Don’t Discount Your International Experience

I’m always surprised when international clients, whether based in the U.S. or abroad, try to diminish their international experience on their resumes.

That’s because in many cases, international experience is a benefit.

In fact, follow the work of Heidrick & Struggles CEO L. Kevin Kelly and you’ll find that his suggestion that cultural quotient, or CQ, is as important as IQ and EQ in today’s increasingly global economy.

(Google “Davos 2013: End of the expat model and the start of the Cultural Quotient model” for an insightful article that copyright doesn’t allow me to include here. Readers of my blog would do well to follow Heidrick & Struggles on LinkedIn, Twitter, and elsewhere.)

Indeed, if you’ve lived, worked, or traveled internationally–depending on your professional seniority–that’s experience that can set you apart as international companies look at global growth.

In my practice, I often find that people with international experience, however, try to Americanize their histories. To downplay their international backgrounds.

Consider these clues from my practice. International clients routinely:

I Love Ya LinkedIn, But Something’s Amiss

Either recruiters have gotten lazy, or there’s a new LinkedIn function in use that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Thursday, I received an email from a recruiter that in ordinary circumstances would be accompanied by at least a slightly customized note.

Instead, I was left to guess why I was sent an unsolicited job description calling for a healthcare industry tech writer.

Um. Hmm.

First, I had to deduce what it was.

Second, I wasn’t the right target.

I suspect that the content and skills I have on my profile somehow ranked in a set of parameters that brought me to the recruiter’s attention.

Good.

While I’m not looking to abandon my executive résumé writing practice, it’s nice being considered.

Can You Introduce Me to Your Recruiter Friends?

From time to time, clients ask if I will consider introducing them to my friends who are still recruiting. 

It’s a logical question because we’ve usually just spent a solid 3-5 weeks aiming for an upcoming job search, whether imminent or a year from now — which may involve recruiters.

There’s nothing I’d rather do than make those connections, but I’ve never made one that I can remember. Even when I was still in search and moonlighting as a résumé writer, I never crossed the two audiences.

Here’s why.

My connections are in the retained executive search world, which means they are looking outwardly for ideal candidates. They generally don’t announce positions. They’re hired to find people through their own sophisticated research and outbound headhunting efforts.

Retained executive search consultants are looking for people who are happy in their current positions, and for whom something new might be of interest. (This is why it’s smart to take recruiter calls.) In fact, those happy potential candidates are often so happy where they are, that they’re not expecting the call, and the art of recruiting becomes essential in engaging them in the first place. As the retained search recruiter, you have to demonstrate the match because your candidate is likely not looking to move.

What’s a Recruiter Looking For? (If I Had a Nickel)

Look familiar?

For us to stop asking that question, that’s what!

If you want to keep spinning in job search circles, keep asking that question.

If you want to send a recruiter leaping into the nearest river (and who doesn’t every now and then), keep asking that question.

What’s a recruiter looking for?

Only s/he knows because only s/he has access to the pile of work on his or her plate.

Somewhere along the way job seeking turned into recruiter mongering. People loathe recruiters until they need a job. Then they want to pal around, not unlike the theater geek turned movie star. (“Hey, didn’t we hang out in high school?”)

The truth is, recruiting is match-making and recruiters are doing a job. If they do their job right, they’ll keep match-making. If they do it wrong, they’ll soon be looking for their own next adventure.

So what’s a recruiter looking for?

(Again with that question!)

Here’s the big answer: