tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-112118082008-04-11T02:49:42.414-04:00Laurie J. SmithBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-90770875497558919872008-04-11T02:30:00.004-04:002008-04-11T02:49:42.454-04:00

A recent ExecuNet newsletter cites results from a Luxury Institute Wealth Survey revealing that "60 percent of wealthy Americans with an average income of $287,000/year and net worth of $2.1 million participate in online social networks, compared to just 27 percent a year ago." It was found that on average they had joined about 2.8 networks. Affluent individuals with $300,000 or more in annual

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-69836184509805531982008-03-07T01:05:00.007-05:002008-03-10T21:26:24.679-04:00

A concern frequently expressed by my executive clients and prospects is regarding the age factor. Many fear that they are going to be subject to age discrimination as early as age 40, and either be let go by a current employer in favor of a younger hire or passed over by potential employers who want fresh, young talent that they can mold in the company’s approach and methods. Just this afternoon,

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-60263063385968082832008-02-19T23:52:00.004-05:002008-02-20T00:02:51.048-05:00

"Purple squirrel" is recruiter-speak for a candidate whose qualifications are rare and for which a recruiter can charge a higher fee to the company due to the difficulty of the search. When sourcing candidates, recruiters will look first at resumes posted in the last 1 to 2 weeks and will generally not look at older resumes, unless they are searching for that elusive purple squirrel. Looking at

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-22916442477039231972007-12-20T00:40:00.000-05:002007-12-20T00:59:43.840-05:00

An article entitled "25 Things You Should Never Include on a Resume" published a few days ago over on HR World's blog made me chuckle. Not because most of the items on the list seemed so unbelievably obvious and stupid for a job candidate to include in a resume, but because of the fact that I have actually seen most of them at one time or another in the thousands of executive resumes I have

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-90915871956776177392007-11-29T17:11:00.000-05:002007-11-29T17:30:02.641-05:00

Recently the topic of career marketing firms came up as I was talking with one of my executive clients, who indicated he had been contacted by several and wasn't sure what to think. He said, "I was contacted by Bernard-Haldane, McKenzie-Scott, and Montgomery-Gray Associates. They all have the exact same tactic. Fear. They build fear about the career situation, tell you the resume is horrible and

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-67782827780882544162007-11-07T18:09:00.000-05:002007-11-07T18:21:53.751-05:00

CareerHub, a group careers blog I co-author, has released a series of free eBooks featuring advice from some of the country's top career experts. The latest is on networking--which is a valuable skill whether you are currently in the job market or happily employed. As one of several co-authors of this eBook, I know that it contains valuable information from the first page to the last. If you'd

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-42365760577967062572007-10-05T18:14:00.000-04:002007-10-11T14:12:04.802-04:00

All the buzz in career professional circles these days seems to be around the emergence of online or virtual networking through social and professional networking sites such as LinkedIn and Ryze. I've attended several seminars on the subject, and read new articles almost daily about the phenomenon. Is online networking something that you as an executive need to be involved in as part of your

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-909637326674115492007-09-28T17:43:00.000-04:002007-09-28T17:57:54.705-04:00

According to ExecuNet, now may be the best time in the last 15 years for executives to launch a search for a new position. Their 1992 survey results showed that on average 13 months were required to land a new job, and the situation seemed to be approximately the same as of 2004. For quite some time it has been the conventional wisdom that an executive could expect to wait at minimum one month

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-65933352615225880162007-09-11T13:01:00.000-04:002007-09-11T16:47:33.558-04:00

I was alerted this morning in one of my association newsletters to an issue that could have very serious consequences for executives sending their resumes to recruiters and employers as a document file, which has largely replaced physical delivery via a "hard" (printed) copy. Do you use Word 2007? Have you recently purchased a new laptop or PC? It probably came with the recently released Windows

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-11150299737567261262007-08-24T18:28:00.000-04:002007-08-24T18:57:38.716-04:00

Hackers successfully breached security at Monster.com this week in one of the largest such online incidents in recent history, stealing personal information on more than 100,000 job candidates who had posted their resumes on the site. This breach was followed by phishing attacks via e-mail designed to compromise users' online financial institution security and/or infect their PC's with a

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-72333235441533027382007-08-15T00:25:00.000-04:002007-08-15T20:45:10.990-04:00

Online job search has truly revolutionized career transition in many ways, and I have personally witnessed many success stories of those who have leveraged job sites to identify leads, win interviews, and land great positions. However, in the past several weeks, I have been disheartened to hear the sad tales of several prospective clients whose employment search efforts using the Web had resulted

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-26638666571968130812007-07-23T12:19:00.000-04:002007-07-23T12:41:04.457-04:00

Are you using the Web as just one item (I hope) in your comprehensive executive job search toolkit? If so, the following rankings of the most popular websites gathered by Weddles will interest you. These are the sites gaining the most user votes as of July 15, 2007, the halfway mark for the upcoming 2008 list. Note that they are in alphabetical order, not rank order: Absolutely Health Care

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-7447787701990740332007-07-10T23:20:00.000-04:002007-07-10T23:54:02.278-04:00

