Your resume is not only a chronology of your work experience when searching for an executive position. But a weapon that has to incorporate all the necessary information regarding your leadership abilities, achievements, and plans. A great example is an executive resume. Here you do not have to write just standard job experience where you list your duties and responsibilities. But tell your story in a way that shows you are a prospective leader.
To understand the purpose of an executive resume the following guidelines should be followed. It needs to narrate the executive’s value proposition to an employer. This means that while detail is important. You must get the right details that show your leadership skills, your analytical skills, and the positive changes you have brought to any organization you have been affiliated with.
What Should Be Contained?
To get the best executive resume, the following details must be presented: Here’s a breakdown of what should be detailed in an executive resume:
1. Executive Summary
Detail Level: High-level overview
What to Include: An executive summary of your resume should comprise one paragraph summarizing some of the most important aspects of what you have achieved and can do. This section should not be very elaborate. But should contain information that creates a first and quick impression of the professional image of the candidate and what he or she offers. It’s almost like your ‘sales pitch’ of what makes you tick as a leadership figure.
2. Core Competencies
Detail Level: Moderate
What to Include: It should provide information about your major strengths and interests. This includes strategic planning, financial management, and team leadership amongst others.
3. Professional Experience
Detail Level: High
What to Include: This is the most important part of your resume and here the focus must be extremely precise. Get quantitative, and make sure to quantify your benefits or goals as much as possible, in the form of percentages. For instance, “Increased sales by 30%” or “Reduced operational costs by 15%”.
This is a critical point in that one has to find an appropriate balance between the amount of information provided. And the extent to which his/her readers decode these analyses.
4. Education and Certifications
Detail Level: Moderate
What to Include: List your academic qualifications, majoring on your educational certificates and certifications alongside any executive education programs that you have completed. In an ordinary resume, one does not have to state all the courses and minors taken. Stick with the highest level of education attained and relevant certifications.
5. Professional Affiliations and Awards
Detail Level: Moderate
What to Include: However, one should only select those that are most related to the job you are applying for. Finally, this section should prove to your reader that you are active in your industry and appreciated for your efforts.
6. Additional Sections (Optional)
Detail Level: Mild
What to Include: Thus additional areas may include publications and speaking engagements. And or community activities depending on the nature of your career and the targeted position.
7. Balancing Detail with Brevity
While writing an executive resume, there is always the challenge of having to pack lots of information into a few words. This means that you must be specific enough to help the employer understand why you are the best fit for the job. But not too much information that it becomes cluttered and hard to read the information presented.
Focus on Impact, Not Tasks: Essentially, avoid going through most of the activities you have done in your previous jobs. But rather show what you have changed. Always employ powerful words with an element of measure where possible.
Keep It Relevant: Make sure that your resume will directly correspond to the position you are going to be applying for, selecting the best experiences and achievements.
Avoid Overloading with Information: As it has been postulated, detail is good but overcrowding the reader with information is counterproductive. The text contained in each bullet must be brief and to the point. Looking at the points discussed above, the following are how executive resume writing services can be of assistance. It is never an easy feat to come up with an executive resume. Here there is concern, especially on the need to balance between the detail and the overall brevity of the document. This is where Executive Resume Writing Services come into play in quite a big way.
Tailored Content: Executive resume writing services are also going to help you focus on the specifics of the position as well as the sector you are keen on.
Clarity and Readability: A professional resume writer can achieve clarity. Avoid the use of unnecessary abbreviations and acronyms in the resume.
Expertise in Executive Branding: It can assist you in creating a properly developed and organized quick reference section; the executive summary and the core competencies.
Polished Presentation: The look of your resume is almost as important as the information that it contains. Executive resume writing services can also ensure that the resume you submit for employment search will look professional and clean.
Conclusion
To sum up, more detail does not mean better. And you should select the right level at which the executive resume with your accomplishments and qualifications should be written. More attention should be paid to the quality of the data in the sections that are likely to be of interest to the employer, namely the Work Experience and Accomplishments sections, whereas the other sections are brief but effective.
