The Executive Resume: A Slightly Different Set of Guidelines

Rosalinda works for a US-based international company. A number of years ago, she took over the Canadian division, which had been beforehand underperforming, and turned things round for the better. About six months ago, she seized an opportunity to share some of her strategic ideas and ideas with higher management. They liked what she had to say and recently opened up a new VP position that is ideally suited to her, especially since it would involve implementing the initiatives she suggested. She wants to attempt for the promotion, so we worked collectively to overtake her old resume. We took it from the mid-level manager resume she used when she first got hired to 1 that displays the executive she’s grow to be during her time with the company.

Rosalinda (not her real name, after all) is transitioning her career upward as a «new» executive, so it’s no shock that she had lots to study methods to present herself in a new way by her resume. However, I’ve also worked with many seasoned executives who do not seem to know that when you’re an executive, you should follow a slightly different set of rules when developing your resume.

Below you may discover three particular reasons why the executive resume is so totally different from an everyday resume.

By the way, I am defining «executive» as executive directors, senior directors, vice presidents, c-degree officers, board members, and anyone targeting a strategic leadership position in their career.

Length

For the individual contributor or the mid-level manager, we count on to see a -page summarized resume that shows about 10-15 years of work history. Experience prior to 10-15 years ago will be displayed or not — it’s totally optional. However, for an executive, we need to see the career progression in full. Besides, in fact, for the minor jobs you had early on — there’s no must show the job you had as a pizza delivery driver when you had been in school.

There’s additionally lots more info to be included on the first page within the first section, which is the profile or abstract section. On an everyday resume for a non-executive function, this section may be as quick as one or two sentences, or it may very well be up to a half-page long. However, for some executive resumes, especially for c-stage and vice president candidates, the profile or abstract part fills your entire first page.

Because of those two factors — more years of experience and more info within the profile — the executive resume is normally three, generally even 4, pages in length.

Executive Profile

As I just mentioned, the profile or abstract part will, in most cases, take up the whole first page of the resume, and the content of that page is the second main reason why the executive resume is so totally different from a daily resume.

No matter what level your role — whether or not you are an executive or not — the summary or profile part wants to inform about and show proof of your value proposition. In the event you’re an executive, you also need to add in something about your leadership model, as well as incorporate more language relating to your strategic business acumen.

The executive’s profile will embrace the usual: a succinct positioning assertion, industry-specific key words, and something about your unique value proposition. But it will also include key words that reflect strategic-stage thinking and responsibilities — terms like «P&L,» «investor relations,» and «industry forecasting.»

The majority of resumes that I develop for shoppers embrace a career highlights section. On the typical resume, it’s a separate section that’s sandwiched between the profile and the expertise sections. Typically it might be included as part of the profile part moderately than be inserted as a stand-alone section. However, with the executive resume, I always embody it as a part of the profile.

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