Unless You're a Purple Squirrel, Update Your Online Resume!

"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 it from the recruiter's perspective, you can understand why this is so. Recruiters are playing the odds, and they cannot afford to waste time contacting candidates who have already found a job or for some other reason are no longer in the job market. Time is money, and this is particularly so in the recruiting profession.

The take home on this? If you have posted your resume online, be sure to tweak or otherwise refresh it at least once a month, preferably every two weeks. Otherwise it will effectively become invisible to most recruiters, like those billboards you see on the highway that have become blocked by overgrown trees.

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Is the Online Networking Craze All It's Cracked Up to Be?

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 career management strategy? All the statistics seem to show that career transition and advancement for the executive is most likely going to occur through networking or referral, so taking advantage of the ability to network in cyberspace seems like a "no brainer."

For more on this topic, see my recent post on the CareerHub blog: Virtual Networking: Does It Live Up to the Hype?

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Many Employers CANNOT View Your Windows Vista or Word 2007 Resume!

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 Vista operating system and Word 2007 on it. Or you may be one of those on the leading edge who has already updated your existing PC to Word 2007 and Vista. New technology is wonderful, but there is a very real caveat pointed out by one of my colleagues at The Career Management Alliance.

Be aware that any documents you may be forwarding in connection with an employment opportunity (executive resume, cover letter, etc.) that were created on Word 2007 software (which is the version bundled with Windows Vista Operating Systems) CANNOT be opened on another computer that does not have Word 2007. So, any employer that has an earlier version of Word on their systems will not be able to open them! This probably means most employers, since companies are generally reluctant to jump too quickly on the bandwagon of new software versions and also because upgrading an entire company to a new operating system or application version is no small task.

With the high volume of resume submissions received on most openings, it would not seem likely that an employer or recruiter would take the trouble to notify you of the issue and request your documents in a compatible format. Far more likely is that they will just discard your e-mail.

The solution is simple. Apparently the problem is not Vista itself but the version of Word (2007) that is used on it. If you select the Word compatibility feature in Word 2007, you can create and save your documents in Word 1997-2003 compatible format, which I would recommend until Word 2007 and Vista are more prevalent. I do not have Word 2007 on my PC, but a colleague tells me that you can address the problem similarly to how it is done on earlier versions of Word: When you save your files, do a "Save As" instead of "Save," and select Word 2003 from the dropdown menu.

Microsoft is working on the compatibility issue, and they do offer a free download of a product called Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to address it. You may wish to visit the following page on Microsoft's site: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

There is a demo you can view to tour the Virtual PC 2007 product. If desired, you can then download the product and install a version of Word (1998, 2000, 2003 or 2007) that will allow you to create compatible versions of your resume, cover letters, and other documents you are using in connection with your career transition.

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Monster.com Site Hacked: Be Alert for Phishing Scam!

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 disabling virus.

For more information, see my article "ALERT: More than 100,000 Monster.com Users' Personal Information Plundered" on the CareerHub career experts blog.

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Scammers, Spammers, Spoofers, and Phishers: Dangers in the Online Job Search Jungle

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 in financial and personal identity damages.

It is truly a jungle out there on the World Wide Web, and if you are an executive who plans to use the Internet in your job search, you will want to be very, very cautious. Before you post your executive resume online, I recommend you read my article published this week on the CareerHub career advice site.

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Top 10 Online Job Sites

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
AllHealthcareJobs.com
craigslist
Dice
ExecuNet
Monster
6FigureJobs.com
TheLadders.com
VetJobs
Yahoo! HotJobs

For the complete list of the Top 30 from the previous survey, see Weddles 2007 User's Choice Awards.

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Don't Expect an Executive Recruiter to "Market" You

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 recruiter to 'market' you!"

A recent thread on the Career Masters Institute e-mail forum examined the fact that most companies and recruiters do not even acknowledge resumes they receive, let alone have any interest in actively working to place any individual candidate. They 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.

One member mentioned that a speaker at the recent Kennedy Conference in Las Vegas pointed out that 90% of job seekers will not receive a response of any kind when they submit their resume--whether they send it to a recruiting firm or directly to a company. Even among companies that rank high on "best places to work" rankings, 30% do not acknowledge resumes or applications submitted online through their websites.

