Professional application documents for management / specialists & executives

For more than 30 years, our professional three-dimensional application documents (CV) and a demand-oriented individual cover letter have paved the way to attractive vacancies with high matching and into the first introductory interviews.

A. Dreidimensionalität
B. Initiative & reaktive Bewerbungsunterlagen
1. Biographische Recherche
2. Stellen-Recherche im offenen Markt
3. Bewertung & Auswahl reaktive Bewerbung
4. Reaktives Anschreiben
5. Reaktives Kurzprofil
6. Stellen-Recherche im verdeckten Markt
7. Initiatives Anschreiben
8. Initiatives Kurzprofil
9. Zeugnisse & Referenzen
10. Management-Detailprofil
11. Fremdsprachliche Unterlagen
12. Weitere Unterlagen im Bewerbungsprozess

1. Biographical research
"Basis for professional matching"
You cannot apply professionally if you are not fully aware of all aspects of your own career. As it is hardly possible to stimulate your own long-term memory, it is advisable to seek the help of a "biographer" (NewPlacement coach), who will jointly explore the 150-200 performance, experience and competence values, strengths, weaknesses, motivations and other soft skills. This results in a comprehensive basis for the cover letter (positioning, understanding and context of the success story / interpretation sovereignty) and the short or detailed profile of the career. Through the re-biography of the NewPlacement coach, the meta-view is achieved and the understanding of one's own success story becomes much more present. The result is a mature "product" for the application market with corresponding performance and prospects of success. This also follows the long-standing marketing insight "Never bring an immature product to the market; the damage can hardly be repaired".

2. Job search in the open market
"Search engine / website of companies & headhunters"
When searching for suitable vacancies, many managers only move in a quarter of the application market. Nevertheless, interesting offers can be found in the meta search engines and job boards of target companies and headhunters. Unfortunately for companies and headhunters, many mistakes are made when identifying suitable challenges. The applicant's sole criterion "I could imagine doing that" is not the right one. The research should also go beyond the text of the job advertisement to the website or internet search. From our NewPlacement experience, we can say that researching an "untrained" manager in the conceivable vacancy segment only presents 10-20% challenges with a high matching rate and a high chance of application. At the beginning of the search, it is very difficult to "sit in the other person's chair": "Would I hire me - and for what benefit to the company?". This assessment overlooks or ignores in particular the "sine qua non" with its indispensability for the seeker. Convince a Dr.-Ing. who is looking for a Sales Director with an engineering degree that the engineering degree can also be replaced purely by professional experience.

3. Evaluation & selection reactive application
"Matching check / components & addressee"
First of all, you should evaluate the suitable job advertisements together with the NewPlacement coach after the research. To do this, the respective demand factors of the company vacancy are mirrored with the 150-200 performance, experience and competence values and assigned the best value in each case. If no corresponding 1:1 value can be found, an analogy is attempted. If this is also unsuccessful, the indispensability of the demand factor is assessed. If there is uncertainty, a telephone call to headhunters or the company can provide clarification. When deciding on an application, a TOP5 assessment is made from the demand factors, which can be mirrored by the candidate's own career and thus convey a "preliminary understanding" of the company's requirements. This is followed by the final evaluation of the respective job advertisement in terms of matching and prospects of success. Without this procedure, you can "burn yourself out" with both companies and headhunters and take yourself out of the running for later vacancies with significantly better matching.

4. Reactive cover letter
"Matching & important information"
Despite all the discussions about its necessity, the reactive cover letter is extremely important if it is properly controlled. It should be well known that the letter should not begin with your own interests "I am looking for a new challenge". You should also refrain from "adulation" along the lines of "I have always been fascinated by your company". Instead, the first paragraph of the cover letter should show individuality with reference to the advertisement and the TOP5 demand factors, which are substantiated by your own performance, experience and skills. Many years ago, an advertisement once read "Only apply if you have understood this advertisement". This motto is used to express this understanding in the first paragraph. The next section presents your offer to the job market in the form of a clear positioning. In the third section, you "explain" how your own success story, including the respective motivations, is to be understood. Finally, you refer to the requests regarding salary level, availability and mobility. Finally, you seek a personal interview and offer further information in advance if necessary.

5. Reactive short profile
"More invitations through individualization"
The short profile already shows the potential "filler" for the vacancy sought on the first page without any disruptive stimuli. In marketing, this is referred to as a holistic presentation. This is how you introduce yourself to the person you are looking for. Photo with an outfit appropriate to the vacancy, competent and without any arrogance. The short form of the services, experience and competencies whet the appetite for the next pages. The career is presented chronologically or in American style, depending on the sales strength. The focal points can be quickly grasped and the "success story" to date is sold. And finally, there is an individualized overview of the performance, experience and skills profile on one page and at a glance. You would then like to go into more detail in the detailed profile. The focus on the demand factors of the searching company is remarkable. Less individualized profiles with a high chance of performance are better than a standardized mass mailing. It is not for nothing that the NewPlacement methodology is based on a success database that enables individualization in a short time.

6. Job research in the hidden market
"Qualified access"
The information on hidden vacancies is usually held by the decision-makers in the company and the headhunters they commission. Access can also be gained to a limited extent through personal networks. However, the strongest access can be found via the qualified headhunter database of NewPlacement AG with several thousand corresponding personnel consultancies and their professional maintenance over decades. In order to use this route successfully, special requirements for "quick recognition" of the documents are essential. As this proactive approach does not provide access to the actual demand factors of the company seeking the candidate, the document should be broad and have a three-dimensional structure. The other way is to go directly to the decision-makers in the company with a hybrid approach that also gains access to the chairmen of the supervisory board, owners, holding or C-level. Here, the "free" recommendation via third parties - without outing as an "out-placement case" - has also proven its worth. The relevant information on vacancies from the networks is also processed here. It should also be noted that many companies are reluctant to send centralized unsolicited applications due to the effort involved in assigning them and data protection.

7. Unsolicited cover letter
"Quickly comprehensible breadth is not a contradiction"
Unsolicited cover letters require a clear subject line and an "expressive" first sentence. Otherwise, the application phase may already be over. Recruitment consultancies need to match candidates to suitable projects quickly. The decision-makers in the company want to immediately recognize the connection to their own considerations and benefits on just one page. Appropriate research in advance is essential for this.
Headhunters need a broader positioning with clear target positions and industry background in the form of a professional positioning. If the applicant has unclear ideas about his professional future, he will fail on this path. It may be 20 or 30 years ago when the recruitment consultant still took a lot of time to consider a future for the applicant. In the second section, the headhunter should be able to make sense of the career path to date.
The consultant recognizes this paragraph as such and could skip it. However, they will rarely do this because the staccato style quickly conveys the important information. 
In the final paragraph, the headhunter receives the additional information required on motivation, salary level, mobility and availability as well as the offer to send further documents (detailed profile, references).

8. Initiative short profile
"The first impression - captured in a few seconds"
The initiative short profile must be broader than the reactive copy. Nevertheless, the target positions, target sectors and main areas of activity are already presented on the cover page. The photo must meet this requirement in its entirety. In addition to the contact details and level of education, an excerpt from the performance, experience and skills profile should round off the first impression and arouse interest in "more". The subsequent career history with key facts and focal points can be chronological or American. The decision is based solely on the higher attractiveness. If necessary, the first stations and companies can increase interest. In chronological form, the focus points must document a continuous development of the "success story". Longer periods in one job can usually be split up accordingly. The transitions between the stations must be correct, "empty periods" should be defined or filled. Job hopping is already explained in the cover letter (e.g. years of apprenticeship and travel with increasing competence).
Finally, a page on the performance, experience and competence profile provides an overview of the target job and industry. At this point at the latest, the desire for personal contact should be triggered. Requests for data protection declarations are now standard and not a positive signal for cooperation.
The initiative short profile to the decision-makers in the company should also be adapted to the circumstances in the company if possible.

9. Certificates & references
"References must be well planned"
The NewPlacement coach should be involved in the first few hours of the separation. He or she can then introduce all future-relevant elements of the separation in good time within the framework of the NewPlacement AG adjusting screw model. As a rule, the interim reference, in particular the title, evaluation and concluding paragraph, should already be defined in the termination agreement. Internal and external communication similar to the final paragraph is also very important, as this can no longer be "captured" afterwards. In this phase, the willingness to provide a personal reference can also be agreed with a focus on the future. The risk of disruptive information must always be assessed together with the NewPlacement coach. If necessary, a former superior who is no longer with the company can also be acquired as a reference if the current superior cannot be trusted 100%. In the past, a negative personal reference has ended the most promising projects from one day to the next.

10. Management detail profile
"Comprehensive insight - 3-dimensional access"
After the short profile on 4-5 pages represents a condensation of the professional career to date and is more than just an appetizer, the management detail profile provides a comprehensive picture at the request of the headhunter or the decision-makers in the company, with sometimes more than 150 performance, experience and competence values (NewPlacement.com success model). So that the viewer is not overloaded with information, the 3-dimensional structure provides quick visual access to the respective demand factors. This detailed profile also later becomes the basis for the success presentation, which reflects the respective values against the demand factors. The detailed management profile also helps headhunters and decision-makers in the company to prepare professionally for the personal interview in a completely different depth. As with the short profile, the detailed profile is not a standard. It must be adapted to the respective project (job advertisement, website, headhunter information, demand factors)

11. Foreign language documents
"Mortgage for the personal interview"
Headhunters or decision-makers in the company often request additional foreign language documents. This can also happen if this foreign language is hardly needed in the new job. In some cases, this document is also intended for the employees of the international shareholder. If you give the documents to a professional translator who translates them into "brilliant" Oxford English, you will create false expectations among the headhunters or decision-makers in the company in the subsequent personal interview. The better option in this case is for the applicant to translate. Supporting tools for translating and explaining differences are available on the Internet. This type of preparation is also good training for interviews in other languages. The NewPlacement coach will then edit the document and add some specifics. This type of document helps to reduce overly high expectations of your own language skills. In the past, very unpleasant job interviews have been conducted the other way, some of which have led to the termination of the project.

12. Further documents in the application process
"The face in the crowd"
The application documents throughout the process must be supplemented by the hand-out "Re-Briefing" and the flipchart "Mirrored Benefit Analysis". After the first interview at the company, the "validation interview" will hopefully take place shortly afterwards. The manager can influence this meeting with a hand-out and present themselves as a "face in the crowd". The content of this "re-briefing" comes from the top topics of the first round, which are mirrored with the manager's own performance, experience and competence values. Initial considerations are also introduced. The "re-briefing" has proven itself in communication between advertising agencies and corporate marketing for years and can provide a competitive advantage in this phase of the application process.
The "mirrored utility value analysis" is the perfect matching tool that reflects the "intrinsic value" against the most important areas of demand and thus provides a high level of certainty for the company's decision.
Both tools are part of the NewPlacement success model.