It’s Time to Write Your Strategic Executive Resume

No job search should be conducted without a solid strategy in place to help guide you along the way. From the companies you choose to apply with to the business suit you wear in an interview, it’s important that you take every aspect of the process seriously.

Of course, your executive resume is one of the most critical aspects of your entire search. It provides a window into your professional background and offers insight into how effective you will be if hired. The best way to create a resume that scores an interview is to ensure it is strategic.

Get to Know Your Audience

In order to create a strategic executive resume, you have to know your audience. In this case, of course, your audience consists of recruiters and hiring decision makers looking for top candidates. But your knowledge has to go beyond the company—you have to know the field it represents like the back of your hand to prove you can play an effective role in steering the company in the right direction.

Find Your Target and Stick with It

Knowing your audience is also critical because it helps you target your resume to a specific position. Always keep your audience in mind as you write, thinking of ways your skills, accomplishments, and expertise will help each company meet its goals. Most important, stay true to your target throughout the resume so that you don’t add information that’s irrelevant to the position you want.

Brand Yourself from Top to Bottom

From the top of your resume to the last words read at the bottom of the last page, the reader of the document should know who you are and what you can bring to the table. This means including a highly effective branding statement near the top, adding a career summary (if it’s not incorporated into the branding statement), and including specific accomplishments throughout your professional history that not only showcase your expertise but highlight your determination and integrity as a top executive.

Prioritize Your Most Important Details

A great strategy in writing your executive resume is to choose your greatest accomplishments for each section, then list them in order of best to “least best”. From your branding statement to your professional affiliations, prioritizing your accomplishments is critical.

Carefully Choose Keywords

Use of keywords is a top strategy in resume writing. They are always correlated with your industry and the job you want and are to be placed throughout your resume to showcase knowledge of your field and the role you intend to assume.

The amount of time and energy you put into writing your resume will be reciprocated by an equal amount of interest from employers. So be sure to put effort into creating a strategic resume that shows just how invested you are in making a difference in the company you want to work for.

It’s important to remember to brand your resume before applying to each new position for more information on branding check out my recent article 5 Key Areas to Target When Branding Your Resume. You can also get additional job search and career related advice by checking out our blog or following us on Twitter @GreatResume.