Another colleague had a recent client who had done a large e-mail campaign to more than 800 recruiters who specialized in his area of expertise and received a measly 40 auto-responses. A former recruiter pointed out that in his experience there will be no response unless an unsolicited resume is an exact match for a current assignment. He also said that recruiters do not try to "place" candidates because there is simply no money in it.

So definitely do contact recruiters who recruit at your level and in your specialty areas. But do not expect them to "market" you or in most cases to even acknowledge your contact. An additional caveat: It is best NOT to follow up by phone. This is an annoyance and pet peeve of recruiters.

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A New Resource for Company Research

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 detailed information regarding more than 3.5 million companies through their proprietary business information search engine. Using this tool, you will be able to find companies by name, products or industry, market niche and a variety of other variables. Available for review are detailed descriptions which may include specifics regarding revenues, acquisitions and recent news, bios of key employees, etc.

Be sure to include this tool in your research efforts before going in to interview with a prospective employer. Displaying your knowledge of the information to be found there may be just what's needed to position you above your competition! It could also be put to good use in writing a cover letter to accompany that dynamic executive resume you are submitting. Nothing makes a hiring executive sit up and take notice more than a candidate who shows far more than cursory knowledge of the company, its competitors, its challenges and opportunities.

Recruiters Finding Candidates in Unlikely Place

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 found. There are also jobs listings, but the surprise is that recruiters are using it as a primary resource for candidates. According to a presenter at a Northwest Recruiting Association meeting where the best tools and sourcing strategies were under discussion, the following was revealed at a recent ERE recruiting conference:

"Craigs List - not Monster - is now the best place and most often used place to find good talent."

ERE should be "in the know" about this. Initially conceived as an email discussion list for recruiting professionals over 9 years ago, ERE.net is a popular source of information and networking opportunities for recruiters and HR professionals on the Web.

A fellow CMI member who is seeking a recruiting position validates this, as she has found her listing on Craigs List to draw far more interest than on any other venue, including Monster and Career Builder. Coincidentally, while interviewing one of my clients today who is a general management/operations executive, he mentioned that his company has used Craigs List extensively in its recruiting efforts.

So if you are leveraging the Internet in your employment search, you may want to consider perusing the listings and/or posting your resume on your local Craigs List, as well as those for other geographic locations of particular interest to you.

Craigs List's forums that span 450 cities worldwide draw more than 7 billion page views and 20 million users per month, placing it at #7 ranking, behind only Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft, Google, eBay, and Newscorp. More than one million new job listings are posted per month. If any doubt remains, I encourage you to view this page with statistics comparing Craigs List with Monster and Career Builder:

http://charlotte.craigslist.org/about/job.boards.html

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A Valuable and Free Online Job Resource

As an executive you are most likely familiar with The Ladders, a premiere $100K+ employment search website. (If not, I encourage you to check it out!) You may not be aware that The Ladders offers a series of free webinars annually that feature the latest in online recruiting, job search best practices, and contemporary perspectives on recruiting by top recruiting experts. The good news is that if you missed this year's "Seek Week," you can still listen to the archives at this link:

The Ladders Seek Week Archives

The line-up for 2007 is:

Making Passion-Driven Career Decisions: How to Achieve Success On Your Own Terms
Speaker: Richard Chang, CEO, Richard Chang Associates; author: "The Passion Plan" and "The Passion Plan at Work"

The Resiliency Factor: 4 Foundations for a No-Fail Search
Speaker: Susan Britton Whitcomb, Executive Director, Career Masters Institute and President, Career Coach Academy; author: "Job Search Magic"

A Simple Click Is Never Enough
Speakers: Gerry Crispin, CareerXroads and Mark Mehler, CareerXroads

Getting What You Want at Work: How to Incorporate Your Personal Needs in Your Professional Career
Speaker: Tory Johnson, CEO, Women For Hire; workplace contributor, ABC's Good Morning America

Ask a Recruiter (Almost) Anything
Q&A Panel Discussion with top recruiters
Speakers: Wendy Dembin, National Sales Recruiter, Talent Management COE, Pitney Bowes; Russell Murphy, PHR, Recruiter, Circuit City Stores, Inc.; Brian Toland, Executive Recruiter, Microsoft Corporation; Lisa Anderson, Director, Strategic Staffing, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Archives from the 2006 Webinar series are also available at:
http://www.theladders.com/seekweek

Get insider tips on executive job search strategies, executive resumes, working with recruiters, building and leveraging your network, etc. You won't want to miss out on the invaluable advice of executive recruiters, hiring executives, career professionals and others that is free for the asking through this website!

