How to target your resume for your specific role or industry

Resume KeywordsResume Writing

Resumes are not one size fits all.

In other words, if you’re looking for an HR job, your resume should be targeted to that particular HR role.

When I was hiring, I was pretty specific in my position description for a part-time customer service person. I loaded it with job-specific customer service keywords.

I was shocked–and a little annoyed– by the applicants who applied: a CFO, a UX coder, an insurance claims specialist, an early childhood educator, an IT consultant, and more completely unrelated to my posting (with not a speck of customer service experience in their resume.

HR managers, hiring managers, and recruiters talk about this often–when applicants DON’T tailor their resumes to the position listed.

If you’re not sure what should be on your resume, always look to the job description. It’s full of keywords and it tells you exactly what they need.

For example, if you are a finance executive what things should you put on your resume?

Financial executive resumes are different from other executive resumes in several ways. Here are a few key differences:

  1. Emphasis on financial expertise: Financial executive resumes should highlight the candidate’s financial skills and experience, including their ability to analyze financial data, make strategic financial decisions, and manage budgets and financial forecasting.
  2. Technical skills: They may want to include a section highlighting technical skills such as financial modeling, risk management, and experience with accounting software.
  3. Education and certifications: Education and certifications are important for financial exec positions. Candidates should include information about their degrees, professional certifications, and any relevant coursework. Additional professional experience is important as well.
  4. Results-oriented: Financial executive resumes should highlight specific achievements and results, such as improving profitability, increasing revenue, reducing costs, or leading successful mergers and acquisitions.
  5. Industry knowledge: A career in finance should demonstrate a deep understanding of the financial industry, including regulatory compliance, financial reporting requirements, and industry trends.
  6. Leadership and team management: They are often responsible for managing teams, so the resume should highlight leadership skills, team-building experience, and a track record of successful management.

So, what are some keywords a finance exec might use? Again, look to the job description. Depending on the job you may see any of these:

  • Financial analysis
  • Strategic planning
  • Budget management
  • Forecasting
  • Risk management
  • Investment analysis
  • Financial modeling
  • P&L management
  • Cash flow management
  • Accounting principles
  • Taxation laws
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Auditing
  • Corporate finance
  • Treasury management
  • M&A
  • Capital markets
  • Leadership
  • Team management
  • Communication skills

Make sure to incorporate these keywords appropriately in your resume, highlighting your relevant skills and accomplishments. However, avoid stuffing your resume with too many keywords as it may come across as inauthentic or spammy. Instead, focus on using relevant keywords that accurately describe your skills and experience.

I Was The Perfect Fit! Why Wasn’t I Hired?

Career & WorkplaceInterviewingJob SearchResumes


How many times have you felt you were PERFECT for that role, but still didn’t get it? You went over the interview in your mind a hundred times, noted how easily the conversation flowed, how they interviewer would nod enthusiastically when you described a certain experience or skill. They seemed excited when they said they would get back to you soon.

Then you got the email that you weren’t chosen.

Safe to say, I think we’ve all been there.

I’m a firm believer in if you didn’t get the job, something better will come along. Through the years, some of our clients have come back to us to tell us about interviews they nailed and were sure they got the job. But didn’t.

However, there are various reasons companies may choose a different route:

They decided to hire internally. As unfair as it sounds, they may have already had a front runner in mind but posted it anyway to see if there is someone better.  Some companies HAVE to post externally due to contract constraints or affirmative action plans. Federal contractors or government agencies may have to post externally as well.

You were overqualified.  Perhaps they think you won’t do tasks you deem “beneath you”. While it’s unfair for them to assume what you will or won’t do, it is a common concern. They may also fear that you will be bored at the job—especially if you’ve been on an impressive career track. Or, that after a while, you will leave and they’ll be back to square one.

You were underqualified. Thinking you’d be great in a role and actually having the experience to master the role are two different things. Read the job description thoroughly and make sure you have the experience to apply for the role.

They already had another candidate in mind. It’s possible they already found their choice but they had to have a certain amount of candidates to interview to fill their candidate roster. It might be company policy that X number of people need to be interviewed before a choice can be made.

Your online presence wasn’t professional or up-to-date. Hiring managers check your social media profiles to learn more about you. Turn on your privacy settings if you have personal pictures or information on there. Also, if you haven’t updated your LinkedIn profile in a while (or years!), now is the time to do it. Lack of LI presence can hurt you as well. Get it up to date.

