Nine executive resume trends for 2017

2017 brings new and innovative ways to present your resume, as well as new tactics to utilize the information captured during the resume-building process.

In addition to an eye-catching layout, achievement-driven bullets and strong word choice to define your brand, these nine executive resume trends for 2017 will help you ensure you are ahead of the competition and viewed as a leader in your field.

1. Make the most of your prime resume real estate.

The top third of your resume is prime resume real estate. Create a robust summary to capture the hiring manager’s eye. Use this space wisely to include what position you are targeting and a few pointed achievements that support why a hiring manager should call you for an interview for that position.

2. Write tight.

Once you write your resume, challenge yourself to identify words to delete from your content. Write concisely. Doing so will help create white space and make the reader’s eye flow over your resume with ease.

3. Customize for the audience, not only the position.

When sending a resume to a third-party recruiter, you need to motivate them to want to send you to their client. When sending your resume directly to a hiring manager, you need to address how you will create results for them and make their life more productive by hiring you.

4. Make it easy for readers to digest your information.

White space, white space, white space. Cramming content in multiple, information-dense, multilined paragraphs with little white space around each one is enough to make a reader go “Next!” Make it easy for your readers to find information using bullets, sectioned-off information blocks and simple graphics to move the eye through the document.

5. Lead with your achievements early.

Lead with your accomplishments early in the summary and in the employment sections. In today’s employment marketplace with shrinking attention spans, an executive must lead with a strong first impression. The summary should contain your crowning, most relevant achievements.

6. Treat your resume as your personal marketing collateral.

Just like your business card or your biography on a company web page, your executive resume is an extension of your personal brand.

7. Speak to benefits, not just your experience.

Do not lead with years of experience if you want to be hired on merit. For example, “I have reduced operating expenses by 23 percent in six months” is much more interesting to an employer than “I have 30 years of sales experience.”

8. Align with your online and mobile profiles.

An executive resume does not exist in a vacuum anymore. It’s not the only way someone can find you, nor should it be. Ensuring your resume is in alignment with your LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, blog and other social media pages that are pertinent to your field is paramount. Consistency is important; authenticity is everything.

9. Use the resume creation process for other documents.

Don’t use the resume creation process to only create a resume. Use these accomplishment-gathering process and personal branding development exercises to create executive bios, one-page networking resumes, infographics, social media bios and more.

Those who say the resume is dead are wrong. The resume might not be used in every situation every time, but the process with which you create your resume will support the creation of traditional and contemporary documents that are being requested at the executive-level job search with increasing frequency.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Nine executive resume trends for 2017."