How to Showcase Leadership in Your Resume

A Leadership Resume is for anyone who wants prospective employers to focus on their leadership skill set; this applies to any position from assistant manager to executive and every category in-between.

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Pull out your current resume right now. Now turn it over and write down what is memorable. Now ask yourself, would I hire me?

If your resume does not convey your strengths and competencies from the get go. What would compel a hiring manager to pick up the phone to call you for an interview?

In today’s aggressive job market, the tone and leadership message of your resume must be carefully crafted in order to generate a lasting impression. Five seconds is all you have; is your resume ready for it?

Check Your Resume Against these

Top 10 essentials for crafting Leadership into your resume:

	Position the Key Details First – All too often, critical information is buried on the second page of a resume. Remember that the top half of the first page is prime real estate for your strongest credentials. Use a tightly worded summary that reflects your qualifications and is closely aligned to your job goal.
	Include a Branding Statement – A branding statement conveys what sets you apart from everyone else and makes you memorable and unique – your skills, abilities, personality traits. It is your marketing tagline and should be used at the forefront of the resume.
	Use C-A-R Statements – Future employers want to see both the results of your work by looking at quantifiable figures and facts – but it’s the story BEHIND the accomplishment that really tells your personal branding story. Think of your past results and work style in terms of the situation you first encountered (the Challenge), what you did to address it (your Action), and what happened next (the Result).
	Be Tech Savvy – Provide links to any online industry relevant blogs or articles you have written, as well as a hyperlink to your LinkedIn Profile. This provides further insight to your experience and allows you to highlight your accomplishments in greater detail.
	Cut the fluff – Your resume should be clear and concise. Keep it clean, lean and mean.
	Length – Keep it to two pages, three if you really must. A caveat, a longer resume just doesn’t hit the mark in today’s fast paced job market. A resume should reflect the last 10-15 years of experience in detail. This helps keep the resume length inline as well as showing the most current and relevant experience.
	Back Up Your Success with Testimonials – Use short testimonials on your resume as an endorsement. This information can be placed at the beginning or end of your professional profile for impact, or within a separate section on the front page.
	Weak verbs and no verbs – Do not use lackluster verb constructions as “was responsible for,” “provided” or “assisted with.” Or worse, no verbs at all! Use verbs instead of sentence fragments that omit them. Your resume will be more action-oriented and dynamic. Use action-oriented verbs such as “spearheaded,” “steered” or “influenced.”
	White Space is Important – A cluttered or chaotic resume is hard for the reader to peruse and is not inviting to read. Be consistent with your style. Keep fonts and font sizes the same throughout; use at least a half-inch margin and keep your wording clean, lean and mean. Cluttered and chaotic are two qualities that employers simply do not want.
	Spell check and have a human edit your resume – Spell check is great, but it doesn’t catch all grammatical and typographical errors. It’s helpful to have someone else review your resume. Ask for that person’s feedback on the style of your resume, readability, and content

Developing a masterpiece that gets attention from employers’ top-tier hiring managers requires a well thought-out resume strategy. Remember keep your wording strong, your content lean and your branding statement compelling and before you know it, hiring managers will be beating a path to your door.

If you need help crafting your resume, contact me at [email protected].

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