The best executive resume writers have seen hundreds of resumes and know exactly what the most common mistakes are. As obvious as some of these mistakes are, it’s easy to make them when you’re focused so much on the details and ensuring you’re making the right impression. This also highlights the importance of working with a reputable professional resume writing service to ensure you give yourself the best chance at writing an effective resume. Here are some of the most common mistakes you need to be aware of and avoid making.
Using Long Sentences And Big Words
No matter how much experience and knowledge you have, your executive resume should use simplistic language that’s easy to read. The hiring manager likely doesn’t have the same knowledge as you, so if they don’t completely understand the big words you’re using, it could put a barrier between the two of you that’s difficult to overcome. Use short sentences and simple words in your resume and save the technical language for the interview when you’re talking to like-minded people.
Not Incorporating Keywords
The best executive resume writers will tell you keywords are more important today than ever before. With companies receiving hundreds of resumes or more on a daily basis, they will often use software to identify specific keywords and help them filter out resumes. Take keywords and phrases from the job description and requirements and use them in your resume when you can.
Being Too Generic
There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all resume. Hiring managers will see right through it if you try to submit the same resume to different companies. The key to writing an effective resume is targeting the company your applying to by identifying their needs and demonstrating how you’re a good candidate to solve those needs.
Not Talking About Accomplishments
Executives typically aren’t shy about discussing their accomplishments. However, many of them don’t talk about the achievements in detail. Use numbers and statistics whenever possible to create the most significant impact. If you just say you helped increase business over the course of the year, it’s not going to be as impactful as saying you successfully boosted sales 25% from the previous year.
Failing To Proofread Thoroughly
If nothing else, the best executive resume writers are valuable to catch the minor mistakes that could be detrimental to your chances of landing an interview. Typographical errors demonstrate carelessness and formatting issues show lack of attention to detail. While these may seem minor to you, an employer could see them as you not being serious about getting the job. Professional Resume Services is a reputable professional resume writing service because we truly care about our clients. We don’t just write resumes. We want to know about your career aspirations, including where you’ve been and what you plan to accomplish. When we know your desires, we can help you craft the perfect resume to land the job of your dreams. Feel free to contact us at any time for help on your resume.
How Your Executive Resume Could Be Bringing You Down
When you’re hard at work trying to find a new job, you may think the best thing you can do is to send your resume to as many employers as possible. The reality is this could actually be hurting your chances of getting a call back, especially if your resume isn’t in the best possible shape. Simply putting it in the best executive resume format isn’t going to get you any interest from employers, since it has to stand out in other ways as well. So if you’ve sent out multiple resumes with nothing to show for it, here are some things to consider changing on your resume.
Your Resume Isn’t Optimized For ATS
Companies today can receive dozens of resumes each day for any given job posting. This is why many of these companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to help them filter through them all and only present them with the ones that match the most keywords. You may be the best candidate for a particular job, but if your resume isn’t optimized for ATS, you’ll never be discovered. Having a completely ATS-optimized resume isn’t particularly easy, so working with professional resume writing services may be the best option for you.
Your Resume Isn’t Targeted
Sending out generic resumes to dozens of companies never worked in the past, and it especially won’t work in today’s job searching climate. Companies want to know what you bring to the table specifically for them, and want to get the sense you truly want to work for them. The professional resume writing services you work with will suggest researching companies of interest to identify their needs, challenges, culture and how you can enhance or fit into them. You’ll be much more likely to get a response from an employer when they can clearly see you’ve done your homework on them.
You Don’t Differentiate Yourself
The majority of resumes look the same. The best executive resume format is one that’s clean and concise and differentiates your skills. This is where your c-level personal branding enters the picture. Your executive resume needs to list your hard skills, but also demonstrate some of your personality and provide an insight as to who you really are. You’ve worked hard on your c-level personal branding, so use it to your advantage to differentiate yourself from your competition. Professional Resume Services is widely known as one of the top professional resume writing services for executives. We take great pride and interest in helping our clients maximize their job search, while minimizing the amount of time they have to spend on their actual resume. Many times all it takes is minor adjustments to make a major impact, so contact us today for a review of your resume and to get our expert recommendations to boost your job searching efforts.
How Researching Desired Companies Can Help Your Executive Resume
Not too many people looking for a new job have success with blindly sending out their resume to various companies. Companies can receive hundreds of applicants to any given job posting every single day, so they won’t waste their time reading a generic resume. When writing a professional resume today, targeting the specific company you’re submitting your resume to will help yours stand out. A hiring manager will notice and appreciate the homework you’ve done on the company, and they’ll take a closer look at the value you bring to the table. Here are other ways your research of companies will pay off in your job search.
Tap Into The Hidden Job Market
When you have a list of a few companies you’d consider working for, do as much research on them as you possibly can before writing a professional resume. The hidden job market simply means jobs aren’t posted online or anywhere else. Candidates may find out about these jobs at networking events or through other connections. Once you’ve researched the companies of interest, tap into this hidden job market by reaching out to current employees to understand what challenges they face and what value you bring to the table.
Identify The Company’s Challenges
One key to writing resumes that get you hired is identifying the company’s specific challenges, so you can offer a solution. You have to include your hard skills on your resume, but incorporating soft skills is equally as important. The unique aspect about executive resume writing is every word has to offer value to the employer. You have to be able to demonstrate how well you would fit in with the culture, as well as how you can handle day-to-day tasks.
Differentiate Yourself By Offering Unique Value
Any executive resume writing expert will stress the importance of differentiating yourself. One of the best ways to do so is by talking to other higher-level employees at the specific companies you’re targeting. Take note of what they say works well in their organization, as well as what they are working on to improve. Incorporate a mix of those points when writing a professional resume will help yours stand out among the rest. Professional Resume Services is here to point you in the right direction when it comes to executive resume writing. We take the time to ensure every word on your resume matters, and will go to great lengths to help your resume stand out. If you’re in need of help getting started with researching companies, writing your resume, preparing for an interview or any other step in the job search process, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time.
The Importance of Correct Grammar and Spelling During an Executive Job Search
Most people don’t need an executive resume service to tell them they should proofread their resume, social media profile and anything else during their job search. However, it’s easy to overlook typographical errors when you’re focusing on many aspects of the job search, as well as trying to balance your personal life. Having correct grammar and spelling on everything tied to your name is of critical importance. Careless mistakes reflect negatively on you and can quickly disqualify you from the position, no matter how innocent the error is. Consider these points when it comes to grammar and spelling during your job searching efforts.
Don’t Rely Solely On Spell Check
The spell check feature is good for identifying obvious typographical errors, but there are plenty of misspelled words that can get through the check. Feel free to start your proofreading by running the spell check, and then give the document a diligent proofread from start to finish yourself. The best professional resume writers will read over a resume multiple times before finalizing it, simply because it’s easy to overlook mistakes when you’ve spent hours on any given document.
Incorrect Grammar And Spelling Can Hurt Your Personal Brand
As you’re writing an effective resume, you always have to keep your personal brand in mind and ensure every word is a reflection of it. A grammar issue or a misspelled word can give off a negative perception of your personal brand, since it may appear to some people that you don’t take the time to proofread your work. And if you can’t catch typographical errors in your own resume, what makes a potential employer think you will catch these types of errors on important work documents? You may think this sentiment is a bit over-the-top, but the reality is this is how some hiring managers will see things.
Always Get An Expert Opinion
You can’t underestimate the importance of having an executive resume service look over your resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letter or any other document you’ll be using during your job search. These experts are trained to identify even the smallest errors and have a knack for enhancing these documents to put you in a better position for finding the job you desire. Professional Resume Services is a team of the best professional resume writers ready to help you maximize your job searching efforts. Executives have brought us their resume simply to proofread it before they submit anything, and they’ve also come to us to help write their resume from scratch. No matter where you’re at or what your comfort level is with your job search, feel free to contact us if you’re in need of any advice or tips we can help with.
With the busy lives everyone has, it’s easy to lose touch with people in your network over the course of months or years. Because of this, many people think it’s inappropriate to reach back out to reconnect for various reasons. The truth is your connections are likely just as busy and may even want to reconnect as well. You’ll never know until you try, but there are effective ways to reconnect while avoiding any awkwardness. Working with a LinkedIn profile service may be beneficial before you do so, though. Your connection may not completely remember where you were the last time you spoke, so having an updated profile can give them a refresher and increase the likelihood of them responding.
