Do You Have an Elevator Pitch for Your Resume?

Make sure your elevator pitch is always ready to go.

You never know when you’ll need to spout your elevator pitch. Opportunity never comes calling at the right time. You need to have an elevator pitch for your resume, and you need to be ready to tell someone what you do in an instant.

What Is an Elevator Pitch?

Your executive bio, executive resume biography or your elevator pitch is a brief 30-second bit about what you do, how you do it and who you are. You’re telling any potential employer or contact why you’re the perfect candidate. An elevator pitch concisely explains why you’re the man or woman for the job.

The Hard Part

Talking about our individual abilities and accomplishments for 30-seconds shouldn’t be too tough. Still, most people find condensing years of experience and hard work into 30-seconds of chatter difficult. You’ve done so much, but you have so little time to articulate it.
If you’re back on the job market, you’ll want to create the perfect elevator pitch immediately. You never know when a great contact or opportunity will come up so you must be prepared.
With this in mind, here’s how to develop a perfected pitch:

Decide What You Want

Before you write out any pitch, you must focus on what your desires are. Clarify what you want in a job. Choose what kind of employment you’re interested in. Each industry and profession will require a different type of elevator speech.

Write It Down

Once you’ve clarified what you’re looking for – you can begin to write down your pitch. Grab a piece of paper and start scribbling. Begin by jotting down bullet point ideas about what you’ve accomplished, your abilities, personality and more.
Once you have a long list, you can start going through it, crossing off items of lesser importance. Once you have narrowed it down to the most important bullet points, you can begin to craft these tidbits of information into a concise, 30-second speech.

Cover the Bases

Next, you’ll want to read over your first draft and see if you’ve covered the bases. You must answer the fundamental questions someone looking to hire you is considering:

What do you do?
Who are you?
What do you desire?

If you believe your elevator pitch has covered these basic questions, move on to the next tip.

Tailor Your Words

Once your first draft is complete and the basics are covered, you’ll want to continue combing and improving. Start by tailoring your words to relate to the individual(s) you’re going to speak to. Add in benefit-focused wording to ensure your audience understands how you can help them.

Use the Mirror

Grab your piece of paper and head to the closest mirror, preferably with a little privacy. Stare yourself in the eyes and start giving your pitch. Let confidence flow through your veins and honestly believe what you’re saying. Monitor what areas of your quick speech sound great and which ones need tweaking.

Tweak It to Perfection

Not everything sounds as good on paper as it does when spoken. Most individuals find they need to reword and tweak things after hearing it out loud. It’s important to keep sentence short, speak in clear vocabulary free of industry jargon and keep things conversational.
Once you’ve tweaked your speech to perfection, you’ll want to continue practicing. Polish your words until you can spring into action and lay down your verbal biography in front of anyone at any time. Practice always makes perfect.

Understand Your Audience

Lastly, you shouldn’t be afraid to create a couple of variations. Most people would slightly change their speech when speaking with an old colleague than in front of an interviewer. The more you practice the pitch, the more comfortable you’ll feel when a slight tweak or change is needed.

It’s Not Easy, But You Can Do It

Anything relating to your executive bio is not going to be easy. You’re going to have to work to create the perfect resume and elevator pitch. If you’re struggling to do so, professional help may be needed.

How to Use Your Resume to Change Careers

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Change careers successfully with the best executive resume format.

The best executive resume format can help you change careers.

Writing a resume can be a daunting and tedious task. Between trying to figure out where to start an knowing what to include, creating a resume for a career change is even more difficult. Since a cover letter is crucial to your chances of getting noticed, opting to use a cover letter writing service is a great option. If that part of the process can be handled by a pro, writing the resume itself won’t seem quite so intimidating.

Are You Using a Functional Resume? Don’t!

First, let’s get familiar with the term functional resume. A functional resume is one that highlights certain skills, instead of the traditional chronological format. Those looking to change careers should use this technique to draw attention away from their former job titles and play up skills that may be relevant in their new desired field. This sounds like a great idea, except there’s only one problem: recruiters and hiring managers are all too aware of this method. They know you’re trying to hide something. They’ve seen it a million times, and it’s sure to get your resume in the trashcan.

