Looking to give your executive resume, LinkedIn and career documents a boost? Here are a few quick tips to help.
Utilizing words that portray leadership and include quantifiable facts within your executive resume is critical. The reader wants to know what you are capable of achieving. What is the percentage of EBITDA improvement? How many new markets did you penetrate over a three-year period? Often due to confidentiality concerns, clients prefer to provide percentages versus dollar amounts. Utilizing this strategy, you can communicate the percentage of cost reductions, productivity improvements, revenue generation, or market share attainment. You will be incorporating keywords while clearly illustrating your achievements as a leader.
The top fourth of the page is precious real estate with only 10 to 15 seconds to grab the reader’s attention. Utilizing a title to target the document and including two or three quantifiable career achievements will quickly acknowledge you as a candidate.
The keywords within your executive resume should be customized toward your individual positions of interest. Keyword searches are the driving force behind your visibility. Search consultants will find you depending on your due diligence related to keyword selection and customization. This is related to your resume, cover letter and LinkedIn Profile. By providing a consistent brand and message across all of the career marketing documents you will be able to quickly adjust the keywords to maximize your hits in the scanning systems.
If you are planning to contact search consultants directly, consider the fact that they are interested in building a give and take relationship. Unless you fit the qualifications for a position currently on their desk, you will be loaded into their system for potential roles. Again, your keyword positioning is key to identifying you amongst your competition. They would like to utilize you within your current role to secure information on building a relationship within your current employer.
LinkedIn is a common resource for executive recruiters, so you must make sure you have optimized your profile. Include a professional photo. Your ranking will be lowered if you do not provide it. Include a few of your career quantifiable facts within the summary section as well for impact. Inserting a keyword rich “specialties” section within the summary will also allow you to include valuable keywords within a highly advantageous section of the profile. As you can see this process is a multipronged approached. You should know your target role and position yourself by communicating your fit and ability to build, turnaround, and/or grow organizations.
Make sure you do your due diligence and incorporate useful information within your cover letter. It is also important to maintain a file of the postings and documents submitted for reference as well as a file to store your presentations, performance reviews, or other documentation that includes your quantifiable facts. This will provide you with the data you need to update your documents.
Often times clients find it difficult to write about themselves, so it could be beneficial to consider having your documents written by a professional. As BlueSteps resume writers and advisors, we have extensive experience creating documents that are easily customizable and produce results.
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