Johnny Walker helps six and seven-figure executives get their ideal job, faster, for more money, using the 7-Step Executive Edge program. Johnny has had careers at companies that are FTSE 100, Nasdaq Listed, start-ups and is a founder, coach, mentor, and speaker. Johnny has climbed the highest free-standing mountain, run a 100m race at the London Olympic Stadium in 2012, and even made the quarter-finals of the world conker championships. He is now giving executive job seekers, the edge at www.myexecjob.com
There have been three structural shifts in the executive job-seeking market, which are all stopping you from getting your next job, faster.
Pay attention to these 3 things and then fix them.
FIRST THING. The hiring manager of a six-figure executive (you), is by definition even more senior than you are. They, and you when you were in the hiring manager’s chair, have the same thing in common….
The hiring manager does not want an unsolicited sales pitch. ‘Hi, I’m great, here’s my CV. Hire me.” (Possibly you’ve got a recruiter doing that for you too – yikes!)
When the hiring manager is in the mood to hire, they will go looking.
Until then, stop clogging up their inbox with emails they didn’t ask for, don’t want, and quite frankly, aren’t going to use.
Conclusion: The hiring manager does not want to be sold to. Instead, they want to be allowed to buy.
That’s the first thing.
SECONDLY, super big one this; is that the overwhelming majority of executive and six-figure vacancies are not advertised.
Depending on how senior you are, at least 75% and possibly as much as 90% of your target roles, are not visible to you.
If you try and sell yourself, you are confining yourself to 25% of the jobs market at best, which is also the bit of the jobs market that every other jobseeker can see. And is also why when you are on LinkedIn and see a vacancy you think you can do, 400 other applicants have also applied. Yuk.
Selling yourself is confining yourself to a small and highly competitive fraction of the market.
Allowing yourself to get bought opens up the entire job market including all the unadvertised roles.
And when the hiring manager buys they only choose 6 to 8 people for the shortlist. Which is a lot less competition for you. Handy.
Again, selling yourself – bad. Being bought – much much better.
That’s the second structural shift in the executive job-seeking market.
The THIRD shift is a thing called buyer-seller integrity.
This is HUGE, really pay attention to this.
You might see a vacancy online and think ‘Ooh, I can do 75% of that already. I will learn the rest on the job.” and you know what? I’d back you to do just that. You’re an intelligent person, of course you will.
However, the hiring manager does not look at your profile and think, “yay, a 75% match, let’s get this person in for two hours of interviews, waste my time, and then never hire them”. No, what they are looking for is a 90% match, 95% if they can get away with it but at least 90% match, before they will commit to time in an interview.
When the buyer, in this case the hiring manager, drives the transaction, you get a much better result. They are just more discerning about the quality of the match than you might be.
So, the corollary to that is this; If you want your ideal job and you want it faster, then you’ve got to:
- Present a buying process, as that’s the process the hiring manager is using right now.
- Use it to access the unadvertised jobs market as it’s where a greater quantity of vacancies are, with much much less competition and
- (This is the important part), When the buyer buys, they are more discerning than when a seller sells and you end up in a much better-suited role.
If you can position yourself properly, then you are only going to be contacted if the hiring manager perceives you to be a 95% match to the role, which is when your interviews get a lot more interesting.
Stop selling yourself, and get bought instead.
HOW?
At a very high level, getting bought only breaks down into 4 areas.
Clarity.
I am going to say something out of the school of the blindingly obvious right now, which is this: you cannot hit a target unless you actually aim at it. If you do not get clarity about what your ideal job is you will end up interviewing for someone else’s ideal job and coming second. Or worse, accept a job that you don’t match, and end up being unhappy.
Compelling.
Now you’ve got clarity about what your ideal job is, you need to make sure the hiring manager finds you the most attractive candidate they see. This comes from an elevator pitch called the 5 P Formula, which I have published in detail on LinkedIn, but is the most powerful way of ensuring a hiring manager gets all the critical information they need and crucially nothing else, and make a de-risked decision to interview you.
Visibility.
There are four big channels to market. The first is your personal network then secondly LinkedIn, and those two channels will account for about 70% of all of your executive job-seeking success. The remaining two channels are your CV and recruiters, who will split the remaining 30% between them. Be the most visible in these four channels and the hiring manager will see you first.
Execution.
Lastly, you will need to nail the interview, and the negotiation and deal with any post-offer risks.
When the hiring manager sees you first, and upon closer inspection likes you more, you will end up in an interview for your ideal job, the one for which you are the no-brainer hire.
All you need to do then is learn how to execute the interview and negotiation, and you win.
Executive job seeking. Faster, better, more money.