Good morning
Over the past few weeks I have been stressing the need to be positive and to tailor your key tangible experience to fit the remit of the job you are applying to.
This has provoked some reaction from executives who had been wary of the current climate and, in particular, I performed a consult last week for an executive who had purely focused on jobs that were in his sector.
Current market conditions dictate the need to ensure you fit as many criteria in a job as possible however this does not mean that you have to have the exact experience. In fact some differences can add strategic benefits. Transferrable skills are one thing, however experience from other markets can bring much needed change and benefits to a firm that needs to adapt quickly with the times.
We’ve seen it in the public sector where classic private sector/ commercial experience has been used to good effect. As long as you are realistic that there will be a longer period of transition, a good manager will always surround themselves with good people to plug any gaps in a specialist environment.
Ailing industries may present opportunity – identify where your transferrable skills can help a company/ sector rebuild or change direction. If you research this thoroughly, you can sell this effectively at interview. There has to be an element of calculated risk when looking for a job and some industries are changing so fast that an ideal candidate is redundant before they’ve got the job.
This does not mean applying for everything, this can appear desperate and can waste your time. However, this does accentuate the need to research any new markets thoroughly, identify synergies, opportunities and threats – be realistic with what bridges you’d need to overcome to adapt to a new industry, and provide solutions.
Perhaps this will inject new inspiration into a stuttering executive job search and present new opportunities to kick start your career.
I hope you have a productive week…
I completely agree with what you’re saying, however the majority of employers are not that enlightened in this present climate and often reject you at CV stage. I have been the “outside” candidate as it were in terms of experience and have been offered the job over others who have past sector experience. At the moment I find that employers and recruitment consultants are very narrow minded and prefer to take what they see as the safe route of someone who’s done the job before, refusing to even talk to you. This prevents them from gaining an advantage over the competition from having someone who will approach a problem from a fresh and different perspective.
Its rather depressing is it not, when you give good/great advice and yet you know that executive job seekers will ignoire it until they have learnt the painful lesson. Many executives I speak to havea better idea of what they want to do, but have not market tested if anyone is hiring/needing that skill set in that market. A test would tell them that competition is high, and yet another market would happily take them tomorrow and is hirign today! Good candidates know what they want and have tested that it is required. Rgds, Ian McA
[...] options can also expose you to areas of work you’d never thought about, that require your transferrable skills and this will go a long way to helping you calibrate the next stage of your career and helping you [...]