Reach Out Via LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a valuable platform for many reasons, and reaching out to past connections is one of them. If the connection was a cold contact to begin with, you can simply start out by re-introducing yourself and reminding them of where you met and what you talked about. When you use a professional LinkedIn profile writer, be sure and tell them all of your past experiences so you’ll have a profile that’s as complete as possible. Most of your connections will remember you, depending on how long it’s been, but it never hurts to give them as much information as possible on your profile to help them out.
Be Personal And Honest, As Appropriate
If you had a close relationship with a particular connection, starting out by saying it’s been too long since you last talked can be a good ice breaker. They will likely agree with you and respond back with similar feelings. You could even share a personal moment that recently happened in your life, such as a marriage, birth of a child, change of career or more. Simply sparking a conversation is all it takes, and you don’t need a professional LinkedIn profile writer in order to be genuine with your connections.
Provide Them With Value
When you look on a past connection’s LinkedIn profile, see what they’ve been up to lately and share something of value to them. This could be an interesting article or another resource for their career or personal interests. Any conversation that starts off with you providing value to them, rather than you trying to sell yourself, will usually end with a greater result. A LinkedIn profile service can help you sell yourself on your profile, but it’s not appropriate to do so when reconnecting with people in your network. Professional Resume Services does more than simply help executives with writing a professional resume. Networking is a huge part of any career, and doing so the right way can help you easily reconnect with people in your network. This is often times more effective than finding new connections, so it’s well worth the time and effort. If you’re ever unsure about how to utilize LinkedIn to reach out to your network, give us a call for more helpful tips and advice.
Critical Details to Include on a Senior Level Executive Resume
If you’ve been on a job hunt for any amount of time, you likely have heard about the importance of details. But how do you know which details to include on a senior level resume? The formatting, length and other similar aspects can be corrected by the best executive resume writers, but even the experts don’t know the details of your work history. When you’re applying for a senior level position, consider including these critical details when writing an effective resume.
Don’t Hide Your Credentials
You don’t want your credentials to be buried in your resume or be hard to read, especially if they are a requirement for the job. Display your credentials with the rest of your Education section. If you have letters to display after your name, proudly do so! Don’t be shy. Show the reader what degree(s) or certifications you have! Recruiters and hiring managers will look at the top of the page first, so the top resume writing services always suggest putting them there.
Clearly Show Your Areas of Expertise
The next thing the best executive resume writers will suggest is demonstrating your areas of expertise clearly. All of your skills from your previous job may not correlate exactly to the position you’re applying for. If this is the case, then only list the areas of expertise most relevant to the position you desire. You can do this by looking at the job description and matching certain keywords from it on your resume.
Focus on Recent Experience
When writing an effective resume, your experience should be listed in chronological order. However, most of the time it’s not as important to put detailed information about places you worked at 15 years ago. Instead, focus on the most recent and relevant experience you have. And be sure to quantify your accomplishments, since numbers generally tend to make more of a significant impact on hiring managers.
Provide Your Online Profile Information
Most employers will search for your online profile before contacting you for an interview. You could make their job a little easier by providing them with a link to your LinkedIn profile or any other profile you would like them to view. Just be sure to clean up your profile beforehand, so only the information you want to be visible will actually be seen. Nowadays how an online profile is displayed can make or break your status as a candidate, and you can guarantee the employer will look for it. Professional Resume Services has the best executive resume writers to help you craft the perfect resume. We will ask you all the right questions in order to understand your job history, so the information can be presented clearly. The details make a huge difference in the effectiveness of any resume, and we won’t overlook anything. Feel free to contact us at any time if you are unsure about whether certain details are needed or if you are struggling with any aspect of your job search.
Essential Elements to Include on Your Career Changing Resume
Going through a career change can be difficult to wrap your mind around. This is especially true if you’ve been in the same industry or worked at the same company for several years. However, ask any professional resume writing services and they will tell you changing careers is becoming more of a norm today. How you present yourself on your resume will make a big difference in how successful you are with your transition. You don’t necessarily have to start from scratch, but you do need to do some tweaking and ensure these essential elements are included in your resume.
Clearly Demonstrate Your Goals
The best executive resume format will be easy to read and display information clearly. However, when you’re changing careers you need to take it a step further. The potential employer needs to know you are seeking a career change and why you think you are qualified for the job with minimal industry experience. You can do this by highlighting relevant achievements, certifications and summarizing your most important responsibilities and how they relate to the new job you’re applying for.
Highlight Applicable Skills and Positives
Some of your skills and achievements from the past may not necessarily apply to your new desired position. Don’t try to force this information into your resume, since it can seem like you’re trying too hard and can hurt your c-level personal branding in the long run. Instead, highlight the most relevant achievements and quantify them. Use numbers and statistics to show how you cut costs or turned a profit for your previous company. Every company can relate to these aspects, so they are the most applicable skills to show on your resume.
Optimize The Resume For ATS
Your professional resume writing services can help you optimize your resume for ATS. You may not have the exact experience required in the job requirement listing, but if your resume has the right keywords, chances are it will get recognized. Not including these keywords may not even get your resume in the hands of a human.
Be Specific With Achievements
As an executive, some achievements are impressive across multiple industries. It’s always better to be specific rather than general. Use dollar amounts, percentages and other numbers as needed to clearly show your success at previous jobs. The more specific you are, the higher likelihood of your resume getting noticed. Professional Resume Services is here to help you with all aspects of your job search. Whether it’s writing a resume from scratch, helping improve your c-level personal branding or providing interview tips, we are here for you every step of the way. A career change can be stressful due to the unknown, but we can help make your path a little clearer. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at any time for advice on how to put yourself in a position for success in your efforts to change careers.
Preparing for a Successful C-Level Executive Interview
Landing a c-level executive interview is difficult enough, but the challenges aren’t over. No matter how many times you’ve been a part of one of these interviews, they are never easy. Luckily, just like you prepared for writing an effective resume, you can also successfully prepare for a c-level interview. Simulating an interview is beneficial, but it’s also important to be flexible since you don’t know what questions will be asked or how much pressure you’ll be under. Here are some of our best tips for preparing for a successful c-level interview.
Think of Your Own Questions to Ask
Sprinkling in your own questions throughout the interview process has many benefits. It demonstrates you’ve done your homework on the company, if you ask those types of questions, and it also relieves some of the pressure from you. Your professional resume writing service can help you come up with effective questions if you are unsure what to ask. Just be sure to only ask a few of them throughout the entire interview so you don’t overdo it.
Practice A Calm Tone of Voice
Your tone of voice can change when nerves and anxiety take over. A cool and calm demeanor when answering questions will demonstrate your ability to handle pressure well and earn their trust. Always talk in a positive tone and present solutions to problems brought up in the interview. Never give off the vibe of being frustrated or negative, as these characteristics are clear and easy to identify.
Know How You’ll Address Salary Negotiations
The best executive resume writers can help you think about strategies when it comes to negotiating your salary. It’s best to be as general as possible, so you don’t end up with a lowball offer. On the same hand, you don’t want to demand so much that they don’t even consider hiring you. You can do this by giving a wide range you’re looking for, or even telling the interviewers roughly how much money you’ve made in the past few years. Just like with writing an effective resume, how you present yourself during the salary negotiations makes a big difference in whether you get the job or not.
Anticipate Questions
To best anticipate questions, take another close look at your resume. Your professional resume writing service likely helped you present yourself as an expert in the industry, so chances are several of the interview questions will come straight from the resume. For example, if you include some statistics or dollar amounts on your resume, you can expect to be asked about how you achieved those numbers. It’s hard to predict exactly how the questions will be asked, but you can get a good idea of the types of questions that could be asked just by looking at your resume. Professional Resume Services not only helps executives with writing an effective resume, but we also help throughout the job search process. C-level interviews can be stressful to prepare for, but we are here to help relieve some of the stress so you can feel confident throughout the process. Feel free to contact us at any time for tips or advice on preparing to have a successful c-level executive interview.
