By Steve McKinney. President

McKinney Consulting Inc. 

Career Accelerator Tips

The economy is showing signs of recovery and the search for executives globally has been on the rise for the past six months. Has your cell phone been ringing with more offers?

Why is it that some people get more calls than others? Could it possibly be that they are better individuals? Or, could it simply be that they are better prepared to take the call(s). One of the important takeaways on this issue is to be prepared now for today’s opportunities.

Consider the following six tips if your cell phone is not ringing as often as you think it should be. Read on

1. Self-assessment
One simple method of doing a self-assessment is to identify up to 10 of your most successful achievements. Look into the past for these and go back as far as you like. Write these achievements down describing what each achievement was, how you did it and what the results were. From these achievements you should be able to extract 4 to 6 common success factors that appear more often.

A pattern will begin to develop as you realize that regardless of the achievement and where it came from you normally use the same 4 to 6 success factors to achieve personal success. Thus, when considering other opportunities you should consider if the opportunity would allow you to use your success factors or not. Armed with this information you are better prepared to develop the other tools suggested in this article.

2. Resume or curriculum vitae
Prepare an updated professionally written resume or curriculum vitae. Tons of articles and books have been written on the subject. Seek these tools and use them. Have someone else review your resume and ask them to be honest with you about the quality and appearance. Never lie on your resume. Someone that knows you very well should be able to look at your resume and say, ‘Yes that’s you alright.” Over embellishment or understating your credentials are not desirable. Quality content trumps length on any day of the week.

3. Cover Letter
Craft a well thought out cover letter that can be easily modified to the situation. The final cover letter should be short with no more than a couple of paragraphs and tailored precisely to the reader and the position being considered.

4. 60 Second Commercial
Develop and memorize a 60 second commercial about yourself that you can deliver on a moment’s notice. In the process of developing this 60 second commercial about yourself, you will be forced to think and learn how to express your thoughts more clearly and precisely. It’s not easy to talk about yourself without sounding like you are boasting. However, it is possible with some practice.

5. Reference List
Prepare a list of references with complete information on their professional and contact information etc. This information, prepared in advance will be just one of your tools that you will be able to recover quickly.

6. Social Media Profile
Keep your on-line social media profile up to date (For example Linkedin). More and more hiring managers are double checking a potential employee’s on-line profiles for accuracy and consistency. They will also check for any indication of what kind of personality etc. that you may have. 

Think of these tips as career accelerators. Some times we cannot control when we need to make a job change. These tips should enable you to respond more rapidly and effectively to personal, career and business opportunities. When the cell phone does ring you will be better prepared to take the call and capitalize on the opportunity.

For supplemental material on this topic, read these articles on www.mckinneyconsulting.com.

Patterns of Success, and CEO of Your Own Career.

Steven B. McKinney is the Founder & President of McKinney Consulting, Inc., with over 20 years combined leadership experience globally within executive search, business consulting, branded athletic footwear and multiple board positions. He has a refined expertise in helping multinational companies and leaders succeed in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. McKinney has had many published articles and is a frequent guest speaker. He is also a Certified Master Coach and member of the International Coaching Council. He can be contacted at: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it     The author on Linkedin

McKinney Consulting is a Retained Executive Search & Consulting firm based in Seoul, South Korea and was established in 2001. McKinney specializes in placing bi-lingual middle to senior level executives. McKinney Consulting is a member of The Worldwide Association for Retained Executive Search Consulting Firms (AESC).