Posts Tagged ‘Endorsements’
How to Get the Executive Job Interview
“Just get me in front of the CEO!” says Josh Furman, one of my executive job search clients. Josh has been laid off his lucrative Vice President position at a local high tech company, and has no patience with learning the art of keyword populating, or search engine scouring. He just wants to get in front of as many hiring authorities as possible. Why? Because he is positive that he can talk his way into a job if he can just get the face-to-face executive job interview.
Well. There is a lot to say regarding this theory in today’s hiring climate. Yes, it used to be true that executives could network their way onto the CEO’s schedule – a golf foursome, a chance meeting at the local Starbuck’s on Saturday, comp tickets to a Mariner’s game, a coincidental airport introduction – all schemes that used to work. That was before CEOs were saddled with the long, iterative “best practices” for hiring that now include reams of due diligence, behavioral interviewing processes, corporate culture match screening, background checks, and all sorts of rules for the actual executive job interview that will take place after all candidates have been properly vetted.
So, as an out-of-work candidate seeking that executive job interview in today’s market, what are your options for jumping right into that face-to-face meeting?
- Ignore the new hiring realities and keep trying the old ways to get in the chair across the desk from the CEO.
- Seek out a Recruiter who will market you into the CEOs
- Be proactive and provide the CEOs with all that best practices data they need upfront in order to qualify you for an executive job interview sooner.
Selection 1. is simply an approach that is no longer effective in today’s hiring market.
Selection 2. has its problems since professional recruiters don’t market candidates out to CEOs. They make their money by obtaining a specific assignment from a company to fill a specific job within that company. The company pays the Recruiter for presenting only the exact matches for that position. However, on occasion, you will find a Recruiter who offers to “market you” to several companies, but beware of this. If a Recruiter sends your resume to several companies hoping for some interest, and any of those companies have a policy not to pay recruiter fees, then you will be ignored for the next 6 months as a candidate for any position within those companies – since your hiring would now be associated with a headhunter fee. IF you choose to use a recruiter, make sure they will only “market you” to companies with whom they have a written fee agreement. And even then, you’ll have to consider that companies in this economy may prefer non-fee-bearing candidates.
Selection 3. brings us to a definitive market advantage that executive candidates can possess. If you put yourself in the shoes of the hiring authority, you’ll realize that they may give preference to a candidate who does most of the due diligence work for them. This is a world of full disclosure now. No longer do you play cat and mouse in the interview process. Hiring companies want to know, and have ways to find out, EVERYTHING about you. For instance, candidates who provide not only a resume, but the results of recent skills tests, assessment tests, or annual reviews will be put in the pile that is further down the line in the process and closer to the actual executive job interview stage than those with only a resume submitted. Providing written references or endorsements pushes your candidacy further, and a professional video interview can actually put you over the top of the uphill climb for position, since it can eliminate the entire first interview phase of the executive job interview process.
In this candidate-rich market, competition is tough enough for those few executive positions that open up. And internal HR and Recruiting departments are swamped with applications, making the hiring process that much longer.
Just get yourself in front of the CEO. Get a jump on the competition. Be first in line. What this means in today’s market is to take the initiative to do the upfront work for the hiring company. Provide a complete package of yourself as a candidate including most of the due diligence that they will need to collect in order to make a decision. Increase your chances of getting that executive job interview. And by that point, you’re practically hired.
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WTIA Partners with InterviewStudio to Showcase Washington State Technology Executives
Washington Technology Industry Association Partners with InterviewStudio to Showcase Washington State Technology Executives
InterviewStudio platform to power special section of WTIA website devoted to tech visionaries and entrepreneurs
SEATTLE, WASH. – July 15, 2009 – The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) <www.washingtontechnology.org> and InterviewStudio <http://www.interviewstudio.com/> have partnered to offer a special site to showcase Washington state technology executives who have contributed to the success of the local technology community over the last 10 years. Launched today, the “Profiles in Technology” project kicks off by spotlighting local technology innovators such as Ben Elowitz (CEO of Wetpaint and founder of Fatbrain and Blue Nile), Jonathan Sposato (CEO of Picnik), Jeremy Jaech (CEO of Verdiem, formerly with Adobe, Visio and Trumba) and Bill Baxter (CTO of Cozi.com, co-founder of Bsquare). The first profile can be seen on WTIA’s Web site at: <http://www.washingtontechnology.org/pages/resources/resources_profilesintechnology.asp>.
The Washington Technology Industry Association chose InterviewStudio for this project for several reasons, including its relationship with long-standing WTIA member Colleen Aylward, founder of InterviewStudio and the recruiting firm, Devon James Associates. Creator of one of the country’s first vendor recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) services, Aylward has assisted many WTIA member start-up companies with progressive solutions for their recruitment needs over the last 15 years, utilizing her “Onsite Recruiting War Room” methodology, that is still in use today.
“We chose InterviewStudio because its combination of video and other information brings subjects to life like no other platform,” said Ken Myer, president and CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association. “We see this as a great way to highlight some of the technology and business people who are so important to the success of not only the WTIA, but to the entire technology industry in the Northwest. InterviewStudio is a terrific example of the creativity and innovation that our members are known for.”
Originally designed to create a comprehensive showcase of Devon James’ executive candidates to send to employers, the InterviewStudio showcase can combine any mixture of data, media, text, icons and links in an elegant presentation format displayed all on one screen, in one place and can be emailed via URL link. In an employment application, a showcase may display a candidate’s resume, video interview, reference checks, professional assessment test results, Web page and portfolio, colleague endorsements and other data from Internet search engines and social networking sites like LinkedIn. This process allows hiring managers to view all pertinent data about a candidate in one place on one screen at one time – saving weeks of time and money in the initial candidate screening process.
For the Washington Technology Industry Association project, InterviewStudio combines executive bios, video interviews, company overviews, press releases and other links in one presentation format that can be easily displayed and viewed in a Web 2.0-type “showcase.”
“InterviewStudio is really a mash-up that combines several of the most advanced technologies in multi-media and presentation tools with your product or service highlight info,” Aylward said. “As video technology and man-on-the-street interviewing becomes the more popular way to present bios, we’ll see more of this type of media combined with clickable icons for product and service information that replace the paper brochure. As the globe shrinks, large and small vendors alike need to get their story out, and an InterviewStudio showcase is a faster, easier way to create a marketing deliverable than a traditional Web site or brochure. Additionally, you’re able to simply email your showcase link around the world immediately to promote yourself or your product and or company.”
About InterviewStudio
InterviewStudio.com is a ground-breaking technology platform that can be used to display multiple forms of data all at once on one screen: videos, data, text, images, icons, links – that appear instantly when clicked by the viewer. This is the NEXT STEP in programs that allow anyone to showcase themselves and their accomplishments, products, services, to a vast market instantly and elegantly. Visit http://www.interviewstudio.com. And follow their blog about this technology here: http://www.interviewstudioblog.co.
About the WTIA
Washington Technology Industry Association is the largest state-wide association of technology companies and executives in the world. With more than 1,000 member companies representing more than 100,000 technology sector employees in Washington State, Washington Technology Industry Association is a catalyst for setting new industry directions, sharing expertise, fostering collaboration, delivering key business services, and advancing the economic value and global impact of technology companies doing business in Washington: http://www.washingtontechnology.org
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