Are you like many other executive job seekers? You’re afraid to veer too far from what you consider the norm with your executive resume, so you play it really safe?
You think it’s best not to rock the boat, so you stick with what you think are tried and true resume tactics.
You want to do what you think everyone else is doing.
But what if everyone else (or most executives) are misguided about resume writing best practices?
I see too many people making these executive resume mistakes:
Keeping the focus of their resume generic.
Like them, you don’t want to limit your possibilities. You want to appeal to all kinds of employers, in various industries, for various roles.
But ask yourself this: Do I just want “a job” or do I want a job that will be fulfilling and a mutual good fit for me and the employer, along with satisfying my financial needs?
Pumping their resume with lists of their hard skills, with nothing to back them up.
Like them, you know that your resume needs to show your skills and that those skills represent the important keywords that need to be in a resume.
So you include a list of your top skills (or relevant keywords) in the summary section at the top, in either a very long sentence or in a table. You may also include elsewhere in your resume, vague or generic descriptions of those skills in action.
But ask yourself this: Will my list of skills and any vague description of them help hiring professionals understand the value I offer? Or will I be lumped together with all the other candidates who did the same thing?
Sticking to the 1-page or 2-page resume rule.
You’ve heard that a one-page resume is ideal, or that a 2-page resume is a must-have.
Either way, you believe this is the gold standard resume length.
But as an executive, you have a long career and much information to get into your resume. In order to get it all into 2 pages, at most, you’ll need to do some serious formatting magic.
So you make the font smaller, push the margins way out and gobble up nearly all the white space.
Without considering at all how hard the document will be to read, you’re determined to cram it all into either 1 or 2 pages.
But ask yourself this: Will people be willing to strain their eyes and read any of it? Be aware that many will be viewing your resume on their phone’s tiny screen. And did you have to exclude some critical information just to fit it all in 1 or 2 pages, even with all your formatting magic?
You may think you’re playing it safe and smart by following the guidelines above.
But, really, you’re probably sabotaging your chances of landing a job that you covet and deserve.
At the very least, you’ve probably set yourself up for a prolonged job search.
Maybe you haven’t been in a job search for several years, so you don’t know that today’s job search is more complicated and works somewhat differently.
Naturally that means that your executive resume needs to change to meet today’s requirements.
If you’re playing it safe with your resume, you may not be willing to embrace the new ways.
An old-fashioned resume won’t help you compete against those who HAVE embraced the new ways.
How to create a modern executive resume that doesn’t play it too safe
To paraphrase resume writer Adrienne Tom, here’s what you need to keep in mind:
Practice the 3 Rs of resume writing: Relevancy, Results and Readability
And I’ll add a fourth very important element that way too many executives overlook or underappreciate: Personality
Let’s look at each one:
Relevancy to particular employers
Put yourself in the shoes of the employers who will be assessing your good-fit qualities through your resume.
If your resume covers too many bases, with things that have nothing to do with the job they’re filling, how will they be able to see you in the job?
They may think that you don’t really know what kind of job or employer you’re seeking. And, if you haven’t figured that out, how good a hire will you be?
A focused, targeted resume helps anyone reading it understand where and how you’ll add value.
That means that you’ll probably need to customize at least some parts of your resume for each particular employer.
The more specifically your resume addresses specific problems each of your target employers is facing, and how you’ll help fix them, the more likely you’ll look like a good-fit candidate.
Results with metrics, when possible
Continuing with the importance of being specific, including metrics (or numbers) in your resume does these things:
- Gets highly specific about the positive impact you’ve brought to employers in the past.
- Indicates how much of an impact you may have with future employers.
- Draws the eyes of readers to particular parts of the resume, because numbers dramatically stand out from words.
Career strategist Amanda Augustine described the importance of focusing on outcomes:
“Anyone can say they have great sales skills or are a whiz at finance, but it’s the candidate whose résumé offers proof of these qualifications who will receive the most attention. This proof can come in the form of specific examples, figures, or case studies. Wherever possible, quantify your achievements with numbers and metrics to show the value you’ve created for your past employers.
For example, ‘Successfully delivered a complex software development project three weeks ahead of schedule, meeting all project milestones and achieving a 15% cost savings by optimizing resource allocation and negotiating favorable vendor contracts. The project resulted in a 20% increase in customer satisfaction compared to previous projects.’ sounds a lot more impressive than, ‘Successfully delivered a complex software development project ahead of schedule and under budget.'”
Storytelling is one of the best ways to get metrics into your resume.
These two methods are the most common ways storytelling is used in resumes:
- STARs – Situation – Task – Action(s) – Result(s)
- CARs – Challenge – Action(s) – Results(s)
Recruiter Ed Han describes the value of storytelling:
“When I see a résumé that shows me a STAR story for a bullet instead of yet another tedious recitation of the expected responsibilities of everyone who has done that job, it excites me. It tells me that this person understands not to waste my time with the trivial.”
And he advised a quick way to customize your resume and still deliver a great one:
“Create a master list of all of your STAR stories. You:
- Inventory your signature accomplishments in a document
- Render them in STAR format
- Copy & paste from that resource when customizing your résumé for a specific position.
In this way, you ensure that the reader can quickly identify you as a particularly strong candidate for the position.
And isn’t that what you want? You are delivering a high ROI marketing document to the person who most needs to see it.
If you don’t have actual numbers to use to show the impact of your efforts, you can describe how things worked before you stepped in compared to how they worked after your efforts took effect.
Readability for both the paper and digital page
Make it easy for people assessing you through your resume to quickly find the specific information about you they need to find.
If you pack too much information into a document with a hard-to-read small font, and don’t leave much white space, people may be turned off and not read any of it.
Some people may pull up your resume on their laptop or desktop’s large screen, but don’t count on that.
And don’t forget that you’ll probably give interviewers a hard copy of your resume, to make it easier for them to peruse. So it needs to look good on paper, as well as on screens.
The easier you make it for people to scan your resume for pertinent information, the more you up your chances to be contacted for an interview.
Personality aspects to generate chemistry
Without this, you especially run the risk of playing it too safe with your executive resume.
No personality in your resume makes for a dull read and a dull impression of you.
When your resume gives a feel for your personality it does a much better job of differentiating you from other candidates.
And that’s a big part of your mission in writing your resume. You don’t want to come of as being the same as other candidates. Sameness won’t “sell” you. Differentiation will.
People will connect better with who you are, how you operate and how you add value when you clearly state how you’re different.
Defining your personal brand and writing brand-supporting content is how you get some of your personality into your resume.
More About Executive Resumes and Job Search
25 Tips To Write an Executive Resume for Today’s Job Search
How to Write Compelling Executive Resume Bullet Points [With Examples]