Executive Interview 101: The Resume: Creating an authentic and personalized marketing tool!

Many find the idea of creating or adding to a resume overwhelming and I truly get it. Creating a resume which can be used as an accurate and useful marketing tool requires a step-by-step thought process that is best broken down for ease and clarity. Now you have a Functional Tagline (FTL) and you have practiced it to perfection. You know it so well you can tailor it for delivery to appropriate audiences and confidence is increasing with awareness. I might have forgotten to mention, the FTL is just a building block in the process to success in interview situations, so we aren’t done yet. You will want to ensure that your resume is reflective of your experiences and aspirations, you will use the FTL to build a Functional Resume Tagline (FRTL). Different than the former, the FRTL focuses on presenting you as a holistic professional, it does not reference a specific company or role. It answers the question, “what would someone hire me to do and why?”.

Your primary goal is to create your resume to be as specific and direct as possible, the more basic formatting the information the better. This is not the time to get creative and detract your audience from content with snazzy graphics. Little do you know that you are just one text box away from a brutal parsing in a corporate database. After 20 years of reviewing resumes by myself and side-by-side with senior leaders, recruiters, and search practitioners, the best resumes are the one that follow a simple format in basic word. Imagine that the top of your resume includes a header with the following information:

·        Legal Name, City & State, Cell phone number, email address, LinkedIn profile

·        Title (TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS LEADER etc)

 After the header you have a title that describes you (holistically) in capital letters. This, in addition to the FRTL will help all audiences (at all levels of seniority and influence) to immediately gather the context they need to move the conversation forward. The typical executive interview process has 6-8 interviews (minimum) and more than likely, only two of these interviewers have “direct” knowledge of your experience or the specific role you will play. But they are crucial to the process and will be internal business partners. As such, these interviews serve broader purposes.

If done correctly the FRTL should address the following questions:

·        What kind of company would hire you, what are they trying to do or accomplish?

·        Why would they hire you, specifically, what relevant background do you have?

·        What level of strategy and visibility do you operate at within your own organization and within client organizations?

·        What business areas do you have experience with?

·        Do you lead teams of people to conduct your role?

·        How are you solely responsible for helping to grow/generate revenue?

 Your resume should be a deeply valuable and personally reflective marketing tool. As someone who has reviewed thousands of them, I’ve found that many are written far too generally, or worse yet resort to a “project” focus. Like most marketing tools, the goal of the resume is to make the messaging as clear and relatable as possible. For example, imagine you are trying to sell a product that you have spent millions of dollars creating and building. You hire a marketing firm that produces a dazzling commercial with great music, great graphics, and a celebrity spokesperson. You then get feedback from the marketing survey that while prospective buyers enjoyed the commercial, it was not clear to them what the product was. Do not invest time and energy on creating a resume that will either not help, or worse yet, hurt your brand.

Here is an example of an FRTL to use in a resume:

  IT Services and Solutions Sales Leader

Enthusiastic Executive IT Services and Solutions Sales and People Leader with + 15 years of success building and leading “best in class” technology sales organizations within premier and global firms, while leading P&L and driving double digit growth in new and existing areas of business. Collaborate across the CXO levels of highly matrixed organizations to provide deep subject matter expertise and lead all aspects of change management while delivering a clear and cohesive firm-wide technology sales strategy. Partner across functional technology service offerings platform to (Cybersecurity, D A&I etc.) and industry spaces to help enterprise clients further their technology goals. Remain a key relationship manager on marquee proposals, with a focus in Financial Services, Manufacturing & High Tech, while leading and developing diverse teams of +100 professionals. Drive successful business outcomes while maintaining a deep level of ethics and integrity.

 Here is an example of the content typically provided on resumes:

 "Highly skilled and motivated business leader who drives successful outcomes. Collaborates with senior levels to achieve goals. Builds and leads high performing teams.”

Do you think this provides enough information for the interview team to want to dive in? Has it helped them answer any questions about who you are specifically or what you might do? The ability to have this information upfront is crucial to driving effective conversations. Being able to easily reference this information in addition to your FTL will help you drive the conversation relevant to the audiences’ areas of focus.

 Recently an advisee let me know that she felt “empowered” by this process and that “by defining the FTL for my conversations, and then using the FRTL on my resume, I was able to achieve a level of clarity in my interview processes that I was previously missing, and ultimately, was causing me frustration. This is a game changer”

 Another said, “having to fit 20 years into a tightly packaged box, especially when I have not interviewed outside of my company in over 15 years, felt so unnatural. I really wasn’t sure of the most effective way to discuss my background with those who didn’t have direct experience working with me. I had been so focused on the missions of my current role that I had a hard time separating it from what I (myself) bring to an environment.

Others use these tools to help them become better interviewers, "I use the FTL to help those I am interviewing understand the who, what, where and why of my role in the organization. I have incorporated the FRTL into my bio to help varied audiences, inside and outside, of my organization get a clear perspective on what my role is and why I might be involved in an interview process. I have found a significant improvement in the ease of conversation and the depth I am able to quickly achieve”

 Taking the steps needed to create the FTL and the FRTL, will not only help you “show up” better in moments where stress could be high (such as an interview) and it will also mentally and psychologically formulate the way you will ultimately present yourself and the level of confidence you feel doing it.