Most Popular “How To” Executive Resume Writing Questions
Crafting a compelling executive resume that gets results isn’t easy. Many executives and professionals turn to an executive resume writing service. They spend time researching who is the best executive resume writer.
Other professionals looking for an executive position decide to tackle executive resume writing themselves. When talking to a professional resume writer, these are some of the “how-to” questions people ask.
12 Often Asked Executive Resume Writing Questions
#1 What do employers look for in a resume?
Employers are looking for people to solve their problems. A hiring manager wants to know what you can do for them.
People in similar positions at similar companies do similar things. What differentiates candidates from one another is the impact they have had on their employer(s).
More specifically, a recruiter or hiring manager wants to see how you saved time, cut costs, improved productivity, generated revenue, etc.
January 2021 Is Here. Will Your Job Search Be Successful?
Welcome to 2021!
2020 has been extremely challenging. Most of us have had our professional, and personal lives turned upside down. Many people found looking for a new job frustrating, exhausting, and disheartening.
Finally, 2020 has been kicked to the curb. The holidays are behind us, and a brand-new year, full of possibilities, stretches before us.
If your goal is to get a new job in 2021, it’s time to get going. Don’t wait for tomorrow. Start today.
Get Your Career Marketing Tools Ready
#1 Make sure your resume is recruiter and employer ready. Your resume is often how hiring managers meet you. A boring list of duties and responsibilities is unlikely to motivate anyone to contact you.
People in similar positions do similar things. The best way to differentiate yourself is by demonstrating your value. And the way to do that is by creating a results-driven resume in a modern, easy-to-scan format.
Five Resume Elements That Should Be Forgotten
You’re probably familiar with the phrase “everything old is new again.” But when it comes to resumes, everything old is not new again. It’s just old.
Resumes have changed a lot over the last 15 years. They’ve morphed from boring employment histories to compelling marketing documents designed to sell you — the candidate — to recruiters and employers. While some basic components like professional experience and education remain, there are other elements that make your resume and, by default, you look dated.
1. Objective Statement
Although objective statements have been passé for years, I still see them on resumes. One reason they fell out of fashion is that they were all basically the same. Every candidate was looking for a great company, where they worked with awesome colleagues, and had room to grow. Boring. Worse, objective statements didn’t address what every employer wants to know “WIIFM?” (what’s in it for me?). Scrap the objective statement and replace it with a summary that demonstrates your value.
10 Strategies That Will Boost Your Job Search Success
These are extraordinarily difficult times. Unemployment is climbing. People on furlough wonder if they’ll be returning to work. Shutdowns across the country make it challenging to look for a job.
Despite everything, this is not the time to stop looking for a new job. The job market has changed dramatically, but jobs are still out there. Employers are hiring. There are steps you can take to move your job search forward.
Here are 10 job search strategies that work. But reading this list isn’t enough. You need to act. You can’t do all of them today, but you can get started.
#1 Make a list of your target employers, companies where you would most like to work. Set up Google alerts to help you follow them in the news. Start contacting family, friends, former colleagues, etc. to see if they know anyone who works for one, or more, of your top employers.
Make Sure Your Executive Resume Demonstrates Your Value
If you’re writing your own executive resume, it can be tempting to include everything you’ve done over the last 20 years. Or longer. A long, boring, job history is the perfect way to make sure no one contacts you.
If you want to get the attention of recruiters and hiring managers, it’s essential to demonstrate YOUR value.
Immediately.
Highlight your achievements. Recruiters and hiring managers want to know about the impact you’ve had on your employers. They want to see times you’ve saved time, improved productivity, cut costs, generated revenue, etc. Present your resume in a modern, easy-to-scan format. Focus on positions that are relevant to employers.
How Not To Look Old When You’re Looking For A Job
Job seekers begin to worry about age discrimination as early as their mid-forties. Serious concerns begin around 55. And the truth is, age discrimination or ageism is out there.
There are a lot of reasons, not related to skills, that people don’t get hired. They may be considered too young or, in some cases, the wrong gender.
They may not get the job because, subconsciously, they remind the interviewer of a former boss they despised.
Conscious and unconscious biases exist.
While you can’t control them, you don’t have to feed into them either.
If you’re concerned about age discrimination, do what you can to not look old and outdated during your job search.
How To Get Moving In 2019
It’s 2019.
Are you ready?
A lot of people casually looking for new jobs, put their job search into high gear in January.
The holidays are over. They’ve taken vacation and gotten year end bonuses.
If you want to find a new job this year, it’s time to get moving.
Time to do all those things you planned to do in the last few months of 2018.
Get Your Tools Together
First, make sure you resume is recruiter and hiring manager ready. Your resume is your calling card so make sure that it is a compelling marketing document not the boring list of duties you used 5 years ago.
A boring employment history is not going to impress anyone. Employers want to know how you can solve their problems, you resume should clearly demonstrate your value in modern, easy-to-scan format. And if you’re a senior executive, don’t forget to show momentum.
Next, finish completing your LinkedIn profile so recruiters can find you. Finish that that summary you’ve been meaning to for the last 4 months. Now that LinkedIn has changed their user interface, pay particular attention to the first 240 characters in your summary. Write something that will encourage them to click “Show more.”
Don’t End Up At The Back Of The Pack In January
There are only a few weeks left to 2018. If you’re already looking or plan to start in the new year, there is no time to waste. Serious candidates are working a job search plan right now. If you’re taking time off to enjoy the holidays, you’re falling behind. Here are a few ways to catch up.
Target Employers
First, create a list of target employers. These are your dream employers, the places you would work if you could work anywhere. Ten is a good place to start. Learn all you can about them.
Make a note to visit their website periodically to check job openings. As a recruiter, it was rare to source a job that was not listed on the company website. The exception being a confidential search when the person didn’t know they were being replace.
Top 10 Resume Don’ts
Crafting a resume is just one component of a multi-step, job search process. A successful job search also includes networking, developing a list of target employers, creating a robust LinkedIn profile, salary negotiation, and more.
Still, in many cases, your resume is the catalyst that gets the ball rolling. Without a compelling, results driven resume you may never get invited to a job interview.
There are many articles on how to write a resume that generates calls, I’ve written several myself. What’s not as often addressed is what “not” to do.
So to change things up a bit, here is a list of things to avoid.
Top 10 Resume Don’ts
- Don’t lie. While a resume should be a marketing document, being dishonest is never OK. Even the smallest lies, things that you might consider an exaggeration, can come back to haunt you. For example, stating you have an MBA when you have a MA make take you out of the running. Saying you have a degree when you don’t will almost definitely get you cut.
Do You Want To Know What Hiring Managers Think?
Looking for a job isn’t easy. Getting an interview is tough. Securing an offer is even tougher.
If the whole process was easy, unhappy workers wouldn’t hesitate to make a change. People wouldn’t be as devastated when they lost a job.
Of course, one of the most difficult thing for jobseekers is trying to figure out what hiring managers think. What are they looking for? What questions will they be asked during an interview? Is talking badly about a boss or former boss really that bad?
The list of questions goes on.
Well, today, we’re going to provide some insights gleaned from a survey of hiring managers conducted by Simply Hired**.
What You Can Expect
While a robust, optimized LinkedIn profile is essential to being found on LinkedIn, most (71%) of hiring managers don’t check candidate’s profiles. Of course, that means almost 30% do.