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What Makes for a Great Executive Resume?

By Anish Majumdar, CPRW

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 28Jan2012 Word count: 578 Viewed: 56 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Executives in the market for a new job face a highly competitive field. It's not just that the truly excellent positions will be loaded with well-qualified candidates, but the challenge of addressing the ever-more-specific needs of employers while still keeping the job search manageable. Where to begin?

Rather than jumping straight into the nuts-and-bolts of your work history, a far more effective approach lies in developing a method of thinking about the resume from the POV of a potential employer- and then giving them exactly that. Here are 3 strategies I use frequently as a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) working with executives across all major industries:

1) Defining and Communicating What Sets You Apart

Many executives make the mistake of thinking they have to reengineer their entire resume between job submissions. They analyze the job posting and methodically insert the keywords mentioned in the hope of landing an interview. Here's a secret: a job posting is merely an outline of what an employer's looking for. Yes, it's important to have some of the main attributes mentioned. But what they REALLY want to see come across their desk is a candidate who excels in 3-4 key areas, can effectively COMMUNICATE this expertise, and has a work history that quantifiably demonstrates application of these skills.

Analyze your career to identify these skills. Next, create a brief opening paragraph for the resume that communicates them. For example, a candidate for a Senior VP of Sales & Marketing could end up with an opening paragraph such as:

Global business leader with over 20 years experience defining product and market vision and strategy across Fortune 500, high-growth and startup environments. Skilled in managing worldwide upstream and downstream marketing of industry-first products, building corporate alliances, and garnering major PR wins.

This strategy sends a clear message to a prospective employer that says, "I'm a one-of-a-kind candidate who can bring a mix of skills that have resulted in success time and time again." Expert Tip: if you need to highlight a particular skill for a particular job posting, simply tweak one of the lines in this opening paragraph.

2) Stressing Leadership and Concrete Successes in Your Work History

Every relevant position within the work history portion of your resume should contain:

-A brief paragraph describing unique responsibilities (no more than 3-5 lines). Avoid listing generalities and ALWAYS stress leadership first, be it building cross-functional teams, liaising with external agencies, or other.

-A "Key Accomplishments" section for every relevant position listing concrete successes. Focus on major organizational developments first and try to keep things quantifiable. Inserting metrics are a great way to accomplish the latter.

3) Knowing When to Cut

The old maxim "Leave them wanting more" is especially true when it comes to resumes. A great resume operates as a kind of "teaser" for a candidate, piquing a reader's interest and eliciting the desire to bring you in for an interview to elaborate. Here are some simple tips to keep the length manageable:

-Don't repeat job responsibilities in the work history section of the resume.

-Don't dive into minutiae. Assume a reader has little-to-no understanding of your industry.

-Don't go beyond 2-3 pages total for the resume.

A powerful resume means more interviews and less time spent searching. Happy hunting!

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