This article was taken from the September issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Top jobs are rarely advertised. Instead, the responsibility for finding talent usually resides with an executive-search firm
-- or headhunters. Moira Benigson and Sally Drexler (left and right) of the MBS Group, have worked with clients including Sainsbury's, Apple, BT, Liberty, Nike, Virgin and Jamie Oliver Enterprises. Here's how to get the headhunters to call you.
POLISH YOUR CV
No one cares if you were the year-six ping-pong champion -- keep things relevant. Make your CV pithy and focus on tangible achievements. "A CV is always a teaser," Benigson says. "Make it as short as possible rather than rambling on." "Our clients talk in numbers -- everything is about the bottom line," Drexler adds. "So your CV should list your achievements and how they have impacted
[the business]. Put it very factually: what are your achievements?
What are your responsibilities? Where have you been?"
GET YOUR TIMING RIGHT
Red flags for headhunters include candidates who have jumped from job to job, have spent too short a time in a position and have obvious gaps on their CV. "The optimum time to move is after a success," Drexler says. "You've gone into a company, you've had a brief and you've made a success of it, then you look at what's next."
WATCH YOUR BACK
Trying to leverage an approach from a headhunter with your current boss can turn ugly."Somepeople tell their bosses because they think they might get a pay rise," Benigson says. "But the graveyard is full of people who thought theywere indispensable."
BE VISIBLE
"People who are good and in the online and digital space will talk at conferences," Drexler says. "That is an aspect of your job as well. Meet people, go to [industry] mashups, raise your profile." "Be visible in the press, write opinion pieces," Benigson adds. And take care with your online presence. Anything you put on Facebook or LinkedIn is easily sourced by potential employers. Drexler says that she doesn't take the recommendations on LinkedIn seriously as entries are generally posted by friends. "If you're in digital you should have an online presence," she says. "But you've got to be very careful of what you write, how you present it, what you do.
It's a very intrusive medium."
CLOSE THE DEAL
You got the headhunter to notice you. Now for the job interview. Benigson and Drexler believe that preparation is key. Thoroughly research the company that you're seeing -- visit their locations if you're in retail, look at the books if you're in business development, have a clear vision of future development if you're in strategy. "Culture comes before anything technical,"
Benigson says. "For example, if you're going to a funky young digital company and you're wearing a suit, it's not going to work."
Know what will be required of you in your role and talk about how you'd make a difference.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