You shared too much. I’ve talked with recruiters who said the candidate told them their life story—the good, bad, and ugly—and in the process turned off the recruiter. Keep the conversation on the company, their pain points, how you can help them, and that’s it. Don’t talk about your jerk boss, your sick parent, or a personal health problem. They really don’t want to or need to hear it. Keep it professional.

You didn’t know enough about the company. Be very prepared when you go to the interview. Research the company, its mission, what they do, what they sell, or what they are about. Research the role, figure out their pain points. Have questions ready to interview the interviewer, questions like, “What should I know about the role I am seeking? Do you have any other insight?” Be both knowledgeable and inquisitive.

Whatever the answer, you may never know. You might have done everything right and still did not get the job. It might have been narrowed down to you and someone else, but they went with the other person because they had more strategy experience.

Either way, you gave it your all.

About two months ago, an operations exec said to me, “You know, after three rounds of interviews, they finally told me I wasn’t chosen. So, I reached out to a few old colleagues that resulted in a round of interviews with a company I was never interested in and an industry I wasn’t very familiar with. But they liked me and saw what my vision was for their company–and hired me. It has been the best job I’ve ever had.”

If you are struggling with job search, hang tight. The right job will come along.

What is the Best Executive Resume Format?

BlogExecutive ResumesResume Writing
Professional Resume Services best executive resume format

Your resume is usually the first thing a potential employer will see when you’re searching for a job. Having the proper format may seem like a little detail, but it’s actually pretty important. You want to make sure you have it in a format that will stand out, but you don’t want it to be too over the top and risk looking unprofessional. The best executive resume format clearly highlights your accomplishments in a clean manner. Here are some important things to consider when deciding on a format for your executive resume.

Chronological Format is Key for Executives

The best executive resume writers will recommend a chronological format for executives. Recruiters like to follow along the timeline of your career. It’s effective for people who have specialized expertise in a certain field because it highlights their attributes and ties them into the job they’re applying for.

Be Clear With Your Points

You may be thinking it’s risky to not include dates of employment or educational experience on your resume. While some employers do pay attention to dates, the best executive resume writing service will tell you it won’t cost you a chance to interview. Again, as long as you are clear with the expertise and experience you have, recruiters generally won’t raise a red flag for missing dates.

Combining Chronological and Functional Formats Can Be Effective

The best executive resume writers may even combine the functional executive resume format with the chronological format. This requires a little more attention to detail and creativity, because you want to highlight your most recent and relevant experience.
Executives with extensive experience will have more success with this combined approach than new executives with little experience would. If you don’t have experience and still believe a combined format would help your chances, the best executive resume writing service can help you pull it off.
Finding the proper executive resume format is a touchy topic. The goal of your executive resume is to make it pop without going overboard. If you would like to discuss the format of your executive resume and what options you have, feel free to contact us at any time.

The Evolution of the Executive Resume

BlogExecutive ResumesResume Writing
Professional Resume Services best executive resume writers

Experienced executives may be surprised at how resumes have evolved within the last few years since they updated theirs. In general, the information included in today’s resumes is very similar to what it was dozens of years ago, but the presentation has definitely changed. This is why many executives tend to use professional resume writing services to ensure their resume is up with the times. Let’s take a look back at how executive resumes have evolved over time and where they are currently.

Printed or Electronic?

Most professional resume writing services will suggest utilizing both printed and electronic versions of your executive resume. Printing out your resume and physically handing it to someone may seem old school, but it’s really the only guaranteed way you know they will look at it. With so many jobs posted online today, it can be easy for electronic copies to get lost in the shuffle. However, many companies rely on electronic resumes for keyword searching, so it’s still important to send it electronically as well.

Visual and Digital Resumes

Visual and digital resumes have become more popular over the last few years. They give you the ability to show off your creativity by demonstrating a skill or providing a work product you created electronically. However, the top rated resume writing services caution you about using this method in certain industries. These types of resumes are generally frowned upon when searching for an executive job, but a marketing or creative design hiring manager would likely appreciate it.

What is Best for Executives?

When executives craft their resume, it’s best to keep it simple and professional and make the important points stand out. The best executive resume writers can highlight relevant attributes within a standard resume format to make it pop out at the reader.
Hiring managers for executive positions tend to be traditional when it comes to the type of resume format they want to see. However, making your resume look exactly like everyone else’s is a good way to get yours passed over.
If you need to use professional resume writing services to get tips and tricks on your executive resume format or for any other help, feel free to contact us at any time. Crafting your executive resume is an art, so it’s important to find a good balance between what hiring managers want to see and what is going to get yours noticed over all the other applicants.