Online Networking - Are You Missing the Boat?

Savvy executives in job search mode use the Internet extensively as they submit their resumes to executive-level boards, upload them to recruiting firms' sites, and research companies to learn more about potential employers. It is amazing what you can find out about a company on a variety of websites, newsletters, recruiting sites, and on blogs - some of it simply basic information and some of it very revealing - positive and negative.

A new wave that is increasingly gathering momentum is the use of networking sites, both purely professional and social, in recruiting. Recruiters and employers actively use them to identify potential candidates, as well as to learn more about executive candidates that are under consideration. A recent Herman Trend Alert notes that referrals do still rank as the most valuable recruiting resource. However, it also notes that social networking sites have surpassed employment websites, ranking now as the #2 recruiting resource. This is based on hard numbers: The number of new hires recruited as well as the budget allocations of employers (results from a Direct Employers/Booz Allen Hamilton study).

Some of the major players in terms of third party search tools are:

Zoominfo - aggregates data found on the web to create a "picture" of people and companies, and claims to have profiles of over 33 million individuals and 2.6 million companies.

Ziggs - exclusively features profiles of professionals.

Blue Chip Expert - focuses on top echelon talent, invitation-only site.

Spock - this start-up site targets 100 million profiles as of its go-live date 4th quarter 2006.

Linked In - social networking site that allows you to create a profile, collect endorsements, and build your network online. In a recent study, LinkedIn was shown to be one of the fastest-growing Web 2.0 sites. ("Web 2.0" simply refers to a new breed of websites that allow users to create their own content.)

The Trend Alert article also echoes a caveat I have put forth previously: Watch what you say on the Web and realize that your words could come back to haunt you. Recruiters are known to consider candidates' own statements about themselves and controversial topics in weeding out their candidate pool. "According to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, one in four employers uses social networking web sites such as Facebook.com or MySpace.com to screen out applicants based on the information they post there. A CareerBuilder.com survey found that about 63 percent of employers decided against hiring someone after seeing content the person had posted online."

Posting your executive resume on reputable and discreet executive level sites and maintaining your own blog and/or executive portfolio on the web are good first steps in creating an online presence. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that to stay ahead in the executive employment search and career management game, it behooves executives to actively maintain profiles on social and professional networking sites, and to leverage the networking and visibility building capabilities of those sites.

Is Your Executive Resume Keyword Optimized?

As an executive I am sure you wisely put substantial effort into ensuring your resume powerfully articulates your value proposition to potential employers. But do you realize how critical it is that your executive resume properly leverages the power of keywords to ensure that the document you so carefully crafted is actually seen by those potential employers?

I recently attended a seminar on "Unlocking the Mystery of Employer Keyword Searches" sponsored by the National Resume Writers Association for its executive resume writer membership. Offered in that seminar was a wealth of information and insights into how employers search for candidates, the proper use of keywords in the executive resume, the importance of the candidate "relevancy factor," and what things look like from the "back-end" of an employer search.

Firstly, it was discussed that the primary ways employers search for candidates through back-end systems are via their own website, job boards, and resume databases. It was revealed that 85% of companies use technology in candidate search now, up from 20% in 1997. Smaller companies with less than 100 employees typically cannot afford memberships on the mega-boards like monster.com, careerbuilder.com, etc.where annual fees can run upwards of $5,000, so they opt to use the lower-volume, niche boards. Hint: Posting your resume on industry-specific or job-function-based job boards can be a good strategy to reach the universe of smaller companies.

Adding to the importance of keyword relevancy is the fact that with the advent of job boards as a resource for candidates, executive recruiters began a mad dash to post their job assignments on these boards. They soon found they needed an efficient way to sort, catalog, and store the hundreds of resumes that flooded in as a result. So automated systems such as early pioneer ResuMix began to scan resumes, many of which went directly into databases without human intervention. And what did those scans look for? Keywords, of course. Usually nouns, sometimes verbs, and rarely soft words or phrases such as "proactive," "team builder," "results-oriented" that may be important for a human reader later but NOT to the automated system.

What are some of the parameters on which an automated search is based?

* The date the resume was submitted. The search will usually go back 90 days AT MOST. It's considered best to tweak and replace your resume on each site every 30 to 60 days.

* Recent employers... It is not surprising that companies would have an interest in recruiting candidates from their competitors.

* Job titles... but only if fairly generic, since the exact title can differ so much from one company to the next.

