Executive Resumes

Executive resumes can be used by any job seeker, especially those who have career or academic accomplishments and seek a more comprehensive approach to employment history — if that comprehensive approach is relevant and enhances their candidacy.

As opposed to other resumes, executive formats generally have:

• A more conservative appearance.
• A separate area showcasing Career Accomplishments.
• A finished length of two or more pages.

Executive resumes are generally formatted in Times New Roman font, which is universal on PCs, easy to read, and elegant in appearance. Designer fonts, which include BlackAdder II, Castellar, and Broadway, are best left for graphic designers, artists, and those in nontraditional industries.

Ample use of white space and underscored section headings are aesthetically pleasing and provide visual cues about where one area ends and another begins.

This is the hallmark of the executive resume and what hiring managers most want to see. When numerous applicants with essentially the same backgrounds vie for each opening, the only characteristic that will separate you from all the others is what you have accomplished in previous positions.

In an executive resume, your achievements are showcased near the top of the first page. What’s more, they are quantified in terms of percentages, dollar figures, and time periods to specifically indicate what was done.

Executive resumes are usually two or more pages because of the sheer breadth of a candidate’s experience. However, a modern resume should be only as long as it needs to be to contain the data relevant to your current job search.

It’s unwise to expand a one-page resume to two pages to meet an arbitrary page length, just as it is to cram a two-page document onto one page, reducing white space and font size to such an extent that the finalized document is hard to read.