Why Writing Your Executive Resume Is Difficult - And What You Can Do About It

Trying to get your job search off to a strong start - but hampered by the resume writing process? Are you finding it challenging to sum up the reasons you should be considered over others for a leadership role?

If so, you have plenty of company, especially if your career is at the executive or senior professional level. Many leaders discover that it's easier to actually drive change, improve company operations, or transform revenue performance than it is for them to write about it.

Here are 3 main reasons that resume writing can seem like an massive chore in your job hunt—along with some ways to make the process easier:

1 - You're too close to the subject.

Most executive leaders and skilled professionals are subject matter experts in all types of leadership competencies, from strategic planning to team delegation.

However, when asked to describe their strengths, most of them will resort to tactical or skills-based descriptions, rather than illustrating the ways in which they add strategic value.

The reason? Being on the front lines is a much different experience than explaining what your career has meant to your employers. You're naturally good at what you do, but telling your story requires a higher level of strategic analysis—a process that most executives and senior-level professionals don't think to undertake for themselves.

To help with the process of writing about yourself, try asking others about your achievements and executive contributions. What do they see as your most valuable accomplishments and proficiencies?

What compliments do you receive on your work? You'll find that the impression others have of you is critical, as it can give you a valuable, and perhaps different, perspective of your leadership career (useful for framing the contents of your resume).

2 - Marketing copy isn't your strong suit.

Most COOs spend their time ensuring that costs are reined in and that the company's infrastructure will support growth, while sales managers are assessing the competition, CEOs are busy forming strategic forecasts, accountants are closing the books, IT Managers are negotiating with vendors, and CIOs are dealing with the rising costs of technology.

Of course, these activities leave precious little time to become well-versed in marketing!

Even if marketing campaigns are part of your leadership role, you'll still find that it's much harder to create promotional copy when the product is YOU. Often, it's easier to describe your skills verbally than it is to write about yourself.

Consider looking at executive or professional resume examples, which are readily available online, to get an idea of the marketing style that appeals to employers in today's job market. How does yours stack up?

In particular, you'll want to look for these elements in each sample resume:

-Summary section wording, where a short list of executive competencies and personality description often serves as a powerful introduction

-Achievement sentence structure that shows how to condense complex success stories

-Document design, where you can observe how white space is used to separate jobs and sections

3 - You haven't developed a personal brand message.

As with any type of promotion, branding is a key element of marketing. When it comes to job search, your personal brand is basically the value proposition and reputation that you've forged throughout your executive career.

Even if you're in touch with what this value means to your next employer, it's difficult to articulate it for yourself and maintain a focus on your top brand values.

A great way to bring out your personal brand message is to contact colleagues or others in your network to get an idea of your market value:

-What strengths did you bring to the company in your last job?

-What were the key reasons for your past promotions?

-How did your professional reputation stack up against others with your job title?

Getting answers to these questions can give you some ideas to weave throughout the content in your executive resume, as it's important to demonstrate how others have counted on your leadership for results in past roles.

In summary, writing a leadership resume can seem like the most challenging part of your job search, but don't give up!

Instead, leverage others' input and investigate current resume styles to create a document that truly reflects your brand and captures employer interest.

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Writing a Resume Is Both Simple and Difficult

It's simple because, after all, it's just a timeline of your employment history with a couple accomplishments bulletpointed under the job description. Too bad it's not as easy as that.

Looking at a couple of resumes the other day, one observation stood out. Both resumes had the accomplishments wrong.

Both resumes basically had:

Sales Manager, ACME Coyote, Inc. 1/88 to 9/97

Managed 6 sales representatives overseeing 435 accounts representing annual gross sales of $3.4million. Called on 6 Key accounts. Responsible for all training and logistic support to sales representatives. Also responsible to implement all company marketing programs and interacting with supplier representatives.

Trained and motivated 6 sales representativesProvided outstanding leadership in executing all marketing programsEfficient use of promotional and sales POP/POS resulted in significant savings to companyIncreased sales representatives' productivity by systemically realigning sales territoriesGenerated greater sales revenue by proactively sourcing superior products from supplier representativesGuided sales team to number one in sales increase from 1/95 to 1/97

Unfortunately, none of those bullet points are really accomplishments. They are more job descriptions.

The accomplishments you list under your job description cannot be more job descriptions.

And that is the mistake that I see on a lot of resumes

One of the resumes listed 3 jobs, spread out over 2 pages. For all 3 jobs, the writer listed 10 to 12 bullet points of - yes, you guessed it - job descriptions.

On the other resume, the writer listed 4 jobs. On this one though, the writer simply listed the job and underneath bulletpointed about 7 to 8 job descriptions.

You don't write a generic job description followed by a list of specific job description.

But rather, you write a brief job description so that you and the reader are on the same sheet of music as to what you did. After all, a marketing manager with ACME Coyote may not be the same as a marketing manager with Road Runner Enterprises; therefore the need for a the brief job description.

