Executive Job Search: 3 Mistakes That Keep Most Women Executives Unemployed during a Recession

Contributed by $100K+ Executive-Level Career Karen Armon

Mistake #1: Using the Wrong Executive Job Search Model

Most female executives, when looking for their next career opportunity, fall back into old models that we learned early in our careers. These tactics keep us in the mainstream but that is where all the competition is! What we want to do is stand out, break through, and move up in our career.

During a recession, this is particularly true because women traditionally tend to make less than men and pressure to reduce our salary requirements just to land a position are strong. But that is a surefire way to keep our career circling the airport and never landing on the runway of executive leadership!

First, let’s look at the traditional method of finding a job:

1. Create a list of target companies for which you would want to work
2. Contact your network to find people who work for those companies currently
3. Call your network and ask for an “informational interview”
4. Continue the process until you find a position

But there are real problems with this approach:

• This entails using a “front-door” approach, and there are many gatekeepers whose responsibilities include keeping you out.
• Many female executives abandon their networks, sometimes for very legitimate reasons – such as child care, elder parent care and long hours. And, many of those in one’s network that are actually active are just peers. It seems like we are networking, but in reality, we are keeping ourselves in our comfort zone and not moving forward with new, upward-level power brokers. Regardless of how well intentioned they are, peers are often unable (or unwilling) to help you.
• The informational interview approach is practically dead. Although your network may want to give you ten minutes of their time, in most cases they simply can’t afford to accommodate you. I know that if I granted every informational interview request that was asked of me, I’d have no time to do my real job! What is the answer to this traditional model of finding a job?

The Solution: Use a New Executive Job Search Model

The model I suggest using when looking for your next C-Level executive position is the one I teach in my MarketOne™ Executive system. It moves you from an “activity-based” approach that the traditional model employs to a “synergistic-positioning” approach that:

1. Positions you as a top thought leader in your industry
2. Leverages your current job, network and career for greater momentum
3. Utilizes marketing and sales strategies to turn strangers into interested parties

Mistake #2: Not Having an Effective Executive Job Search Message

The next mistake most female leaders make is how they design their value proposition presentation – both in print and in person. Traditionally, we are taught to pull out our old resume, dust it off with a few new bullet points of achievements and add in our last employer and job title. The executive summary (and thereby the elevator pitch) is a fluff piece that focuses on the most recent achievement using flowery words in hopes of impressing and wowing their next potential employer. The problem is that the pitch is boring, flat and it sounds like everyone else’s pitch. In marketing terms, you are part of the cacophony that will not get you noticed, much less more money. And this will not get an interview. You haven’t defined a compelling message that engages, excites and resonates with anyone – not even a recruiter!

The Solution: Shift Your Message

You want to present yourself as top talent that brings thought leadership to a prospective company. You want to show how you will propel that company to its future. I call that message “potential.” Potential is the question that is asked when CEOs and Boards of Directors are looking to bring on top talent. It is the difference-maker between you and someone else getting the role. I can’t tell you how often a CEO has turned to me and asked, “Which one of the two or three Vice President candidates has the greatest potential for our firm?”

To show your potential you must shift your presentation to your audience instead of you! You must show your potential employers what’s in it for them!

Mistake #3: Using the Wrong Executive Job Search Method

The third and biggest mistake most women executives make in finding job leads is using the wrong method. Without a system or plan, the current wisdom is to contact everyone (again, without a message that is compelling or interesting) and blast their resume to everyone they know. Then the follow-up is to (embarrassingly) ask if the person they are contacting knows of any openings. If the answer is “no,” then that’s where it ends. Unfortunately, that can keep an you out of a job for a long, long time.

The Solution: Develop a Measurable, Systematic Game Plan

You need to develop a systematic game plan that creates metrics and benchmarks so that improvement can be made along the way. This is the only way your job search campaign will create results! Most business leaders would never launch a new product, service without a clear system and neither should you.

And my question to you is: “Why shouldn’t your executive-level job search campaign have the same focus?” By simply fixing these three big executive job search mistakes, you will find your next C-Level executive position a lot quicker – even during a global recession.

$100K+ Executive-Level Career Coach Karen Armon prepares leaders around the world for their next move. Her popular book, Market Your Potential, Not Your Past: How to Build a Career that Works for You Regardless of What Happens to You, is a hit among executives who want a clear-cut, systematic game plan that drives careers forward. Now get her new FREE eBook, “Ten Micro-Trends that Impact Executive Careers Today,” and take a critical look at today’s marketplace