Executives: Don’t Put These 5 Things in Your Resume!

BlogExecutive Resumes
Using the best executive resume writers will prevent these mistakes.

Executive resumes deserve just as much attention as a resume for any other job. You may be surprised to know most resumes for executive positions are generally poorly done. However, that just gives you the opportunity to shine brightly when it comes to your resume! Your executive bio needs to stand out from the rest. Most importantly, it needs to be error-free and you need to avoid putting some things in it altogether. We’ve compiled a list of five common, but unnecessary, things people put in their executive resumes.

Too Wordy

As an executive, you likely have many accomplishments and all of them are important to you. However, if you put too much on your resume, recruiters may stop reading it and move on to the next one. The best executive resume writers will include two or three key points to highlight skills and then move on. Think concise. Ask yourself, “Does this need to be on here?” You don’t want to overwhelm recruiters on paper.

Omitting Keywords

In today’s digital world, most resumes are scanned online for specific keywords pertaining to the job. Sometimes the keywords are more important than the substance in the resume. Look at the job description and use a lot of the words they use to describe the job. If you need help identifying specific keywords, you can always reach out to an executive resume service for assistance.

Focusing Too Much on Job Descriptions

Talk briefly about your job duties at your past jobs, but focus more on what you accomplished in those roles. Everyone can describe what they did at a particular job, but highlighting how well you did your job looks much better on paper.

Not Highlighting Achievements

This is where you need to use numbers and percentages to show how you made an impact in your previous jobs. Your executive bio will be much stronger if you say you “increased sales by 40 percent over 12 months” rather than just saying you “helped boost sales.” Be specific about your achievements so your next employer knows what you have to offer before you even step foot in their office.

Not Targeting Your Prospective Employer

Having a generic resume may be fine if you’re applying for a lower level position, but you need to do a little more work upfront for an executive level position. Do some research about the job and company you’re applying to. Identify how you can help them and include those points in your resume. The best executive resume writers will focus more on how they can help potential hirers, rather than what they’ve done in the past.

Professional Resume Services is the best resource for writing an effective resume!

If you’ve followed us for a while, or just have ample knowledge of how job searching and the professional world work, then you know the importance of crafting a personal brand. This is how you appeal to other professionals, especially those who may hire you to work for them later on. The main issue for anyone attempting c-level personal branding, however, is figuring out how to go about it efficiently. In this blog, we’ll give you a few tips on how to brand yourself efficiently and catch the eye of recruiters in an instant!

Include Your Accomplishments

While this goes without saying, your accomplishments within your industry will be some of the most important elements of your personal brand and should not be ignored. The key aspect here is how you incorporate them. You don’t want to splay them all out like playing cards strewn on a table. Rather, you can frame them in a way that appeals more readily to employers.
For a few ideas on how to do this, you can always rely on a team of the best executive resume writers in your area or do a bit of independent research. While you should strive to keep your entire resume brief, you can add a bit of color to your stories by describing them in the form of a (very) brief story—three lines maximum, to be precise.

Think About How You’ve Contributed to Your Industry

This part of brand construction may prove a bit challenging, but it is the perfect method of showing any recruiter or hiring agent how you are a valuable employee. By creating your personal brand, you are effectively telling other professionals a story. Make it appealing by getting to the meat of the action! This means displaying your contributions to the past companies you’ve worked for. It may help to follow the C-A-R formula for these contribution stories, ‘C-A-R’ meaning Challenge, Action and Result. Think about what was being asked of you at the time, how you completed the task at hand and what happened afterward.

Research as Much as Possible

Oftentimes catching a glimpse of others’ work and ideas can help inspire you. If you’re stumped as to how to start or flesh out your personal brand, looking at how others have constructed theirs can give you a boost. We don’t mean lifting someone else’s work entirely, however! Writing an effective resume means showcasing your own strengths and individualizing yourself. Copying someone else entirely defeats the purpose.
As you surf through your Google results and check out what other people are doing, be sure to evaluate your own methods and ideas. How can you apply what they’re doing to your own strengths and accomplishments? Think about how you have influenced your previous employers in ways no one else did. This will help you figure out how to brand yourself well.
Additionally, it may help to get in touch with a professional resume writer to learn what you can do to better market yourself. You may come away with a new perspective toward your career and professional potential that you’ve never considered before, one that will wow employers on the spot!