A Better Approach

So what can you do instead? After you’ve used the best executive resume format, try to see things from the employer’s point of view. Don’t treat every potential employer the same; they all have different needs and desires. Some may put more emphasis on past experience, while others have requirements about personality, ethics, work style or drive. Second, do your research. You should know everything there is to know about the company you are after. Figure out what skills they value the most, and use that knowledge to your advantage. This will get you noticed by HR.
Third, don’t forget about any freelance or unpaid work you’ve done. This can be valuable when trying to change careers. Everyone has an executive bio, but this is one chance to stand out from the crowd. If it’s relevant work, it doesn’t matter if you were paid or not! If you don’t have any of this type of experience, now’s the time to consider it. If you’re truly passionate about a career change, you have to use every possible angle to your advantage.

Convince Employers You’re Committed

Now for the most important part. Since you can’t rely solely on your executive bio, you must communicate your passion for this position through your resume as well. Since you may be lacking the typical work history, this is where you can make up for that. It’s vital to emphasize you have thought this change through and are committed to it. The employer needs to feel confident you won’t quickly grow tired of the work and leave after they took a chance on you.
Now you know the basics: start with the best executive resume format, don’t use a functional resume and play up your passion. By using these tips, you will get in the door of your dream job in to time! If you need more guidance during the process, consider enlisting the help of a cover letter writing service. There you will find all the tools necessary to create the best resume possible.

How to Create a Great Executive Sales Resume

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Talk to an executive resume writer about your sales resume.

An executive resume writer can help you create an effective sales resume.

If you’re involved in the sales industry, you already know the importance of a great pitch. The ideal pitch should take only a few seconds to hook a consumer and can be the ticket to making a worthwhile sale or gaining a regular client. The same factors apply to your resume and executive resume bio. These serve as a self-pitch, meant to illustrate your experiences, skills and other related attributes to hiring managers. Keep in mind recruiters have only a small amount of time to view your resume. If you go into too much detail and don’t stick to relevant information, you risk being skipped over entirely. Let us offer you some advice on how to make your resume stand out from the rest.

Include the Awards You’ve Earned

Awards serve as excellent proof of good work and help illustrate you’re excellent at your job. When you include this in your executive resume bio, make sure to clarify what the award was for, as well as the amount of competition you were up against. The larger volume of people you had to compete with, the more your skill level will be apparent to recruiters.

Summarize Who You Are

The first component of a winning resume should be a summary about you—the exceptional qualities you have to offer to the company’s position, your professional history and a little about yourself and your experiences.

Go Into Detail Where You Need To

We recommend you focus specifically on illustrating your duties at your old positions. Talk about the quotas and accounts you had to manage, as well as the size of them. Create a clear depiction of your responsibilities and how you tackled them head-on on a regular and outstanding basis.

Don’t Forget the Numbers

When you’re detailing the significant aspects of your job experience, you should remember to include the numbers involved. They’re a frequent part of executive sales careers, after all. Talk about your standings among other employees at your old companies, as well as in your particular branch in said companies. Explain the percentage by which you improved profit margins and the number of sales you landed throughout your time at your previous job.

Pitch Yourself

Combining the elements we’ve explained above and considering how you want to present yourself will help you to become an excellent executive resume writer. Be wholly truthful about your accomplishments, but spin them in a way that explains why you’re the best at what you do. In other words, picture yourself exactly as a product you’re trying to put on the market and clarify why you’re a cut above all the rest.
Resumes are tough to master, but anyone can grow into a great executive resume writer with a little help and effort. All it takes is knowing how to pitch yourself properly and thus appeal to job recruiters who are searching for someone with your talents. If you need a little extra help getting started, consider contacting a cover letter writing service. There you’ll find all the tools you’ll need to write the best resume possible.

What Is Targeting in an Executive Resume?

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Target your resumes and cover letters to the specific job.

Resumes and cover letters should be targeted to the job.

For many people, executive resumes are the most difficult to master, which is why many executives looking for new jobs seek professional resume writing services. So what does it take to craft winning executive resumes that gets you hired? Targeting is the master key.

What Is Targeting?

Targeting means catering your job hunting efforts to a specific role in the industry you hope to work for so you know exactly how to market yourself to potential employers. To do this, it is a good idea to research the field you’re trying to break into. This will tell you what is expected of you and can give you a sense of how to reformat your search efforts.

How Should I Research?

The first and best thing to do would be to look up information about the job positions you’re interested in. Get to know the skills required for this position across various types of companies because differently sized companies tend to want different skills for the same positions. You’ll want to craft a resume that works for both ends of the spectrum, from small businesses to massive corporations.

How Do I Tailor My Resume to Specific Companies?

