Our members are always looking for help with their resume, which is totally understandable and advisable. Resume construction has followed a basic outline for years but there have also been many changes – especially for executives. You really don’t want to blow it with your resume, since that is one of, if not the first, exposure to your work experience some employers will have to you. Make a mistake in the approximately 10 seconds most resumes initially get, and they will be on to the next one. We’ve heard it from the recruiters in our community many times over many years.
ExecuNet has created a series of personal marketing products for every stage of the job search process. They are designed to complement each other, and the resume is certainly the best known and most traditional of that group. There is an art to doing it right, however.
In the resume “above the fold” before your experience we recommend your name and contact information, brand statement, value proposition, accomplishments with metrics, and competencies with keywords. All of this needs to be easily skimable in the 10 seconds they may give you as they determine if they are interested in looking at your resume any further.
The top section is like the inside jacket cover of a book or the coming attractions of a movie, the “Professional Experience” section below the fold is your actual story. In our research, we’ve learned that “below the fold,” resume readers want:
- Company name, description, and dates of employment
- Your title(s) and responsibilities (with dates for each role)
- What was going on in this company that got you hired (context)
- What you did to address the compelling needs that got you hired
- What you accomplished (with metrics) during your time in this role/company
Most people who aren’t professional resume writers don’t understand how to do the last three very effectively, if at all. Most people don’t explain why they were hired, doing so is a critical part of the story your resume needs to tell. ExecuNet resume writers know how to get to the heart of the company’s pain point that you were hired to solve, and they draw out of you exactly how you addressed the company’s needs and the benefits that your leadership had throughout the organization, benefits you may not even be away of because you were too close to it or do not have the same lens that they do.
Finally, how you share the metrics of your impact in your different roles is critical to you being offered a new position. If you do not have this aspect of your resume polished and ready for a magnifying glass then you aren’t as ready for an interview as a candidate who has a resume done by ExecuNet
Metrics rule. Fact.
