Executive corpses. How to avoid becoming one

Are you a frustrated executive, or professional, who knows that your background is exceptional, yet you are not making headway with your career?

For years, your light shone bright and you moved upwards with ease, literally being tapped on the shoulder. Then at some stage, your career started to stagnate and the light stopped shining so brightly.

For someone who has enjoyed years of upward mobility, it can be frustrating. So you stop looking quite so hard, as rejection catches you off guard.

You become just another executive corpse

Yet, nine times out of ten, it can simply be how you are positioning yourself and conducting your job search.

One client, for example, was stagnating at the EL2 level. Not doing too badly, but not exactly transforming his world and frustrated that his peers were making progress, even though he knew that he generally outperformed them at every level.

So, he came to me and I transformed his resume and statement of claim and he also started looking at other options, outside of government.

What shocked him were the hard questions that I asked. You see, most executives and professionals are under the misapprehension that it is a matter of making a document pretty and rewording content.

This could not be further from the truth. You see half of the battle, is digging REALLY deep to find:

• How you solved problems that people assumed were unsolvable.
• Diving deep, so you understand your unique value proposition and what sets you apart from others.
• Showcasing your compelling story and achievements.

DEEP DIVING is mandatory, if you are going to succeed at the higher levels. Then once the digging is done, the foundations are in place to write strong and compelling content that pitches you as the ‘must have’ job candidate.

As for my client, yes, he secured his promotion and I predict that in five years, he’ll be able to aim for the very top.

IF he wants to (being the notable line), as right now, he is enjoying life, with new challenges and a pay rise.

So look at your current resume and LinkedIn profile:

• Does it describe you as ‘highly motivated, results-oriented?’
• Does it have a very long list of tasks that you carried out?
• Is it devoid of story telling and showcasing the challenges you faced?
• Does it have a long list of skills and knowledge (with bullet points)?

Now look at what job search strategies you are using:

• Are you only applying for advertised jobs?
• Are you super obsessed about Applicant Tracking Systems?
• Do you actually have a job search strategy in place?

Hiring a senior professional and executive is risky business. So the only thing that will convince potential employers is if you have a strong compelling case of the bottom-line value that you deliver that nobody else can.

So put simply, you need a CV and job search strategy that is built on the right foundations, which you can only do, by going deeper than your competitors.  Without this foundation work, combined with clarity of your business value, no matter how exceptional you are, you risk becoming another executive corpse.