Prepped for interviews by creating CAR (Challenge Action Result) stories.
#6 Didn’t drag negotiations out because his research informed him of what a fair offer might look like.
Job Search #3 is what I think of when I hear the term accessing the “hidden job market.”
The job was posted, but he got in a side door — which gave him the equivalent of a Disneyworld fast pass to the front of the line when it came to interviewing.
He didn’t take the interview or negotiations stage for granted – and was able to convey his value and his compensation goals clearly. There’s no doubt in my mind that Job Search Strategy #3 wins hands down every time.
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