personal brand

Resumes are about Strategy

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Last week I was contacted by a CFO who sent me two resumes to review along with a request to talk by phone. I would normally just do an email review on one of his resumes, but since he was referred to me I deviated from my typical response.

Turns out I was about the 10th in a long line of resume reviewers that he contacted. I guess he didn’t like any of the other feedback and was more interested in finding someone who would agree with what he did, or he just wanted free advice.

What he did, he told me, is pull an “award-winning resume” from another resume writer’s site and insert his name and employer names. Whoaaaaaaaaa! Resumes are about strategy, not taking a template you like and plugging in words.

Every candidate has his own unique personal brand, value proposition, strengths, values, and goals. Someone else’s resume will not foster powerful positioning from “his” (or her) uniqueness but rather, will more likely result in positioning as a commodity.

It’s what is different, unique, and valuable about you – what you distinctly bring that a company is willing to pay to get – that creates powerful positioning … not those things that are  “like”  or “very similar to” every other candidate. 

The Age Old Question .. To Brand or Not to Brand

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Ryan Rancatore interviewed the Wine Guy, Gary Vaynerchuk on personal branding … specifically, what personal branding has meant to his career. He has some thought provoking responses and the post is certainly read-worthy. 

Take this comment, for example …

People just don’t stay in jobs as long as they used to, it just makes sense to let people know who you are beyond your job title.

Authenticity. Visibility. Credibility. Building your personal brand fosters distinction among  the targeted audience of people who need to know about you. And it takes time. Rarely does anyone become an overnight success. Rather, they spend time consistently playing in a niched space, leveraging what they do well, building an authentic reputation, and growing their network. That means, the best time to build your personal brand is when you are ensconced in a position with a move 12-18 months in the future.

As Vaynerchuk also says, 

I’d ask one of the millions of unemployed workers if they didn’t wish they had spent time building a personal brand. 

There are only so many CFO and senior-level finance positions available. Winning one of those roles means you do what the competition isn’t doing … before you need to do it. 

What’s in Your Signature Block?

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An easy – and often overlooked – opportunity to extend your digital footprint occurs every time you send out an email. What’s in your signature line and what does it say about you?

Here are some suggestions for building a signature block with punch.

–Full Name. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? If there is any chance your email will be forwarded, make sure your full name appears. The person reading your original email might know you by only your first name, but the next person might not.

–Contact Information. 

Phone number. Preferably cell so you have control over who answers it and what the message says. If you are using a work number, including your personal cell phone number as well so people can still contact you after you leave your current position.

Email address. Professional and personal (non-business) so it follows you regardless of where you’re working.

–Branding Statement. What is compelling and unique about you that can be delivered in a Tweet (140 characters)? You might be a CFO, but so are many others. How you are different is much more interesting and memorable.

—Linked In Profile. A complete and branded profile on Linked In is your portable resume. It goes everywhere your email goes and makes it easy for people to click and see who you are. 

Don't let your emails leave home without these basic components.

More from the Kennedy Conference

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Thanksgiving was here and gone and it’s already December. Only 3 weeks & 2 days until Christmas, and then we will speed right into the New Year. Are you already thinking about your New Year’s resolutions? Dreaming about what you would like to be different next year. Thinking and doing are two different things.

As you think, and plan to do, here are a few more gems tweeted from the Kennedy Conference that might help you in your planning.

––36% of CEO's lack confidence in their own company's recruiting department (Steve Lowisz, CEO of Qualigence)

It seems inconceivable that CFO–types would actually want to be going through HR to secure their next position. But, when you play the Internet job search/job posting game, that is exactly what you get … unless it is a specific TPR (third party recruiting) listing, and those are rare.

Sitting in front of a computer searching for posted positions on public job sites is safe, and a HUGE timewaster, because it is ineffective and keeps you from doing the things that are effective and will move you towards that next position. Remember the old cliché, “if it looks too good to be true it probably is.” It’s true.

