Simply listing out your career accomplishments and highlighting your experiences on an executive resume isn’t enough to get recognized today. In a way, writing resumes that get you hired is all about how you display the information and what keywords you use, no matter how experienced you actually are. You generally only have about six seconds to impress a recruiter with your resume. And that’s assuming you’ve already passed the automated trackers using the right keywords to even get your resume in the hands of the recruiter. Here are some insider tips about executive resume writing you may find useful.
Unused Keywords and Basic Formatting Issues Can Hurt You
One of the keys to writing resumes that get you hired is using the right keywords throughout the resume. The best way to find these keywords is to look directly at the job description or the list of requirements from the job posting. Identify certain keywords from those places and use them early and often in your resume. Another aspect that can make or break you is not using the best executive resume format. Use should use bullet points, bold text and indentations to your advantage to make the resume look clean. No one likes to spend a lot of time reading a resume, so the fewer words you can use to get your accomplishments highlighted, the better off you’ll be.
Many Companies Use an Applicant Tracking System
The main reason why keywords are so important today is many companies use an applicant tracking system to filter through resumes. Any given job posting could generate thousands of applicants. The only way a recruiter can narrow them down efficiently is to use technology to identify certain keywords. If your resume doesn’t have the keywords they are looking for, it won’t even make the cut to be looked at by human eyes.
Professional Writing and Feedback is Critical
Receiving objective feedback is important when writing resumes that get you hired. You can get feedback from family, friends, colleagues or even professional executive resume writers. A professional resume writing service can look at a job description, identify the keywords and incorporate them into your resume to optimize it as much as possible. Professional Resume Services is here to help executives by providing services from some of the top professional executive resume writers. Whether you need to start from scratch with your executive resume, or if you only need a final proofread, we are here to help you. Feel free to contact us at any time for more insight into executive resume writing and how we can help you.
Ask Yourself These Three Questions Before You Resign
It’s completely healthy and natural to take a step back and evaluate your current job situation occasionally. This is especially true if you used to be happy going to work every day, but now your attitude has changed for some reason. The knee-jerk reaction is to immediately start looking for another job, and possibly even resign from your current position abruptly when things aren’t going well. However, before you visit the best resume writing service to help brush up your resume prior to resigning, consider these three questions.
What Do I Not Like About My Current Job?
Sometimes things aren’t really as bad as they seem, but sometimes they are. Taking a step back and truly identifying why you aren’t happy can help you determine whether the issues are fixable. You may just need to talk to your boss about a particular issue that’s been bugging you for a while. And if it’s been a long time since you’ve received a raise or a promotion, consider bringing it up in a professional way. Don’t simply jump into updating your LinkedIn profile to declare your intentions to find a new job until you know exactly why you don’t like your current job anymore.
Is My Salary Comparable To Similar Executives?
The feeling of being underpaid is difficult. Sometimes you would feel better if you didn’t know what other executives with similar experience make. When your executive bio is similar to another executive’s, you naturally expect to be paid a similar salary. Get an idea of comparable salaries by looking at job boards and networking with others. If you truly are being underpaid, discuss the matter with your boss if you like everything about your job other than the salary. If you’re viewed as a valuable executive, you could get a significant raise to stay.
Am I On The Right Path To Achieve My Goals?
You should have both short-term and long-term goals as an executive. If you’ve been stuck with the same job responsibilities for a while, but have higher aspirations, then it may be time to look at a different company to give your executive bio a boost. However, some businesses move slower than other businesses, so if you’re getting valuable experience, you may consider sticking around to see where it takes you. Of course, as with any position, you have to be happy in order to do a good job and put yourself in a better position for advancement. If you’ve answered all of these questions and still feel like you need to resign, Professional Resume Services is here to help you. We provide the best resume writing service, no matter what your current situation is and what your goals are. If you’re in need of any type of assistance in relation to your executive job search, feel free to contact us at any time.
