Spring is the most popular time of the year to get some cleaning done in and around the house. But it’s also a great time to clean up your executive resume! This is one of the busiest times of year for professional executive resume writers, so if you plan on using a resume service to clean up the cobwebs for your resume, now’s the time to make an appointment. However, if you want to learn how to tidy up your executive resume on your own, here are a few tips to consider.
1. Highlight Only Relevant Skills
Your last resume may have been filled with a lot of different skills in hopes of the relevant one getting recognized. Any executive resume writing service today will tell you to highlight only relevant skills, because hiring managers won’t take the time to read through them all. You’ve got six seconds to impress a recruiter, so make them count.
2. Remove any clichés
Words like “passionate,” “reliable” and “dependable” all may describe you perfectly, but the reality is everyone believes those words describe them as well. Do yourself and your resume a favor and remove these clichés, since they don’t add any value to your executive resume.
3. Update Dates
Depending on your age, you may need to update or remove a significant amount of dates on your executive resume. Dates are good to use to an extent, but if you are attempting to highlight experience from 30 years ago, chances are it won’t help you land your next job.
4. Be More Focused
The best executive resume services want you to target your resume more. The days of creating one general resume to send out to many different companies are over. Companies today want to see a resume tailored to their needs, so you need to comply if you want to have a chance.
5. If All Else Fails, Start from Scratch
Updating an old resume can take more time than just starting over from scratch. Sometimes even the best professional executive resume writers will suggest starting over with a clean slate. This will help clear your mind from all of the older accomplishments and experiences and allow you to focus on the more current experiences you can remember. Professional Resume Services exists to help executives like you clean up their resumes for the next career opportunity. When you’re ready to do some spring cleaning on your executive resume, feel free to reach out to us at any time.
You may be under the impression that executive resumes are outdated thanks to the rise of networking and social media. However, a well-crafted resume can be just as effective. In today’s business world, there aren’t many people who aren’t connected at all times. That’s why when you’re sending in your executive resume, you need to make sure it’s mobile friendly. There’s nothing more frustrating for a recruiter or hiring manager than not being able to view a resume from their mobile device. If you aren’t sure how to make your resume mobile friendly, a good executive resume writing service can help.
Recruiters Work On-The-Go, Too
Time is limited for everyone. Since you only have approximately six seconds to impress a recruiter with your resume, even the smallest mistake is magnified. A recruiter may be on a business trip, on lunch break or just away from the desk for any other reason. If they read your email with the resume attached, but can’t view the resume clearly, it could be lost in the shuffle.
Make Your Resume as Easy to Read as Possible
There’s a lot of discussion about the best executive resume format, but sometimes the best one is one that’s simply the easiest to read. You don’t have to be one of the best executive resume writers in the world to make your mobile friendly resume more accessible. Mobile devices are designed to make life simpler and more convenient. Make sure your executive resume fits those characteristics to have the greatest chance for success.
Increase Your Interview Opportunities
Many professional executive resume writers will tell you having a mobile friendly resume will increase your chances for job interviews. When you make your resume and contact information easy to view on a mobile device, the recruiter can contact you immediately, rather than having to wait until they return to the office. Hiring managers want to streamline their hiring process as much as possible, so when they have a chance to set up an interview quickly, they will do it most of the time. If you have a resume that’s difficult to read on a mobile device, your interview chances will decrease. Having a mobile friendly executive resume is important nowadays. To ensure your resume is mobile friendly, feel free to contact us to get in touch with the best executive resume writing service.
Considering the current state of the employment world, it’s commonplace for people to have employment gaps. However, a gap of a few months is much different than gaps of a few years. When you use an executive resume writing service, you can easily hide the small gaps or they can help you clearly explain the longer gaps. The main thing is to not let any employment gaps deter you from applying for executive positions. There are many ways to address the gaps where they won’t be a problem.
Don’t Worry About the Small Stuff
If you only had a few months of unemployment, you probably don’t even have to acknowledge it in your resume. Many professional resume writing services will only include the years of employment rather than months anyway. A few months here or there shouldn’t raise any red flags.
Be as Honest as Possible
Nowadays it’s completely understandable for someone to take time off from employment to go back to school or to raise kids. If you had a situation like that, the best thing to do is be honest about it. You can explain in a sentence in your cover letter that you took time off to raise your family or to seek higher education. Place the section right in line with your employment history and you likely won’t be questioned about it in a negative way. The tricky part is if you took time off to do other things like travel the world or if you just didn’t like your previous job. For those situations, you may need to consult with some of the top resume writing services to help you address the employment gap in a professional way that won’t hurt your chances of getting an interview.
Include Volunteer, Consulting, or Unpaid Experience
No matter what your initial reason was for leaving your previous job, you can easily fill the gap with any volunteer work, consulting, or unpaid experience you got. Some people believe they are ready to retire, but then realize they have to stay busy. Volunteering for several hours each week or gaining valuable experience elsewhere could be great ways to fill your employment gaps.
If you consulted during this time, that counts as a position! Gather up what you did and add that to your resume as a role. Adding that experience will be a benefit and show the reader that you were still working. The main takeaway professional resume writing services will tell you is to not worry too much about employment gaps. There are plenty of creative ways to fill those gaps to make them a non-issue, so feel free to reach out to us if you need assistance.
Every company has different positions within each organization. The job duties of those positions can vary from company to company, so you have to be specific as to what job you’re looking for on your resume. A marketing director at a small firm may have multiple job duties, while a marketing director at a large corporation might only be in charge of one aspect. That’s why targeting your executive resume is critical to get the job you want, and the guidance from an executive resume writing service may be essential. Here are some tips on how you can target your executive resume.
Know What You Want
If you try to be general in your resume and make it seem like you’re the jack-of-all-trades, you probably won’t get much recognition. Executive resume targeting means you need to show you have one particular skill mastered and are seeking a job requiring those skills. When you’re as specific as possible, you are more likely to receive responses from companies regarding the exact position you’re looking for. The best professional executive resume writers are crafty when it comes to being specific to the job description and using the appropriate keywords to help get you recognized.
Differentiate Large and Small Companies
Some people want to work for a large corporation, but some want to start at the ground floor. Whichever you prefer, it needs to be clear and evident in your executive resume. Make it known you want to use your skills to help a start-up company grow into a larger business, and are willing to wear multiple hats to get it done. Alternatively, you could say your skills are a better fit for a large corporation where you sit behind your desk all day and make the current operations run more smoothly behind the scenes. Some of the top rated resume writing services will help you target the ideal fit for you, as long as you are clear with them regarding what you want.
Lay Out Your Criteria
Sometimes the best thing applicants can do is to be specific about what they want in a job. However, when you include a section like this, you have to be very careful. If you are overly specific, you might significantly narrow the amount of potential responses you get. You could talk about the work environment you prefer, the size of the company, how you like to interact with co-workers and clients, the type of management style you like and so on. There’s a fine line between being specific about your criteria and being demanding. If you’re having a hard time differentiating the two, then you may benefit from the assistance of an executive resume writing service.
Targeting your executive resume could be the difference between getting the exact job you want or just settling for whatever is offered to you. Feel free to contact us if you need any assistance or guidance when you’re working on targeting your executive resume.
The Three Most Common Ways People Flub Their Job Interviews
For many, interviews can be some of the hardest parts of the job seeking process. This holds especially true for the naturally nervous and the socially clumsy, as well as those who just don’t cope well with pressuring social situations. If any of those last three descriptions fit you, we understand your worries. The good news is you don’t have to wring your hands over interviews! In this article, we’ll go over the three most common ways people bungle their job interviews and how you can avoid these mistakes and ace your own interview!
