Make sure that the moon you are shooting for is your own…

 Last week I attended a networking conference from Mizbiz on entrepreneurship. The last speaker was Jamie Anderson, a former professor at London Business School and recognized as one of the world’s top 25 management thinkers by the journal Business Strategy Review. I was quite curious to hear his insights on the challenges to grow a business.

To my surprise, he had a very different take on the subject. Instead of providing us with theories, he shared with us his personal story, leaving one question open…what is success really?

Driving back home, the question remained in my mind. How do I define success?

I decided to look up ‘success’. According to the Oxford dictionary, success is the accomplishment of an aim or purpose, the attainment of fame, wealth, or social status.

In the nineties, this definition stood firm. You were seen as being successful when you were well up the corporate ladder, had a broad span of control and a lot of money. However, somehow, over the past years, this definition seems to have changed.

A lot of people experience an undercurrent of confusion and unease. Society and business is changing at the speed of light and burnouts/bore outs are the order of the day. Consequently, the relative sense of success changed. We are challenged to find new ways to define ourselves, our purpose and our joy.

Success has become a very personal thing. That doesn’t make it easier as it involves defining what is really important to you, what matters to you most and what makes you happy. It might very well be the fast track in corporate life but it can also be the decision to go travel the world and finance it through Instagram pictures.

Success has become a choice, a choice to open certain doors but close others at the same time. For Jamie, success meant that he left his academic career behind, became a key note speaker and pursued his childhood dream of cycling.

For me, I’m still searching for the right answer. Don’t worry, it won’t involve such a drastic decision, I genuinely still love what I do every day. Nevertheless, I promised myself to keep in mind the sentence that struck me most: shoot for the moon but make sure that the moon you are shooting for is your own.

And you … how do you define success?

For the ones who are looking for inspiration, you can see Jamie’s story in a TEDx video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmc6HohWVCs). And for the ladies, check out Mizbiz (www.mizbiz.be) as it is a network for female professionals from different industries.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Isabel

Through a personalized and tailor-made approach, Ingenium Executive Search aspires to assist you in attracting the right talent that matches the DNA of your company

Check out our website http://www.ingenium-search.be

Follow me on Twitter @IngeniumSearch

With the blink of an eye…. spend your six seconds well

I get a lot of questions from friends to review their cv. I always feel a little embarrassed when I tell them that I don’t actually fully read and analyse a resume. I tend to scan it for key words that will tell me whether I might have a matching vacancy or not.

When I stumbled across an online article in HR Square that referred to a study done by The Ladders, my feeling of guilt disappeared. TheLadders used eye-tracking software to study the behaviour of 30 recruiters over a 10-week period, to see how they read resumes. According their research, these recruiters spend an average of six seconds before they make the initial 'fit or no fit' decision on candidates. 

6 seconds…. that is the blink of an eye. You might think that we are a lazy bunch, disrespectful of the time that you have put into writing your cv. And maybe you are right, we often don’t pay attention to the effort that you have put in. But given the large number of resumes a headhunter receives every day, it might be wiser to use that information to your advantage and give us what we are looking for. So here is what you can take away from the research and my years of going through cv’s:

·       Use a clear and concise format. Ensure that your layout is well organized and has a strong visual hierarchy. A cluttered cv makes it more difficult to find information and evaluate your profile. 

·       Use the space between your name and your last position to highlight your skills and what you have to offer. When you are applying spontaneously, use it to indicate the type of position that you are looking for.

·       Adjust your cv to the positions that you are interested in. If you are looking for a technically-oriented position, make sure that your technical skills are clearly showing. If you are focusing on a leadership position, use the summary to describe your style and your approach to people management. Highlight your achievements with data and figures.

·       Start with your latest working experience. Although a chronological order, starting with your education and first jobs might appear more logical, chances are that we will never get to the experience that is truly useful.

·       When you have more than 20 years of experience, it can prove to be difficult to be concise in showing what you have to offer. You can use an executive summary to highlight your USP’s and provide further detail on responsibilities in an annex.

·       Review your cv carefully for spelling and grammar. For some odd reason, spelling errors tend to pop out, even with the blink of an eye.

Whether you like it or not, truth of the matter remains that we don’t read a cv from beginning to end, we scan it looking for specific information. Your resume gives us a glance of who you are and what experience you have to offer. Put this information on a platter and use your six seconds to make an impression.

If you need any assistance or if you want a review of your cv, don’t hesitate to contact me.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Isabel

Through a personalized and tailor-made approach, Ingenium Executive Search aspires to assist you in attracting the right talent that matches the DNA of your company

Check out our website http://www.ingenium-search.be

Follow me on Twitter @IngeniumSearch