Sometimes the perfect executive level job for you just doesn’t seem to exist in your area. You resolve to looking for jobs that require you to relocate thinking this will help expand your job search.

While this may be true, you soon realize there’s a special set of challenges that present themselves when trying to conduct a job search that requires relocation. Use the tips below to show recruiters that you are serious about relocating for the job.

Try Recruiters That Work Within the Company

The first step in applying for a job that requires relocation is to find recruiters who are willing to work with you. This is, unfortunately, a little more complicated than it sounds.

Local third-party recruiters may be skeptical to take you seriously as a candidate.. Reason being that their income (the fees the company is paying them) is contingent upon the candidate actually showing up to work. If the candidate needs to relocate this presents the chance that they will not come through.

The recruiters within the company may be skeptical for the similar reasons. The good news is their pay isn’t contingent upon presenting a candidate which makes them much easier to work with.

Direct recruiters (also known as corporate recruiters) may be more willing to accept your candidacy if you can provide a P.O. Box or a local address. They’ll also be more willing to help you out if you have circumstances that would help you relocate regardless of whether or not you had the job, such as family in the area.

Show Commitment to the Move

This is not the time to say something like “I’m a financial professional looking into filling your CFO position. I’m currently in California but I’m considering a relocation to New York for the position.”

If you want a job that requires relocation you must commit to it. By telling the recruiter you are “considering” relocation this only tells them that you may not be serious. As a result they will not be likely to work with you.

You must remember that recruiters aren’t really looking for candidates outside of the area so you must pursue them with confidence. Furthermore, you have an advantage – when it comes to executive level positions good candidates are hard to come by.

Rather than talking about your considerations use affirmative statements, give dates and take hold of the reigns. For instance, “I am moving to New York and I will be there on the 27th. I’d like to set up an interview for the CFO position. Here are my qualifications.”

Network in the Area

Having personal referrals gets you far when looking for a job that requires relocation. Tap into your network and see if any of your contacts know someone in the area. Connect with the recruiters on LinkedIn or see if your college has any alum in the area.

This gives you the opportunity to reach out to people directly which makes all the difference when wanting to relocate.

No job search is complete without a rock-solid, comprehensive resume which reflects the experience and expertise necessary for your desired position.  If you want to take your resume to the next level to stop recruiters in their tracks, register for our no-cost How to Design a Powerful Executive Resume to Land Interviews…Even If You’re Not An Executive Webinar, live tomorrow, Thursday, Sept 18th at 9:30am EDT.

Written by Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer

If you are interested in working with Lisa Rangel, an accomplished executive resume writer, social media profile writer and job search consultant, to achieve social media exposure and interviews you want, sign up for an exploratory call now and learn about the Chameleon Resumes services that can help you land your next role.

Although we may like to think that we are always in control of our careers, sometimes unforeseen circumstances take us for a loop. One such circumstance is that of an executive layoff. The good news is, in most cases, you should know ahead of time that you are on the executive layoff list. This gives you time to plan your next moves as an executive who now finds themselves on the job hunt. The bad news is this presents a set of challenges you were not expecting.

Use our tips on handling a layoff to make this transition as smooth as possible.

Mourn your loss.

No matter which way you slice it, a layoff can seem devastating – especially if you didn’t see it coming…even with advanced notice. Before doing anything, make sure to actually feel any emotions of frustration, sadness or anger. Simply put, you want to get it out sooner rather than later so it doesn’t affect your ability to look for work. Stuffing the feelings down and not honoring your feelings as they happen will cause havoc on your search later in the process, when the feelings escape in an unplanned manner in the form of fear, anxiety and/or gloom. Furthermore, getting the emotions out early makes it easier to answer the “Why are you looking for work?” question. While being a part of a layoff is a perfectly acceptable answer you don’t want to run the risk of showing any negative emotions when on the interview. The interview is not the time for therapy. Lastly, you’ll want to change your mindset. It’s easy to see yourself as a victim in a layoff. Unfortunately that kind of mentality won’t help you find your next job. Instead, try seeing it as a fresh slate for a new adventure. It’s a much more empowering perspective that can lead to major motivation during your new job search.

