Pulling together ONLY 10 tips from my executive resume writer repertoire initially was intimidating because I have so many ideas on this topic. Before 60 seconds had elapsed, I already had listed 10, and I wasn’t even sure if they were ‘top-10’ worthy. However, with some prodding from a personal mentor, I’ve increasingly trusted my gut on such writing matters vs. over-thinking and intellectualizing. So, without further ado, following are my top-of-mind 10 tips, plus a bonus 11th tip.
Leverage Your Executive Resume Whiteboard
1. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
By this I mean, don’t feel like you have to have all the answers to your career next steps before beginning the process of developing your career portfolio. Sometimes, like an office whiteboard that is adaptable to evolving goals and thought processes, your resume whiteboard is the writing surface upon which you begin inscribing loose and disconnected insights and thoughts. These scribblings can be erased and revised to eventually become a cohesive story.
2. Believe in your value.
So many people, even at the accomplished senior-level of their careers, undermine their value with phrases like, “I’m in my 50s now, so I’m afraid people won’t want to hire me,” or, “I’m not at the level of <insert name of someone you admire but whom you feel you will never measure up to>, so I’m not sure that I’m worth the investment of time or money this process requires.”
3. Quit impatience + embrace enthusiasm.
Often, by the time an executive is ready to really ‘dive into’ their resume story building, they already are at the breaking point of their current role. My firm advice is that you MUST find a way out of the impatience conundrum and convert that energy into executive search enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is not necessarily a jump-up-and-down zeal for the process, but instead may be a daily underlying commitment to the processes of spurring your exceptional career story forward.
Recruiters Seek Bold Executive Resumes
4. Be bold.
A bold resume includes charts, graphs and/or other strategically placed illustrations that appeal to the wandering eye of an executive recruiter, hiring executive, board member and so forth. As well, boldness may appear in the form of invigorating content. For example, compare this before and after resume writing approach:
Before: Increased sales in a changing market using strong communications and planning.
After: Achieved record sales, eclipsing prior year by 150%, despite shifting market, tight time frames + organizational dynamics of mobile communications, balancing listening, communicating, planning + execution, with a natural ‘belly-to-belly’ consultative approach.
5. Trust the process.
I recently underwent an in-depth business branding photography process with a professional photographer, Carrie Ferguson-Killough, at Bella Sol Portraits. Her process underpinnings reminded me of mine in that they were highly consultative and intimate. She strove to know me through a series of processes, including question/answer sessions, shared Pinterest board in which we brainstormed preferred photo sittings/settings/outcomes, and much more.
If I had not ‘let go’ and trusted her processes, the outcome could have been derailed, or at the very least, if I had hampered it through distrust, it may not have enabled Carrie to unleash her full creative value.
So, my advice to executives seeking out an executive resume writer to support your goals, hire someone you believe in, then unleash your trust in them!
Employ a Strategic, Executive Resume Approach
6. Quit spraying and praying.
At the executive level, and often at the emerging leader level, your next great gig will NOT be attained through spreading your resume over a large swath. Or, in other words, spraying your resume across thousands of recruiter + VC recipients and praying they will contact you is not the key to being found. Instead, you want to employ a strategic, well-researched and deliberately executed communications approach. All the while, you want to apply the patience (#3) needed to meld your talent with the right-fit opportunity.
7. Be strategic.
Writing your executive resume is not about outlining your career history in an organized fashion. Instead, it is about building a strategic, compelling story that is divided into inspiring chapters that walk your reader through from introduction to invigorating conclusion. You must strategically orchestrate an overview, peppered with meaningful details of your who, what, where, when, why and how that invites the reader into your next career story chapter!
8. Untether your confidentiality.
Get your head out of the virtual sand and enable your credentials digitally, through LinkedIn, through a personally and professionally branded website and / or through a variety of other venues. Enable others to find you and your voice, getting to know you before you are in immediate need or crisis mode. Building an executive brand reputation online ahead of need will create residual effects in your career now, and in the future.
Take Charge of Your Executive Career
9. Be accountable.
This is YOUR career to own and shape. Dropping the ball on building relationships, not following up on assignments that your executive resume writer or executive career coach assigned you, etc., will result in lackluster results. You MUST be accountable for your career action steps and promises to propel your executive career forward.
10. Don’t outsource.
Hand in hand with #9, don’t plan to outsource your executive career search process entirely to someone else. This begins with the strategic story building aspect. Unfortunately, many people want to dump and run through this step, expecting a writer to breeze through their value proposition as if their story were just another cog in the executive wheelhouse. Don’t do that. You will only differentiate your distinctive value, including how you do what you do so well, by partnering with your executive resume writer via a thoughtful, collaborative process.
11. (BONUS) Have hope.
Integral to anything in life is hope and optimism. If you aren’t feeling it, then find someone or something to help spur you on to your goals, with pure, unadulterated hope!
Follow this link for more tips on executive resume writing in 2019.
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I am a master resume writer with 20 years’ experience in the resume writing trenches. No insta-resume service here. I built my story from ground up, living and breathing resumes, full time, self-supporting, and not as a side gig. My clients hire me for the highly consultative, thoughtful approach to resume writing. Contact me at jacqui@careertrend.net to discuss how I can help shape the story that will accompany you through your next career evolvement.
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