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Perfect Pitch for the Financial Times
I made the front page of the FT's Executive Appointments section today, sharing my experiences on how executives can hone their pitching skills to open doors to new appointments.
As an executive, your success in securing an appointment rests upon your ability to convey your value to a business succinctly, specifically and impactfully. You represent a far greater strategic and financial risk to a business than a regular employee, and of course a far greater reward for the value that you add. How you get that across through networking activities, chance meetings and formal interviews depends totally on your ability to create and deliver a compelling and engaging pitch.
How to establish credibility quickly in a new job
City AM has just run an article helping readers to build credibility quickly when moving into a new job. My contribution to the article is on the importance of listening, and not just taking eveything on board that everyone says to you...
"Paul Boross aka the Pitch Doctor, managing director of Blue Sky and author of Pitch Up, says the activity you should be focusing on is listening. “If you’re in a managerial role, some staff will take the opportunity to show the new boss how wonderful they are, while neglecting to mention their poor track record,” he says. “Others will take the chance to air old grievances, hoping that a naive new manager will take action. One of the greatest challenges for a new manager is to demonstrate credibility through listening without being swayed by opinions."
If staff see you being 'taken in' by the gossip-mongers and shirkers, you learn nothing and lose credibility in the process. Listen to everyone, but make up your own mind. And once you've made your mind up, stick to it! There's nothing worse than a new manager who changes his mind whenever the political wind changes direction.
The Interview Techniques your Career Advisor Never Told You
I've been sharing some of my tips from my latest book, Pitch Up!, with the people over at Simply Hired.
You can read the full story on their blog:
http://blog.simplyhired.com/2013/04/the-interview-techniques-your-career-advisor-never-told-you.html
The Interview Techniques your Career Advisor Never Told You Read more on the Simply Hired Blog: http://blog.simplyhired.com/201
I've been sharing some of my tips from my latest book, Pitch Up!, with the people over at Simply Hired.
You can read the full story on their blog:
http://blog.simplyhired.com/2013/04/the-interview-techniques-your-career-advisor-never-told-you.html
The Twesume
In February, Enterasys, a Boston network-infrastructure firm, decided to exclusively recruit for a social media marketing position using Twitter. The firm promoted the position via tweets and only accepted candidates who tweeted their interest using the hashtag #socialCV. Among the requirements for candidates: More than 1,000 active Twitter followers.
Having narrowed the field down to about 15 finalists, Vala Afshar, Enterasys' chief marketing officer, says he's convinced Twitter recruiting is the way to go. "I am fairly certain I am going to abandon the résumé process," he says. "The Web is your CV and social networks are your references."
Jocelyn Lai, a talent acquisition manager for advertising firm GSD&M in Austin, Texas, says she regularly uses Twitter to get a sense of a candidate. "I watch people interact, learn what their positions are, who their best friends on Twitter are, whether they have a sense of humor. From that you can get a pretty good picture," she says.
I think that this echoes very nicely what I've said in Pitch Up!
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