Feeling As If Your Resume Is Not Executive Enough?
Crafting a good executive resume conveys your leadership strengths and capabilities in ways that demonstrate your value. If you are a leader who has not held a formal leadership role but you are routinely sought after to provide strategic direction and guidance over high-visibility projects, you may want to consider some of the following strategies that will strengthen your executive resume.
Perhaps you were the team’s informal project leader or you were the steward of the financial components of an engagement, or perhaps even partnered with the senior leadership team to ensure the project vision aligns with corporate objectives. If so, try strengthening the executive tone of your professional resume in ways that balance your soft skills and leadership value with quantifiable outcomes when telling your story.
Effective leadership of teams, either formally or informally, may be one of your strongest assets. Though you may not have held formal accountability over hiring, performance evaluations, and/or merit increases, maybe you have led large-scale onshore/offshore teams and sustained high engagement levels and generated a superior ROI during periods of significant change and restructuring.
Whatever your case may be, approach your career holistically and narrow down the top 3-4 most noteworthy leadership achievements or defining moments in various roles where you made a measurable impact in the business or in someone’s career. Use this as a guide to convert your thoughts and key compelling highlights into the most effective resume format and cover letter for an executive position.
To adequately vet through this process, you may need to extend this exercise out over a few weeks to fully capture a working document that can be translated into a modern resume format that aligns with a prospective employer’s position requirements. Bottom line: with a little careful thought and planning, you will be well on your way to writing a professional resume that reflects your most unique leadership value.
If you need help with writing an executive resume, professional resume, or LinkedIn profile we can help. Contact us at info@resumesbyjoyce.com or toll free 1-888-607-7793.