This is a guest post from Georgina Stamp of Marble Hill Partners, an executive search firm.

There comes a time in our careers when many of us may wish to branch out in different professional directions. Regardless of our motivations, attracting the attention of an executive headhunter is an excellent way to help propel our career prospects forward to the next level. So, let us have a quick look at five sure-fire methods that can help you become noticed in the headhunting community.

Who you know is just as important as what you know.

Networking is one of the most powerful tools to help increase your exposure in the professional community. The more contacts you make, the more likely you will be to cross paths with a headhunter or an executive search firm. While traditional methods such as attending industry-specific meetings are undeniably important, utilising such executive networking sites such as LinkedIn and BranchOut are excellent ways to proactively market yourself to a vast number of connections.

Industry Recognition

Simply boasting that you are highly motivated and a team player is no longer enough in the executive search industry. You need to remember that headhunters will normally seek out a potential candidate who is well-versed in a very specific field. The more recognition you are able to acquire in your area of interest, the more likely it will be that a headhunter will take notice.

Endorsements are Key

While networking is indeed a powerful tool for heightened recognition, contacts alone are insufficient. Instead, you need to proactively seek out endorsements from colleagues and associates in the industry itself. Even former employers should be contacted, for their willingness to vouch for your skills will display to headhunters that not only are you respected in your current field, but you also maintain a high level of integrity and value past relationships.

Utilise the Power of the Media

Positioning your name above a well-written and innovative article is another way to draw positive attention to yourself. Executive search firms will take notice of those who are actively engaged in their own professional communities. Blog posts are a good place to begin, but mediums such as trade publications or industry journals are more appropriately targeted and likely to be perused by a wider audience.

Locate a Mentor

Industry mentors will often have a great deal of experience in their field and possess a large number of contacts. In fact, they may very well be able to open doors that would have been previously inaccessible. They can offer a great deal of hands-on advice and simultaneously provide a powerful recommendation should the need arise.

These five simple tips can help guarantee that you receive the correct amount of targeted exposure in the executive search industry. By following this advice, that perfect change of professional pace may be closer than you think!

Georgina Stamp has worked in the interim managers industry for a number of years and understands the difficulty in finding executive talent for organisations. She currently works for Marble Hill Partners, who help to search for executive candidates.

Did you know?

• 80 percent of available jobs are never advertised
• The average number of applications submitted per post is 118
• 20 percent of job applicants get interviews
• The average length of an interview is approximately 40 minutes
• The average time a candidate waits for a decision on an open job is 24 hours to 2 weeks
• 42 percent of professionals in the US are uncomfortable negotiating

This infographic, compiled by Interview Success Formula, a program that helps job seekers to deliver powerful interview answers, illustrates how job seekers can navigate through the job search today and how to do well in the process. Some takeaways to note include:

Check out the full infographic here.

Make time for face time.

If you routinely work from home, it becomes increasingly important to strategically plan opportunities for face time Don’t participate in every staff meeting virtually or close down other opportunities to interact with your peers. A good deal of relationship building stems from these types of interactions. The same could be said for projects you may be working on as part of a team…just because you have the opportunity to manage your projects virtually doesn’t mean you don’t need to meet with colleagues to discuss aspects of those projects. Face time can solidify trust and credibility and help you forge relationships that might be beneficial for leveraging important resources and staff for future projects.

Take on tasks that offer opportunities to interact with colleagues and decision makers.

This could be as simple as planning an office event or as complex as managing a strategic business initiative. Seek out experiences that require cross functional engagement and require phone interactions instead of email.

Document your accomplishments.

Telecommuters run the risk of “falling off the radar” because they are not a constant presence in the office. Document your accomplishments regularly so you can keep your boss in the loop and so you have a strong record of achievement to draw from during performance review time. By consistently showcasing your productivity through your accomplishments, you help support your case for your telecommuting arrangement.

Become a part of an employer affinity group.

Many employers have affinity groups based on gender, race or ethnicity. Being a member of such groups can help the telecommuter stay connected to colleagues across business groups and build strong relationships with others who may be key influencers in future decisions for filling internal roles.

1. Arrive at the interview destination 10-15 minutes early. Cutting it too close to the scheduled time or showing up late gives the impression you are unreliable. You may need the extra few minutes to go through a security check or wait on a long line in the company’s lobby to receive an entrance pass.  Or you may need the time to find a parking spot. But don’t arrive too early. Arriving 30 or more minutes before your appointment time can make the hiring manager uncomfortable.
2. Turn off your cell phone. This shows courtesy and demonstrates that the meeting is very important to you.
3. Pay attention to your body language. Maintain eye contact (without having a creepy stare), lean a bit forward rather than back, keep your arms uncrossed (crossed arms may subtly communicate you are not approachable) and avoid distracting behaviors like change jingling and hair twirling.
4. Ask questions. An interview should be a conversation, not an interrogation. Asking questions helps build the rapport and trust between a candidate and hiring manager and it helps the candidate uncover valuable information about the employer’s needs. It is best to ask questions during the interview rather than at the end.
5. Reiterate your interest in the job. Make sure you let the hiring manager know that you are very interested in the job and reiterate why you are a good fit.

All of these behaviors help suggest your interest and enthusiasm for the position and help position you as a strong candidate.