Update yourself on the latest trends.

If it’s been a while since you’ve looked for a job you may find yourself with a lot of changes. The best thing you can do is prepare yourself and research what has changed since you last looked for work. For instance, you may want to look into new technology services, hop on social media and research the latest trends in job hunting.

Start sending out feelers immediately.

If you know your time at your job is limited you’ll want to start reaching out to your contacts and send out some feelers. By letting people know that you are looking for a new job you open the door for them to help you. In fact, many jobs are found precisely because the candidate had a contact. Start with your more personal contacts, like colleagues you know well. You can then work your way into putting out feelers on LinkedIn and contacting recruiters.

Think outside of the box.

While layoffs may be a sign of a shaky economy the good news is that there is always someone looking to hire. However, this may require you to think outside of the box a bit. For instance, maybe you’ve been a sales executive for a software company for 15 years and really enjoy the art of selling. Rather than limiting yourself to only software companies try asking yourself which industry currently needs someone with your particular skill set. The reality is you can bring a lot of value to a new industry as an outsider so why not broaden the job search?

Written by Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer

Optimizing the SaaS Sales Funnel: Strong Prospecting and Negotiation Skills Are Just Part of the Process

An increasing number of business leaders around the world are now choosing to invest in cloud-based applications and services.  In fact, the global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry is thriving, with an expected 2016 Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19.5 percent.

This strong avenue for revenue means that competition is heavy in the SaaS industry, so that even the best solutions will not sell themselves.  The sales process is shifting away from sales-based marketing to primarily education-based selling.  Advanced, multichannel, content-driven strategies, now used by 93 percent of global B2B marketers, are required to connect with business leaders and influence purchases.  Here are some ways that content is being used to drive sales:

Content educates customers: Customers today want to see more than just a spec sheet before making a purchase—especially when it comes to buying software.  They want to watch videos, read blog posts and listen to podcasts.  To further inform their decisions, they also desire to see case studies and white papers about how other companies benefitted from the same solution.

Content generates leads: A great piece of content will be shared across social media channels, and will be discoverable on Google.  This attracts new leads and helps drive unique visitors to websites.  And by analyzing click rates and downloads, salespeople can analyze great prospects worth following up with a call.

Today’s high demand for content is creating a youth movement in the SaaS industry. Companies are looking for young sales professionals—primarily 26 to 34-year-olds—who have grown up accessing content on the Internet and are, therefore, more expert at social media than some of their senior counterparts.  The current market demands that these salesmen hit the ground running and reach key targets easily and quickly.

Strong selling mechanics are just a small part of the SaaS sales process.  Today’s SaaS companies are investing in young talent with the intention of molding these professionals into high-end inside sales leaders who can generate business through referrals.  In order to be considered in today’s competitive, data-driven market however, candidates must also add a few new skills to the resume: creative and technical writer; strong prospector, lead nurturer and speaker, effective cross and up-seller; and expert marketer.

As an executive recruiting firm that focuses on Executive Management, Sales, Marketing and Technical roles within Information Technology markets, J. Patrick and Associates has a firm grasp of today’s evolving SaaS industry and professional candidate pool.

Looking to fortify your team with qualified SaaS salesmen?  We can help.

Are you a candidate seeking a position in the SaaS industry that satisfies the requirements mentioned above?  Contact us today!

According to Cisco, two-thirds of all traffic moving forward will be delivered through the cloud. This makes it official: we are now in the zettabyte era of cloud technology. In fact, IDC predicts that the volume of digital content will soon increase by 48 percent to 2.7 ZB.

