You've worked long and hard to be the best you can be but you're out of work. The Job Market is dismal. Unemployment is the highest you've ever seen it. You're getting interviews which means your resume is working. In the interviews, you're hearing those dreaded words - you're "overqualified." So, what direction is there other than down? Up! You want to go up.
Overqualified is a bad label in more ways that you can think of. They could be using that as a euphemism for "You're too old but if we say that you can sue us." They could have decided, without discussing it, that you're going to cost too much. They could have made up their mind that the job will bore you. If you're really overqualified for the job you're interviewing for, it's a valid concern for both of you. You don't want to be underemployed - it's not satisfying and it's hard to keep yourself motivated. The employer doesn't want someone who will probably move on as soon as they can. Remove employee benefits from the employer's list of concerns. There are agencies to help you provide your own benefits. Leverage your value. Spell it out in ways that will appeal to the people who need you. Here are a few ideas on where you can go when you're already at the peak:
1. Interim management. Thousands of companies start up every year. None of them can afford full-time people at your level when they're starting but they all need your expertise. Leverage your years of experience, your extensive network of other experts, and your knowledge to make yourself the "go to" person not only for your own expertise but for experts in other fields.
2. Consultant. Thousands of larger companies have cut back. They still need what you bring to the job. If you're a consultant, you can choose your clients and your hours. You can fire a client who's difficult. You can have more control than you've ever had. You might even be able to consult with the companies that you've worked for in the past. They already know you and are probably short-handed.
3. Owner. The services you provided to employers still have value. Whether you were a heavy construction superintendent or a chief financial officer, you can teach a team how to do a specific part of that work and be an outsourced service for the kinds of companies you've worked for. You know what they need and you know how to deliver it in terms they will understand.
Conclusion: Back away from the search for a minute and consider what your greatest assets are for your industry. Consider the experts that your previous employers have hired in the past. Then, using clear, concise communication, market yourself as a product or service you know they need. Identify your value and use all the tools at your disposal so you can take a giant step toward success.
The economy is slowly improving. There may be more jobs available but that also means that your competition is stepping up their job search. Make sure your activities are bringing the results you want.
After a long couple of years of continuous job losses, the economy is finally beginning to recover. Of course, employers still have a long way to go before all are hiring again - or even bringing back their benefits packages - but at least there is now room for more people to find new jobs without competing against the world for the same positions.
As a top-level executive, now is the time to dive in and begin reviving your job search as the economy revives. With employers creating new positions, you want to take the steps necessary to make sure you stand out.
Clean Up Your Resume
One of the first steps to take when jumping into your executive job search is cleaning up your resume. Hopefully, you've made attempts to regularly make updates to it as your career has evolved, but this doesn't mean that your resume isn't still a work in progress. There are things you can do to continue to clean it up and make it stronger.
For instance, you could make sure that your job summaries quantify your best results (money made, workers managed, project time frames). In addition, if you've done anything in your interim period that could be listed on your resume (created a blog, added a new social networking profile, spoke at an event) these are things that you could mention that could give it more strength.
Strengthen Your Executive Brand
Now's also the time to make sure that your executive brand is strong and visible. With many years of experience under your belt, you should have a great enough career focus to brand yourself specifically within your industry. Who are you? What are your specialties? What type of leader are you? How many people/businesses have you affected? Who is interested in hearing what you have to say?
All of these questions could be easily answered by getting out in front of people at speaking engagements, become a board member of one or more organizations, developing an online presence through social networking profiles (LinkedIn and Twitter) and blogging, as well as creating a website under your name. You could even try to get yourself interviewed with local newspapers or other publications, while giving yourself a title that will tell the world who you are.
Take Unconfident Language Out of Your Executive Bio / Cover Letter
One major mistake that some job seekers make - even at the executive level - is to showcasing low self-esteem in their paragraph-based interimsmanager gesucht documents like executive bios and cover letters. The intention is to not look unconfident, but it occurs anyway through the use of words and phrases like "Hopefully," "I'm just," "I'm only" and "I should." These words not only make you look unconfident, but make you look unprofitable. If you're not sure of your capabilities, how could an employer feel good about them?
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