Magic Pot of Jobs

Creating a resume for an executive job takes more finesse than one needed to be, say, and administrative assistant. Companies that are willing to pay an employee six figures are looking for the best of the best, therefore the resume used to make it obvious that the applicant belongs in this group.

That being said, providing too much information can cause an employer to miss out on the important parts. Lack of white space can cause the document to look too busy and undermine appearing professional. Because of this, it is important to use a format that directs the eye toward the most crucial achievements of one’s career.

In order to ensure that employers do not miss out on the most impressive points listed on the resume, scrap the objective statement. Instead use this space for to highlight the best achievements that have been reached throughout one’s career. This may not be as simple as it seems, due to the fact that those who qualify for executive level jobs certainly have a long list of successes. Despite the abundance of things that could be mentioned in this area, it is important to keep it short.

According to Jewel Bracy DeMario, Executive Resume Strategist with AperfectResume.com, this section should include only three to five points that best demonstrate the arc of one’s career and the scope of their professional expertise. DeMario says that the section should be something that the reader can quickly understand in 15 seconds or less.

Instead of numbering these achievements, it is more effective to present them as bullets. Using numbers often makes the reader assume that one achievement has a greater value than another. The best achievement sections illustrate the applicants accomplishments, list the benefits in dollar of percentage figures, and mention the employer the applicant was working for at the time.

In order to make a resume for an executive job pack a bigger punch, one can stray from the traditional format for listing responsibilities under past job descriptions. Instead of beginning with a basic summary of the position held, listing the main point first will ensure that employers are unable to miss it. According to DeMario the most effective way to figure out what this main point should be is to decide what would be the best thing to write if space only allowed for one sentence. This point could be anything that demonstrates how the previous employer benefitted from the applicant’s presence.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 2nd, 2008 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Job Search. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.