Updating your resume is just one step in a successful executive job search.
If it’s been a while since you looked for a senior leadership position, or this is your first time searching for a role of this caliber, updating your resume can quickly become time-consuming.
And competing advice on how to best write an executive resume doesn’t make the process any faster or easier.
How To Improve Your Executive Resume In Under 5 Minutes
In honor of Career Director International’s Update Your Resume Month, here are 5 quick updates you can make to your executive resume in under 5 minutes:
1. Incorporate a splash of color.
Prospective employers are often reviewing hundreds, if not thousands, of applications for a single open leadership role. While you must also have relevant experience for the roles you target, consider adding a splash of color to your resume to stand out from fellow candidates.
Blue, green, purple, red, and gray are some of the best colors for your resume. Importantly, though, you don’t want to drown your resume in bright colors. Instead, you can use color to draw the reader’s attention to key details, such as relevant employers and industry keywords.
2. Add an executive summary
Another quick yet impactful change you can make to your resume is switching out the objective statement for an executive summary. The goal of this pithy paragraph is to quickly summarize your career highlights, major accomplishments, and relevant skills so the recruiter or hiring manager is enticed to continue reading the rest of your resume.
As an executive, your summary is particularly important because you want to develop a unified career story from the get-go for the reader. Additionally, since fellow candidates are likely to have similar backgrounds and skills, you must use every opportunity to communicate your unique value proposition (AKA your fabulousness) if you want to stand a chance of landing an interview.
3. Remove “resume fluff.”
One of the most common resume mistakes is the addition of “fluff,” or unnecessary details. Your resume is a marketing document, not a lengthy autobiography, so you want to be mindful of which details you highlight and choose only those that reinforce your fabulousness.
While there are exceptions, if you’re an executive, you’ll likely want to remove fluff like your graduation years and college internships. You can also quickly summarize roles from your early career.
Simply put, if the content doesn’t increase your chances of landing an interview, cut it from your resume.
4. Quantify your achievements.
Once you’ve removed unnecessary details from your resume, you can quantify the accomplishments that remain.
While it helps to be precise, this article is focused on quick updates you can make to your resume, so the following are a few options you can use to quantify your achievements without having to dig for data:
- Provide an approximation, such as $10K+ or $1M+.
- Use a placeholder, such as $XXXK or $XXM.
- Speak in broad strokes, such as “double-digit” or “triple-digit.”
5. Check for ATS compatibility
Lastly, you can quickly check how likely your document is to be compatible with an applicant tracking system (ATS). Although there are hundreds of ATS on the market, you can get a sense of how your resume may be parsed by saving it as a .txt file.
Some of the most common ATS parsing issues are due to:
- Placing text in a header or footer
- Using columns or tables
- Inserting graphics
If you notice any issues, you can quickly address them. You’re unlikely to run into issues with ATS if you use simple formatting in a Word document.
Final Thoughts On Updating Your Executive Resume
Executive resume writing best practices are constantly evolving. However, what will always remain the same is the need to communicate your unique value proposition. The more effectively you communicate your fabulousness, the more likely you are to land an interview.
On a final note, please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about updating your executive resume. I’m here for you! You’ve got this!