1. Your SAT or GMAT scores
2. Your dated GPA from 10+ years ago or the fact that you graduated cum laude
3. The fact that you are an Eagle Scout
4. A hobbies list that reads “Enjoy reading, writing and travel”
5. The study abroad program you completed in 1999
6. A technology section that references that you know how to use the Internet
7. Your marital status or the number of kids you have
8. Names of references and their phone numbers
9. Your past salaries
10. Obscure languages that are unlikely to be relevant to the job requirement

1. Be able to articulate your value proposition to an employer from a 40,000 foot view. Focus on three key strengths that are relevant to the employer and prove those strengths by sharing a story of success that demonstrates each of these key competencies. Most employers believe past performance is a good indicator of future success so this is a very effective strategy for building trust with the hiring manager.
2.  Be specific. When answering questions, point to specific situations rather than general information about your abilities. For example, if you are asked about your communication skills, don’t just state that you have strong written and oral skills; instead showcase an example of when you used these skills to articulate your vision or persuade your audience.
3.  Be quantitative. Whenever possible, point to a specific measurement to prove how you have done things smarter, faster or more efficiently. For example, rather than saying you cut costs, improved sales, or streamlined a process, discuss the before and after and associated metrics such as cut costs by 30% in 18 months, grew sales 10% year over year for 5 consecutive years or eliminated hundreds of man hours by retooling a cumbersome process.
4.  Be authentic. Don’t spin a weakness into a strength; if asked if you have ever made a mistake or failed at something, showcase a genuine story that acknowledges a mistake, points to what you learned from the experience and references how you would do things differently if you were hired by this employer.
5.  Be proactive. Before the end of the interview, ask what the next steps in the hiring process are and reiterate your interest in the positions and the reasons you believe you are a good fit.

Whether you own your own business or you are looking for your next job, being known in your professional niche is important. Too many job seekers expect to gain recognition and secure opportunities just by plastering their resume on umpteen job boards. But employers want to interview candidates where there is some previous connection; through another employee of the company, an affinity group, or now more than ever, through social media.

Many job seekers will spend hours posting their resume on line but claim they have “no time” for social media. We all make time to brush our teeth, bathe, and eat. These are necessities we do every day and social media is no different. In less than 15 minutes a day, you can take some steps towards creating a more robust and effective social media strategy that can in turn help you better manage your career or land your next gig. Here are a few suggestions.

1. Brand or be branded. It’s easy to create a profile on LinkedIn or a bio on Google+  or ZoomInfo. If you don’t take control of your online presence, any information about you online will be aggregated by the search engines and that information may or may not truly represent your professional self. Why leave this important task to chance? Create profiles on multiple business and social networking and identity sites to manage your online identity and protect your professional brand.
2. Say less to achieve more. Twitter is perhaps the most powerful example of this concept. Saying more doesn’t make what you say better. We are no longer in high school where we are required to write a 500-word essay. Today’s reader wants a quick and compelling message (generally in 140 characters or less). Use sites like Twitter to give people bite sized pieces of important information that demonstrate your expertise and commitment to your profession. Consistency, not verbosity is the key.
3. Be nice. Social media may be bringing back manners one post at a time. It’s the perfect forum for letting people know you are listening to them and appreciate what they have to say. By retweeting information on Twitter or “liking” a post on Facebook, you are letting people know you value what they write about while remaining on their radar.
4. Find evangelists. Spreading your message of value is a great strategy for building up your social media capital, but think about the implications of having multiple people spreading that message every day through blog posts, tweets, Facebook shares, and LinkedIn updates.
5. Be lazy. If you have something to say there is nothing wrong with spreading that message across multiple online platforms that attract multiple audiences. A blog post you write can quickly be turned into an article, a presentation, a tweet, or a LinkedIn status update. Repurposing doesn’t diminish the value of your message; it simply solidifies it.

The moral of the story here is that we each need to take ownership of our own online identity and social media destiny and build platforms that we ultimately control. This might be a personal website  where we share our professional persona or a blog where we engage with others and build a community…but on our own terms. Sites like About.me and Weebly are good places to start if you want to build a web page and WordPress and Typepad allow you to build a hybrid web and blog page. I’m certainly not suggesting that you abandon your social media profiles; I’m simply suggesting that you create alternatives should a platform’s terms of service change and no longer offer value to you.

The systems are so temperamental that they can screen an applicant out because their previous job titles don’t exactly match the title the company is recruiting for, the sections of the applicant’s resume don’t lay out in the same way the system is programmed to read the resume, or the applicant doesn’t have a supposedly “preferred requirement” like an MBA. When I read about the so called “skills gap” that employers complain about and the millions of open jobs that aren’t getting filled because of it, I have to wonder. Maybe the skills gap lies with the employers  relying on a flawed talent sourcing process. Or the employee who writes what are generally inarticulate, useless job postings that everyone and their mother appears qualified for  because we all think we are great communicators and team players. Perhaps if employers invested more time in the front end by writing clearer job specs they would deter some of the applicants that apply to everything under the sun because they appear qualified based on the vague description.

If the online world was so perfect, we’d source everything that way…our accountants, doctors, hairstylists, friends, mates…yes I know there are some exceptions to this but for the most part, people source products and services (and yes, friends and mates) through people they trust or relationships that are built over time. Would you continue to do business with a company that never acknowledged your concerns? Would you maintain a friendship with someone who never returned your calls? No, you wouldn’t. So why would you bother to put up with an applicant tracking system?

My colleague, Kathy Hansen just released an excellent report about ATS that sums up the multitude of issues with them and you can read it here.