by Kevin Kernan

Who are you targeting with that resume?
As managers we’ve all read thousands of resumes, haven’t we? We can pick a good one from a stack of future copy paper. Well, maybe. What about our own resume? Who is that targeting, or perhaps most importantly, what is it targeting? Why do we make that differentiation and why should you care?

Today’s executive job market, be it clean tech, high tech, or healthcare mandates a higher level of scrutiny by both hiring executives and candidates. Nobody on either side of the table wants to be the victim of a bad decision. We’ve all talked about this for years, but we’re living it every day right now. Hiring companies are being very specific about what they want to see in their candidates, they want to see multiple people that “fit the spec”, and the level of interview detail, background checking, & referencing is unprecedented in modern day hiring. For the most part, this is all quite good since detailed due diligence and patience often yield a great fit. However if you are a candidate in this market, you need to adapt your expectations, your approach, and your resume for Job Hunting 3.0. (BTW, Job Hunting 1.0 was pre 1995, Job Hunting 2.0 was that very brief period from 1997 to 2000 when crazed employers chased job-seekers with bags of cash, bundles of options, & BMWs; remember some of us were even fired for not spending venture money fast enough).

Let’s start with expectations. First, there are always great jobs for top people. If you’re an employer seeking top talent remember that in Job Hunting 3.0 the scrutiny works both ways and the most qualified candidate is likely gainfully employed and somewhat risk averse in this economy. If you’re the executive seeking employment you need to be prepared to become a strong project manager. Unlike past job searches, if you’ve even had to look for a job before, this time you need to do some real homework, and it goes beyond networking and sending out a few copies of your resume. Consider the following:

• Analyze your career and your development progression as an executive. Start with academic credentials, acceleration of growth into management positions, size of companies where you had the greatest impact, accomplishments and what about them drove significant personal satisfaction, and the culture of the company where you experienced the most dramatic professional growth of your career. Make a note of each.
• Identify the companies that would be logical adjacencies to your most recent 2 employers. For example if most recently you were the CEO of a $150M private US-based provider of packaged application claims management and billing software for medical practices with 50-100 employees, take the time to list the adjacencies – competitors, acquirers, partners, etc., ranging in size from $100M to $250M. List the 10-15 companies you identify and be prepared to complete some level of due diligence on them. The assumption is these are firms you would work for given the opportunity. This will take more than a Saturday morning.
• Understand that believing you will leap from running a $150M private company in the healthcare space to running a $1B public company in the clean tech sector might suggest you have unrealistic expectations…and if you do and you are unwilling to adjust, might want to extend your personal capital outlay horizon by a few years. Seriously, be realistic about how big a boat you can really handle in bad weather, because guess what – the weather isn’t great right now.

Given some initial homework and hopefully an adjusted expectation regarding effort and duration, what’s the best approach to landing the position you really want…and are ideally suited for at this stage of your career? Your approach should be focused, disciplined, and deliberate. It will vary depending on your role (CFO, CEO, CMO, VP Sales, etc.) but the basics will apply to all:

• Target several audiences for networking: your colleagues with connections or affiliation to the companies you’ve identified as adjacencies, private equity or venture firms with past or current positions in the targeted employers, and lastly, a focused group of 3-4 retained search executives with a strong track record of executive appointments in the sector and/or with companies you are targeting. Focused and managed follow-up is critical here; check in every 10-14 days and provide a useful update to the recipient.  Remember you will more predictably kill big game with research, patience, and a well placed rifle shot than with a shotgun blast.
• Update and make consistent all internet data sources: LinkedIn, Facebook (avoid using this as your job search emotional billboard – the problem is people actually look at it!), personal website, your blog sites, etc.  These tools are an amazing resource for you, just as they are for anyone else who has access to a computer. If you type it and hit send it never dies…Job Hunting 3.0.

The currency which introduces you is your resume and in this environment we’ve all been devalued somewhat. The old resume pulled out of the Personal file every so often and updated with 4 bullets relative to your most recent role is probably not the right one for this climate.  Think about the companies you’re targeting; more specifically the hiring executive or board member you will want to interview with and what they will be looking for. Double-click on the old one to get started but make sure you ‘track changes’ to compare what you’ve really edited.

• Build a 2-page resume which offers a clear objective; one which is a logical progression of career capability and accomplishment, and highlights quantifiable achievement. Don’t waste time on broad definitions of responsibilities and scope of position. Revenues, growth trajectory, customers, strategic partnerships, and exits speak volumes. Read it thru the eyes of the hiring executive and relate it directly to the needs analysis for those adjacent companies you’ve researched. The interview is then your opportunity to provide anecdotal detail which illuminates how you can apply analogous experience to solving similar problems.
• Construct the sub-bullets under each position you’ve held so the reader can easily connect them to the 5 things executive managers are hiring for in this market: Increasing revenue, increasing profits, reducing costs, increasing competitiveness, & opening new markets.  Exceptional employee retention skills, demonstrated leadership capability, and highly innovative business acumen are all important, but frankly nobody’s getting to the interview table unless these qualities have already been checked. Executive managers are hiring for results; the interview is the eyeball to eyeball check, hear the story, and test the chemistry & presence. You need to get to the table…ask a search executive that deals with board and C-level appointments to review your paper and be willing to act on the feedback.
• Provide a 2 paragraph cover letter (body of the email, not a separate attachment) which gives situational detail… we recently sold Healthcare Inc, I’m assisting with the transition for the next 60 days, however beginning to investigate firms in adjacent spaces seeking executive talent to take them to the next level…Whether you are communicating as suggested with a search consultant or directly with a targeted firm, bring data to the conversation which makes it clear you are up to speed on the companies of interest. Every position in today’s market is nothing more than a different instance or view of the critical data necessary to grow that particular company’s business. Do your homework before every call or email and know the facts realtime.

It’s a great market to find the right next move. In many ways the level of diligence being done by both candidates and clients all but ensures success before your first day on the new job.  Whether you are beginning to look while actively employed, or looking from the kitchen table, you must change your expectation, energize your approach, and think of your resume as a weapon and not an expansion of your last business card. Welcome to Job Hunting 3.0!