Wondering what happens to your resume when you e-mail it to an executive recruiter as part of a job search campaign? Contrary to long-standing conventional wisdom, many recruiters are actually more receptive to receiving unsolicited resumes than used to be the case, and they do generate some good responses. Most will at least give your message a quick look and decide whether it holds potential

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-67368697884886973242007-06-08T13:37:00.000-04:002007-06-08T18:48:41.971-04:00

One of the most misunderstood aspects of executive job search among executive candidates seems to be the nature of recruiting firms and how they operate. I have addressed this topic on several occasions, but the fact that I continue to encounter clients who have major misconceptions regarding the recruiter community tells me that this is a message worth repeating: "Do not expect an executive

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-58900191683861861802007-05-30T18:51:00.000-04:002007-05-30T19:08:35.602-04:00

According to Weddles.com, there is a new and free online resource that can be of help in researching companies during your job search. Of course, traditional resources such as Vault, Wetfeet, Brint, and Hoover's Online offer a great deal of valuable information, some of it free, but much of it fee-based. The new resource is ZoomInfo. They have introduced a feature that enables you to find

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-52630728060610413802007-05-07T23:52:00.000-04:002007-06-08T16:07:24.822-04:00

I received some interesting intelligence through the Career Masters Institute in an e-newsletter on Friday. Recruiters are finding good talent in a place that most executives would probably not even think about: Craigs List. Many of you are likely familiar with Craigs List as an online community site where classified ads for furniture and housing, personal ads, and discussion forums are to be

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-25165554397418793722007-04-24T15:10:00.000-04:002007-04-24T16:06:57.138-04:00

An article in an E-Newsletter from NRWA (one of the professional associations I belong to as an executive resume writer) really struck a chord with me today. The fact that many job seekers compose cover letters (and resumes, for that matter) that come across as pretentious and verbose is something that I witness every single day. Certainly a cover letter for an executive will have a more

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-49842099794404366482007-04-12T23:18:00.000-04:002007-04-12T23:32:13.044-04:00

This simply cannot be beat! If you would like some free pointers on how to write your executive resume, how to ace that interview, or just general job search techniques, you will want to visit the CareerHub blog. With a click of your mouse you may download any one or all of the free PDF eBooks authored thus far by the group of leading career experts who are contributors to this blog. More are

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-52617757278785364182007-03-22T14:40:00.000-04:002007-03-22T15:18:41.674-04:00

ExecuNet's projections for job functions that will be in most demand at the executive level for 2007 are out. According to their 15th annual Executive Job Market Intelligence Report, results from 121 employers indicate that demand will be high for executives with strong operations, business development, and finance experience and will most likely outstrip supply. This is good news for executives

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-3004789155680767062007-03-19T16:30:00.000-04:002007-03-19T16:45:48.474-04:00

To all my executive resume writing clients: The problem of digital dirt (unfavorable information about you on the Internet) is not something to be ignored if you want to ensure the long-term health of your career. You may want to check out this site where you can verify your online reputation and also clean it up: www.reputationdefender.com. The site points out that according to a study

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-84779935883696060122007-03-02T01:19:00.000-05:002007-03-02T02:33:18.649-05:00

As I discussed strategy for his employment search with one of my executive clients today, he posed a question I frequently hear: Should I send my resume to recruiters and companies as a Word file, text document, or PDF? Coincidentally, this was also the subject of a recent thread in a career professionals forum in which I participate. From my research on the subject, my colleagues' opinions, and

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-1171324053613337582007-02-12T18:27:00.000-05:002007-03-19T16:54:17.414-04:00

An article this month in eWeek indicates that this year shows a slowing of turnover at "C-Level" compared to 2006, based on statistics compiled by a New York-based management research firm called Liberum on February 6. Compared to 12 months ago, overall executive level turnover declined 16% in January of this year, and for CEO's the drop was 20%. Boards of directors experienced less churn as well

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-1169766685113307102007-02-02T15:58:00.000-05:002007-06-08T18:28:39.165-04:00

An article featured on eWeek.com for January 24 reports some interesting findings on salaries in the IT field, particularly with relation to Information Technology executives. The long-standing gender gap favoring male workers in the IT field, similar to across-the-board differences in the work force, continues. However, it seems that the pendulum is swinging in the other direction among

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-1167973243717510842007-01-29T11:46:00.000-05:002007-03-19T16:54:17.441-04:00

Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) is an economic indicator that looks at job expectations, vacancies, compensation of new hires, and competition for recruits. Featured recently on the SHRM.org site and quoted by ExecuNet in its latest executive compensation survey, the latest figures seem to bode well for executives in career transition. As the supply for talent tightens and

Laurie J. Smithtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11211808.post-1169764035262938462007-01-25T16:50:00.000-05:002007-06-08T16:07:24.822-04:00

I recently attended a seminar sponsored by Career Masters Institute and presented by Shelly Goldman (a published recruiter and career coach) providing insights into how to work with recruiters in your executive job search. I came away with confirmation of much of the knowledge I have about recruiters, and some things that were startling revelations. Here are some points that executives in career

Laurie J. Smith