In this, the fourth article in a series guiding IT leaders to find a role that matches both your interests and abilities, Heller CEO Martha Heller reviews three steps to market yourself – plus strategies to pursue if you want to switch industries.
You’ve defined your professional brand, and you’ve developed your marketing materials, including a business-focused resume, and a detailed LinkedIn profile. Now, you need a strategy to take yourself to market. The key to that strategy? A list of target companies and a pipeline of contacts to connect you with those targets.
Here are the three steps to marketing yourself successfully.
1. Define your market
When we ask IT executives to describe their dream job, they do not always give a great answer. “I’m up for anything,” is not a strategy. Decide which industries you want to target, the size range of the company you want to work for, and your preferences for specific geographies.
Tip: Imagine you have a magic wand to conjure up an hour with the one CEO who needs you – because of your specific knowledge and experiences -- to transform. That’s the beginning of your target networking list. Add 20 more CEOs, and now you have a strategy.
How can you articulate that strategy clearly? Let recruiters know you’re looking for a position at a global manufacturer with headquarters in the Midwest or a mid-sized retailer in the South, and it will be easier for them to identify you as a candidate when those opportunities cross their desks.
2. Build your pipeline
Take that CEO list and open it up to an ever-growing list of company targets. Chances are you know someone who knows someone who knows a decision-maker at every one of those companies. Send a few e-mails each day (or LinkedIn InMail messages). Or pick up the phone and reach out the old-fashioned way to the contacts you know the best.
Be sure to include your vendor contacts among your early outreach efforts. Vendor reps typically have extensive networks, and they understand better than most the importance of helping their contacts. They know they can make a friend for life (and a potential new client) if they help you find a new position.
If you are short on contacts in your preferred industry or location, there’s nothing wrong with sending e-mail inquiries or making cold calls to the heads of HR at the companies on your target list. If one of those companies has a need for a new IT leader, they are likely to put you in touch with the recruiter who is conducting the search.
3. Adapt your pitch to each target employer.
Every company has distinct needs. As you’re targeting companies, gather as much information as you can about what kind of CIO they’re really looking for. Then you can determine whether you would be a good fit, and if you are, you can highlight the right skills.
Many companies say they’re looking for strategists and innovators. But they may need a lot of transformation work before they’re at the point where AI can be a strategic contributor. Or you may learn that your target company must get its IT costs under control before it can invest more in business process innovation. Suppose your target company is also struggling with its infrastructure costs or outsourcing contracts – you’ll know to include your experience with negotiating contracts and managing outsourcers among the skills you emphasize when talking with this company.
When Your Target Job Is in a Different Industry
If you’re tired of the challenges facing your industry, or you simply want to work in a market that is growing rather than shrinking, you may want to switch. Industry switching has spikes and valleys, but with AI, business process is knowledge, and the ability to understand how work flows, is in serious vogue. That doesn’t mean you can’t switch industries, but your potential CEO will need to know that the deficit will not be a liability.
First: Focus on the late adopters in your target industry.
If you’ve just implemented a strategic AI initiative, or completed another major transformation, a company outside of your industry that has plans to do the same may give more weight to that experience and care less about your lack of industry expertise.
Second: Follow the vendors.
Suppose you’re an expert in having teams across the enterprise adopt AI in their business processes or can boast of another transformative achievement. Talk to the vendors you know well about the industries they are targeting and identify companies in those markets in which you can concentrate your job search efforts.
Third: Find or create common ground between you and your new target industry.
Retail, restaurants, and hotels have plenty of differences, but they have a key similarity: they are all focused on the consumer. You should emphasize your consumer background to move from one consumer-focused industry to another. But if you’re a hospital CIO who wants to work in banking, you’re making a big leap. You might be better off joining a health insurance company for a few years first because it’s easier to move from insurance to financial services.
Another tactic that works for some CIOs is to do pro bono work for a foundation or trade group in your target industry. That kind of work will help you develop relevant relationships and industry knowledge.