* Geographic location of the candidate.

The search typically scans the actual resume a person submitted, NOT the information on a filled-out online form with a few exceptions:

* Salary ... When an online form has requested this, people who have listed their salary and salary requirements will come up first.

* Career level... again, if included on online form.

Here's how the "relevancy factor" comes into play. The sheer number of keywords your resume contains and their frequency is key. The executive resume needs to be "rich" in keywords, while taking care not to overdo it.

The keywords must be relevant to the text in which they occur, and there is no value in seeding the document with keyword lists that are obviously not supported by the content of the resume. Some newer systems actually "read" in context to determine relevancy. For instance, if the keyword occurs in the middle of a sentence it is considered better than in a list. Core Competencies sections are fine for emphasis, but you'll also want to weave these words and phrases into the body of your text. Keyword lists are not necessary if the resume is written correctly.

Once ranked by keyword richness, how recently that resume was posted or updated is the next ranking criterion.

If there are "required" qualifications like a certain degree that you do not possess, your resume will still generally come up, but it will be listed after those that do show that qualification. Note: Many systems search for the full names of degrees rather than their abbreviations, so it may be best to write it out (e.g., Bachelor of Science versus BS degree).

Finally, a couple of important DO's:

* Pay attention to how the employer or recruiter states he or she wants to receive the resume -- follow directions! You may be eliminated if you do not.

* Include your name on the file name of the resume document! You do not want yours to be one of 500 resumes with the title of "myresume.doc" in your recipient's inbox!

New Federal Regulations Affect Your Online Job Hunt

Federal regulations regarding diversity that went into effect this Spring will have an effect on your job search when using a job board or other online channel such as corporate websites. The regulations are designed to standardize tracking of diversity in the candidate pool. They currently apply to federal contractors but later this year will kick in to cover all employers with more than 50 employees.

The trick is in the new definition of "applicant." You must directly express interest in the job while showing that you have ALL of the requirements listed in the job description (using the exact words they use), must not remove yourself from consideration by specifying a particular location (other than the location of the job currently advertised), and must follow the company's instructions for submitting your resume or application to the letter - whether that be via their website, email, etc. (The day is looming when it may actually be necessary to create a new resume for each application.)

The new rules allow a company to search the job boards for recent qualified applicants, which in many cases means they will not look at your resume if it has not been updated in the past 2 or 3 weeks!

The net result of all of this is that employers will want to limit as much as possible the number of resumes gathered so they can maintain a relatively small, random pool of applicants to help ensure the diversity the regulations require. As often is the case, it is likely that all these regulations will do is make more work for everyone, without actually impacting diversity. But in any case, these new regulations are something executive candidates cannot afford to ignore.

Dangers of Posting on Big Job Boards

The World Privacy Forum acknowledges that while it is important to circulate your executive resume when looking for work, in the information economy, "your resume has 'street value.'" They recommend taking measures to protect your privacy while using online resources in your employment search.

A key recommendation is posting your resume anonymously or privately, an action which conventional wisdom and job seekers' experiences seem to indicate does somewhat degrade the response rate, as employers have to take an extra step to make that first contact. Yet they are unequivocal in their opinion: "Unfortunately, few job seekers take advantage of this option. Most job seekers are concerned that they are hurting their chances with legitimate employers by making them take an extra step. But at this point, it is simply not a good idea to post your resume openly -- there are known risks at this point. If you are going to post a resume online, private posting should be the only way you post it." If you still want to post openly, they suggest that you at least use a P.O. Box instead of your street address and a disposable email address.

Other traps to be aware of are that often jobs offered are just scams. It is also true that while most sites do restrict access and try to limit it to legitimate recruiters, they cannot possibly police this adequately. And once your resume has been downloaded, all control of that resume is lost.

Are Plain Text Resumes Still Necessary?

My clients sometimes ask if it is any longer necessary to have a text, ASCII, or "e-resume" version, considering the continued advancements in Internet and computer technology.

While the sites to which we submit resumes sport fancy input forms, the underlying technology has as a rule remained unchanged when it comes to submitting information via those forms. In other words, if you were to copy and paste your nicely formatted Word resume into the form, it is highly unlikely that your format would be reasonably preserved, and characters such as bullets, graphics, and other special characters would not be converted correctly. Without embedding a very complex application into the blank or box, anything put into it will automatically be simplified to plain text.

