WHICH HIGH-END RESUME BOARDS SHOULD EXECS USE?

QUESTION:
I'm currently the VP of applications development for a large financial 
institution in northern Virginia. I have more than 20 years of IT 
experience and currently manage a staff of more than 130 technical 
workers with a $16 million budget.

I would like to conduct a CIO or CTO job search, but I don't have much 
time to devote to it given my current level of responsibilities.

I know there are many Internet resume posting sites for IT careers, but 
they appear to be targeted at technical level positions. Are there any 
good resume posting sites specifically designed for IT executive 
positions such as CIO or CTO?

REPLY:
Before you use any of the resume posting sites, consider this report 
from Forrester Research: Of folks online who landed a job last year, 4 
percent did so through online resume/job boards. This simple fact is 
ignored almost conspiratorially by the recruitment advertising industry 
that brings you the "resume boards." (Twenty-three percent of job 
hunters found jobs through print classifieds, and I'm not a fan of the 
classifieds either. Forty percent found jobs through personal contacts. 
That should tell you something.)

I don't know about you, but I think 4 percent is somewhere below 
chance. And any company that relies on a job board (no matter how 
exclusive) to hire someone at your level is, well, out of its mind.

Don't blame your busy schedule for your career woes. You must make 
time. What may surprise you is what constitutes "job hunting." It's not 
just scouring ads or mailing resumes. You don't really need to allocate 
large chunks of "special time" to it. The best form of job hunting 
involves talking to others in your industry as peers, not as potential 
employers. This can be done in the course of doing your regular job. 
Contacts are what it's all about.

Switch your antenna to a different frequency. Don't seek jobs. Seek 
good contacts. Seek good companies. Once you've done that, find out 
what challenges and problems they face. Then suggest how you can tackle 
these in conversation. That's how execs land great jobs, through other 
executive level contacts, not through resumes or job sites.

A great place to meet others at your level is right under your nose: 
TechRepublic. This isn't just a technology site. It's a wealth of 
contacts. Don't use the site so much to scan for jobs; use it to meet 
people who can introduce you to your companies of choice.

Best, 
Nick Corcodilos 
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