Most executives spend their interview preparation focused on answering questions. The best ones know the real skill is in asking them. A practical guide to reading the room, spotting the warning signs and making sure your next role is the right one.

The best executive roles are rarely advertised — they're filled through search and networks. A practical guide to making your LinkedIn profile work for you around the clock, so the right recruiters find you before the right role disappears.

Most executives are much better than their CV or resume makes them appear. Most recruiters are swamped with documents that are generic, riddled with errors or written entirely and obviously by AI. The following is a former headhunter's guide to the most common and most damaging mistakes at senior level, including one that has only emerged in the last two years.

A first-stage recruiter will spend somewhere between six and ten seconds on an initial scan of your resume. In that window, they are looking for one thing; a reason to keep reading. The executive summary at the top of the page is where that decision gets made. Get it right and everything else gets read. Get it wrong and nothing else matters.