This practice is placing a great deal of strain on private networks. Take Netflix, for instance, which recently saw its video traffic jump 35 percent in just one year. Companies are scrambling to optimize data centers and avoid the expenses of network downtime, which can be devastating for business. As a result, more jobs are being created to accommodate growing IT infrastructure and virtualization needs, specifically in the following areas:

Cloud-based APIs: In order to accommodate rising network traffic, application programming interfaces (APIs) are being sought after in order to ensure that cloud architecture remains strong and efficient.

Software-Defined Technologies (SDN): Some of the biggest names in cloud infrastructure are now investing in virtualization—and as a result, SDN is in high demand. Cloud engineers with knowledge or expertise in this field will therefore be sought after as companies look to SDN to make some big moves in the coming months.

According to recent research, at least seven million jobs will be created over the next three years as a result of virtualization and data management needs. Data center and networking pros—as well as software engineers—will be heavily sought after as companies look to push content to the edge of the network and deliver it as quickly and effectively to end-users as possible.

With over 20 years of expertise in the Executive Management, Sales, Marketing and Technical fields, J. Patrick and Associates (JP+A) has all of the resources to help your organization find the right candidates as it prepares for the zettabyte era.  As an executive recruiting firm, we have been successfully placing IT professionals at industry-leading technology vendors, system integrators, telecom service providers and end-user organizations since 1991.  Reach out to a qualified JP+A recruiting professional today to see how we can help you assemble a talented, motivated and dedicated professional team.

Right now, there are two industries targeted for tremendous growth over the coming year: data centers and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers.  Why exactly are these two infrastructure solutions thriving?  The answer lies in the demand for insatiable access to information and big data.  More than ever before, large enterprises are now focusing on collecting, storing and transferring information.  This information needs to be transported and housed in data centers, on equipment that is scalable, optimized and efficient.  What started solely as ‘server farms’ or simple storage facilities has grown into a fixture of enterprise organizations across the globe – spurring companies to invest heavily in their physical infrastructure as well as the professionals that design, implement and manage these solutions now and in the years to come.

Take Amazon Web Services (AWS) for example, a global company serving hundreds of thousands of customers in over 190 countries.  AWS is currently “expanding its global infrastructure to help customers achieve lower latency and higher throughput.”  Additionally, Google and Oracle, two other global companies, are also experiencing rapid growth.  During the second quarter of 2013, for instance, Google invested a record $1.6 billion on its own data centers.  And Oracle has hired more than 200 employees over the past year as cloud computing continues to spread into the Middle East.

Due to the unprecedented amount of growth in data centers and IaaS, J. Patrick and Associates, a leader in telecom and IT executive recruiting, has seen a drastic rise in organizations looking for highly-skilled professionals with specialties in the physical infrastructure space such as data centers and IaaS.  Here is a look at the specific jobs that are now in demand:

Data Center Operational Managers:  As more and more data centers open up, Operational Managers are needed to oversee and manage servers and storage platforms.  Project Managers are also highly in demand for specific operations.

Cloud Experts:  Cloud migration is one of the top demands for IT executives in 2014. As more and more companies migrate to the cloud, experts are needed that can minimize backend costs and implement strong, secure cloud systems.

Experienced Open Stack Users: All signs indicate that Oracle is committed to OpenStack, as it became a sponsor of the OpenStack Foundation in December.  As more IaaS services are released, companies like Oracle will be looking for experienced users capable of managing OpenStack software and providing essential services for clients.

Network Engineers: This specifically pertains to the Network Operations Center (NOC), in charge of ensuring networks remain up and running at all times.  Network Engineers perform real-time maintenance tasks to ensure that data flows uninterrupted throughout the enterprise.

Data Analysts: Raw data is all but worthless to a company.  Analysts are therefore needed to transform raw data into quality metrics that can be interpreted to support profit-generating endeavors.

J. Patrick and Associates is committed to helping IT professionals with specialized skills find the positions they need.  For almost two decades, J. Patrick and Associates has been leveraging our unique insight and market intelligence to place candidates the right places.  

