A Simple Research Plan for Executive Job Search Success, Part 2 of 5

Step 2. Identify the Right Industry

Your job function might have correlates across multiple industries, so you might believe you can fit almost anywhere. This might be true, but that is a hard sell and nearly impossible to convey in a properly constructed resume or during an interview. Your resume needs to target your assets relative to a particular industry. Your interview needs to convey your experience so that a hiring executive sees the solution to his or her problems in your experience. Thus, you need to determine which industry, or which sub-industry, into which you will best fit and in which you will feel most rewarded.

Explicitly describe the industry into which you best fit to advance your executive career.

Your Plan: Look at your current industry broadly to evaluate whether you still fit into it. Then determine whether additional industries might be more compelling to you as well.

• Does your current industry provide sufficient interest for you to continue in it?
• Are you finding the right challenges on a broad level?
• Are there interesting problems that you can solve?
• Are your ethics aligned with the success of your industry?
• Do you believe that you can contribute over the long term to the success of your industry?
• Have you explored other industries that might capture your interest? If so, you need to figure out what is interesting about them. Do some research online, or, better yet, build out your network to include people in those industries, so you can get an insider’s view of the way the industry works.

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