1. Revealing Too Much Unavailability
Let’s face it: employers will rarely hire someone who lives several hours away from the company office. It is unrealistic to expect or believe someone who lives too far away will be able to consistently make it in to work on time. Furthermore, if other circumstances limit your ability to work on a consistent basis, this will also count against you.
While we’d recommend simply not applying for any jobs you know you’ll have trouble commuting to for any reason, sometimes you have valid reasons for picking that employer. For instance, you could be in the middle of a move, so your being too far away is simply a minor and temporary technicality. In the meantime, you may want to borrow the address of a friend or relative who lives in the area until you’re able to relocate properly.
2. Aggression
Of course, you always want to have and maintain a go-getter attitude when it comes to applying for jobs. If you don’t, you’ll never get a job at all! However, there’s a difference between being motivated and being pushy, and you never want to come off as the latter. This is the easiest way to ruin your chances of being called back.
Once you’ve interviewed, do not try to call the employer with no warning whatsoever. In the meantime, spend that energy elsewhere if you can’t get rid of it, such as by working with a team of professional executive resume writers to tweak your resume and related documents. The most you should do is send out an email to the employer, re-introducing yourself. This will help you stick in their head as a potential candidate.
3. Neglecting Your Pitch
No matter what company you’re seeking to work for, all of them will want to get to know you during the interview process. Ideally, you can use this chance to reveal strengths that your resume will not necessarily show (even if you’re a pro at writing resumes that get you hired)! Having a great pitch will catch your interviewer’s attention and let them know you’re worth giving a chance. If you bungle this, you could risk your entire chance at getting the job. Think about who you are and what your professional strengths are before going to the interview to help hash out how to market yourself to your employer.
Additionally, you may want to rely on an executive resume writing service to help ensure you have a better chance of landing interviews—and jobs! The best thing to do is get in touch with a team of professional executive resume writers to help turn your prospects around.
Learn how to find the best professional resume writers.
If you do a quick search on Google, you’re likely to come up with plenty of resume writing companies. However, it’s not as simple as it seems. Your resume is your introduction to a hiring agent and it’s important to hire the best professional resume writers. Anyone can say they write resumes, but if they don’t know what they are doing you can end up with a poor resume you cannot use for obtaining employment. How do you know which professional resume writing service is legitimate and which ones are scams trying to trick you out of your money? Here are a few things to look for when seeking an executive resume writing service.
What Does Their Website Exude?
When you first access a website advertising a professional resume writing service, take a few minutes to look around. Is it organized and professional looking? If they cannot organize a website, do you think they can organize data on a resume? Are there any grammatical errors or poorly structured sentences? This is a glaring red flag warning you they are not qualified to write resumes.
Do They Have Credentials?
An executive resume writing service should have some credentials displayed on their site. The most common test demonstrating a writer has a degree of competency is CPRW, or Certified Professional Resume Writer. In addition, the best professional resume writers have some accomplishments to share. You’ll also want to ask about their former experience in resume writing, education level, business background and any other skills they may have acquired.
Do They Have Sample Resumes?
When considering a resume writer, ask about any samples they may have to share. If you do not like their samples, you aren’t going to be pleased with their work on yours. If you aren’t sure what to look for in a sample, look past the aesthetic qualities and see if they included more than a list of job duties. Do they do anything special to make a resume stand out from all the others? Be wary if they don’t have any samples to share.
Do They Have a Solid Writing Process?
The best professional resume writers will have a clearly defined process for writing resumes. They should offer more than just a questionnaire for you to fill out. You should actually get to speak with a person who will ask you key questions so they can highlight the skills you have that are likely to impress a potential employer.
Do They Have a Guarantee?
A professional writer should be able to quote a price and offer a satisfaction guarantee. They should be willing to stand behind their work and make any revisions necessary.
These are a few of the considerations you should make before hiring an executive resume writing service. They are easy to find, but it can be difficult to find those who are reputable. Take your time and make a careful selection since your resume is how you introduce yourself to the professional world and secure employment.
