5 Ways to Avoid Sabotaging Your Executive Job Search

Of course, no one is looking for a way to sabotage their executive job search. However, it’s pretty easy to do it unintentionally by taking a few missteps along the way.

If you’re concerned that you may be on the wrong track with your executive job search based on your response, of course, you may have the tough economy to blame. But it’s also a good idea to look at your own actions throughout the process to see if you may be sabotaging your own efforts. Here are a few ways to help avoid this from happening …

Create a Quality Resume

At the executive level, creating a quality resume requires more than just writing one that is action-driven, you need to prove that you’ve made a true impact on your previous employers. By showing in numbers what types of profits you’ve helped the company make, as well as any types of initiatives you’ve started and followed through on, it’s important for companies to see through your resume that you would be a great return on their investment.

Spend Time with Forward-Thinking People

When you want to make big moves in life, you have to think big. For some, their biggest executive job search mistake is not spending time with people who dream just as big as them. It’s important to be able to share ideas and information that can benefit everyone as you all progress through your careers. But it’s even more important that you keep company with people who feel confident and positive about their futures, not those who feel “stuck” and believe there’s nothing good to look forward to.

Don’t Worry about Being Perfect

You may feel that you simply can’t send out a resume or contact a lead because you haven’t come up with the “right” things to write and say. While it’s not a bad idea to be concise and clear in your communication, perfection is something you can never achieve. So even if you feel partially ready, as long as you’re fully prepared, it’s good to get out there and make things happen anyway.

Get Organized

When you’re in the midst of a job search, it’s critical that you successfully follow up on your leads, interviews, etc. Getting organized during your job search essentially means keeping track of who you’ve talked to, who you plan to talk to, what you’ve discussed (or want to discuss), etc. If you haven’t already done so, it’s good to create a spreadsheet to help you get organized.

Step Away from the Computer

With blogging, networking and researching capabilities right at your fingertips, it’s not uncommon to want to spend the majority of your job search behind the computer. But in the executive realm, getting out to networking functions is just as important as online searching. So while you may want to spend one-on-one time with your computer, it’s good to also get that one-on-one time with non-virtual people.

If you can keep these ideas in mind when conducting your executive job search, you may find that the process will move a lot smoother than expected. So give it a try; the worst that could happen is your search improves some, right?