Recruiting Expert to Out of Work Executives: Create Your "Digital Brand"

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwire - Nov 29, 2011) - Colleen Aylward, a recruitment strategy expert and author of the book, "From Bedlam to Boardroom: How to Get a Derailed Executive Career Back on Track!" (www.devonjames.net/the-book), says out-of-work executives must abandon their old-school networking tactics and create digital brand for themselves if they hope to get back in the game.

It's a message that unemployed 40- and 50-something execs may not want to hear, but need to get their collective arms around, says Aylward. "The old-school train has left the station -- permanently -- and competing for top-flight executive positions will mean breaking old habits and exiting their comfort zones."

According to surveys, 89 percent of employers use a form of social media to identify job candidates, with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter the most popular modes. Embrace social media, even build a personal website, Aylward suggests, in addition to these tips:

• Streamline your strengths with specific examples. It's not the interviewer's job to figure out what your strengths might be; it's the candidate's job. Those resumes and on-line profiles better be stronger than ever and packed with data and specific accomplishments.
  
  
• Don't waste time with external executive recruiters. They don't find jobs for people. You need to get in front of the internal corporate recruiters who are searching for you online by researching companies online yourself, locating jobs yourself, introducing yourself to a prospective employer and conversing directly with hiring managers -- online.
  
  
• It's all about them, not you. Get out of the mindset that matching yourself for a job or interviewing for a job is about you. It's all about what you can do for them. Define your strengths and determine specific areas where you can solve their business problems. And be prepared to demonstrate that you've kept up with technology, industry changes and how the economy has affected them.
  
  

"Embrace change," Aylward says. "You are still very valuable and worth money for a long time, but you need to make yourself visible -- and viable -- to those who need your expertise."

About Colleen Aylward

Colleen Aylward has led the executive search firm Devon James Associates, Inc. for 19 years and is founder of Recruitment, Inc., a spinoff software product company in the Human Resources & Recruitment market. She currently resides in Bellevue, Wash.