WRITING THE EXECUTIVE RESUME
Writing an effective executive resume can be challenging, but
you can follow these steps for an
truly compelling resume.
The executive resume presents specific challenges. Companies
only hire a new executive when they have a compelling business
need, so when recruiters, C-Level executives, or board members
review your resume, they want to know whether you can address that
need.
- Will you solve their brand awareness problems?
- Can
you transform their financial situation?
- Will you reverse their
sales
decline?
- Can you resuscitate their
flagging advertising efforts?
- Do you have the skills to capitalize on that great new opportunity?
In other
words, when they look at your resume, they are asking one question:
What’s
in it for us?
They are usually disappointed, however, because
most
executive
resumes
do not answer that all-important question. This presents you
with
an outstanding opportunity to gain a competitive advantage – if
you rework your resume so that it clearly shows your ability
to meet the needs of potential employers, your phone
will start to ring. If you’d like to know how your
resume stacks up, check it against my five rules of resume
writing: if it’s
missing even one of these elements, you have work to do:
Executive Resume Rule #1: Tell them what they want to know
This
sounds so obvious doesn't it? But most resumes don't do this.
Instead, most executives try to tell their whole story - starting
with their most recent job and working backwards. And many begin
with an objective statement, describing desires
and career
goals. But even the most caring CEO simply doesn’t care what
you are looking for. (Hopefully) he’ll care about your needs
once you work for him, but for now, it’s all about him.
So,
replace the objective statement with a powerful summary that
shows how you
will add value to his company. Show him that there is a clear
fit between your skills and his needs by describing your value
to his
business.
(If you need help with this, sign up for my resume
writing course.
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Executive Resume Rule #2: Focus, Focus, Focus!
It’s critical
to communicate a clear and succinct message about the value you bring – and
to target that message to your target positions/companies. This may
mean that
you need more than one resume.
For example, if you have strong knowledge
of more than one industry, you should consider writing different
resumes for each one. This allows you to clearly demonstrate
your value by emphasizing the aspects of your expertise and experience
that match the employer’s needs, and minimizing those that
don’t.
Your resume focus should be consistent throughout.
If you state in your summary that a key strength is your ability
to launch successful new products, then give examples throughout
your
resume. Eliminate any information that doesn’t support
your clear and compelling message
If you have experience in
more than
one function, for example sales, marketing and product management,
the focus will depend on your target
positions. For pure marketing positions, you should talk mainly
about your marketing experience and accomplishments - for
pure sales jobs,
switch the focus to sales. And when you're applying for a job
that involves all three functions, play up the depth of your
experience.
Executive
Resume Rule #3: Show Them the Money
You must present evidence
that you add value. Too many job seekers focus on job
responsibilities, but describing
achievements is much more powerful. Job responsibilities
are simply those things we are supposed to do. Achievements
show what we actually
did and they are a powerful way to show your ability
to make a difference. If your resume shows that you have
increased brand awareness,
boosted
lead generation, or developed effective campaigns, people
will want to meet you. Consider these real examples from
recent resume
clients:
- Developed brand and marketing strategy that
propelled a 500% sales increase in only six years - established
the company’s
first marketing department, developed product positioning and
led all strategic
planning.
- Boosted brand awareness after corporate merger and name change
- increased press coverage 500% in one year by partnering with
PR agencies to aggressively target broadcast markets in the US
and Europe.
- Doubled the sales of a flagship brand from $1.5 billion to $3.0
billion in three years on a product that already had 51%
market share - spearheaded cross-functional effort to identify
new customer
segments
and penetrate managed-care markets.
Note how specific these accomplishments
are and how impressive they sound. Anyone reading these descriptions
would be excited to meet
these candidates .... but none of these accomplishments were mentioned
on the clients’ original resumes.
Go back now and make sure
that you have included the significant and impressive things you’ve
done, so that your readers know about the value you bring. When
possible, quantify your accomplishments. If you mention that your
integrated
marketing campaign boosted
sales, be sure to say
what the improvement was. If the information is confidential, use
percentages or say “approximately” to avoid giving
away company secrets. If you can’t quantify, try to describe
the business impact – for example:
- Increased sales and market share for XYZ company despite fierce
competition from market-leader by creating an innovative web-based
marketing campaign.
Executive Resume Rule #4. It’s not what you did, it’s
why you did it
In order
to really appreciate your achievements, the reader needs context.
If you tell the reader that you “increased brand awareness
by 12%,” he may be quite impressed, but if you tell him that
you “reversed a four-year decline and increased brand awareness
12% in the first year,” he can now truly appreciate your
accomplishment.
Try to provide context in each position description
instead of just
describing your responsibilities. For example, your position
description may begin with:
"Recruited by CEO to help the company adapt
to explosive growth. Charged with improving troubled partner
relations and initiating
proactive business development practices"
Or:
"Promoted
within 10 months of joining the company and challenged to revitalize
this stagnant product line."
This opening gives the reader an
understanding of the challenges you faced when you came into the
position – and
he or she can now appreciate the significance of the fact that
you improved partner
relations or boosted sales.
Executive Resume Rule #5. They will
judge the book by its cover, so make sure it’s
a good one!
We’d all like to think that people will
carefully read and evaluate our resumes – giving careful
consideration to the words we spent so long writing ... but mostly,
they won’t.
Instead, they’ll skim quickly. You know this because you
have done it yourself. And, in the same way that you quickly
form an impression
about an interview candidate based on the way she is dressed,
you form impressions about people based on the appearance of their
resume. This means you need to dress your resume in a great
suit. Think Armani
... stylish, sleek and simple. A strong resume layout will
communicate professionalism and seniority even before one word
has been read.
Executive Resumes - In Summary
A good executive resume paints
a vivid picture for potential employers. If you establish a
clear focus, lead with
a powerful
summary,
describe
your accomplishments, provide context, and package it well, potential
employers won’t have to ask "what’s in it for
me?"
To get more tips like these, and learn how to completely
transform your resume, sign up for my free
resume writing course. We promise never to send sales spam.
Louise Fletcher is the President of Blue
Sky Resumes, and author of the eBook, The
Complete Guide to Resume Writing. Louise is also Managing
Editor and Co-founder of the preeminent careers blog, Career
Hub. She is a Certified Professional Resume Writer and many
of her resumes have been published in the JIST "Expert
Resumes" series. She has contributed to many online publications
including About.com, Monster.com, The Ladders, and Net Temps.
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