Start with the researching process and get to know everything there is to know about the position you want. Then you can proceed with getting to the heart of what your ideal position entails. Write out everything about how the position works and use that as a framework for your resume. Depending on the type of companies you’re aiming to send applications to, you may want to craft two resumes that suit their individual needs. You can write several versions of a resume just by keeping them concise and tailored to the needs of the specific position you want.
There are a number of important things to consider while trying to write your resume, including:

The regional scope of the company (for example, whether they are international or local)
The title(s) of the position(s) you want
How much interaction you’ll have with other employees in the company
The title(s) of your superior(s)
The goals of the position relative to the company
How large the company is
The variety of job duties you’ll have in this position
What the work environment is like at the company
Any specific industries you would most prefer to work in

Writing specific and goal-oriented resumes and cover letters becomes much easier when you know your focus. All it takes is a little research regarding what you want and some critical thought to narrow your goals down to the basics. The next step is taking what you’ve learned and applying it to your resume. By using these tools, you should be well on your way to crafting resumes that get you hired. However, if you need a little extra help, don’t hesitate to enlist the assistance of a professional resume writing service.

5 Ways to Make Over Your Resume

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You may need to make some changes when writing an effective resume.

Writing an effective resume may require making some changes.

It’s not enough to just have a standard resume. What is important is writing an effective resume, one that is designed to get you into that all-important interview. If you are not getting the interviews and opportunities you want, it’s time to rethink your current resources. Here are five strategies for giving your resume a makeover.

Strategy #1- Forget Your Objective

It’s customary to state your job objective at the top of the resume. However, those offering top resume writing services suggest this is futile and meaningless to potential employers. An employer is not as interested in what you are looking for as what you can give them. When an employer first sees your resume, you have an average of six seconds to catch their eye so make it about them.

Strategy #2 – Take a Marketing Stance

When writing an effective resume, rather than viewing it as looking for a job, consider the process as an opportunity to market your skills and experience. Focus on offering potential employers what you have in order to increase their profitability rather than trying to earn a paycheck for yourself. Make it about delivering value to them.

Strategy #3 – Highlight Your Professional Skills

Your skills are what are going to get you the position you desire so make sure to clearly identify the skill set you bring to the position. Use your strong points to entice a business recruiter in a way that makes them feel like they need what you have to offer. Impress them with what you can do for them.

Strategy #4 – Identify a Specific Job Title

Don’t leave out this essential bit of information. The targeted job title should be listed along with your contact information on your resume. This is your chance to draw recruiters or interviewers in. Putting it with your contact information is the ideal spot since it makes it more apparent and eyes are naturally drawn toward this area. If you are uploading your professional paperwork, including a targeted job title makes it more visible in online databases and search results.

Strategy #5 – Start off with a Performance Profile

Resumes and cover letters should begin with your ability to do the job. This means you need to do your research to identify what the specific needs of the company are and market to those needs. To create a performance profile, look at the requirements for your desired position and rewrite them as skills you have to offer. This does not need to be a long paragraph; try to keep it to five lines maximum. It’s also acceptable to use a bulleted list for emphasis. This also adds some visual appeal and will attract the reader’s eyes.

What Is an Executive Briefing and Should You Use It?

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Learn how to use an executive resume cover letter properly.

An executive resume cover letter can be a valuable tool.

When you’re not looking for a job, but an opportunity that is too good to pass up crosses your desk, you may find yourself rushing to update your resume so you can meet the deadline and apply. In some situations, you may not have the time needed to tailor your resume to the specific employer, so what can you do when time is of the essence? A cover letter writing service can help you use an executive briefing, which is a form of executive resume cover letter.

What Is an Executive Briefing?

In short, executive briefings are cover letters for resumes that shine a spotlight on the skills you have that match what the employer is looking for. Because most employers will read through a cover letter before they move on to the resume, this is the area where it’s most important to make a good first impression. This can make it an excellent tool to help you land a job you weren’t expecting to apply for so you can take advantage of advancement opportunities as they arise.

What Are the Requirements?

In order to create an executive briefing, it’s important to make sure you understand the specific qualifications of the job. This is because you will tailor everything to the particular job to which you are applying. Once you know what the employer expects from you, use this summary to let them know why you are the perfect fit for the job. As long as your resume backs up your claims in some form, you will have just as good a chance of landing the job as if you had reworked your entire resume. While it’s always best to customize your resume, in a tight spot, this type of executive resume cover letter can be a lifesaver.

