Executive Job Openings - How to Get Hired

Here are five tips to follow in your executive job search:

Look for a career, not a job. The attitude of the job seeker must stay sharp and on track. You want to make sure to drive your search strategies towards an opportunity that you can enjoy; know where you can be fulfilled in all that you love to do professionally. You must approach your search with the mindset of someone that gets to go to a career, not someone who has to go to a job!

Study the company. It's imperative that you study the company and the person who you will be working with, before the interview. This gives you the opportunity to share insights or ideas that will immediately put you both on a common ground, making the interview much less stressful and much more conversational.

Always present yourself in the most positive way possible. This means presenting yourself as an achiever(a hard worker) instead of a doer(a drone). On your resume consider tailoring the sections to add more emphasis on your achievement section and making your responsibilities just a sub-heading of achievements.

Send out letters and make phone calls to employees of the company who are able to promote your services. Even if they aren't looking for your particular skills getting yourself a reputable name will help when the time comes.

Networking - Very important. In most industries, the people you know are more important than the skills you possess. The right people will be the strongest tool to help you market and promote yourself for new job openings.

Executive Openings! $80,000 to $500,000+

Many structured executive job interviews, start with a question like "tell me about yourself." In two minutes or so, the interviewer wants to get you to relax so he or she can understand your background, your accomplishments, why you want an executive job at the company in question, and what your future goals are. Here's how to narrow your life down into a brief but relevant and professional answer.

Spend about 1-2 hours writing down your top five executive job or personal experiences. Narrow each down to a paragraph. Think about the themes that come across. Are you all about growth, customer focus, sales excellence, product innovation? How do these themes come through? How do your job experiences reflect a recurring theme?

Pick your top themes. What are the top two things you want the interviewer to remember about you? When you have finished answering the question, the interviewer should know clearly what these top two things are.

Put it together. A good way to finalize this is to use the word-count feature on your word processor. At 150 words per minute, you should not use much more than 350 words for your pitch.

Once you have your personal elevator pitch, practice it in front of the mirror. If possible, try to video or audio tape yourself, and watch yourself in fast forward. This is a great way to pin down your nervous job interview habits!

Rehearse for your executive job interview, but make sure it doesn't LOOK rehearsed

To be perceived as a top of the line, A-list candidate, your executive resume must be memorable. It must be impactful. It must sell you to potential employers.

Your resume should be unique showing your individual experience, strength, and skill. You must show employers why they should be interested in YOU over equally able and competent competing executives. Ensure that your resume highlights the factors that differentiate you from the pack and focus closely on your unique skills.

Your resume be specific to your industry. Give real results and relate these achievements to the company and position you are applying for now. Show how what you have achieved in the past can benefit the potential employer in the future. If you can do that, yours will be a resume they come back to, for sure.

Be an expert. Most employers want to recruit executives who are already adept in their chosen field. They want to feel that they are hiring proven expertise. Your resume needs to show your expertise in your field. Focus on those areas of your career that do that instead of providing a laundry list of everything you have ever done.

You can easily do this simply by engaging in a little research. The best thing you can do is take a look at some executive resume samples. That way you can see how to do it right. You want your resume to look as professional as possible and samples can help you along. You will see the proper format. However, have someone proofread it before you start submitting it anywhere.

Quickly and easily create a rusume in less than 4 minutes.

Did you know that recruiters and hiring decision makers routinely search LinkedIn for talent and even have special applications designed for that purpose?

If you do nothing else online, you have to have a great LinkedIn profile. But don't stop there. Get busy making connections, joining clubs, and leveraging all this site boasting over 45 million professional members has to offer.

Optimize your profile and make it searchable using the relevant key word phrases hiring decision makers will be looking for in candidates like you.

Once your profile is together, be sure to include a link to it in your email signature and at the top of your resume, along with contact information.