Executive Resumes

“I think we’ve found our unicorn!”

This phrase was music to my ears this week after a client interviewed our recommended executive candidate for a leadership, C-suite, and hard-to-fill role. It’s moments like these that highlight the unique value we bring to our clients at Underwood Executive.

In the world of executive search, the term ‘unicorn’ is often used to describe the ideal candidate – someone who possesses an exceptional blend of skills, experience, and cultural fit that seems almost mythical. When taking on new job briefs, it’s common for clients to admit they are on the lookout for such a unicorn. We often share a laugh and say we aren’t miracle workers, but we understand the underlying seriousness of their needs.

Finding these unicorns isn’t easy, but it’s a challenge our executive search team thrives on. We dedicate ourselves to understanding the intricacies of each client’s needs, the nuances of their corporate culture, and the specific demands of the role. This deep dive allows us to craft a targeted talent acquisition strategy, ensuring we not only find top-tier candidates but also those who will seamlessly integrate and drive success within the organisation.

Our recent success story is a testament to this meticulous approach. After an extensive search, countless interviews, and rigorous evaluations, we presented a candidate who surpassed our client’s expectations. The moment our client declared, “I think we’ve found our unicorn!” was a gratifying affirmation of our efforts.

At Underwood Executive, we pride ourselves on our ability to uncover and attract these elusive unicorns. Our team combines industry expertise, extensive networks, and innovative search techniques to ensure we bring the best talent to the table.

If you’re in need of finding a unicorn for your organisation, let’s discuss how we can help. Our tailored talent acquisition strategies are designed to meet the unique challenges of leadership and C-suite roles, ensuring we find the perfect match for your needs.

Have you ever reflected on a ‘bad hire’ to analyse where you went wrong and how you recruited the wrong person?

During the interview process, there are often signs that you might ignore or disregard – especially when you are faced with a strong interview performance or a particularly charismatic candidate.

Here’s what to look for:

Excessive Self-Promotion – they dominate the conversation, consistently steer discussions back to themselves, and focus on their achievements without acknowledging team efforts or collaboration.

High Turnover in Previous Roles – they have a history of short tenures or frequent job changes, often leaving roles abruptly or vague explanations for leaving.

Overemphasis on Money – focusing primarily on salary, benefits, or perks rather than the job responsibilities, company culture, or growth opportunities.

Inconsistent Information – discrepancies between what was stated on the resume, during the interview or what is on their LinkedIn profile.

Hard To Find Referees – they find it difficult to track down previous employers or direct line managers to verify their job performance and instead offering colleagues or clients to speak to.

Inability to Answer Questions – evading questions or providing vague responses without specific details. Turning the question back to you the interviewer, and essentially not demonstrating the required knowledge or skills for the position.

Recruiting the best person is a big investment of time, energy and resources. Watch out for some of these tell tale signs and stay focused on the job requirements, as well as you company culture fit, to get it right the first time.

We are thrilled to announce the promotion of Julie Bennett to Associate Director at Underwood Executive.

Julie joined us in June 2021 with a talent acquisition career spanning over 20 years in both Australia and the USA, giving her valuable international talent expertise across multiple industry sectors, functional disciplines and geographies.

For those of you that know Julie – you already understand her genuine nature, care and her deep commitment to trusted advisor relationships. She is always authentic in her communication, professional in her conduct and optimistic in her approach. We highly value her commitment to our vision and being a key brand ambassador for executive search.

Congratulations Julie – we look forward to you continuing to develop and grow your career here at and contributing to finding our clients the best executive talent in the market.

Finding talent, interviewing, recruitment, hiring, search and selection ….it’s easy! It’s not rocket science. How hard can it be, get resumes, interview, have a chat, make an offer – done! If only this was true….

This week I was asked how do you pick the right person at interview? How long have you got?! The person asking was disillusioned by a highly talented person leaving to take a very similar role elsewhere with the only obvious added benefit seeming to be ‘working closer to home’.  The another business associate was being challenged by picking someone from 20 great resumes that all seemed to have the right technical experience.  Both were apprehensive due to incorrect hires in the past that initially looked right on paper. They were desperate for the secret ingredient, the right answer, the one thing that I could tell them that they didn’t know to ask at interview to get it right.

Subsequently, I attended  a meeting with a client who was completely frustrated and surprised when what they thought was a ‘perfect hire’, resigned after 2 months.  They too wanted to know where did they go wrong, when the resume appeared to be perfect?

First and foremost – recruiting people is not easy. Picking the right person is even harder.  We do it every day here at Underwood Executive and see, hear, talk and advise clients on how to do it better. It is an ongoing battle for most business owners – finding, sourcing and selecting the right people.

Here’s what all three situations had in common – you must look beyond what’s on paper and what’s technically being said at interview and hire for culture and motivational fit.

I agree that skills and experience are important.  They are necessary in the recruiting process, but what causes you headaches and performance issues goes well beyond being able to do the job, it’s a person’s ability to fit in and being in the role for the right reasons.

How do you determine this? It’s not fool proof, but here are some quick guidelines to follow in a search and selection process to increase the odds:

1. Technical skills & experience – is easy to assess from a resume, very factual, qualifications, systems experience etc. Some level of experience is still needed for most roles.
2. Competencies –what are the competencies they need to do the job eg: strategic thinking, decision making, achievement drive. The key is that they must give a SPECIFIC example of a time when they have demonstrated this competency. This will usually occur in 3 parts (tell me about a time when…., what did you do and what was the outcome). If they don’t give a specific, they haven’t demonstrated the competency. Don’t ignore this – even if the resume is fantastic – if they can’t answer these questions, we follow the rule of thumb that past behaviour is a predictor of future behaviour.
3. Motivation – this is often the trickiest part of the interview to assess. It involves asking questions around why they want the job, what is their perfect job, what other jobs have they applied for, why have they left previous jobs, what makes them stay with an employer, what makes them leave, who has been their favourite boss, who inspires them and why, where has been the best/worst culture they have worked in. Did I mention why they want this job? Not just any job. Why this job above all others in the market? And then tell me again why you want it – make sure they convince you.
4. Warning signs – this is usually around behaviour during or post interview. For example, I had a candidate tell me they would call me Monday to confirm their interest in an opportunity, they called Tuesday at 5pm. For me and our culture, this is a warning sign they wouldn’t fit in as one of our values is integrity – you do what you say you will do.
5. Reasons for leaving – don’t ever accept the first reason.  I ask several times on the same job – tell me what were your reasons for leaving? What else contributed to you leaving? What other reasons were behind this decision? Probe, probe, probe and look for patterns of behaviour.

Always include motivation and culture questions in an interview and actively listen to what is (and sometimes what isn’t) being said at interview.  In my experience, motivation and cultural fit is more important than skills and experience.  The culture fit and motivation buys you loyalty, commitment and top performers, who in the long term outshine the power CV with a technical answer for everything at interview.  Go with your gut – will you and your team enjoy working with this person every day of the week? And whatever you do – don’t “hope” that it will work out – it never does. Hope is not a recruitment strategy.