Executive Resume Strategy – Storytelling Basics

If you are trying to unearth great content for your executive resume, go back to the basics of information gathering and good storytelling. Writing a resume is just like writing a story – a career story, and good stories strategically weave together the right facts.

To ensure the best content is included in your resume, analyze the challenges you’ve faced throughout your career to determine relevant details.

Consider the 5 Ws and the 1 H: Who, What, Where, When, How, and Why.

Here’s an example.

Maybe in your past position, you were tasked with creating a sales solution. Instead of just listing this fact in your resume: “Created a sales solution”….. flesh it out to help build a more robust story of value:

WHO was involved?

Team of 4 sales representatives.

WHAT was involved?

Directed the team of sales representatives to create and implement a multi-national sales solution.

WHERE did this happen?

In an international organization with $42M in annual sales.

WHEN did this occur?

2018 as Senior Sales Director for Big Corp in Columbus, Ohio.

HOW did it end?

Built and delivered the sales solution in just 8 months. Sales solution produced 15% YOY sales increase.

Now take all of these facts that you’ve captured and piece them together into a high-impact, value-enhanced statement for your resume, like this:

✔️Generated 15% YOY sales increase, directing a team of 4 to create and launch a new multi-national sales tool which was rolled out across the organization in just 8 months.

 

All of the above will help reveal the big “WHY“. Why you are the best candidate for the targeted job!

Remember, career storytelling is a bit like putting a puzzle together. You need to fit all the pieces together in the right way to deliver the ‘end result’. A bunch of pieces on their own don’t have much meaning, but when strategically shaped, they form an image with impact!