Beware of These Myths About the Job Hunting Process!

BlogExecutive ResumesResume Writing

Avoid these myths with the help of the best executive resume writers.

The best executive resume writers help you avoid these myths.


As everyone knows, job hunting is a strenuous and arduous process. Everyone has their stories, and most people are good-natured enough to try to help other people in their position by spreading the word on what and what not to do. This has led to a tangled mass of information that continues to spread beyond control. Don’t believe the hype! Let us highlight what information you should disregard.

Be as Distinct as Possible

While you want to distinguish yourself from the competition, there’s a certain way to go about it. Being flashy is not the way to leave a great impression on your potential employers. If you’re considering doing something quirky to capture attention, such as making bold, sweeping statements about yourself and your abilities or changing your resume’s background from the standard white to hot pink, don’t do it! There’s a much better approach. Coach yourself on how to best prepare for meeting people you hope will employ you. Project an optimistic, collected demeanor and learn how to create the best executive resume biographies and you’ll go much farther!

Skills Are the Most Important Element to Getting Hired

This isn’t necessarily true! While employers want people with plenty of experience who know what they’re doing, there are some other traits employers seek out. They want to be sure you match up with the rest of the company in terms of personality, for one thing. You’ll have to fit in well with the company’s pre-existing culture. Skills can always be fleshed out later on during your career, but a highly skilled professional who disrupts the office environment cannot be helped much. You can always learn how to build up the way you market your skills by brushing up on your executive resume writing abilities.

The Salary Discussion Must Unfold In Person and Immediately

In this day and age, no. You have the option of describing how much you would like to earn on your application. However, you don’t want to do this right away. Say your salary is “negotiable” or something similar. This will give you some time to do your research and also shows you’re considerate of the company’s needs by putting them before your desire to get paid for your work. This will leave a favorable impression on hiring agents.

Send Out Applications to Multiple Locations at Once

If you simply apply to every job that’s hiring, you could easily be stuck with a position that doesn’t fit your skill level and/or industry. Instead, you want to look for jobs that cater to your experiences and skills. Once you’ve found jobs that do this, you can then rely on the best executive resume writers to help you create an appealing resume!

Top Three Reasons to Make Your Resume the Best It Can Be

BlogCover LettersExecutive ResumesResume Writing

Take advantage of the best executive resume writers.

The best executive resume writers use these strategies.


Looking for a new job is work in itself, but the most important element is your resume. Once you make the initial contact, there are many steps to take when you are pursuing a position. These might include making phone calls, sending emails, buying a new suit and getting a haircut. However, if you don’t have a professional resume, you may defeat your own purpose. Your resume has to be better than perfect for the position you are seeking. Some of the best executive resume writers suggest these three reasons you need to have the best resume possible.

Reason 1: Your Resume Is Your Professional Statement

You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of a hiring manager. One glance at your resume and they will decide whether they want to continue reading or place it back on the stack on their desk. Your resume is likely to be the first impression they have of you and it’s important to make it apparent you are a professional. If your resume is sloppy and appears to be thrown together, it is likely to be overlooked. Make sure to include an executive bio and communicate clearly your air of professionalism in every portion of your resume.

Reason 2: Your Resume Can Help You Get Known in Your Industry

It is likely you are familiar with other individuals in your own industry. Some of them may be colleagues but many may even work for competitors. They may be well known for any variety of reasons, and your resume can do the same for you in your industry. Like many professionals, hiring managers talk to each other about many things, and outstanding resumes are included in their discussions. A highly professional resume can get the attention of hiring managers and your name can come up in future conversations. It can be your ticket to becoming a recognizable name inside your industry or profession.

Reason 3: A Resume Can Address a Specific Need

Including some customization in your resume can get the attention of a hiring manager. Some portions of a resume can be used to list specific skills or qualifications that meet a company’s particular need. Your resume contains professional elements from your past that uniquely qualifies you for some positions and speaks to your high level of experience in the industry. An effective resume will directly address the needs of each hiring manager.
Your resume is your selling point and needs to be perfect. You may choose to write your own resume, but you can also hire a professional resume and cover letter writing service designed to help you reach a higher professional level. Having a strong resume and professional bio can be the difference in getting your resume seen and being called for your next interview.