Are Many Executive Jobs Actually Landed Through LinkedIn?

641 votes and counting… That’s how many have been received in response to a survey that began a month ago on ExecuNet’s LinkedIn group, "Executive Suite," asking if anyone in the group has landed a job through LinkedIn. The answer seems to be a qualified “Yes,” a goodly number of people have landed jobs through LinkedIn, although there are also many who have been disappointed in that regard.

It may be that executive job seekers expect too much of LinkedIn in this regard: LinkedIn is after all just one of many tools that should be used in job search, and like all the other tools, “results may vary” from one person to the next. These comments from responders show that leveraging LinkedIn in your executive job search can indeed pay off:

“I have landed FOUR different jobs largely thru the use of LinkedIn.”

“Linked In has indirectly gotten me a job.”

“I’ve been told by more than one executive recruiter that LinkedIn is the primary source for corporate recruiters right now and having a good LinkedIn presence is key to an effective job search.”

“Best website I’ve seen for getting freelance projects.”

“Got my job as VP of Marketing for a healthcare company through LinkedIn.”

“I have received job leads via LinkedIn.”

“My profile was recommended to someone looking for my skills and I received a call and an interview... and the job.”

“It's the only web resource that has EVER helped me get a job, and in my current search is the one I'm focused on using.”

“The position I have been working at for the past 6 years was via LinkedIn.”

“My husband has gotten a lot of recruiters asking him to fill positions….He has had 5 interviews and 4 job offers.”

“I've gotten two jobs through LinkedIn in the past three years. One where I had no connection whatsoever, and one where I knew the hiring manager but only learned of the position through LinkedIn.”

From a recruiter: “Most recruiters have a specialty so use LinkedIn as a tool to network and find candidates. This is an important tool for us and hopefully for active and passive candidates.”

Even if it turns out that a relatively small percentage of people have had success finding a new job DIRECTLY through LinkedIn (that is, through unsolicited contact by a recruiter or company who found their profile on LinkedIn, or through applying for jobs advertised on LinkedIn), it appears that the trend is upward. Virtually all recruiters nowadays indicate that they use LinkedIn at least to some extent, either to directly source candidates or to find out more about them once they have a candidate’s executive resume or third party recommendation.

There is also a bigger picture to consider regarding LinkedIn's value in job search:

• As one responder observed, being able to pinpoint, develop, and leverage contacts within a company can help you get your foot in the door or make your executive resume rise to the top of the stack, regardless of where you found the job lead.


• Difficult or maybe impossible to measure is the effect that a strong presence on LinkedIn can have on recruiters who are already considering your candidacy. It is common knowledge that recruiters Google prospective candidates and also search sites like LinkedIn and Facebook to find out more about them. Those wonderful recommendations or insights into your personality and leadership style found on LinkedIn could tip the scales in your favor. A candidate more than likely would not be aware of these screening activities as contributing to or detracting from their success in landing a position.


• The indirect benefits to your overall career success of expanding your network and increasing your visibility as an expert in your field are incalculable.


• The insights you can gain into a company that is considering your candidacy and whose suitability you are considering as a potential next step in your career have two benefits: Firstly, you will be better equipped to make a big impact in the interview, and secondly, you will be able to determine whether the corporate culture is a good match (and possibly avoid an unfortunate career move).

This is not backed by hard data, but based on personal observation along with comments by careers industry professionals and executive-level associations, it seems that the likelihood of LinkedIn as a direct source for your next career move is greatest if you are at upper management/executive level. For lower-level positions, the consensus seems to be that Facebook is more heavily used by employers (at least to this point—that picture may be changing).

On a related note, a survey of 180 recruiters conducted by ExecuNet at the end of 2011 indicated that if you are looking to make a career transition or land a new executive position in the near future, you’ll want to get started now. Their survey indicated that it generally takes an average of 7 to 10 months to find a new executive-level opportunity.

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Will the Lack of a Degree Stop Your Ascent up the Executive Career Ladder?

Do you have nightmares about being eliminated from consideration for your dream executive job because you do not have a college degree?

While it is a fact that some employers will reject a candidate who lacks the stated educational requirements for a position, there are plenty of employers who will welcome your extensive experience and proven ability to deliver business results.

The key to succeeding in the executive marketplace without a degree is to demonstrate to the potential employer that you are an outstanding performer who can be counted upon to deliver exceptional business results. If your resume has been crafted powerfully and you present yourself compellingly in interviews, employers will be so impressed by the value you bring to the table that “shortcomings” in your education will likely be overlooked or offset.

If you have no college at all, a two-year degree, or an incomplete Bachelors or Masters degree, you can “beef up” the education section in your resume with professional development coursework and certifications you do have. If you have limited or no college, AND no professional development to highlight, you may wish to consider omitting the Education section entirely.

