Executive resume

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You've certainly heard that using a powerful personal brand message will make your executive resume a compelling readâand help you gain traction in your job search. But how do you go about defining and capturing your brand?

Intensive processes, such as the 360 Reach Personal Branding exercise, can often help pinpoint your brand elements and strengths. However, you can conduct your own research and analysis to create a compelling message suitable for your executive resume.

While pinpointing your own personal brand (and writing a compelling executive resume from it) may seem daunting, you can break the process into these manageable steps:

1. Reflect On Your Leadership Value-Add

One of the easiest ways to encapsulate your message of ROI is by taking stock of how you solve problems and deal with obstacles at an executive level. If you're having difficulty expressing your value proposition, try creating a list of your top 10 career achievementsâthe ones that have become your signature accomplishments over the years. (Think of it as your top 10 hitsâthe ones you've always thought of as defining your career and its trajectory.)

Any of the following can make your top 10 hits:

Turnarounds (at a team, division, or company level)
New sources of revenue
Cost-cutting methods
Additional sales and distribution channels
New products or markets
Speed and agility in delivering results

Next, write STAR (Situation or Task, Action, Result) stories for each top achievement, remembering to set the stage for each story by looking at the situation first, then your actions, and lastly, the outcome. J.T. O'Donnell, founder and CEO of Work It DAILY, also recommends the "Experience + Learn + Grow" model to formulate stories for employers. While tedious work, you'll benefit from having this collection of powerful anecdotes in your job search.

2. Analyze And Leverage Feedback From Throughout Your Executive Career

Consider your reputation at work, influence on others, and leadership style (all critical components of an effective executive resume). Are you known as the go-to leader who builds consensus when negotiations are at a standstill? Have you become a turnaround leader capable of righting the ship? Chances are that you've carved out a unique nicheâand prospective employers need to know this about you!

Take the time to gather information from those affected by your work:

Analyze your impact on subordinates. Do you often mentor your teams into company or industry leaders?
Look at those you've influenced, such as vendors or colleagues. Have they adopted your methods or commended you on your effectiveness?
Assess your impact on the executive team and board. Do you build the business case and buy-in that lead your CEO to issue changes in strategy?

Now, assemble testimonials and feedback from credible sources, such as performance reviews, LinkedIn recommendations, letters of reference, or other kudos (even informal email messages). Create STAR stories from this data, and consider including a snippet or quote in your executive resume for additional reinforcement.

3. Include Tactical Details And Scope

Executive resumes aren't just high-level lists of achievements. To be truly compelling, the scope and reference points from your work need to be included as supporting details.

Consider pulling in specifics from among the following components of each job:

Size of budgets managedâboth department and project-level
Cost-saving figures that show the result of new processes or negotiations
Numbers of employees managed, both directly and in matrixed organizations
Comparisons that show progression (such as year-over-year increases in market share)

What these details will do for your executive resume is help round out your story, showing how your authority and impact have increased at each progressive step of your career. It's all about the numbers!

4. Look To Others For Comparison

You may have started to look at the data for your executive resume with a critical eye. What if it isn't good enough to vault you to the next level in your career? How will employers know you've led significant change if there are minimal cost or profit results to report?

One of the best ways to distinguish yourself from the competition is to look precisely at them and gauge the difference based on context.

Here's how to weigh your competitive differentiators:

Analyze what would have happened at previous employers if you hadn't worked there. Would the company or division have floundered? Is it possible employees stayed only because of your influence?
Look at what took place against the backdrop of the economy or industry challenges. For example, did your efforts keep the company afloatâeven if they didn't realize the same level of profitsâbecause of actions that counteracted the downturn?
Take note of what occurred at competing companies. Were you maintaining operations while your competitors went out of business?

These sure signs of effectiveness will help add a twist to your STAR storiesâemphasizing your ability to take on and overcome challenges that others failed to achieve.

5. Build Brand And Achievement Statements To Use Throughout Your Resume

Now that you've collected all this data, what's the next step? Pulling it together into a cohesive story, of course.

Here's where the stories you've built will serve as key components of your brand message and can be used in various places within your executive resume:

Ensure your STAR stories are in manageable form, using bullet points that take up two lines or less for use on your executive resume.
Distill your most prominent STAR stories into a simple message. As an example, an EVP of marketing who launched new products could note "carving a profitable new industry niche" as a statement of brand value.
Look at executive resume examples for inspiration.

Undertaking these steps is, of course, a time-consuming exercise in exploring your achievements and examining your brand. However, it will pay off in a cohesive message of value to employersâand help them see the value in bringing you in for a choice executive role.

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This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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5 Steps To A Powerful Personal Brand …

Even executives who've had several years of experience in a profession can find it hard to secure a new job. The problem clearly isn't lack of experience, but rather understanding how to best position themselves on their resume so that employers will take notice of what they have to offer.

When you're a senior executive, there's typically no shortage of information to include on your resumeâand that's where the problem lies. When there's no strategy for writing a resume, the end result is usually a mishmash of information that doesn't help employers understand exactly how and why you would fit their needs.

So, how can an executive write a resume that will stand out to employers?

The tips below will help you write a strategic and effective executive resume with ease.

Present Information That Aligns With The Employer's Needs

Employer/hiring manager reads an executive resume that aligns with their needs

When employers review your resume, they are looking to understand how you may fit into the role they are looking to fill and the organization. A resume that is written like an autobiography (everything from past to present with no filter on what information is appropriate to include) fails to provide customized information that shows you meet their needs.

