The days of just having a paper resume and cover letter are over. In today’s digital age that focuses on such sites as Linkedin, Twitter and blogs, executives need to be armed with an arsenal of information to get through the clutter. So let’s look at the career-growing tools that an executive should have in their bag.

Resumes have not gone away so you still need a powerful executive resume that communicates your value proposition, or personal branding statement, to potential employers. This document must be compelling and indicate your core skills, relevant experience and proof-of-skills statements that show your accomplishments in challenging situations.  Consider this your fairly traditional 2-3 page resume which, of course, is supported by a good cover letter.

However, when you are networking with recruiters and colleagues, you will also need a 1-page Synopsis, or mini-resume, that shows who you are at a glance. For example, if you are networking at an industry conference, then giving someone a 3-page resume is overkill if not just annoying. The 1-page Synopsis fills the gap between the business card and the full resume and is intended to whet someone’s appetite and get them to want to know more about you. The 1-page Synopsis fits perfectly in this blackberry, smart phone world.

 Now consider that recruiters and employers will seek candidates online, particularly through Linkedin. Over 80% of them, upon receiving your information, will search the net to gauge your online presence, BEFORE contacting you. That means you need a strong Linkedin Profile and should also be on ZoomInfo.  Here your Facebook, Twitter and blog entries (if you’ve done them) will appear. So smart executives manage their online presence by providing a compelling and theme-consistent profile in Linkedin, complemented by numerous recommendations from colleagues (so employers will see testimonial evidence of your prowess). Even better if you’ve been busy blogging and tweeting to show that you are an opinion-leader or specialist in your field. Needless to say, if there are negative statements out there, you need to deal with that digital dirt.

 There are other items in a good executive career toolkit, including letters/scripts to use when contacting people, project portfolios and so on, but the resume, synopsis and online presence is the bare minimum for today’s savvy job-seeking executive.

I have to say that I am not a fan of web-based resumes and portfolios.  Although some services push these, I do not see the sense in having them. 

The purpose of a resume is to get the employer to call you to schedule an interview.  Why then, would you want to give them an extra step to take before calling you?  If they are interested enough in you to look at a web portfolio, then they are interested enough to call you and find out more which is the preferred outcome. Web resumes and portfolios are appropriate for certain marketing and web development folks, but even then, I would save the url’s for the interview.

There is a lot of noise regarding the state of the labor market.  Here are some promising statistics.

First, remember that unemployment is what is called a trailing indicator meaning it is one of the last things that will be affected as the economy improves.  When bad times occur, employers will quickly react by cutting staff and then try to get the most they can out of their existing workers,  until they just can’t get any more.  Then they will start hiring on a cautious basis, often starting with temporary workers first before they commit to full-time employees. So let’s see where we are.

Ø        US productivity in the third quarter rose to 9.5%, the fastest surge in 40 years. Normal productivity growth is about 3.0% so this shows that employers have reached the limit of what they can get out of their existing staff.

Ø        There were only 11,000 jobs lost in November, the lowest rate in 2 years.

Ø        Hiring of temporary workers grew by over 52,400 personnel in November, the highest surge in 3 years. .

Ø        In October, companies announced they plan to hire 57,250 new workers which is the highest level since July 2007.

Ø        For executives, job postings on ExecuNet are up 30% since the summer, and last week postings were up 26% from the week before. Executive recruiters and hiring decision makers state that they expect 2010 to be much brighter than 2009. And there has been a 50% rise in new jobs obtained since September 2009.

Remember that February is the biggest hiring month of the year so be prepared.  Make sure your resume presents you well and build a job search plan that includes recruiters, job board postings and networking.