For more information about how J. Patrick and Associates can help get you where you need to be, please click here. 

The proliferation of data center and cloud use across the business world is creating enormous opportunity for IT professionals.  In the banking industry, for example, 64 percent of activity currently takes place in the cloud, having doubled since last year. 

As a result of this dramatic growth, IT is evolving from a maintenance role into a strategic and revenue-generating aspect of daily business.  U.S. News, for instance, named the positions of Software Developer and Computer Systems Analyst first and second on its list of the Top 100 Jobs of 2014, respectively.   As more businesses move their operations into the cloud, which and in doing so rely heavily on data and colocation centers, businesses are recognizing the inherent importance of having access to IT leaders that can produce profits.

This means that the role of IT leaders in business is in a state of flux.  Positions once focused primarily on IT and digital savvy are transforming to include customer-facing responsibilities—like the Chief Information Officer (CIO).  While some industry experts are questioning the future of existence of the CIO, others suggest that the role is simply evolving.  In fact, recent research indicates that the workload and complexity for CIOs in fields such as healthcare is actually expanding—and will continue to do so in the future.

Moving forward, as the cloud takes center stage in the business world, it is imperative that businesses fill in-demand roles with experts that can oversee long-term technical projects while managing operations, people, budgets, consultants, outside vendors and unionized workforces at the same time. 

This creates added pressure on hiring professionals, who now have the additional challenge of identifying the innate business qualities and highly technical abilities that competent professionals possess to fit this new ‘back-office to boardroom’ niche.  This challenge is further compounded by the necessity to not only onboard, but also retain and nurture these individuals to make the most of a company’s initial investment.  The result of a bad hiring decision could cost a company an average of 30% of the professional’s first-year potential earning, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.  As the median salary for CIOs tops six figures, this can be quite a substantial loss for any employer.  That is why this level of strategic hiring requires a specialist. 

J. Patrick and Associates (JP+A) is unique from other executive recruiting firms in that it holds all of the tools necessary to link the best companies with the most qualified industry talent.  JP+A works directly with hiring managers and executives in industry-leading Colocation and Data Center infrastructure firms, Cloud or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based product and service providers, and various other technology sector companies to identify the most in-demand skills and current professional requirements for Data Center Management, Security, Storage, and other Cloud/SaaS/Virtualization-related placement. 

For more information about J. Patrick and Associates, click here.

It’s well known that on the baseball field, a singles hitter with a high average is much more valuable than a home-run hitter who strikes out more times than he gets on base.  The same can be said in the IT sales department – most notably in the Software-as-a-Service space.

Collapsing bandwidth and plummeting SaaS margins have created high employee churn rates as well as what executives now refer to as a “vast middle of mediocrity” in the professional IT sector.  As a result, the role of the technical sales engineer is quickly giving way to a new breed of sales and support staff. This generation comes with a basic technology understanding, a reduced price tag and the ability to get on base—or make the quick sale. It’s simply cheaper and more effective to hire 60-80 salespeople who can garner an average number of deals instead of 12 to 15 high-priced home-run hitters with 10 to 15 years of experience who only land a few big-ticket deals per annum.

Financial reasons aside, this shift can also be largely attributed to the fact that companies are no longer purchasing their own network infrastructure. SaaS comes with a light virtual footprint for a company, and requires less maintenance to operate.  It also comes with less user engagement, which means it’s a quicker and easier sell.

Managers should therefore take this shift into account when filling total cloud, SaaS and hosted service sales positions.  Look for candidates who are good hunters, fast learners and easily adaptable to new situations and environments.  Tech and business-savviness is a plus, as is experience with Salesforce.com and social media channels.  Successful SaaS salesman will be those that can add ‘mini marketer’ and ‘webinar master’ to their resumes.  Effective up- and cross-selling will also prove essential qualities as companies shift to selling more seed licenses and total solutions rather than single services.