So my answer for now is: Yes, you still need a text version of your executive resume for use when you visit executive job boards and recruiting firm sites.

Forbes Cites Top Executive Job and Recruiter Sites

My senior executive resume clients and blog visitors will want to review Forbes' annual review of the top executive job and recruiter sites. In a competitive job market, knowledge of the most effective online resources and recruiter contacts is essential to speed your search. Some of the better job sites not only include a plethora of listings but also feature salary trackers, networking bulletin boards, and other valuable tools.

Highlighted sites include Netshare, which they describe as a "great place to search national listings for the $100,000-plus executive, and Spencer Stuart, extolled for using "its uncommonly thorough Web site to recruit execs making $100,000-plus a year. At last glance, nearly 90 top-dog jobs were listed. But that's not all: intelligent content abounds."

While leveraging your personal network remains the top essential tool in executive-level job search, you are surely missing out on potential opportunities if you do not get your executive resume in the hands of top recruiting firms via the better online job and recruiter sites.

Is Big Brother Watching YOU?

Today we are all familiar with the innumerable threats to our privacy and the safety of our personal identities from theft or other misuse. Enter a potential solution: RFID's or Radio Frequency Identification Devices. These are tiny devices the size of a grain of rice that can be inserted under the skin and store a variety of types of information. Many of us are already using them as a way of identifying our pets in case of loss or theft. Companies such as plumbing and electrical service providers already use them to track their technicians using GPS.

Well, now some employers have begun using the devices in the workplace as a means for employees to access restricted or secure areas. While the devices are currently used only like keycards for access, the potential is there for use to track employee movements, and as the technology advances for others such as the government to track citizens' movements. Keep your eyes open as RFID devices and biometric ID's become increasingly the norm. George Orwell may have had his timing a bit off, but it seems to be becoming more true daily that "Big Brother is Watching You."

On a related note, try doing a Google search on your street address or phone number. Then click on Google Maps to pinpoint your address. Then click on satellite in the upper right to view a satellite picture of your location. For some locations you can zoom in REALLY close and see if your child left his or her bicycle in the driveway.

Most Popular Executive Job Boards

Thanks to Mark Hovind at JobBait.com for these interesting stats on job boards.

As of December 1, the most popular executive-level and six-figure job boards are:

Executive Site/Web Traffic Rank

TheLadders 4,933
CareerJournal 12,689
ExecutivesOnTheWeb 18,571
SixFigureJobs 19,260
exec-appointments 29,571
Execunet 30,953
MBA-exchange 72,676
eKornFerry 87,025
execSearches 90,933
Heidrick 96,742
RiteSite 102,529
Futurestep 112,852
Netshare 115,210
MBAJungle 123,697
SpencerStuart 125,734
ExecutivesOnly 161,484
ExecutiveRegistry 201,795

He also notes that RiteSite and SixFigureJobs are the only two "six-figure" job boards where you can access the listings for free. Some fee-based boards will post teaser ads on sites such as Monster.com that lead back to their site where you must pay a fee to view the job.

He also points out that executives must beware of fake job listings that lure executives into submitting their executive resumes. Their personal information is then used for mailing lists or other unauthorized purposes. Also some sites will have reassuring-sounding privacy policies that contain loopholes that essentially negate the promised safety of your personal information.

While I still believe that use of job boards is a tool for the job search arsenal, it is important to realize that a statistically small number of jobs are filled this way. It is important to leverage your network heavily, as a large proportion of executive opportunities are found in this manner.

Powerful New Career Website Partnership

Two of the premier online resources for executives have announced a two-year partnership agreement that executives who are in career transition or who simply want to keep up to date on trends and executive job market opportunities will want to look into. CareerJournal.com and TheLadders have joined forces in an alliance that has created a customized product called "CareerJournal Plus."

Through this site, CareerJournal readers can subscribe via a special offer to access TheLadders' exclusive $100K+ job openings and career content, as well as put themselves on the radar screens of 10,000+ recruiters. In turn, TheLadders will feature information and links to relevant content on CareerJournal.com. Check it out!

Beware of Digital Dirt

With recruiters, hiring executives, and selection committees using the Internet to research candidates in ever increasing numbers, executives are beginning to see the impact - and the results can sometimes be distressing. ExecuNet recently revealed a disturbing statistic in their Insider Newsletter. In that newsletter, they stated that a recent survey of recruiters revealed that 75% of respondents use search engines to uncover information about candidates. The disturbing part is that 26% indicated that information on the Internet has caused them to eliminate a candidate from consideration!

