Originally published here.

When you reach the point in your career where you want to move up to senior management, board level or non-executive positions, you need what we might term an executive CV.

With a wealth of experience under your belt, perfecting this sort of CV does bring a unique set of challenges. After all, you will have already achieved a lot, and it might be hard to sum up your experiences, successes and explain why you are right for the position.

What’s more, while you may have climbed the ladder with your existing employer, recruiters may assume that your decision to stay with the same company for a long period means that you lack ambition, or perhaps are in some way ‘institutionalised’.

On the other hand, if you change roles often it could be perceived that you aren’t committed.

Alternatively, your current job title might not reflect your senior experience and as a result, head-hunters and recruiters are pigeonholing you for roles that are too junior.

If these challenges ring true for you, don’t worry; you are not alone. When writing your executive CV, you need to highlight your true worth.  Read on to find out the seven essential steps to writing an exceptional executive CV.

1. Understand the purpose of your executive CV

A CV is ‘a sales tool designed to get you an interview’.

Your executive CV is not a passive document – it must persuade, inform, excite and deliver a result. And this does not happen by accident.  Your CV must be well thought-through, carefully considered and crafted to deliver the result – securing yourself an interview.

If your executive CV doesn’t sell you as an individual and is not delivering interviews, then it is not going to get you the results you need.

2. Obey the golden rules

Expert CV writers and head-hunters recognise that there are golden rules that must be obeyed when you are writing a CV; tailor your CV every time and always tell the truth.

3. Do your homework

You must tailor your CV to meet the requirements of your next employer. Make sure you do your research. Use job boards like CV-Library to look at real roles of interest. Then, analyse the requirements of the roles you want to apply for.

Take stock of where you are in your career and write down your desired job title and the industry of the next role you desire. Then make a list of the companies you’d like to work for and look at their vacancies on job boards or directly on their sites. You might even choose to reach out to contacts within those organisations. Doing so could help you to understand the challenges that the organisations currently face and enable you to think about how your skills could help to alleviate these issues.

To get the most out of your relationship with headhunters and recruiters, make it easy for them by telling them exactly what you want: “I want to be an Operations Director in Logistics”.  This helps them to do their job, but it also helps you to tailor your executive CV accordingly.

4. Identify what makes you stand out from your competition

Next, ask yourself these questions, they will help you to determine what makes you special:

What are my proudest career achievements?

Which areas of the business would struggle if I left tomorrow?

What are my strengths?

What do I love doing?

The answers to these questions will be the achievements that will sell you to your next employer. The objective here is to evidence your expertise with examples. Wherever possible, quantify your examples with numbers – monetary values or percentage increases work well – to add flavour to your CV.

5. Make an argument

Now is the time to write your CV. Write down the case that you wish to make to your next employer.  This will form the personal statement that will appear under your name at the top of your CV.

The first line must state who you are and what you do now.

For example, ‘An accomplished fashion retail executive with 20 years’ of experience leading high-performing buying teams as Merchandise Director of Bloggs Fashion.’ would work well. An introductory line about your best skills makes it easier for headhunters and hiring managers to understand who you are and what experience you could bring to the table.

Write a paragraph that shows why you’re a stand-out candidate and what sets you apart from the competition. In the final line, tell the reader why they have your CV in their hand or on their screen. Use the job title of the role you seek.  If you are looking at a specific, ‘real’ opportunity, use the job title which is being advertised.

6. Evidence your expertise

Following your personal statement should be the ‘key skills and achievements’ section. This is the piece that really sells your abilities. Under this heading, pick the five or six areas of expertise that will tick all the boxes for your next employer. Evidence each of them with one or two of your achievements, and use numbers where possible.

For example, for a Sales Director role, one of your key skills might look like this:

Sales and profit

Grew divisional sales by 16% in 2017 versus the previous year. This was against a market performance of only +2%.

7.  Remember the finishing touches

Congratulations – you did the hard work. Your personal statement and the key skills and achievements section is where you make your case. This will either get you your interview or not. And it’ s the part that the hiring manager will look at.

The rest of your CV should be in reverse chronological order according to your career history. Again, the focus should be on achievements. Do not make the mistake of listing the things that you do for the sake of it. The hiring managers don’t need to know what you do, but that you are good at what you do.

Qualifications come last, but if you have a particularly relevant qualification, mention it in your personal statement – adding the letters after your name.

There we have it; a guide to writing your executive CV. Once you have written this CV, you have a document that can be tweaked very easily to meet the opportunities you seek.

Just remember, a CV is a sales tool designed to get you an interview and always obey the golden rules.

You can read the complete article here.