At J. Patrick and Associates, we live and breathe these evolving technical recruiting parameters and nuances.  It is our job to keep up with the every-changing industry and work closely with executives in these technical fields to understand their specific hiring requirements.  Seeking out the most qualified candidates leveraging nearly two decades of IT recruiting expertise allows our Technology vendor, Network Service Provider and Systems Integrator customers to focus on their core business.

Click here to learn how we can help your company adapt to the changing shift in the IT industry today. 

Videoconferencing as a collaboration tool is spreading like wildfire across the business world. This solution, primarily when it is in the cloud, helps professionals work together in real-time over the Web—and it’s becoming increasingly secure and robust.

Just how popular is videoconferencing? Marketing data aggregated from several industry sources suggests that videoconferencing will soon replace standard conference calls and become the preferred method of office communications.

As a result, cloud-based videoconferencing companies such as InterCall, Tely Labs, Global Crossing, Blue Jeans Network, Kaltura and Arkadin are emerging as leaders in this space. These organizations provide essential features such as Collaboration-as-a-Service (CaaS), virtual environments and videoconferencing platforms. Customers can use these companies to gain a variety of services at affordable prices.

Since many of their key targets now require HD videoconferencing, which uses much more bandwidth, videoconferencing providers are struggling to keep up with demand. Although numerous small video conferencing providers have ideal solutions, they lack the bandwidth to provide this high level of service to their customers. For this reason, the industry is rife with mergers and acquisitions; many small providers are being picked up by larger companies that want to work their solutions into existing service offerings. These companies have the infrastructure and capacity to support the demand for customer growth.

Many of these larger companies are looking for IT professionals with the infrastructure expertise needed to complete and manage audiovisual (AV) and teleconferencing deployments. They also need experts to sell the services once the technology is integrated. Leveraging an extensive database evolved over two decades in business, J. Patrick & Associates can provide your company with qualified, hand-selected professionals who possess proven expertise in the areas of unified communications, AV installation and integration, AV design engineering, and more. At J. Patrick & Associates, we have placed thousands of sales engineering professionals and back-office engineers needed to manage all facets of videoconferencing operations all across North America, including:

• Sales Executives for AV Integration and Conferencing & Collaboration;

• National Sales Directors for AV Integration;

• General Managers for AV Integration;

• Sales Engineers for Video Encoders;

• Field Engineers for Videoconferencing;

• Technical Assistance Managers;

• VTC On-Site Technicians

• And many more!

For more information about how JP+A can help with your company’s AV /

videoconferencing staffing needs, click here.

Despite it being a new year, many job seekers have been looking for a job already…in some cases, conducting that job search for a while and are burnt out.

While some job seekers have new inspiration to start a search, I know some of you may be tired and burnt out on your search and need a renewed source of perspective. Well, you have come to the right place.

When you are burnt out on your job search, you may need a mental break. Rest to rejuvenate is crucial, but what I think can be equally as effective is to give a good, hard look at the job search activities that you have been doing.

Are you setting yourself up for disappointment and job search burnout? 

Here are 5 Questions to Ask yourself

1. Have you submitted to more than 10 – 20 online job postings per week?

If yes, then you may be spending too much time on job boards and not enough time engaging actual people. You should not be spending more than 10% of your job search time on job boards. Set up Google Alerts and job alerts within notable job boards to have applicable jobs emailed to you and stop wasting time mining for jobs on the boards. 

2. Are you Reaching Out Directly to Hiring managers?

Of the job applications you applied online, how many did you find someone at the company and reach out directly to connect about your application?

If the answer is less than 50%, you are depending on the computer/database gods to get you an interview, when you need to be talking to people. You need human discussion (phone and email) and contact (in person meetings) throughout this process to stay energized and get hired. “A computer hired me,” said no one ever.

3. How Many People are you Talking to?

I suggest keeping a log of how many conversations you are having with people. If it is less than 10-15 people per week, you need to step it up. Again, people hire people–so talk to people. Computers do not hire people, so do not spend time submitting to electronic job applications for most of your time. 

