7 months into an executive search. What am I missing?
About 7 months ago I was notified that my role as a VP would no longer be needed. I transitioned on good terms, and had a good severance package that ran out at the end of July. So I've had about 6 months to look for work, and about 3 months of actually not having a job. I'm 56 years old and have a good background: 6 years at AWS as a senior leader, 3 years as a VP at a public company, 15 years as an engineer, etc. I've made a good career leveraging technology to create business value, and the last 9 years were as a senior leader/executive. My career goal was eventually to find my way into a CTO-type role.
What I'm finding is that breaking into C-level roles feels out of reach. I don't have the network at the C level, or maybe even the VP level, of people who know me well enough to think of me if a role opens up. I also don't seem to have the network to reach out to for those roles, most of which aren't posted anyway. At least that's how it feels from where I'm sitting.
For the roles that are posted, it's been pretty discouraging. It seems like a lot of them are stale, and I've wondered whether some are posted for compliance reasons. I don't think I've gotten a positive response from a single application in 6 months. It feels like many of the roles I'm looking for are filled through networks before they're ever broadly advertised. I'm also finding it difficult to move into more hands-on roles because I haven't been doing that work day-to-day for about 9 years.
I've also worked hard to build relationships with executive recruiters. I've had good conversations with about 25 of them from the major firms as well as local boutique shops. That has resulted in exactly zero calls over the last 6 months.
I have a pretty good network at the peer level and below. People have good things to say about me and genuinely want to help. But those folks generally aren't in positions where they know about VP or C-level openings. I have had a few good leads and interviews, but they all came through friends or acquaintances I reached out to. None were really at the right level or the right fit.
I'm fortunate that I am okay financially to keep looking for a while, so I don't want to give up on my career goals yet. I feel like I've got a lot of good experience and still have the drive to do meaningful work. I'm also increasingly intrigued by management consulting, advisory, or fractional leadership. It seems like it could be a good fit for my background, but I honestly have no idea how people break into that world.
For those of you who have made executive-level transitions, what finally worked? What advice would you give for someone in my position? And for anyone who built a consulting, advisory, or fractional practice after a corporate career, how did you land your first clients?