You would like to start as an Interim Manager or you are a well-established one? Then it might be interesting for you to get familiar with some best practices, do’s & don’ts of this sector...Let's start with 2 best practices/tips!
Working for years as a recruiter specialized in Interim Management (IM), placing senior professionals, well-established interim managers or “beginners”, Socratim (Fotini Efthymiadis) guides them every day to become successful or to increase their success rate in the IM sector.
There is evidence that even some well-established Interim Managers on the market are facing difficulties being retained for an assignment on an effective way. There could be different reasons for that, however we noticed some recurrent major ones: senior professional’s lack of awareness of the IM market expectations/differences and a lack of preparation in line with these specificities.
Some highly qualified Senior Professionals claim that the IM market does not offer enough assignments to make a career of it or that the assignments they have been offered do not match with their level of seniority...This is what they experienced but this does not mean that there are too few opportunities on the IM market. There are many factors that may lead to this unfortunate reality and this needs of course a case-by-case analysis. However it appears in most of the cases, that these professionals were not considering the differences in the way of recruiting in the IM market (lack of awareness) and were not prepared accordingly.
This preparation is not absolutely necessary but when struggling to find an assignment challenging enough for your level of seniority, this will definitely help you making a huge difference, especially considering the growing competition in this market. Some candidates keep presenting themselves in interviews for IM in a way like they would do it for a “classic” permanent job. This way, they decrease their chances to be retained for the IM role. They need to present their clear value proposition, making crystal-clear for everyone what are their "comfort zones" today for which they could be considered as "plug-in solutions" for the company. It is not so straightforward. Although it is not complicated, it remains complex as this requires an important switch of mindset and change of deeply rooted habits.
How to get better prepared? Start with the following 2 tips:
- make an adapted resume/CV, not the historical but functional version, focusing on your comfort zones, with a clear value proposition. This requires time and energy and is an iterative exercice;
- prepare your oral presentation in interviews. Your tool for that? Your new CV! It is not just a new extra document you made but really your new basis to follow, in order to speak about you in interviews for IM. This is really key as, a lot of IM miss opportunities even if they have a brilliant experience to share, just because they are not successful in interviews, as they do not focus on what is important for the client in Interim Management.
So let's make the difference when meeting CEO’s and any decision makers for IM projects in an interview: be prepared accordingly to this IM market, being to-the-point and giving clear evidence "why you" and do never assume they know. Your awareness of the market’s specificities and expectations combined to an appropriate preparation will make the difference: successful Interim Managers are non-stop busy with interesting and challenging assignments!
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