HR is a screen designed to filter out candidates who do not meet the list of requirements. They have no decision–making authority. Great candidates rarely succeed in this process. Even if they meet all the skill requirements there is still culture fit, work ethic, and track record of bottom line impact to consider. Bypassing HR gives great candidates a fighting chance.

–– Elements of a killer brand: Choice and expectation. Every choice that will be made will be based on expectation. (Steve Bonomo and Steve Fogarty, Adidas)

Expectation – People make decisions in life – and in the hiring process – based on emotion. And decisions about the brands with which we choose to associate are incredibly emotional. An assessment about you is typically made within the first 3-5 minutes of an interview. Think of the power your brand brings into that interview. They probably already like you based on the connection they feel – which is based on who they believe you to already be. Set the expectation.

Choice – The candidate gets to choose where he wants to go rather than accepting whatever is offered. What is different and unique about what you’ve done in your finance career that will position you from a place of power rather than commodity, and shift the paradigm to choice … yours?

CareerXroads Source of Hire Study

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CareerXroads conducts an annual study on methods company use for sourcing candidates. It’s an interesting read and I’ve highlighted, and commented on, a couple of important findings below.

––Personal referrals from employees, vendors, alumni, customers, and friends is the #1 external sourcing strategy, with employee referrals constituting between 80–90% of overall referrals. The study says that one out of every three referrals turns into a hire.

That statistic confirms the validity of the power of networking. Talking to people who work in companies that are interesting to you, can lead to opportunities you would not otherwise be privy.

––Retention strategies are leading many competitive companies to promote from within, with the goal of filling 40–50% of their openings internally.

Even if you are the greatest, most hard–working, and contributing employee, if the higher ups don’t know about you it really doesn’t matter. A strong, visible brand can help you stay on the radar screen of people who need to know about you.

Recruiters on Resumes

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At the Kennedy Conference last week, our recruiter panel offered up the following thoughts on what they wanted to see in a resume:

––Results–driven contributions, not a listing of job descriptions
––Enthusiasm & passion (this is where branding becomes so important)
––Polished presentation
––Vision (strategic initiatives – start to finish)
––The ability to clearly communicate
––Reverse chronological format
––Tailored cover letter

One panelist said he loves the concept of personal branding as it "provides evidence that the candidate can get the job and do the job.”

One other speaker at the conference said this, and it speaks to the first item in the list … “candidates confuse performance with experience … without performance experience doesn’t mean much.”

A Business Plan for Your Career

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It was a very interesting discussion in the CFO–Career–Forum yesterday. Recruiter Tim Norstrem and I were discussing the merits of having a career management plan … a business plan for your career.

Tim suggested that your plan should include

––a clear vision of your industry / discipline,
––an “admission” of your strengths (interesting word choice and great insight in the follow up discussion),
––your unique basket of skills (i.e., personal brand),
––a solid networking strategy, and
––a compelling value proposition and the ability to articulate it.

According to the 2007 Executive Job Market Intelligence Report,

––Executives stayed 2.7 years in a single job, 3.3 years with a company, and 4.2 years in the same industry.

––Corporate HR professionals identify 14 months as a critical point of demarcation for the newly–hired executive where the excitement wanes and dissatisfaction creeps in – and 35% see the disengagement occur in fewer than 10 months.

If an executive is unhappy in his new position in a year or less, chances are good he probably didn’t have a very good plan or more likely, any plan in place. While the unexpected can happen in a new position that can lead to early dissatisfaction, clearly this is not a welcomed trend. It seems to me that having a career plan in place would ensure that the next move was well–researched, well–thought out, and designed to help him achieve his longer–term goal.

Additionally, the average executive job search is 21.6 weeks. What Tim said to me after the call was significant … having a solid career management plan can reduce an executive’s time on the market to zero days.

If you know you are going to be moving every 3–5 years, doesn’t it make sense to be prepared to make that move? Imagine never having to conduct a job search again, and all because you chose to run your career like you run your company.