Reasons cited by recruiters for dropping candidates were diverse. They include inaccurate academic qualifications on their executive resume, omission of facts regarding publicly available information on an ethics investigation, strange personal habits, misrepresentation of job titles or company information, suspended driver's or professional licenses, and litigation against former employers.

So while you want to work to ensure that there is plenty of positive information about you out there in cyberspace, it is also important to monitor what is out there and its possible negative effect on your candidacy for a position, as well as your overall reputation in the employment marketplace.

I highly recommend that my executive clients do a little detective work and Google themselves to see what is being said about them. If you do find something potentially negative, do what you can to counteract it by commenting on blogs that contain the information, covering it honestly but as favorably as possible in your own blog and/or web portfolio, and taking care to disclose to the recruiter anything that you ascertain can and will easily be revealed about you in an Internet search. It goes without saying that you will also want to correct any inaccurate information on your executive resume.

Blogs as Key Component of Executive Employment Search Strategy

Blogs are rapidly emerging as a key strategy for executives to increase visibility on the radar screens of executive search professionals including executive recruiters, venture capital firms, and internal corporate recruiters. They are a relatively easy way to build your personal online brand, increase your industry standing, and position yourself as an expert resource in your fields of expertise.

Blogging is a proactive activity. I strongly recommend that you establish and maintain your own blog. You will also want to visit blog sites and respond to the posts you find there, and use them to develop topics for your own blog entries. You can partially automate the review process by subscribing to an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) that will automatically download recent blog posts to your computer for review without the necessity to individually visit each of your favorite blogs every day. Some resources for RSS feeds include:

http://www.bloglines.com
http://www.feedreader.com
http://www.feedburner.com
http://www.feeddemon.com

Your executive blog can be a simple venue for your thoughts on relevant subjects, or it can be a full-fledged executive portfolio and platform for your online identity including your executive resume, your executive bio, white papers, etc. It is important to regularly post on your blog, and respond to comments and questions. Your posts need not be long, and it is far more important to regularly post than that those posts be highly polished, definitive statements on the subject!

There are various free and low-cost sites where you can create your blog, with no need to know about complex coding. Free sites include:

http://www.blogger.com
http://www.spaces.msn.com

Sites that incur a small fee but do tend to have more flexibility in format, etc., include:

http://www.typepad.com
http://www.blogharbor.com

Once you have established your blog, be sure to submit it for inclusion on the major blog search engines, and include a list of these engines on your blog:

http://www.blogarama.com
http://www.blogtree.com
http://www.blogsearchengine.com
http://www.bloguniverse.com
http://www.daypop.com

Blogs are also a potent secret weapon in the competitive career intelligence area. Major companies often host blogs authored by key employees that can provide invaluable insights into the corporate culture and challenges the company is currently facing. If leveraged well, they can even serve as an access point to the inside track on internal opportunities.

Industry giants like Microsoft, Oracle, HP, and Lockheed host multiple blogs. Resources to find blogs of a company you are targeting and/or its CEO include:

http://www.technorati.com
http://www.blogarama.com
http://blogtree.com

With the majority of executive recruiters "Googling" prospective candidates before making a selection, and many doing so before they will even contact you, it behooves you to use blogs to reassure them of your industry reputation and thought leadership in your field.

How to Tell The Good from The Bad and The Ugly in Job Postings

Weddles.com: Tips For Success - Job Seekers

"According to an 8+ year survey we at WEDDLE’s have been conducting, the one thing most Internet job seekers do when they go online is look at job postings.

These announcements, however, are very different from traditional employment ads. They don’t appear in the format of a print classified and aren’t restricted to the tight space constraints imposed by newspapers and journals. As a result, you’ll need a new set of rules for reading and evaluating job postings if you’re to avoid wasting time on mediocre employers and focus your attention and efforts where they can best advance your career."

Laurie's Comments:

With the incredible volume of job postings available at any given time on the Internet within many job categories, reviewing them efficiently can present a tremendous challenge. Firstly, of course, you will need to weed out those that are obviously bogus, shams, or get-rich-quick scheme come-ons. Then you will want to evaluate postings for level and quality of detail regarding specific requirements for the position and what the company offers you, the "candidate friendliness" of the application procedure, and clear indication of how your privacy will be protected should you apply.

