Give employers what they WANT on an executive resume

Give employers what they WANT on an executive resume Ive seen it yet again a functional resume that goes to great lengths to hide work chronology and the current job title of the executive using it. Of course, its not producing any interviews, and the job hunter is desperately seeking a critique to find out where the resume has gone wrong. Employers in todays market are savvy, seasoned, and perhaps even a bit weary. Theyve probably seen it all by now, including executive resumes that dont give up credible, easy-to-find information in a way that makes sense. So, give them what they crave! Your resume will make an ethical, professional case for you, but only if you come clean. By this, I mean showing your full work history with dates and descriptions of what you did. Now, if you have past (relevant!) experience that qualifies you for a new job, but you dont want the employer to miss it, add a Career Highlights section on the first page that shows this information. However, dont peel your work chronology off in order to do this! The mistake I see many executives make is that they believe these are opposing pieces of information, instead of resume sections that complement each other. Work history is of absolute importance to the reader of your resume. The harder you may try to cover something, the more an employer will react (in a negative way, that is). If you cant figure out how to pull relevant information onto the first page of an executive resume, see samples of my work for real-life case studies.