"Writing the Strategic Executive Resume"

 by Isaac Cheifetz, Minneapolis Star Tribune, April 12, 2004

April 2 brought good news from the U.S. Labor Department, which reported that nonfarm payroll jobs increased by 308,000 in March, the fastest pace of job growth in nearly four years.

But an improving job market won't help you if you aren't marketing yourself strategically in your résumé. Sure, there are numerous books and consultants to assist executives and professionals in writing superior résumés. Yet, as an executive recruiter, I find that about half the résumés I receive from candidates require revision.

Most often, the résumés are professionally written and formatted. But they tend to be lacking in one key area: They don't connect the story of your career with the corroborating accomplishments. They might be too complicated, too long or short, too vague or too detailed. Bottom line, they confuse the decisionmaker reading the résumé.

Here are guidelines for writing a great executive résumé:

• Assume your résumé will be given 90 seconds of attention. Announce the theme of your résumé; don't make the reader guess. A short summary paragraph outlining the "elevator pitch" of your experience and objective sets the stage for the details to follow.

• Tell a strategic story concisely. A résumé is NOT a synopsis of your work history. It is marketing collateral, written with the goal of getting an interview. Tell a thematic story with nuggets of content embedded in it. It must be accurate, but it does not need to describe every responsibility or accomplishment; that's what the interview is for.

• Don't split your job history and accomplishments into separate sections. The context of specific accomplishments is critical. For example, did you "manage the corporate marketing campaign" while you were at Oracle or at that 30-person startup? Did you "manage the 100-person sales department" last year or 10 years ago? Convey your experience sequentially and clearly so that the reader can use those 90 seconds to think about how you might fit into the organization, rather than mentally reformatting your resume. In football terms, toss it into their arms smoothly like Dan Marino, and let them concentrate on running their routes. Don't zip it in like John Elway, and risk the ball -- your future with the firm -- bouncing off their fingers.

• Don't assume context; describe it. In the first paragraph of each position in your experience section, briefly describe the company and your role. Example: "For this Fortune 1000 manufacturer of networking peripherals, responsibilities included ..."

• Don't take the jargon of your industry for granted. Assume that your résumé is being read by a person who is not expert in what you do. For practice, imagine explaining your work to a bright teenager.

• It's a résumé, not a job description. Avoid elaborating in detail on obvious responsibilities that are inherent to the job. Summarize those quickly and go into more detail on your most impressive accomplishments.

• Start with your best pitch. Always start your résumé with a summary or "objective" section. This is your "elevator pitch." Pretend you have 20 seconds between floors with a decision maker to convey the core of your personal value proposition. Don't make it a laundry list of your skills.

It is critical that you tell the reader what the theme of your background is -- don't leave it to her or him to guess.

• Use active, direct verbs. Use specific terms, not vague ones, in describing your accomplishments. Don't take credit for things you were only tangentially involved in, but don't be modest either. Words like "involved" and "participated" dampen a résumé like rain on a campfire. If you say you were "involved" in integrating an acquisition when you actually led the M&A integration team, a reader will assume you were a minor contributor to the end result.

• Beware résumé creep. A résumé should resemble a narrow, upside-down pyramid in its level of detail. If a job is more than 10 years ago, a concise summary is better than an elaborate description. Needless to say, detailed school accomplishments, internships, and descriptions of corporate training programs will not be the basis of hiring decisions for an executive role.

• Make it visually easy. Always assume the résumé will be read at 9 o'clock in the evening, after a 14-hour day, by a 53-year-old with bifocals. Never use less than 11-point typeface; 12 point is better.

• Bullet with care. Don't overuse bullets. Bullets are meant to highlight your most important accomplishments, not as a substitute for clear writing. Excess bullets on a résumé are the equivalent of "crying wolf," calling attention to the ordinary. Never use more than five in any one section of your résumé.

• Let it settle, then polish. When you have completed your résumé, let a couple of days pass. Then review your résumé line by line for relevance to getting interview. If you can imagine your résumé without an item, cut it. Keeping a résumé to one page is pointless. But a résumé shouldn't be longer than three pages, unless a company or recruiter asks you for extra detail.

Lastly, don't obsess about it. Writing a résumé is a craft, not a science. The goal is for your experience to speak for itself. Tell your story, back it up with facts, and let the caliber of your accomplishments speak for themselves.