4. Do You Say "I'm Open to Anything"?

If this is exactly how you ask them, I ask you: Do they know what you do, really? Do they know specifically what you want? It is much better to say, “I am looking for an accounting manager position with a mid-sized company in manufacturing” or “I am seeking a customer service position with a technology firm” than say “Hey, let me know if you hear of any job openings” — Specific is so much better than general each and every time! Specific also breeds confidence. 

5. Are you speaking to the right people in your industry?

How many new contacts are you adding to your contacts list each week–or are you circling back to the same 50 – 200 people each month? Add new people by attending industry and profession-related networking events, alumni get-togethers, former co-worker get-togethers and events in your community. Be sure your business card markets you in a memorable way.

Generally speaking, if you are not speaking to people about your job search, not speaking in specifics to people about your job search and/or not speaking to the right people, you could be spinning your wheels a bit, which will contribute to your burn out. It is important to rest and have fun to recharge…but it is also important to do the right activities suggested above to help support your success and preserve your mindset. Good luck!!

Originally posted at: Chameleon Resumes on Job Search Burn Out - Lisa Rangle

Many people assume that companies couldn’t care less about life-work balance. 

On the contrary, many companies are now trying to make sure their employees are healthy, happy, and balanced. As a result, they want to make sure that any new employees they take on (or anyone they promote) embody these same characteristics. 

The reality is only by being a balanced employee can you attract a truly balanced employer. (Note: We call it life-work balance, as we believe only by putting life first, can you start to have life-work balance.) 

Below you’ll find some reasons why companies want balanced employees as well as how life-work balance can help advance your career. These are all ideas you can implement at the office and at home.

Start hitting the gym again

If you’ve been thinking about getting healthier you can now add another reason to the list as to why you should: companies know that healthy people help make them profits. 

Think about it...

Healthy people take less sick days, look good, and have a lot of energy. More specifically, companies know that unhealthy people cost them their bottom line. To put it into numbers unhealthy employees cost companies $1.1 trillion in lost productivity. Many companies have tried to combat this by implementing healthy initiatives that encourage employees to take care of themselves, like lunchtime yoga or run clubs. 

If it’s been a while since you’ve hit the gym you may want to get yourself a new membership and stick to it. As a bonus, we all know that exercise helps us deal with stress, an attribute that is essential for high-level jobs.

Practice determining priorities

Having priorities and acting accordingly not only helps you become less stressed, but it also shows a company that you can handle getting the important stuff done. Furthermore, multitasking actually makes people less productive, so prioritizing allows you to follow through on your responsibilities at your highest capacity. 

You can start by ridding your schedule of anything that only makes you seem busy. For some this may mean leaving for lunch instead of working at their desk. For others, it may require dropping committees they joined but have no interest in. Take a look at your calendar and start getting rid of anything that is not essential.

Learn how to outsource and delegate

At an executive level, you will be expected to outsource and delegate to other employees or departments, however this a skill that many people can’t seem to master. If you have the tendency to want to do everything by yourself, stop it and start asking for help. 

By delegating to others you give yourself the space to tackle your most important tasks for the company. It also lifts a weight off of your shoulders when you realize you don’t have to do everything by yourself. This is also a skill that hiring managers are really looking out for so make sure to give them concrete examples of how you delegate tasks to others.

Start setting clear boundaries

Employees will oftentimes find themselves stressed and unproductive because they didn’t put proper boundaries in place. For instance, maybe they have an open-door policy and people pop in at all hours of the day, causing them to lose their focus and take on too much. Or, perhaps they are still answering work emails in the wee hours of the night. Neither of these scenarios help employees get their work done and could have negative long term effects on their health. 

The only way to combat this is to set boundaries and stick to them. In order to get the most out of your career, you must make sure you’re taking care of yourself. By implementing some of these strategies you not only start living a healthier life, but you also express qualities that are needed in a leader.