Considering all of these elements will help you to make an informed decision whether to apply and provide strong clues as to the corporate culture of your prospective employer and the likelihood that this could be a good match.

Boost Your Career with a Blog

Web Sites, Blogs Can Boost Your Career - Yahoo! News

"NEW YORK - When the staff at a Scholastic Corp. unit heard that Cindy Eng was being hired as their editorial head earlier this year, they did an online search of her name. Fortunately for Eng, their searches led them right to her Web portfolio, a personal Web site that trumpeted her professional accomplishments... "


Laurie's Comments:

The general press is starting to trumpet what career professionals have been advising their clients for years: that an online presence is becoming a key component in career advancement.

Your online presence can and should consist of many elements -- white papers or bios on corporate sites, articles and interviews in online journals, mentions and interviews in online trade and industry publications, online resumes and portfolios, and, of course, blogs.

Blogging is perhaps the easiest way to gain an online presence, but as the above article stresses, "Just be sure that your Web site looks professional and your blog, or Web log, is smart, otherwise you will have defeated the whole purpose."

A web portfolio brings a staple of the advertising and creative fields into broader use. These are specialized web sites that are designed to show off your talents and accomplishments, and are much more than just an online resume. You'll want to use much greater detail than would be advisable on a resume, and include such things as links to articles you have written, charts and graphs illustrating results you have delivered, white papers on topics relevant to your industry and profession -- the possible list is endless.

Your blog should be professional yet conversational, and zero in on topics of interest to others in your field. The objective here is to position yourself as an expert, while demonstrating your thought processes, insights, and communication skills.

Tim Bray, Director of Web Technologies at Sun Microsystems, recently reflected on his blog regarding why blogging is good for one’s career:

"Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career

1) You have to get noticed to get promoted.
2) You have to get noticed to get hired.
3) It really impresses people when you say “Oh, I’ve written about that, just google for XXX and I’m on the top page” or “Oh, just google my name.”
4) No matter how great you are, your career depends on communicating.
The way to get better at anything, including communication, is by practicing. Blogging is good practice.
5) Bloggers are better-informed than non-bloggers. Knowing more is a career advantage.
6) Knowing more also means you’re more likely to hear about interesting jobs coming open.
7) Networking is good for your career. Blogging is a good way to meet people.
8) If you’re an engineer, blogging puts you in intimate contact with a worse-is-better 80/20 success story. Understanding this mode of technology adoption can only help you.
9) If you’re in marketing, you’ll need to understand how its rules are changing as a result of the current whirlwind, which nobody does, but bloggers are at least somewhat less baffled.
10) It’s a lot harder to fire someone who has a public voice, because it will be noticed."

I heartily agree with all of the above. If you are an executive without an online identity, it is time to begin remedying that. Your executive resume writer or career consultant will be able to advise and assist you with creation of a web portfolio and/or blog that will enhance your name recognition and credibility.

Beware of Predators in the Online Job Search Jungle

Five Tips for a Safe Online Job-Search
A CEO Refresher article by Teena Rose

"Conducting a job search using the Internet has definitely transformed how jobseekers contact hiring companies... With the Internet's convenience, a breeding ground for scam artists continues to grow each year as well. Identity thefts have increased to an overwhelming 10 million cases per year, and many of them are the result of phishing - not surprisingly, the employment industry is under attack as well. "

Laurie's Comments

This article reminds us that it is indeed a jungle out there. Online resources such as executive-level job boards and recruiter sites are undeniably a valuable tool in today's executive employment search. While it remains true that networking is by far the most productive search method for executives in career transition, you are missing potential opportunities if you do not post your executive resume to job board and executive career transition sites such as CareerJournal, ChiefMonster, ExecuNet, ExecutiveRegistry, Netshare, RiteSite, SixFigureJobs, and TheLadders. It is also advantageous to submit your resume online to the major elite recruiting firm sites such as Korn Ferry, Christian & Timbers, Heidrick & Struggles, A. T. Kearney, Blue Steps, Spencer Stuart, Brilliant People, Top Echelon, etc.

However, with the prevalance of scam artists, identity thieves, and phishing schemes on the Internet, searching online does entail some dangers. For example, with "phishing," you may receive inquiries that look as if they have come from a legitimate recruiter but are actually invitations to become a victim of fraud. You may receive solicitations from "career marketing firms" who will represent themselves as recruiters who have an opportunity for you but need you to pay them for access to their "exclusive" contacts. Be very wary of these, as there are numerous scam companies ready and eager to take your money.