What you need to do is highlight the specific experience and skills that align with their needs. In other words, you need to customize your resume for each job you apply for. You do that by carefully reviewing the job posting, understanding what the specific needs are, and then thinking about how you're proficient in those areas.

Utilize an executive headline and relevant skills (not an objective statement) at the top of your resume to present highlights of what you have to offer to meet the employer's needs.

Demonstrate How You Brought Improvement/Results To Your Previous Jobs

Employer reviews an executive resume with quantifiable accomplishments

While detailing roles and responsibilities at previous jobs under "Work History" can help improve keyword matches when the resume is run through the applicant tracking system (ATS), it needs to present other information once it gets in the hands of a human reviewer.

The human reviewer will be looking for information on how your actions on the job brought results. This requires you to quantify your accomplishments on your resume. When you write quantifiable results on your resume, it provides employers with a much better understanding of the type of experience and situations you've faced and what you're capable of achieving on the job.

Connect With The Employer

Those who are hired for the job are typically job candidates who've related well with the employer. They've shown how they fit in and share similar passions.

To help build that connection with the employer on the resume, indicate professional affiliations, volunteer work, and other aspects that may be outside of work that are relatable. For example, if you know the employer is heavily involved in community work helping pets in need and you've volunteered at an animal shelter, include a brief mention at the end of your resume to help build a stronger connection. Your professional affiliation with related fields and industry groups also helps demonstrate to the employer you share a passion in the same space as they do.

These are simple strategies to help improve your executive resume. The more you can tailor your information, the easier it is for employers to take notice of you and initiate follow-up action. Show employers you can meet their specific desires and needs and connect with them by showing you share similar passions!

Need more help with your executive resume?

Check out our executive-level membership and start working with career expert J.T. O'Donnell on branding your executive resume today!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.

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3 Tips For Improving Your Executive Resume

Are you finding it difficult to sum up your value proposition in a two or three-page executive resume? In addition to annoying employers, a too-long resume can quickly lose its potency and dilute your brand message—leaving decision-makers confused about why they should hire you for a leadership role.

Here are some tip-offs you have a too-wordy resume that fails to distinguish your skills:

Your bullet-point sentences are longer than 2 or 3 lines, making them nearly impossible to scan quickly
You’ve started many phrases or sentences with the same word, which weakens your message
Your performance results are buried all the way at the end of each sentence, and are therefore hard to find, with minimal brand impact
You’ve added too many adjectives and adverbs, with every achievement noted as “outstanding,” “exceptional,” and worst of all, “successful.” (Employers certainly hope this is the case!)

If any of these apply to your executive resume, it’s easy to trim excess words with these three techniques that drive your point home quickly:

1. Skip Verbs For Increased Impact

As a branded marketing document, an executive resume can use innovative conventions, such as sentence fragments that remove the verbs. Consider this example of a sentence transformation:

Original:

Led large-scale operations restructuring and expansion of call centers and company facilities, resulting in a 63% profit increase in just three years and the region’s lowest personnel costs.

New:

63% profit increase in 3 years plus lowest per-employee expenses with enterprise-level operations restructuring and expansion.

Here, the original sentence was condensed by 37%—but it still conveys the same meaning. Now, imagine what cutting more than a third of the clutter could do for the clarity of your executive resume! To use this technique, under each job you've held, make a list of front-loaded results sentences like these where you quantify your work experience and accomplishments. You'll impress employers and keep their attention!

2. Take Out That Long, Winding Summary Paragraph

There’s no need to bore your reader with a look-alike resume summary or profile that states the obvious, such as:

Dedicated team player with proven leadership, technology utilization, and financial expertise. Skilled in completing projects and communicating at all corporate levels, with excellent team-building and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Don’t waste this key area of resume real estate with a description that fails to tell a story. Instead, cut down the volume of words while giving a snapshot of brand value that pulls in some achievement metrics. Here’s an example culled from a leadership resume for a candidate moving up the ladder to a CTO role:

VP of technology attaining 99% over-goal performance by exceeding SLA requirements through strategic planning, cost containment, and contract negotiations.

Note the metrics and specific job title blended into the summary—with a message that promises value and performance.

3. Learn To Write A Branding Headline

Hiring manager reviews an executive resume

A trade secret among professional and executive resume writers, the headline is actually a tagline that allows you to condense more data into a tight space. The best part? Your resume can use more than one headline to convey your strongest points.

Here are some examples of headlines that encapsulate value and position job hunters for a specific role:

Senior pharmaceutical executive behind accelerated, multibillion-dollar product launches
VP of sales driving global growth for new-media marketing company achieving worldwide recognition
Investment professional promoting financial health through investment & capital planning

A personal branding statement can quickly give employers the “big picture” of your achievements, without taking up precious space on your executive resume. To create this statement, combine the position you seek with a major achievement from your career, showing the results of your work or the approach that you use.

As you continue to adjust your executive resume and tighten the language, be sure to show it to colleagues and others familiar with your work. You’ll probably find, even with excess words removed, it still conveys your brand message—and faster to boot.

If you'd like more help with your executive job search, sign up for J.T. O'Donnell's FREE training “4-Step Process For Creating Your Executive Presence Online.” In just three hours, you’ll learn how to write an effective resume and build your executive presence so you can find the best job opportunities!

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