Hello and welcome to Captain Career videocast/blog series; a series of how to videos and blogs. I am Martin Buckland, a Global Executive Career Management Practitioner. This series of videos/blogs is where I share my wealth of expertise and knowledge on executive career management to help you reach your career goals.
Today we’re going to be talking about a subject that I’m always asked about. Almost every day people ask how to get on the radar of executive recruiters? So here I have 5 tips on how to become visible to executive recruiters which are especially important as recruiters can bring you huge value in your career management.
Keep Your Profiles Current. There is no use having an obsolete, dated LinkedIn profile or Facebook profile. You need to keep all your social media up to date. Fill it right out; have pictures; have your LinkedIn address customized; have recommendations and have snippets of your successes under each appointment. Your LinkedIn profile is pages long and you can go on for page after page. The more you fill out on your LinkedIn profile, the higher Google will rank you.
Become Active and Professional On Social Media. Don’t be passive on social media; you need to be very active even when you’re employed, not just when you’re in a career transition. Give some time every week. Try to do it every day by making a comment or sharing or publishing an article on LinkedIn and Facebook. Facebook is becoming a huge engine for executive recruiters to search.
Attend Conferences And Other Events Within Your Industry. Look to see who goes to conferences. If you are a subject matter expert or your industry thinks you’re a subject matter expert and you’re invited to speak at a conference, accept it, embrace it because that defines you as an expert. You’ve been acknowledged by your peers as an expert to speak at that conference, chapter or other show that is within your realm, within your industry. Never miss out on a speaking gig opportunity.
Never let a recruiter go away empty-handed. This is a Cardinal sin. If the recruiter calls you today and he says, “I’ve got this job as an Executive Career Management Practitioner, would you like to come for an interview? If so, may I see your resume?” You might or you might not be interested in that particular job, but you are interested in searching around for other jobs. So do you tell the recruiter that you’re not interested in that particular offering? Maybe you do know somebody who you can refer them to because recruiters love referrals. So be their best friend, befriend them. That’s what they will remember you for. So you need to stay on their radar all the time. So if you can provide a referral, because perhaps the job doesn’t meet your career goals or your career plan at that particular time, try and refer somebody, a colleague, or somebody else in your industry. That’s what they like.
Activate And Grow Your Network. Recruiters are looking for a person with a large network because they can tell their clients that this candidate has a huge network. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in sales, business development, supply chain, or finance. You can network in that environment and the larger the network you have, the better it’s going to be for you as a candidate.
Finally, the recruiter is going to ask you, when he or she calls you, for your resume. Is your resume up to date? Is it ATS friendly? What does ATS mean? That’s an Applicant Tracking System. By that I mean does it Scag properly because a resume today without being ATS friendly is like a dead dog. You need to have an ATS friendly resume. So make sure your resume is up to date and above all, once you build a relationship with an executive recruiter, maintain that relationship. They don’t just want to know you when you are in career transition when you’re seeking that next challenge. They want to know you when you’re driving success at your company. So once every five or six months, shoot them an email saying, I’m having a great time at ABC company. Send them a success story but tell them, just remind them that you’re always looking out for your next opportunity or your next challenge.
Hopefully, you’ve now got some information about how executive recruiters work. But we will get in deeper into this subject as I interview quite a few executive recruiters that I’m lining up to discuss how they search for talent, how they use LinkedIn, what do they use as their processes for searching for talent and how to get on their radar.
I am passionate about helping you reach your career goals. I have an offer for you, a free no-obligation, no sales pitch resume critique, AND a LinkedIn audit. However, you need to understand that I am realistic and I am tough. I say it as it is because you only get one kick at the can here. So I want to remove all those red flags so you can have a bank of green flags. So when you come to career transition and executing a job search, you will move from A to B in the fastest possible way. Are you interested in my offer? If so, send your resume to me on LinkedIn or click on the button below.
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