Customer Reviews

The Road to CEO: The World's Leading Executive Recruiters Identify the Traits You Need to Make It to the Top

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The premises of the book are: executive presence is the most important aspect of becoming a CEO, headhunters are the most influential people in the executive placement process (so you better be nice to them), and that poise, good looks, and charm win the day.

The book goes through the basics of successful interviewing (CEO level or not), but does not distinguish itself among other books of a similar nature.

Author Voros is lucky she will never have to be on the other side of the interview desk. She tries her best to define executive presence, but ends up stating, "Like pornography, leadership presence is hard to define." Perhaps so, but analogies to pornography are definitely not appropriate for upcoming CEOs.

Later in the book, she presents the leadership presence profile of a successful businesswoman who got herself where she is today by succeeding within the same company for a number of years, not by zig-zagging between companies and functions (also not by working with head hunters). Good thing too, as the profiled Ms. Miller sounds like she would not survive one of author Vero's screening interviews because she "looks like a librarian," in sharp contrast to Voro's advice in Chapter 6 "How You Look."

I am not a CEO, but have reported directly to and worked directly with a number in different industries. Some of the CEOs fit the "looks like an airline pilot" standard espoused in this book, but they also are the CEOs I watched crash their companies into the ground. The "quirky" CEOs I have worked with outperformed the "airline pilots" every time.

Voros slices, dices and dissects how headhunters assess job candidates in a painfully objective but highly readable style. Her stories about the people who showed up for interviews wearing the wrong kind of clothes or those who ordered the wrong kind of meal at the lunch interview are amusing. It's sobering to realize that how you look, act and talk are being examined so closely by recruiters. It's clearly not just what's between your ears that counts when you're going for C-level positions.

Good reading for anyone planning to hunt for an executive job.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in being promoted in their career, whether to manager, VP or CEO. As a young career ladder-climber, I found many gems of wisdom in this book: most are common sense, but a few are surprises, like acting and dressing the part,talking about your mistakes and ordering fish.
Even for someone who isn't interested in climbing the corporate ladder, this is a practical book and an illuminating self-diagnostic.

No matter how much you think you know about getting ahead in your career, you can always learn more about what really makes a difference. In The Road to CEO, you will learn how to make a difference from the executive search professionals who are always looking for that next great senior executive. Sharon Voros lays it out plain and simple by telling you what counts most in the search process and how to enhance yourleadership skills. Never underestimate the power of your own brand and how it can impact your career. The Road to CEO can help you shapen and focus your executive presence.

This book is well-written and entertaining, but it may need a sequel to reflect a new era in corporate America. Even though the dot.com market has crashed and demand for exeuctives is down, headhunters are picking at job candidates about how they look, dress and act. But these are the people who brought us Kenneth Chenault of Enron and George Koslowski of Tyco -- both paragons of executive presence. Maybe it's time for recruiters to starts concentrating on the basics again.

Suggest the author write a followup volume about how companies get [pulled] in by charlatans with lots of executive presence and little substance.

Top-notch interview skills are a must in today's cutthroat job market. Although I've been offered several executive positions in the past, the pointers in this book greatly accelerated the process in a recent job search where a company appeared to be interested in me. The main takeaway: even though it's a seller's market, don't act like a buyer if you want to impress.