Real Executives Never Look Tasteless and Cheap

When looking for an executive job, first impressions matter; and like it or not, decision-makers will notice whether you're real, a fake or a wannabe. Here are 10 tell-tale signs:

1. Real executives send email from TheirName@TheirWebsite dot com and TheirWebsite dot com works. Fake executives send email from TheirName@TheirWebsite dot com but TheirWebsite dot com doesn’t work. Wannabes send email through hotmail, gmail, msn, aol and the other free email providers.
2. Real executives have their own website. Fake executives use their ISP, LinkedIn, FaceBook and other free providers. Wannabes don’t have a website.
3. Real executives print their letters and resumes on Cranes 100% cotton paper at $40 per ream. Fake executives find something nice like Strathmore or Southworth for $20 a ream. Wannabes spend $4.
4. Real executives have their stationery and business cards engraved using a hard metal die. Fake executives use offset printing or thermography. Wannabes use a LaserJet.
5. Real executives send thank you notes on engraved, monarch-size stationery. Fake executives use nice, regular-size paper. Wannabes send an email.
6. Real executives make sure their telephone connections are perfect all the time. They use a hard-wired landline whenever possible and a headset with a microphone boom. Fake executives use VoIP to save money and hope you won’t notice the slight drop in quality ... or they use a speakerphone so they can type with both hands. Wannabes use a cell phone evenings and weekends when airtime is free ... or they ask you to call them back on a landline.
7. Real executives have a high-speed internet connection. Fake executives camp onto someone else in the neighborhood, or they use their employer’s internet connection. Wannabes have dialup.
8. Real executives are fully licensed on the latest versions of Microsoft Word and Excel. Fake executives are one or two generations behind and can’t read some attachments. Wannabes have a bootleg copy.
9. Real executives know the value of a first impression. Fake executives take shortcuts hoping no one will notice. Wannabes don’t know the difference.
10. Real executives never look tasteless and cheap. Fake executives occasionally look tasteless and cheap. Wannabes always look tasteless and cheap.

The take-away: If you want a real executive job, be a real executive.

Comments

[Jeremy Langhans]

um
sounds like 1989.

:|

[Colin Kingsbury]

Heh... well, maybe it's worth defining what you mean by "real executive." For me it's a successful entrepreneurial leader, and in my experience, those guys are very different creatures from a Director of Marketing or Regional Sales Manager type. It sounds to me like you're talking about people who need to sell themselves very aggressively on the open market.

The folks I'm thinking about are on a different level. There are a lot fewer of them and networks are intensely personal. Many if not most are not concerned with building their reputation on the open Web as they are already well-known among the people they want to be well-known to.

As for the little stuff, I've gotten $5 Vistaprint cards that look a little better than the Officemax DIY cards from guys who started and took companies public. The ones I got thank-you notes from always sent them by email and usually omitted capitalization, punctuation, or entire chapters of Strunk & White.

I've also met guys who fit all of these rules and had never managed anything as large as a McDonald's shift. So I wouldn't use them as screening criteria either :)

[Ritchie Castree-Croad]

I'm with Colin with on this one. Impressions count of course, but actions and reputation count more and no amount of money spent on websites, stationery or Armani will compensate for a mediocre track record.

[Michael Holley Smith]

"Real" as in operating on the basis of character: seriously wanting to join the club and that takes getting the members' attention, so they may eventually say, Hey, this person is willing to play the part, dress up for the role, get the crap out of the way so we can work on a deeper level. Business isn't academia or recreation or dress rehearsal; it's not acting or pretending; it's not a game. Likeability is founded upon reasonability, first, then once the negatives are cleared away (because that's the way we tribal workers are) the real business of teamwork can begin. Cheap is cheap no matter how you try to nuance it, and those who have learned to notice the difference (those little things) notice it right off. Call it the class system if you like, but until all the boomers are dead and buried, there will still be some of this around. Thank God. Right on, Mark!

[Mark Cummuta]

I'm torn on this one. Most of this sounds like the old, salesy "fake it until you make it", which I abhor. But then again, much of this is simple common sense, "do it right the first time...." because in a job search there is no second chance, a subject I write about frequently in my articles for CIO Magazine (http://advice.cio.com/blogs/cio_job_search_a_real_life_chronicle).

So while I agree with Michael that "cheap is cheap", I am more in agreement with Colin and Ritchie that "actions and reputation count more" than an Armani, 40 lb resume paper, and metal die business cards.

Mark Cummuta