Your resume should be designed to market you, to get you in the door. Its job is to distinguish you from your competition by highlighting the distinct value you would bring to an employer.
Here’s where most people go wrong: when you write your resume, don’t focus on things you have done – not if you want a good one.
Focus instead on the business imperative that explains why you were hired and use that four-letter word – that’s right, data – to support your accomplishments, the ways you impacted the company. What you did on a daily basis does not matter on an executive-level resume. What matters are your accomplishments with the supporting data.
Think of it this way:
- Resumes below the executive level focus on tasks, things done during the day.
- Resumes at the executive level focus on how you advanced the business.
Advancing the business could mean many things depending on your function. You could provide data on how you improved revenue, website hits, customer or employee satisfaction, innovation, etc. The possibilities are vast, as long as they support you advancing the business. And with resumes getting only seconds to capture attention, a reader’s eye is naturally drawn to data, so it is an ideal way to substantiate your differentiation in the marketplace.
ExecuNet career coaches consistently find that the members they work with need a lot of help uncovering their unique value proposition and how to story tell that value proposition throughout their job search, which would include their resume, with data.
If you’d like help with your job search, reach out to ExecuNet’s Career Services Group and we will evaluate your job search strategy, resume, online profiles, and networking skills.
