www.Executivejobsearch.net
John Seraichyk - Executive Jobs Guy - Executive Career Search consultant drills deep to match a client with a new job. John Seraichyk's Beginnings In the Executive Career Search Business 1990 - 2016
In 1990 I was laid off. I showed up at work one day and my boss called me into his office and said, “Today’s your last day.”
We had just bought a new house, I had one child and another on the way. I was unable to find a job in computer programming. One morning I had an epiphany — I was going to help college graduates find jobs. I placed a $19 ad in The Providence Journal. It was, about, three lines. The next day my phone rang off the hook.
I didn’t exactly know how I was going to help them find their first job. Maybe it was just going to be a resumé. The first young man showed up at my house. We sat at my dining room table. He said, “What are you going to do for me?” and I said, “I don’t know, but you and me are going to do this. We’re going to work this thing.” I charged him $25 and he ended up at Amica. He’s still there today.
It really took off.
If I could do this with college kids — people with no experience — imagine what I could do for someone with a resumé, with credentials. So the demographic I work with today is the mid- to high-level executive — 250k plus. But I still love to offer advice to the college grad when he calls.
I never get the easy job searches. Most of my clients are accomplished people who know how to get things done and they’re not always ready to reach out for help. They look at their credentials and say, “I don’t need to hire anyone.” By the time they come to me, they’re in a bit of a quandary.
Some people start their job search six months into an eight-month severance package. That person should come to me on day one. The minute the employment history on your resumé no longer reads “present,” your market value begins to decline. So who has the upper hand when you’re sitting there with a potential employer?
I tell people to expect the process to take three to five months, but we often make it happen in less time. Or it might be an even longer road to success, with lots of ups and downs. The problem with many folks at the high end of compensation — like multimillion — is that they often don’t really need to work. They need to work emotionally but not monetarily. They’re not living paycheck to paycheck. It’s hard to focus them, to make them stay on track. “It’s not right for me — I need to hold out for something better.” The seven-figure client can be pretty selective.
Is it easier to work with someone who is desperate? Absolutely. The more they need new employment, the more focused they are in getting from A to B, and they know they need to get there sooner rather than later. They need to replace that 200k now. Their lifestyle reflects that salary.
I try to look at my client through the eyes of an employer: What does the employer see? We need to identify the liabilities. Maybe you’ve been out of work for five months. That’s a liability. How are we going to handle that? I’ll bring you through a series of mock interviews to identify those liabilities, ask questions about strengths and weaknesses, open-ended questions about areas of expertise. I really drill deep. If it ain’t broke, we don’t fix it, but if there are things that need work, we confront them. I call it verbal judo.
I won’t take on more than three clients at any given time. A client has my cell-phone number, and I’m available seven days a week. When we pull the trigger on this job search, we go, and we don’t stop until we’re done.
Our definition of success is our ability to clearly define what your career goals are, what your job search criteria are, then bring you together with a potential employer for an interview. That’s all we can guarantee. We can’t guarantee a job. We can’t guarantee the outcome of those interviews. But we can guarantee that you will be meeting with companies in the right geography, talking about the right compensation. My job is to get you there.
The only good time to look for a job is when you still have one. And the day you take a new job, that’s when you start updating your resumé all over again. You always need to be looking. Keep the resumé at the ready and always be thinking about change. The unemployment rate is 9 percent. That means the employment rate is 91 percent — 91 percent of the people who want jobs in this country have jobs. And you just need one.