So what can you do? Firstly, do not take any e-mail inquiry at face value, and avoid clicking on links embedded in e-mails. And if you do click on a link in an e-mail, NEVER provide personal information such as social security number or credit card number, no matter how legitimate the web page looks. To visit a website to which you are invited via e-mail, do a quick search on Google for the firm name to identify the correct URL, and copy/paste or type it into the Address line of your browser. Only when you are sure you have reached a legitimate site should you submit any personal information.

When filling out forms on various sites, read and understand their privacy policies. Specify that you do NOT give permission for your information to be sold or given to others without your approval.

Weddle's Top-Rated Employment Websites for 2005

Weddles User's Choice Awards
"Recruiters & Job Seekers Pick the Top Sites on the Web

Who has the best insight on which employment sites are most helpful? We think the answer to that question is obvious - it's you, the recruiters and job seekers who have used the sites. And, that's what the annual WEDDLE's User's Choice Awards are all about. They recognize the elite of the online employment according to the most discerning judges around - that would be you!

WEDDLE's User's Choice Awards recognize the Web-sites that provide the best level of service and value to their visitors, and help others make the best use of the best employment resources online."

Laurie's Comments:

It can be difficult to discern in which among the plethora of job boards and employment sites out there your time is best invested. Given the fact that as an executive employment candidate you do not have unlimited time to conduct your online search, it is good to know where your efforts in posting your executive resume or browsing listings are likely to yield the best ROI.

This annual survey conducted by Weddle's ranks more than 150 job boards and career portals based on the input of more than 15,000 users, and produces a list of the top 30. I find it interesting that ExecuNet, a site used and recommended by many of my executive clients, once again ranks as one of the elite in the online employment industry - as it has since the inception of the awards.

For a list of online employment resources that is geared specifically to the executive candidate, see Creative Keystrokes' Web Resources page at: Creative Keystrokes Executive Resume Service.

The Herman Trend Alert Niche Job Boards Filling a Need

Niche Job Boards Filling a Need

The Herman Trend Alert
March 2, 2005

"With the increasing use of the Internet for purposes of job-seeking---and by employers searching for just the right candidates, there is a growing trend toward the use of niche job boards. The relative popularity of these services, particularly compared to the more general job boards, is fueling expansion of Internet use in the re-energized employment market."

Laurie's Comments:

What a revealing set of statistics! Niche job boards are preferred by 78% of corporate employment specialists, while only 17% prefer mega-sites like Monster and Career Builder!

As an executive resume writer, I have for quite some time advised my clients to make sure their executive resumes are posted to appropriate senior-level boards such as www.theladders.com, www.6figurejobs.com, www.brilliantpeople.com, www.christian&timbers.com, and www.atkearney.com, as well as consider membership and posting at executive networking sites such as www.netshare.com and www.execunet.com.

With this trend driving increased use of the Internet for both recruiters and candidates in the current employment market, it behooves executive-level candidates to take notice.

Are You Ready to Be Googled?

BostonWorks - Jobs, Events, and Information from The Boston Globe:

"Ask not for whom the Web searches because someday soon it may be you.
By Alan R. Earls, Globe Correspondent, 1/9/05

If you're looking for a job, be aware that prospective employers are taking a close look at you, too, in more ways than one.

A recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive shows that 23 percent of people search the Web for the name of a business associate or colleague prior to meeting them. And plenty of hiring managers Google prospective candidates as well."

Laurie's Comments:

Yet another sign of the times... Googling is here and it behooves career-advancement-minded executives to take heed! This is another front in the rapidly evolving executive employment marketplace that top executive resume writers are monitoring closely.

With research showing that YOU as a job candidate are likely to be the subject of online research by your potential employer, you'll want to maximize your visibility on the Web. This can be accomplished through basic public relations tactics such as press releases (yes, you as an individual can do this through PR Newswire or PR Web), working actively to have yourself interviewed and quoted, maintaining a business-related "blog," and maintaining a personal website and/or online career portfolio resume.

If creating and maintaining a website or webpage is too technical for you, you might try a commercial service such as those offered by www.ziggs.com, www.eliyon.com, www.linkedIin.com, www.zerodegrees.com, and www.ryze.com. You can also have a resume webfolio created and posted online for you by your executive resume writer (Creative Keystrokes offers a web resume development and posting service).