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  3. Top Ten Resume Writing Tips for Executive Positions

Top Ten Resume Writing Tips for Executive Positions

  1. Read the job announcement carefully and use directly relevant key words in your resume that reflect your experience and knowledge.
  2. Limit your resume to no more than 5 pages (including an optional cover memo).
  3. Present your experience in reverse chronological order (most recent experience first).
  4. Describe your experience and accomplishments in a clear and organized manner:
    • Do not overuse bolding and underlining, do not mix fonts, and do not use fonts that are too small to read.
    • Spell out acronyms the first time you use them in your resume, but do not overuse acronyms.
  5. Ensure that your experience and accomplishments reflect the five Executive Core and any Technical Qualification requirements for the position that are listed in the job announcement.
  6. Use action-oriented leadership words to describe your experience and accomplishments:
    • Led the development and implementation of...
    • Redesigned a process that led to a 50 percent increase in savings...
  7. Quantify your experience wherever possible to demonstrate your accomplishments (use numbers, percentages, and dates):
    • Number of employees supervised
    • Size of budget managed
    • Amount of money saved
    • Percentage of backlog eliminated
    • Length of processing time reduced
    • Time period for a significant project
  8. Do not provide irrelevant information (irrelevant awards, training, or hobbies).
  9. List three references in your chain of command.
  10. Proofread your resume at least 3 times. Ask a friend or family member to review your resume to catch all spelling errors, grammatical errors, typos, or unclear statements.
  • Last Modified: February 16, 2022