The Secrets on How to Conduct a Confidential Executive Job Search
Searching for a new job while being employed presents plenty of challenges. You have to be extra careful when you’re conducting your search, because you don’t want to burn any bridges or seem untrustworthy. The best executive resume writers can help tailor your resume to be confidential, so it won’t be as easy to identify you on a job board. There are many secrets to conducting a confidential executive job search, and here are a few of them we would like to share with you.
Be Creative With Networking
The hidden job market is the best way to go about conducting a secret job search. Nowadays, you don’t have to post your executive resume bio online to get a job. By networking at professional events or through LinkedIn, you can find out about jobs you didn’t even know were available. Even volunteering or being involved in your community can lead to new opportunities, so being active can move your job search forward as well.
Use LinkedIn Carefully
If you don’t have your LinkedIn settings updated appropriately, your connections may be able to see every change you make. Chances are your co-workers, or even your bosses, may be included in your LinkedIn network. You definitely don’t want them to see you update your resume or profile to indicate you’re looking for a new job. When you’re working on your LinkedIn profile development, alter your settings to ensure the wrong people don’t see any changes you’ve made.
Make Your Resume Private
As mentioned, the best executive resume writers know how to effectively make a resume confidential. By using the term “confidential applicant” instead of using your name, you’ll avoid showing up on your current employer’s search for a new candidate. Also, not using your company’s name anywhere on the resume is important. These are just a couple ways you can make your resume private, and a potential employer will understand why you’re doing it.
Conduct Your Job Search On Your Own Time
Nothing is worse than conducting a job search on company time. If your current boss finds out, there’s a chance you could be fired. And if your potential employer finds out you’re conducting your search on company time, they may think you’ll do the same to them and not offer you a job. Do yourself a favor and only send out your executive resume bio when you’re not on company time. Professional Resume Services is here to help you conduct a confidential executive job search. We have the best executive resume writers to help you in this area, so you can feel confident sending in your resume to potential employers. Feel free to reach out to us at any time if you need other secrets to pulling off a confidential job search.
LinkedIn can be an extremely valuable tool for executives. However, not knowing how to use it properly can also damage your reputation without you even knowing. LinkedIn isn’t difficult to use, but there are some unwritten rules about etiquette that many executives overlook. If you’re going to spend the time to write your executive profile on your LinkedIn page, you owe it to yourself to be familiar with these unwritten rules executives sometimes violate.
Personalize Your Connection Requests
When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, you could use the default message LinkedIn provides, or you could personalize it. Personalizing the request is valuable in many ways. You could state how you met the person, just in case it was at a networking event where they met dozens of other people. Or you could simply say you’re impressed with their profile and admire their work. Either way, a personalized request makes a much better impression.
Adjust Settings When Updating Your Profile
When you need to optimize your LinkedIn profile, you’re likely going to change a lot of different sections of it. What you may not know is all of your connections will see each and every change you make if you don’t update your settings accordingly. Go into the Privacy Controls of your profile and turn off update notifications to spare your connections from dozens of notifications. Turn it back on when you’re done updating it, so your connections will only see the important changes going forward.
Give Endorsements and Recommendations
The top resume writing services will tell you not to put too much emphasis on endorsements and recommendations through LinkedIn. However, giving and receiving the proper ones is important. Don’t ask for an endorsement from someone you didn’t work with directly. On the other hand, it’s not appropriate to give an endorsement or recommendation to someone you didn’t work with closely. These should be personalized and well thought out, so make them meaningful.
Connect With The Right People
If you’re actively searching for a job, connect with people who work in the same industry as you. With LinkedIn groups, you don’t even have to make a connection request until you get to know them as part of the group. It takes a little time to get to know someone through LinkedIn, but a single quality connection is much more valuable than a dozen connections from people you never met or have any association with at all. Professional Resume Services is one of the top resume writing services for many reasons. We not only help with writing executive resumes, but we can also assist with cover letter writing, developing LinkedIn profiles and helping out with job searches in general. Feel free to contact us at any time to learn more about the written and unwritten rules of LinkedIn or anything else pertaining to your executive job search.
