Struggling to write your executive resume? Try these branding tips

If your idea of writing an executive resume is trying to list all your tasks and group them under each job title, you’re in for quite a surprise.

The information that actually makes employers want to call you is quite different than just the descriptions of your previous jobs, as it involves creating a personal brand message with a clear, unmistakable promise of leadership value.

In this market, your job search is almost guaranteed to take longer if your resume doesn’t reflect your specific strengths and the impact of your work for your employers.

However, don’t despair: there are quick, real-life branding exercises that you can undertake in the executive resume writing process that will get the response you deserve.

In the process, you’ll also be able to turn around your perspective of resume writing, gaining a valuable lesson in how to self-market and promote your unique leadership background.

To jumpstart the process of executive resume-writing and related brand analysis, try these 3 tips to make your task easier, before writing a single word:

1 – Ask others for feedback.

This may seem like a backwards step, but if you discuss your job search and resume purpose with trusted colleagues or friends before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), you’ll actually have a better vision of the end goal.

Specifically, most people around you can clearly see your value in ways that you cannot, because they have likely benefited from your leadership qualities, organization skill, and technical proficiency.

Here are some great questions to ask your network, which will help generate resume ideas:

What reasons would you have for recommending my work to my next employer?
What company-level problems did you believe I was able to solve when we worked together?
How you believe I’ll be able to add value as a leader in my next job?
What did you see as my top 3 contributions to profit, employee performance, or cost savings in my last job?

Next, you’ll want to keep these ideas in a list next to you during the leadership resume-writing process. Use them to add color to your resume profile and flesh them out in more detail in your executive work history.

2 – Make a list of career wins.

Right off the bat, make a list of your top achievements over the course of your career – including everything from leading a challenging project to success to turning around a non-profitable company division.

Give yourself permission to remember (and savor) the highlights of what you’ve been able to do that brought you kudos from others. Don’t forget that the impact might have been external to the company, as many executives often garner praise from industry insiders or analysts, as well as from their teams.

You’ll want to create success stories from each of these accomplishments, and then put them in the classic Challenge-Action-Result format for your resume writing efforts. Describe the Challenge or situation first, then the Action that you took, and most importantly, the Result of each project or achievement.

These stories will now become the foundation for accomplishment stories in your executive resume, and can be used to replace what would usually be the classic list of tasks performed at each job.

In addition, you’ll want to add more facets to each story during the resume-writing process, supplying employers with more proof of your leadership performance as you recall the details.

3 – Inject some personality into the process.

Give some thought to the role you are seeking. What type of qualities does the perfect candidate for this job display? What are his or her professional attributes?

This isn’t hard to picture: for example, a COO might be extremely analytical or improvement-focused, while the ideal IT Director would tend to challenge the status quo and take a firm stance with vendors.

Now, tie these qualities back to your own experience. In what situations did you display these attributes and what were the results of your leadership at the time?

What’s important about this exercise? It allows you to start with an employer-side view of the ideal executive leader, giving you the same perspective they’ll have when scouring your resume for proof of these qualities.

As a result, you have some goals around which to center your leadership resume, rather than just starting with a list of mundane tasks that everyone performs in your field.

In summary, you’ll need to transform your perception of executive resume writing from what you’ve been led to believe, and start the writing process from a standpoint of brand value that can help you differentiate your experience – a solid first step toward capturing a better response for your leadership skills.