Should You Use Your Blog as a Professional Resume?
You know you need resumes that get you hired, but what is the best executive resume format? While most people still rely on traditional layouts for their resume, others are looking for something different to help them stand out from the other candidates. Many professionals have a blog they use to showcase their expertise, but is it really the best way to let your prospective employer know you are a good fit for the position?
A More Authentic Feel
When people are putting together their resumes, they often put their best foot forward, working hard to make sure everything is worded in a way that appeals to employers. Creating blog posts is an entirely different process that typically gives employers insight into your personality and can provide a more authentic feel for whether you will be a good fit for their business. They will be able to get inside your head and see how you think to help them make a more informed hiring decision.
A More Detailed Sales Pitch
Resumes that get you hired only give employers a brief snap shot of your career and the skills you have to offer. While some employers only need this information, along with an interview, more employers today are interested in making sure individuals are the perfect fit before extending an offer. A blog can give them a more in-depth look at what you know and whether you have the skills necessary to get the job done. In fact, there are people who have been hired based on their blog alone.
Other Benefits of a Blog as a Resume
There have been many other benefits to considering a blog in place of or as a supplement to your resume. Using your blog can be an excellent way to distinguish yourself from the other candidates for a job. It also provides insight into how well you can express yourself and your ideas. If you are applying for a job that requires a solid understanding of blogging and how it can be used, having a blog that can at least supplement your resume is an absolute necessity.
Blogging may seem like a great way to share ideas and provide readers with valuable insight about your industry, but today, it can actually help you land a job as well. In fact, many employers are searching the Internet to gather more information on candidates, even if they have already submitted a traditional resume. While it may not yet be the best resume format, it is a valuable tool you can use to increase your chances of landing the job. An executive resume writing service can help you determine whether the blog should serve as a replacement of or a supplement to your resume.
These Small Resume Changes Have the Largest Impact
An executive resume writing service can help you make minor changes.
Writing resumes that get you hired may seem like a lot of work, but once you have a resume written, just a few minor adjustments can make a major difference in your level of success. An executive resume writing service can help you determine which changes need to be made and then implement them into your resume. The following small changes can improve your resume and help you stand out from the other candidates.
Eliminate the Objective
The objective was once used to attract the attention of prospective employers, but it’s no longer necessary to get you hired. In fact, the top-rated resume writing services will no longer use this feature in the resumes they create. Today’s employers want to know how you can help them, not what you want out of a job, making this practice outdated.
Use a Profile Section Instead
The profile section has vastly replaced the objective at the top of the resume. This profile is a quick summary of your relevant skills and experience and consists of just a few short sentences or bullet points. This section should frame you in a positive light and make employers want to learn more about you.
Focus on Your Accomplishments
A professional resume writing service will help you highlight your accomplishments, rather than the duties of your previous employment. While it’s important to let your future employers know what you are capable of doing, phrasing the information to show what you have accomplished will put you in a better light and improve your chances of success.
Minimize the Text
Big blocks of text can muddle your resume and make it more intimidating for hiring managers to read. In fact, they may see the text and immediately put your resume at the bottom of the pile or even in the recycle bin. Bullet points can be a great way to keep your resume short and to the point.
Keep It Short
Your resume doesn’t have to be limited to one page like in the past, but resumes that get you hired will still be short and to the point. Don’t include anything that isn’t relevant to the position you are applying for. Also, make sure it can be easily scanned. Hiring managers often don’t have time to read through all of the resumes they receive so they are more likely to scan for certain words that spark their interest.
Remove Items That Don’t Highlight Strengths
Anything that doesn’t tell your prospective employers why you are a good fit for their company doesn’t belong in your resume. For instance, you don’t want to create a large section that goes over every minor duty you had at your last job. Instead, break it down to tasks that relate to the job at hand, as well as let them know what you were able to accomplish.