Many executives make the mistake of simply rewriting their resume and calling it their biography. Including a lot of numbers, statistics and data may look impressive, but it’s not necessarily what needs to go on an executive profile. This is your chance to tell a story about your career that you can’t necessarily state on a resume. You should also reiterate and strengthen your brand when writing an executive bio. Here are some tips for what to include in your c-level executive biography.
The First Paragraph Must Grab Attention
If the first paragraph of your executive profile is bland, you’ll quickly lose the attention of your reader. Instead, start off your bio with a quote that highlights your brand, or make a strong statement to capture your reader’s attention another way. The more attention-grabbing the first sentence and paragraph is, the better chance you’ll have of the reader reading the entire biography.
Highlight Soft Skills And Attributes
You can’t include soft skills on your executive resume, in most cases. When writing an executive bio, you have a chance to not only demonstrate your soft skills and attributes, but also tie them in to how they enhance your brand and bring value to companies. Provide examples of how you’ve applied your skills in the past to bring them to life.
Support Your Success With Data
You shouldn’t pollute your entire executive profile with data, but sometimes it’s appropriate to provide some numbers for support. However, think of data you don’t already have on your resume. And instead of simply making a one-line statement to support your success, tell the story of how you were successful, including all the twists and turns. Just don’t take up too much of the reader’s time when you do so.
Provide Some Personal Insight
An executive resume service can help you write the first aspect of your bio, but there’s another point they can’t help you with as much. The part which deals with your personal life. You don’t want to get into many details about your life, but people want to know if you have a family, what ages your kids are, what your spouse does and what your hobbies and passions are. People connect with other people based on their personal interests rather than business success. When you have similar personal interests with other executives, they’ll be more likely to reach out to you since it seems like a natural fit. At Professional Resume Services, we can help you piece together your executive profile to help it flow naturally. One of the hardest parts of an executive bio is making it easy to read and captivate the reader’s attention. When you’re ready to sit down and write your c-level executive biography, consider giving us a call to help you get started.
With the world of automation today, it can be virtually impossible to get your executive resume into human hands if you only submit it online through job boards. It may be much easier and convenient to send in your resume online, but there’s no guarantee it will ever been seen. Recruiters will scan resumes for certain keywords and keyphrases using technology in order to eliminate as many as possible. If yours isn’t formatted perfectly, or if you don’t use the right words, it will be quickly brushed off. So how can you write resumes that get you hired, but have a better chance of getting them into human hands? Here are a few tips to consider.
Optimize Your Keywords
Keywords are the most essential component of any effective resume. Any executive resume writer will look at your skills, qualifications and accomplishments and simply reword them to use appropriate keywords for your industry. This is the best chance you have at getting your executive resume through the automated keyword filter.
Look For Connections
Sometimes the best way to get your resume into human hands is to bypass technology completely. When you make connections with people in your industry, you may not even have to send in a resume online. You still have to focus on writing an effective resume, so don’t think your connection will guarantee you an interview. It’s just one of the best ways to get around the initial resume submission stage.
Be Short and Concise
No one wants to read a long resume. You have an average of six seconds to impress a recruiter or HR manager. The first thing an executive resume writer should do is look how to tighten up sentences and sections. Try to keep your resume to two pages or less, but the shorter the better.
Choose Your Approach Carefully
Whether you choose to submit your resume online or in person, following up with the company is important to know where you stand. Sometimes your resume is filtered out right away because of keywords, but sometimes it could have been lost in the shuffle. Without checking in periodically, you may never know. Just be careful not to follow-up too much to the point where you look desperate. Professional Resume Services helps executives with writing an effective resume every day. Our skilled professionals know the tricks to getting resumes into human hands, so if you are struggling with the process or need assistance in any way with your job search, feel free to contact us at any time.
