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To write a compelling executive resume, you must first ask yourself what kind of accomplishment record the senior management role you are applying for requires and how your career and work experience, especially your management skills and leadership abilities, can be useful to the company or organisation that is advertising the senior management job in question.
A well written executive CV can make a huge impact on the salary range that the executive recruiter has in mind when approaching you for a job interview. The difference between a quality executive resume and an average one can sometimes be measured in tens of thousands of pounds. The picture your resume paints of your experience in middle and senior management roles will indirectly convey your salary expectations to your prospective employers. The better you sell your qualifications and career experience in management positions, the bigger offer you can expect.
Executive resumes are read by people in senior management positions – chief executives and industry veterans who do not have to go through a pile of job applications every day and can take the time to read your resume carefully and consider all the aspects of your pitch before calling you in for a job interview.
While it is important for your executive CV to be simple and uncluttered, free of redundant career details that bear no relevance to the job that you are applying for, you do not need to reduce your experience in management to a single page just for the sake of brevity. Two or even three pages are not uncommon, depending on how much relevant experience you have for the executive position for which you are applying.
An executive CV will usually offer a summary of key skills and expertise or previous executive job titles instead of a career objective. The content should include all work experience that illustrates how good a candidate you are for the senior management position at hand. While it is common for executive job hunters to include only their work experience in the last decade or so, if you had had a job at a prestigious company or one that called for skills similar to those the executive recruiter is looking for, more than a decade ago, it is certainly not a mistake to include it in your executive CV, as long as it supports your value proposition.
What your executive resume must accomplish is not to describe the management roles you have held or the responsibilities that they entailed, but to illustrate your ability to deal with challenges, deliver results, and solve business problems, and also to support this with a few strategically placed facts. The focus needs to be on your accomplishments and these needs to be delivered in active language, with some numbers to back them up. See the example below to get a better idea of what your executive resume should look like.
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Here is a sample CV for executive job hunters:
Highly driven marketing and management professional with an exceptional track record in product promotion with extensive experience in the following areas:
Business Director, Sales & Marketing Dept.
Senior Team Co-ordinator, Business Accounts