You may also list partial undergraduate or postgraduate education without dates, leaving further details for the interview (at which point you have already gotten your foot in the door). Simply indicate your major course of study, the institution, and its location. If you are then asked in an interview if you have a degree or, if not, why you did not obtain one, you could say something like: ''I found challenging work in the field and my career took off. However, I have actively pursued continuing education through professional and executive leadership seminars such as…"

Given a wealth of career experience, I see no need to devote much space on your resume to education, and would not recommend apologizing for the lack of the desired degree in your cover letter, either. Let the resume and your impressive abilities and accomplishments speak for themselves.

Even with the most masterfully crafted resume, there are companies who arbitrarily will not budge on an educational requirement. A company with a small-minded, no exceptions policy that all employees except for mailroom clerks and delivery drivers need a degree may not be your best bet, but there are plenty of companies that are smart enough to realize that it is what you can prove you can do that is important, not what a piece of paper says that you may know.

It is important to take care not to let the lack of an undergraduate or advanced degree affect your confidence, and to avoid defensiveness about it. Many, many of my very successful executive clients do not have college degrees. And the world is full of well-known and extremely successful professionals, executives, and entrepreneurs who likewise do not have degrees. Some of them never graduated high school either—for example, famed journalist and news anchor Peter Jennings. Other notables with partial or no college educations are:

• Michael Dell, billionaire founder and CEO of Dell, Inc.—dropped out of college at age 19



• Bill Gates (who was just 10 points shy of a perfect score on his SATs), completed only two years at Harvard before he dropped out to form Microsoft.



• Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook (now in its IPO), dropped out of college.



• Larry Ellison of Oracle was a University of Illinois dropout (due to his adoptive mother’s passing).



• Steve Jobs of Apple was a first-year college dropout.



• Andrew Carnegie, industrialist and philanthropist, was an elementary school dropout.



• David Ogilvy, advertising executive, was actually expelled from Oxford University.



• David H. Komansky, retired chairman of Merrill Lynch, and Richard A. Grasso, who headed the New York Stock Exchange, also did not have college degrees.

Going way back, Benjamin Franklin, inventor, scientist, author, and entrepreneur, was primarily home-schooled. Ten of our U.S. Presidents never attended or completed college, including Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, and Truman.

So, if you are “sans degree,” you are in good company.

Whatever you do, do not state you have a degree if you do not. In addition to the fact that it is immoral (a lie), the public spectacles of top executives in both public and private sectors who have been summarily dismissed when it was revealed they had lied about their credentials should be a strong deterrent to this ill-advised strategy.

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How to Get a Job Insider’s Advantage on LinkedIn

Using the JobsInsider tool on LinkedIn is one way you can find those all-important but elusive “insider” contacts at companies with job openings that interest you.

LinkedIn’s Help Center describes JobsInsider as follows:

“JobsInsider is a tool that comes with the LinkedIn Browser Toolbar for either Internet Explorer or Firefox. When you search for a job outside of LinkedIn and have JobsInsider turned on, you'll see:

• People in your network or groups who work at the company posting the job

• The option to request introductions to hiring managers and get your resume to the right person

JobsInsider currently works with Monster, CareerBuilder, HotJobs, Craigslist, Dice, Vault, and more. You can set it up to turn on automatically when browsing a job site and when you open your browser.”

Click "Tools" at the foot of any LinkedIn page to download the browser toolbar. Or go to:

http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=jobsinsider_download

In addition to the sites listed above, JobsInsider works with SimplyHired, a popular job aggregator site.

This handy tool will show you any connections you have with companies that have relevant job openings for you. You can also leverage JobsInsider for the jobs that many companies post directly on LinkedIn. In this instance, you’ll be able to view the level of your connection (first, second, third) to the hiring manager.

With an introduction or referral, your cover letter automatically becomes 10 times more powerful. You can then say “so and so referred me,” and your letter and executive resume will move to the top of the stack.

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Five Tips for Working with Executive Recruiters in Senior Executive Job Search

Here are five DO’s and DON’Ts for executives in working with recruiters for job search and career management:

1. Definitely DO contact recruiters who recruit at your level and in your specialty areas, and work to develop a relationship with them.

You can do this by periodically forwarding them a current executive resume and short letter updating them on developments in your career. Make sure the relationship is two-way: Provide them with any assistance you can in sourcing candidates for related positions that are inappropriate for you.

2. In sending your executive resume to recruiters, DO remember this caveat: It is best not to follow up by phone. Recruiters generally consider this an annoyance and pet peeve.