Keep It Simple

The most important factor to remember when creating these cover letters for resumes is to keep it simple. Your resume should still do most of the talking for you. All you really need to do is list the job’s requirements along the left side of the paper and match it with your skills point by point. Be sure to include your email address and the job title and any identifiers assigned to it. This format should capture the attention of the hiring manager and increase the chances you will be contacted for an interview.
A cover letter writing service should encourage you to customize your resume to meet the requirements of any job you are applying for, but you don’t always have time for this task. If you are interested in applying for a job you found unexpectedly, you may need to consider an executive briefing. This type of executive resume cover letter can help showcase your skills in relation to a job’s requirements and help increase the chances of landing the job, even if you don’t have the time to update your resume.

7 Reasons Your Resume Was Rejected

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Your executive profile can play a major role in whether you get hired for a job. If you aren’t using the best resume writing services to help you in your job search, you may find your resume is constantly rejected. Instead of giving up on your job search, consider whether one of these reasons applies to your resume.

1. An Overwhelmed Hiring Manager

Even hiring managers can become overwhelmed with too much information and may overlook your resume, especially if they feel the content is irrelevant. This is why it’s important to determine the exact information that impacts your ability to do the job and stick to that information alone.

2. Missing That Certain Something

Cover letter writing services can help you determine if you’re missing something critical that could be preventing you from getting the job. While sometimes this missing factor may be beyond your control, there may be other factors you need to highlight or potentially leave off your resume and cover letter for the best results.

3. Relocation Issues

If you’re applying for a job that requires you to relocate, one of the biggest issues can be when you are able to make the move. In some situations, your timeline may not line up with the requirements of the job. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you are flexible with your moving plans to eliminate this issue.

4. You Don’t Have a Job

In many cases, employers are looking for people who are already currently employed. While unemployed individuals aren’t always in their situation due to their own fault, it seems like companies view it as a negative. However, this can be one of the most difficult elements to fix. It may work well to work for a temp agency for a while to flesh out your resume.

5. Staffing Agencies Can Also Hurt

While a staffing agency can be a great way to fill in your employment gap if you’re unemployed, going through one to get the job you want may not be your best option. Some hiring managers purposely ignore these resumes or put them at the bottom of the pile.

6. Incorrect Job Descriptions

You expect businesses to create accurate job listings, but like anyone else, individuals in charge can make mistakes. Because you use this description to create your executive profile, you may not be as good of a fit as you thought when errors exist.

7. Social Media Paints a Poor Picture

The best resume writing services may be able to make you look good on paper, but what do you look like online? More businesses today are using social media to determine if people are a good fit for their business. Before you apply, make sure you clean up your social media to eliminate anything that may be offensive or misconstrued in a negative light.

Get Inside Your Recruiter's Head

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Find out what recruiters expect from the best executive resume format.

The best executive resume format can help you reach recruiters.

Imagine the excitement you feel when you’re contacted by a recruiter for the job of your dreams. If you want to increase the number of contacts you make, it’s important to use the best executive resume format, as well as an effective cover letter for your resume. Thinking like your recruiter will ensure you understand what they’re looking for and increase the chances they will contact you over the other candidates.

Good Searches Are Essential

When you post your executive resume bio, you need to make sure it is fully searchable to increase the chances recruiters will find you. In general, blogs can be difficult to search. However, social media sites, such as LinkedIn, are highly searchable. Always fill out your profile as much as possible to ensure your profile will hit more frequently.

Be Careful of Your Friends

You may think who you’re friends with doesn’t matter, but in the recruiting world, it really does. What your friends say and do on your social media profiles can have a dramatic impact on how recruiters and prospective employers see you. While you don’t have to cut out all of your friends, make sure photos are properly filtered and prevent your friends from posting information about you to your profile. All it takes is one bad post and it can ruin your entire reputation among recruiters and businesses alike.

Be a Thought Leader

Businesses want employees who are able to think for themselves and will be positive contributors to the workplace. For this reason, it can be invaluable to write articles for your industry, even if you submit them on an unpaid basis. Recruiters often use your name to search for published works that may be attributed to you. This will showcase you as a thought leader in your field and can increase the chances you will be recruited.

Do Some Research

Just like website content, the best executive resume format is focused on keywords. Many recruiters now use software to look for certain key words or phrases within your executive resume bio. If they can’t be found, you won’t be contacted. If you aren’t sure which words would be most useful to you, some research into your industry can help. It can also help to post different versions of your resume on various sites and see which ones perform best.

Do Your Best

It’s not all about your cover letter and resume. Many recruiters will look within companies for their top performers to attempt to recruit them for bigger and better things. While you can boost your chances by adjusting your resume and cover letter, one of the best things you can do is excel at your job. When you stand out and are recognized, recruiters will take notice.