Making Relevant Connections

For executive job seekers, social media—especially LinkedIn—presents a powerful tool for landing high-level positions. Instead of solely relying on job boards or recruiters, executives can take a proactive approach to networking by connecting directly with decision-makers inside their target companies. This strategy often leads to interviews and opportunities that are not publicly advertised. Endeavor helps executives optimize their LinkedIn profiles as part of our job-finding and career changing services. Below are a few basic ways of just how we support executives and professionals with their LinkedIn profiles.

Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile

Before reaching out to anyone, ensure your LinkedIn profile reflects your personal brand as an executive leader. Your profile needs to communicate not just your skills, but also your vision and the value you bring to an organization.

• Headline: Instead of just listing your current job title, use the space to summarize your value.
• Summary: Focus on accomplishments, leadership style, and your vision for where you're headed.
• Skills & Endorsements: Make sure the skills most relevant to your target roles are listed at the top. Endorsements from respected peers will give further credibility.
• Recommendations: Request recommendations from senior colleagues, board members, or clients that highlight your leadership and strategic abilities.
• Banner: Use the banner space in your profile to your advantage. Use an eye-catching graphic.
• Image: Get a current headshot for your profile. People like seeing people and having an updated profile image gives you an advantage over those who have no profile image.

Clients of Endeavor Agency have a Nationally Certified Online Profile Expert (NCOPE) on their side who will help them create an updated headshot, optimized profile, and new banner for their profiles.

Identify Key Decision Makers Within Target Companies

The next step is to identify individuals inside the companies you’re targeting. This might include people in the talent acquisition or recruiting department, but more importantly, direct managers, executives, or department heads who could be your peers or bosses. The executive career coaching experts at Endeavor Agency teach clients how to find these people quickly to help them save time in their job search.

Build Relationships Quickly

When you’re targeting executive roles, it’s essential to build relationships quickly, but politely, to land an interview.

• Send a Connection Request: It’s not difficult to invite someone to connect on LinkedIn whom you don’t know. About half of the people you invite to connect will accept your invitation within about a week. This allows you to go straight to the people you want to target right away without needing to go through other people.
• Leverage Mutual Connections: If the targeted person does not accept your invitation to connect right away and you have a mutual connection with the person, don’t hesitate to ask for an introduction. A warm introduction can go a long way in establishing trust and making your outreach feel less cold.
• Staying Active: After connecting with the contact, you are able to send them a message directly on LinkedIn. You can also usually see their other contact information by clicking on the “Contact info” link found below their name on the LinkedIn profile. This provides you even more ways to reach out to the targeted person.

Develop Your Outreach Message for Your Job Search

Once the connection is established, you can move on to a more direct and professional message. The key is to position yourself as someone curious and enthusiastic about the company. Also, your message should convey you can bring value, without making it all about asking for a job right away.

Your message should:

• Be Brief: Busy executives don’t have time to read long messages.
• Be Professional but Warm: Convey interest in both the company and the individual’s work.
• Add Value: Mention briefly (one sentence) how you connect/add value to the company. Don’t try to sell yourself in a multi-sentence pitch. They will simply delete it in most cases.
• Ask for a Time to Visit on a Video or Phone Call: Mention how your experience or skills align with the company’s needs.

Endeavor’s expert career coaches help our clients craft these types of messages regularly to aid in their job search.

Use LinkedIn’s InMail Wisely

LinkedIn InMail can be a valuable tool, but it needs to be used strategically. If you’re sending InMail to someone you don’t know, ensure it’s highly personalized and to the point. Executives are often overwhelmed with unsolicited messages, so standing out is key. Be specific in your ask and keep it short.

Engage Outside of LinkedIn to Improve Your Job Search

While LinkedIn is a great tool for networking, most people don’t look at their LinkedIn account every day and might go many months without doing so. Nearly everyone looks at their email daily, or even 50 times a day! Once you have identified someone on LinkedIn your Endeavor Agency team can generally help you find their email address. Email the person and ask them for a time to visit.

Polite, Persistent Follow-Up

If you’ve started a conversation or connected with someone but haven’t heard back after your initial message, don’t be discouraged. A polite follow-up message a couple of days later is perfectly acceptable, and even a third follow-up message is fine a couple of days after that. Endeavor Agency’s career counselors have helped our clients successfully write these types of messages.

Conclusion

For executive job seekers, LinkedIn and other social media platforms offer unparalleled opportunities to directly connect with decision-makers inside target companies. By optimizing your profile, strategically engaging with key contacts, and developing outreach messages, you can open doors to high-level roles that might not be advertised publicly. With persistence, the right opportunities will come.

Visit our Testimonials page for additional insight into how Endeavor Agency helps our clients land a new job.

Reach out to Endeavor Agency to schedule a free chat to further explore your executive job search situation and how we can help you.