3. DON’T expect recruiters to do anything that is not in their immediate or short-term best interest.

One of the most misunderstood aspects of executive job search among my executive clients seems to be the nature of recruiting firms and how they operate. An executive recruiter is not going to 'market' you! Recruiters are very task oriented toward fulfilling current job orders, and if a candidate's qualifications are not a very close match for the requirements, they have no interest. Thus, there will be no response to the executive resume you send in unless it appears to be exact match for a current assignment. Recruiters do not try to "place" candidates because there is simply no money in it.

4. DON’T listen to those who say it is unlikely you will find your next position through a recruiter.

While statistics generally quoted say that recruiters fill a low single digit percentage of jobs, when you restrict the universe to high-level management and executive jobs, the picture changes. Think about it: If you were to suddenly vacate your current position, what would be one of the first steps your company would probably take to start the search for a replacement? More than likely, they would retain a recruiting firm if your position is at VP level or above, and certainly for C-level positions. So no matter how you make your first contact with a company, at some point you are going to be dealing with the recruiting firm they retained.

5. DON’T despair if you hear nothing back from recruiters to whom you’ve sent your resume.

When you forward your resume to recruiters you know or send it to a targeted group of recruiters you have identified, you may get one or more calls immediately, or you may experience total silence--at first. Anecdotal evidence from recruiters in various professional forums indicates they may hold on to executive resumes of quality candidates for one or two years or even longer, waiting for a job requisition to come up that is a match. I have personally had numerous clients and friends who received calls months or even years later from a recruiter, many times resulting in an exciting career move. So liberally plant those seeds; you never know when one will sprout.

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Should C-Level Executives Optimize Their Resumes for ATS Systems?

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are just one more of many stumbling blocks in your rise to the top of an applicant pool in today’s extremely competitive job market. They generally need to be taken into account in preparing resumes for all but the top, C-level positions in a company. However, first let’s properly define ‘C-level’ or ‘C-suite’ positions.

While it is not uncommon for people to refer to VP and SVP candidates as C-level, the term correctly designates only CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, CMOs, etc.--since the letter ‘C’ in the acronym refers to ‘Chief’. These are the officer positions in a company. Less commonly, the term can be applied to EVPs, although most consider it technically incorrect to do so. If EVP is indeed the top level (below the Board) in a company, it could arguably qualify as a C-suite position.

Whether the executive resume you submit for a C-level position will be screened by an ATS system depends on several factors. Typically the number of applicants for a given C-level opening is fairly low, making it less likely for an ATS system to be used. However, if the position is publicly advertised or open to handling by contingency recruiters, applications may still be managed by an ATS system. If the opening is handled by a retained search firm as an exclusive, more than likely the resume will not be subject to ATS screening.

According to Jonathan Ciampi of Preptel (a firm that specializes in analysis of resumes for how they will rank in ATS screening systems), “In my experience, CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, and CMOs do not go through an ATS.” He further suggests the following rule to determine if executive resumes will be filtered through an ATS system: “Will the Board of Directors be interviewing this person? If you can’t answer “yes”, then plan on dealing with the ATS system.”

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How to Avoid a "Rick Perry" Phone Interview Moment

The About.com Job Search and Careers group on LinkedIn often has some very insightful and useful discussions. Today was no exception. Career counselor Marshall Karp offered a simple but great job search tip: "Have a list of your selling points or a resume by the telephone, in the event you get an unexpected interview invitation call."

Along with developing and committing an "elevator speech" to memory, this is a strategy that I routinely advise my executive resume clients to use. I also recommend putting key points on a business card to index card sized cheat sheet, laminating it, and carrying it at all times--preferably in the handbag, coat, or pants pocket where their mobile phone is typically kept.

The recruiter call for that dream opportunity will more than likely come in when you least expect it, and probably when your mind is elsewhere. The last thing you want to do when you answer your phone is to come across as nonplussed, babbling, and scrambling for the right words to say. With your notes in hand, you can pick up that phone with confidence.

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Where Will You Find Your Next Job?

Those on the employment market will find the following statistics informative.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, of all jobs "created":

• 32% are new ones.


• 68% are to replace employees who left for one reason or another.


• Of all hires made, 40% are selected from internal candidates.

Of special relevance to an executive in targeting his or her job search efforts is the fact that by far most jobs are with small to mid-size businesses:

• 120 million employees work for 8 million employers.


• 55% have fewer than 100 employees.


• 81% have fewer than 500 employees.


• Only 19% of workers are employed by companies with 500 or more employees.

These facts can be taken into consideration as you develop your executive resume and prepare yourself for the interview process. Certainly large-scale team management, financial management, and organizational process experience will be attractive to major employers and are well worth highlighting in your executive resume. However, since your best employment prospects lie with start-up to mid-tier companies, don't forget to also promote qualities such as an entrepreneurial outlook, creativity, hands-on attitude, and ability to manage in situations of uncertainty--all of which will be of interest and value to these employers (and arguably, to much of the Fortune 500 as well).

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