After the job description, the resume should have a list 3 or 4 (no more) of the most important accomplishments that you, and only you, could have done. The accomplishments must be uniquely you and no one else but you. "Help increase sales by stealing market share from competition" doesn't really say much and would have no place in my resume.

I think a more effective job description might be:

Sales Manager, ACME Coyote, Inc. 1/88 to 9/97

Managed $3.4 million sales team of 6 reps and 435 accounts. Operated team as complete profit loss unit; taking responsibility for utilizing all profit levers to deliver maximum revenue to company.

Increased gross profit margin from 19.2% to 20.6%, resulting in a net gain of $48K in FY97, by minimizing waste while winning 26 new accounts from competition.Over 4 year period, 4 sales representatives promoted to higher positions, resulting from personal coaching, training, and mentoring.Overhauled and realigned 6 sales territory resulting in gross sales increasing from $2.8 million to $3.4 million.

By the way, something like that would be the first run, because it's too wordy. I would rinse once or twice more to get it down to the absolute minimum words necessary.

Here's the thing though, I wanted to make each bullet point unique to me versus what a sales manager does. Did I succeed? Only a call for job interview can answer that.

As you write your accomplishments though; I want you to critically think about whether you are writing a more, detailed job description, or an accomplishment that only you could have done.

Because if it's only what you could have done, then by extension; it is only something you could do for your new company.

That's the selling point!

And that's why writing a resume is both simple and difficult.

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Writing a Resume Is Both Simple and Difficult - Part 2

In this segment of "writing a resume is both simple and difficult;" I want to talk about another "stumbling" point - the resume objective. If you've read any of my previous articles, then you will remember that I do not believe resume objectives are necessary; to the contrary, an objective statement can hurt you.

You don't need it and I do not believe it is particularly effective. But no guru I am (to sort of paraphrase Yoda)!

But because many gurus' continue to recommend objectives and writing services routinely begin the resume with an objective statement, most people can be forgiven for thinking it's a standard requirement. In fact, there are whole websites (and popular at that) dedicated to writing objectives.

That said, I think most objective statements, written as they are, are fillers. That's all they do; they fill the top of the resume.

Because both the reader and you know what the your objective is - to get hired. So, why waste valuable space on something so redundant?

But if you are going to insist on using a resume objective, let me make a couple of suggestions.

Here's a typical resume objective:

"An administrative assistant position requiring strong organization and planning skills to provide exceptional support to a vice president in the financial industry."

So, what does this objective tell the hiring manager and how does it add value to the resume? For me - it's nothing to both questions.

If I'm looking for an administrative assistant, then this objective statement is pointless. If I'm not, then this resume is pointless.

Here's another, more in depth resume objective, as recommended by an expert:

"I intend to use my professional expertise in this field along with my knowledge, towards expanding the customer base of the organization, apart from ensuring optimum customer satisfaction for the existing customers. I seek to offer my salesmanship skills, along with my extensive experience in the field, towards the performance of my duties and consequently towards the growth of the Organization."

On surface, this is probably better than the first. It's better because the objective statement was written to mirror the job duties as listed in the job posting. But again, how does it add value to the resume. If you want to tailor your resume to the job posting, then tailor your resume to the job posting. And if you do that, then once again the objective statement becomes a filler and nothing more - however well written it might be.

But, also notice that this objective statement uses 7 "I's" and "my's." I guessing most recruiters and hiring managers could care less about you and your "I's." More to the point, all those personal pronoun adds a vain touch to the narrative.

So, your question to me might be, "okay hotshot - what do you suggest!?"

I think there are a couple of ways you can do this - first, you can mirror the company's mission statement, as suggested by Phil Baker, resume/cover letter guru extraordinaire. A mission statement focused objective statement adds a different dimension to your cause - because frankly, not many do.

"While there are probably HR employees that do not have their company's mission statement memorized, many will find something familiar about your resume when you have mirrored their mission statement. A familiarity that "feels right." - Phil Baker"

For example:

"Mission statement: To combine aggressive strategic marketing with quality products and services at competitive prices to provide the best insurance value for consumers..."

The objective statement could be:

"Objective: To apply superior selling skills to market quality products and services that provide the best insurance value for consumers..."

The other way is to use the objective statement to add value to your resume. How do you do that? You could do this by using a simple, direct statement stating what you intend to do:

"To increase shareholder value by developing and delivering high quality products."

Compare Kevin Donlin's simple, yet direct statement to the previous first, two example - which one of the three adds value? Those two were all about "me" and "I," whereas this direct statement is about what I can do for you without using the "I."

Writing an effective resume isn't just about following a format or cut/pasting into a template - it's not that easy. Yes, the overall concept is simple. But within that concept, you must tell a story and you must guide the reader to a conclusion. And that makes it a little more difficult.

That means you must spend the time and effort to do it well - but achieving the results you want is obviously worth it.

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