Today, I spoke with Caroline Ceniza-Levine, who is a career coach, writer, speaker, Gen-Y expert and co-founder of SixFigureStart. In this interview, Caroline talks to us about how executives are google’d before interviews, what executives can do after a layoff, and much more.
Caroline, is it true that executives will be googled before a job interview?
Yes, executives will be googled and not just executives. College admissions offices look at online profiles as part of student applications, so even pre-career your branding matters. For executives, recruiters and prospective employers will absolutely look at online profiles and will also be using online sites such as LinkedIn to find candidates in the first place.
“Remember: All networking contacts may look, not just prospective employers.”
So if you are trying to get even an informational interview, it helps to have an engaging profile. People have limited time so they will check you out before consenting to even an informational meeting. Google yourself to see what’s out there. Place a Google Alert on your name (and your company’s name if you have a business) so you can keep abreast of what is being written about you.
If an executive get’s laid off, what are their next steps to recover?
That’s a long question. We do entire workshops on how to handle a layoff and move forward. In a nutshell, take stock of your cash position – you need to know how long you have for your search, or if you will need to be looking for a short-term money solution (temp work, consulting) while you conduct a search for that long-term job. You want to launch your search as quickly as possible so that you have time for a thoughtful, proactive search. Too many people take time off and then start their search once they’ve already used up a significant portion of savings and/or severance, putting undue time pressure on themselves.
Do you think all executives should blog? Why or why not?
Blogging is a great way to establish your expertise. I have often recommended to my career changing clients especially that they blog about their target industry and functional area. This way they have a venue to showcase their credibility and have samples of their ideas. Blogging also forces the jobseeker to follow that subject and stay on the cutting edge of it.
That said, a public blog is public for all. So you need to be careful about what you write – that it is in a voice that is professional, that the content is intelligent, that you are not revealing
confidential information.
Can you name an executive with a strong brand name and what makes them unique?
The well-branded executives that people will have heard of are the business leaders/ CEOs who have published and/ or travel the lecture circuit. So, Jack Welch has a strong leadership brand and has written a book and conducted speeches related to that. Danny Meyer is famous for hospitality and similarly has a book and lectures about hospitality/ service. When I was a recruiter, I also saw more junior professionals brand themselves with good resumes, online profiles, conference keynotes, published reports or white papers, and mentions in the press. A great way to get on a recruiter’s radar is to publish, speak or be quoted as an expert.
How have you built your personal brand over time?
My brand has evolved over time and is associated with the career changes I have made: from classical pianist to management consultant to retained recruiter to actor to corporate HR to entrepreneur. My current firm SixFigureStart focuses on Gen-Y, so my branding via writing and speaking is targeted to that population and its constituents (schools, parents, etc).
The career change piece and Gen-Y focus are not mutually exclusive, as evidenced in my career blog for Vault.com, which focuses on nontraditional search tactics for the student jobseeker (my own eclectic background provides a firsthand starting point for the atypical search tactics). In this way, I try to maintain a consistent message while still using all of my unique and varied experiences. I give the same advice to my clients – to be authentic and accepting of all the different aspects of your background.
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Caroline Ceniza-Levine is a career coach, writer, speaker, Gen-Y expert and co-founder of SixFigureStart, and has 16 years of experience in professional services as a management consultant and executive and corporate recruiter. Most recently, Caroline was Head of University Relations for Time Inc. She has also recruited for Disney ABC, TV Guide, Accenture, Booz Allen & Hamilton, Pfizer and Citigroup. Caroline is a career columnist for CNBC.com, Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com, Vault.com, Wetfeet.com and The GlassHammer and teaches Professional Development at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs. Caroline is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University.
