Want to compete at the executive level in 2024? You’ll need to leverage the latest executive resume trends.
Your resume must position you as the ANSWER to employer needs in order to win against other talented leaders.
This is especially important if you’ve tried to add executive experience to your old resume, without thinking strategically about your presentation or considering how this looks to employers (see Still Using Your College Resume?).
These executive resume trends and tips will help you capitalize on the most important, next-gen practices in resume writing:
Executive Resume Trend #1: Conserve your words.
What happens when you see a long paragraph?
Your eyes hit the first few words, then read a few in the middle, then travel to the end.
As a result, your resume’s long qualifications summary will get only a cursory glance – in seconds!
Today’s resume trend is short, snappy taglines (think headlines such as Global Impact on Mobility, Ecommerce, & Disruptive Market Entry, as shown in this CEO resume) – giving employers a SNAPSHOT of your goals and qualifications, instead of wordy sentences.
Accustomed to reading resumes on a smartphone, recruiters often look for quick examples of your effectiveness and notable credentials.
Give it to them with brief, easily digestible sentences and branding taglines – what you’ll find on the best executive resumes.
Executive Resume Trend #2: Offer bottom-line results.
Money talks! If you can’t quantify the results of your work, it’s time to do some digging for facts. Metrics showing how you’ve cut costs, improved margins, conserved staff, or boosted sales are all attention-getting factors in getting your resume read.
At the executive level, employers are interested in your impact on the ENTIRE company, not just one team or department.
Prove your ROI as a new leadership hire with specific, quantifiable results spelled out in crisp, clear detail, such as “Pushed SaaS sales to new peak in history with 52% gain, positioning ABC Company as edutech market leader.”
This achievement shows individual effort and whole-company influence, implying that you’ll accomplish the same wins in your next role.
Executive Resume Trend #3: Describe the backstory of your career.
Earned promotions faster than your colleagues? Built a legacy of accelerated delivery or growth in your career? Sought to rescue flagging projects as a turnaround expert?
If you’ve been able to get results where others stumbled, be sure to describe these accomplishments in your resume. Employers are not just hiring a collection of skills, but searching for a leader who represents a TOTAL SOLUTION – including your reputation, personal influence, and ability to step into the unknown and resolve business challenges.
You can spell out these details by inserting context valuable to your story, as shown in this sample of an Enterprise Account Manager resume. Notice that this candidate “attained significant territory growth (despite recession) in cloud, VoIP, SaaS, DR, and infrastructure solutions” and reached 170% sales results after he “dispelled misconceptions” about the company’s product lines.
Executive Resume Trend #4: Eliminate boring, “fluffy” writing.
Rather than writing an adverb-filled resume qualifications summary with no point, you’ll need to ensure a direct tie-in to your actual experience – giving recruiters a break from reading the same-old descriptors.
As an example, the phrase “highly accomplished executive focused on bottom-line results” is barely effective at best, but only if followed by “18% year-over-year revenue gains” or “Millions cut in OPEX, despite company expansion.”
Too many resumes rely on a generic description of skills and personal qualities (often prompting an eye-roll from recruiters). Make yours stand out, just like the best executive resumes written today, with examples relevant to the hiring audience.
Executive Resume Trend #5: Get to the point – FAST.
No one – employers, company owners, recruiters, or HR personnel – has time to wonder what you offer as an executive candidate. Punch up your resume by declaring what you’re seeking and showing HOW you’re qualified to take it on, trimming your document to a readable 2 or 3 pages at most.
This CEO and President resume, which won a global resume writing award, shows a clear message of leadership and context (“EMEA, Americas, & APAC Influence” combined with “eliciting top performance at startup, PE-backed, private, public, and independent companies”).
By ensuring every word in your executive resume is tuned to your career goal and qualifications, the hiring audience will know exactly WHAT you’re pursuing and WHY they should contact you.
Executive Resume Trend #6: Pump up your presentation.
Many resumes can benefit from a shot of color and innovative formatting – although not every document needs a four-color infographic.
Consider your audience! Employers in a conservative industry might prefer a toned-down presentation, while a marketing leadership resume can spark interest with unusual color and decorative borders.
This Healthcare CEO and COO resume shows how to frame section headings in blue, with keywords emphasized in a tan font.
These hints of color can help employers navigate this candidate’s complex history in hospital leadership roles. In addition, a Strategy & Quality Impact section shows this executive’s top achievements and new improvements in healthcare metrics.
A brief visual like this can help employers see the most important facets of your career – all in one quick glance, without the need to read the full document.
Executive Resume Trend #7: Ensure the same brand message exists on LinkedIn.
Nothing dilutes your personal brand message more than presenting one set of leadership skills on LinkedIn, with an entirely different set of jobs and qualifications on your executive resume. This can turn off recruiters and cloud your message of ROI.
After building a strong personal brand for your resume, transfer the SAME overall message to your social media profiles, while adding Skills keywords to boost your traffic and searchability. Include links to company projects, awards, and other career accolades in both your online profiles and documents.
Remember that recruiters may find your content online first and request your resume as a second step. Therefore, your metrics-driven, accomplishment-rich resume data should exist in BOTH places.
Your best strategy when writing your executive resume?
Realize that trends change (constantly!), based on how employers find and vet leadership candidates.
Concise, achievement-rich details are a MUST for attracting attention at the executive level – closely followed by an innovative resume format and compelling personal brand message.
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