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Is It Time to Toss Your Resume?
By Abby Locke

Would you cook a gourmet meal and then serve it on dirty dishes? Probably not. So why would you engage in a new job search using outdated, ineffective resume development strategies?

If you’ve been conducting a targeted job search that is not generating any interviews or getting you the results that you want, it’s time to sit down and evaluate your existing resume.

Let’s take a close look at some of the questions you should ask yourself to avoid the basic mistakes that could hamper your job search.

Is Your Resume Too Short?

Are you one of those die-hard, traditional executives still abiding by the one-page resume rule? There are innovative, one-page career marketing documents like the networking resume and career biography, but your standard executive resume should not be squeezed onto one page.

If you downplay your career progression and end up cutting out critical information just to get it to fit onto one page, you run the risk of appearing extremely under-qualified. Your goal is to keep the resume content succinct, concise, and as brief as possible. But, if your career story is compelling and accomplishment-focused, developing a two-page resume is more than acceptable.

Does Your Resume’s First Page Stand Out?

Generally, you have a max of 30 to 60 seconds to make a great impression on a potential employer. Don’t make the mistake of filling your resume’s first page with heavy detail that does not support your qualifications, experience, and expertise. Information like education, certifications, associations, and volunteer work take up too much valuable real estate on the first page.

Instead, use the first page to strategically draw the reader in with a strong personal branding statement, career highlights, and core competencies.

Does Your Executive Resume Contain Too Much Fluff?

If you have opted to include a summary of executive qualifications, key achievements, or an executive profile at the beginning of your resume, be sure to avoid adding “fluffy”, superfluous statements that don’t add value.

Here are a few common phrases that you should avoid on your resume:

• Great problem solver concerning customer relations, inventory management and cost containment.
• Demonstrates superior leadership through conceptual thinking and strategic planning.
• Articulate communicator with expertise in professional presentations and key professional relationships.

These statements are general, can be used by anyone, and do nothing to differentiate you from your competition.

Try using more powerful statements like these:

• Forward-thinking strategist able to structure contract agreements, financial investments, and joint ventures that increase business growth and minimize financial losses.
• Broad-based expertise with marketing to diverse cultural and ethnic groups in untapped, domestic, and international markets.

Do Your Achievements Stand Out?

Don’t make the reader work hard to determine if you are the right candidate – most recruiters won’t take the time to hunt down your achievements if they’re lost deep in your resume. Your executive resume is a career marketing document that needs to effectively “sell” you to potential employers.

When your career achievements and high-impact accomplishment statements are buried among your daily or overall responsibilities, you can easily be overlooked as a viable candidate.

But, you can draw attention to major career achievements in several ways. Try writing an umbrella statement with quantifiable successes that demonstrate your problem-solving and leadership capabilities. The statements below would appear just before the job description


Developed a healthcare consulting services company from startup to fully operational in just nine months; grew annual revenues from zero to $5 million in first year.

OR

Performance Impact: Introduced innovative process improvement initiatives that automated 45 processes, shrunk operating costs by $500,000, and eliminated 100% of manual, time-consuming tasks.

You can also use hard-hitting, bulleted statements that really stand out. Check out the examples below:

• Delivered $13.5 million savings in general and administrative expenses by conducting extensive review of corporate and field human resources operations.
• Reduced annual HR expenditures 50% by eliminating duplicate costs, creating benefit efficiencies, and reducing employee training costs.
• Decreased staff turnover 20% and boosted employee satisfaction by implementing targeted recruiting, retention and human resources enhancement programs.
• Lowered annual benefit costs for two consecutive years by introducing managed care approach to employee health care plans.

Do You Display Your Personal Brand?

Adding a personal branding statement to your executive resume helps to manage the readers’ expectations right from the beginning. Think about your professional reputation, your unique attributes, and your consistent trend of career accomplishments. Use that information to write a strong, memorable branding statement and include it as part of the title header on your executive resume.

For example, a manufacturing executive may have a branding statement similar to:

SENIOR MANUFACTURER EXECUTIVE

Engaging cutting-edge technologies to advance corporate-wide initiatives, expedite manufacturing processes, and achieve aggressive revenue / cost objectives.

While an Operations executive would emphasize his leadership and management capabilities in a branding statement like the following:

SENIOR OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE
Start-Up, Emerging & High-Growth Companies

The Profit Builder: Systematically improving internal systems, strengthening operational processes and mobilizing vital resources that propel companies into stable, profitable entities.

If a career move is on your list of New Year’s resolutions, take the time now to get your executive resume and career marketing documents in order.

Abby M. Locke, president of Premier Writing Solutions, is a Certified Executive Resume-Writer and Personal Brand Strategist who helps senior-level professionals and C-level executives achieve personal success with customized, branded executive resumes and career marketing documents. Her resume samples have been published in Nail the Resume! Great Tips for Creating Dynamic Resumes and Same-Day Resumes.