How Executive Personal Branding Affects Your Executive Career
Working on your personal brand is more important now than ever before. Executives have typically considered their c-level personal branding as being associated with and representing the company they work for. However, the notion has shifted into marketing yourself as a person rather than as a part of a company. When you work for a company, you still need to brand them as part of your job. The key is to also know when the right time is to work on yourself as well. Not doing so could hurt your long-term executive career prospects. Here are a few ways executive personal branding affects your executive career.
Establish Yourself as an Expert
When you focus on c-level personal branding, you can establish yourself as an expert in a particular industry, rather than for a specific company. Portraying yourself as the go-to executive for many different issues can be very valuable for your career. People need someone to rely on, and if you have the expertise, branding yourself as the person they can rely on can define you in that way.
Learn More About Yourself And Your Goals
Executive personal branding goes beyond writing an effective resume. It’s easy to portray yourself in a different light when you’re representing a company, even when you know it’s not the true you. How you brand yourself could give some insight into your own self, your value, worth and what you’re capable of.
Get Feedback From Peers to Improve Your Brand and Career
One of the best ways to improve c-level personal branding is to always seek feedback from colleagues and peers. You may believe you are taking all the right steps to market yourself appropriately, but you don’t know how you are perceived by others unless you ask someone you trust. Most executives won’t volunteer this information to you, so asking for feedback could open your eyes to some changes you need to make when representing yourself.
Link Your Online Brand With Your Personal Brand
You could be hurting yourself if the person you say you are online doesn’t match the person you are in real life. When you optimize your LinkedIn profile, don’t just write things to make yourself sound good. People will read your LinkedIn profile and have a general perception about you. That perception has to come close to matching in real life, so be sure the two are linked closely and accurately. At Professional Resume Services, we always work with executives wanting to improve their personal brand. We understand the importance of personal branding when it comes to career advancement, job searching and other aspects. Feel free to contact us if you need any tips or advice on branding or any other aspect of your executive career.
When you sit down to write an executive cover letter, you may have many different thoughts running through your mind. Will the hiring manager even read this? Why can’t I simply regurgitate my resume? Aren’t all cover letters the same? The truth is, cover letters are difficult to write when you write them properly. They shouldn’t be the same as your resume, and yes, hiring managers do read the good ones. You just have to make yours stand out from the rest by being appropriately creative in your writing. If this doesn’t seem like your style, here are some tips from a cover letter writing service to help you out.
Distinguish Cover Letters From Resumes
One mistake many executives make is turning their resume into paragraph form and calling it a cover letter. This isn’t the purpose. Your executive cover letter should show more of your personality and creativity, rather than your experiences in the industry. You will likely send in your resume and cover letter at the same time, so no one will want to read the same thing twice.
Be Brief and To The Point
Don’t include more than two or three paragraphs on your executive cover letter. In fact, cover letters closely resemble executive profiles, since they should just be short statements describing your value and what you bring to the table. No hiring manager wants to read a lengthy cover letter.
Showcase Your Ability to Help The Company
As far as the content of your executive cover letter goes, write more about how you can help the company, rather than focusing on your past achievements. You may need to use a cover letter writing service to help iron out the details. It’s easy to talk about how good of an employee you are, but everyone does that. When you demonstrate your knowledge about the company and tie in your experiences, your cover letter will stand out.
Be Creative and Conversational
As an executive, most resumes and cover letters you write are likely cut-and-dry. It doesn’t hurt to be a little creative, at times. Try writing your executive cover letter in more of a conversational tone. Incorporate random facts about your industry or tell a very short story to keep the reader engaged. Professional Resume Services knows the ins-and-outs of a great executive cover letter. We are an executive resume writing service with expertise in resumes, cover letters, networking, LinkedIn profile development and more. If you’re struggling with your cover letter in any way, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
Simply listing out your career accomplishments and highlighting your experiences on an executive resume isn’t enough to get recognized today. In a way, writing resumes that get you hired is all about how you display the information and what keywords you use, no matter how experienced you actually are. 
