10 Powerful Changes for Your Executive-Level Resume

10 Powerful Changes for Your Executive-Level Resume10 Powerful Changes for Your Executive-Level Resume10 Powerful Changes for Your Senior-Level ResumeThis is the perfect executive-resume sample for senior-level job-landseekers. Heres why.No matter what ort youre gunning for whether its yourfirst job out of college, or youre a seasoned professional with your sights on the C-suite condensing your accomplishments and merits into one single document can be daunting. But if youre ready for a job change, a polished and updated resume is the one thing you cant skipYou might even argue that an executive-level professional has it tougher than the former. Youve likely held several jobs throughout your career, working your way up and maybe even getting your feet wet in completely different industries or departments. For a lucky few, you may not have even had to interview at all, landing positions and promotions through your network alone.The point is, at your level, the people youll be compet ing with for this job will come from many different paths. Your resume and your cover letter will need to impress.Our biggest tip? Get another pair of eyes on your resume. You know your work history inside and out, but how does it come across on paper? With our free resume review, youll get a confidential critique from a TopResume expert experienced with executive-level resumes including personalized recommendations and objective feedback. Often, its a few small changes that can make the biggest impactTo see what we mean, check out our sample resume for executive- and senior-level professionals below, and continue reading to learn about 10 of the most powerful changes you can make.1. Showcase your credentials at the top of your resumeThis is a quick and effective change for anyone, regardless of how many years youve been in the field Move your credentials, especially the ones that match your target position, to the very top of your resume. This is typically the first place recruite rs will look, so having them front and center ensure they wont get skipped.2. Include a link to your online profileDid you know that 90 percent of employers search for candidates social media profiles online before setting up an interview? Make it easy on them by providing links to your social accounts or professional websites near your other contact information. In our executive-level resume sample above, Jake includes a custom link to his LinkedIn profile.If youd rather keep your online profiles hidden from recruiters, make sure to adjust your security settings or change your account personenname so theyre harder to find.3. List your core skills near the top, in an easy-to-read formatNoticing a theme here? Even for executive-level positions, hiring managers will typically do a quick scan of your resume before getting into the details. To stand out immediately, make sure your core skills also referred to as core competencies or areas of expertise are listed in an easy-to-read for mat.Moreover, make sure youre choosing skills that directly correlate with the position youre applying for. Take a look at the job description, if you have it, and customize your resume accordingly. If done right, this should complement your executive summary, or career summary, which Jake includes near the top of this example resume, as well.Need help with writing your executive summary? Our resume experts can help with that, too4. Include a Selected Achievements section at the topIf youre a senior-level professional, you likely have a list of accomplishments to choose from. But this doesnt mean you should list everything youve ever done In Jakes resume, for example, he chose accolades and achievements that highlight the specific results and impact he made. His Selected Achievements section, sometimes called Career Highlights, allows for quick skimming to understand his performance highlights. While a section like this isnt mandatory, its a great way to show recruiters or hiring ma nagers what youre most proud of.5. Focus on your most recent work experienceMost resumes will benefit from a chronological format, as it shows your career progression throughout the years. Notice how Jakes resume sample places the most focus on his current position as Vice President of Human Resources. Spend the most time here, with your current or most recent job, including details that will show the recruiter what your role entails and what type of company it is (big? small? non-profit?). This rule applies even if you havent been at your current job for very long the only exception is if your current job is unrelated to your career goals or executive summary.6. Quantify your achievementsActions speak louder than words but on a resume, numbers can speak volumes. This is especially important as a senior-level professional, as youre probably handling things like budgets, department goals, or teams of people. Instead of leading with a vague statement, be specific, like Jake does in the resume sample above. Notice how he talks about the annual savings to the company driven by his leadership, as well as how many schreibstubes and staff members hes responsible for. 7. Use a two-page resume lengthIf youre surprised by this tip, youre not alone. Its a common myth that resumes should be restricted to one page Just dont get too lengthy. Two pages is a great rule-of-thumb for resume length that will allow you the space to showcase your work history and, more importantly, your accomplishments (quantified, of course).Bump your earlier and entry-level jobs to the second page and include only the most important details. Furthermore, make sure the positions youre including are relevant. If youre applying for an executive-level healthcare position, like Jake is, recruiters wont care that your first job out of college was scooping ice cream at the mall.Having trouble deciding what to keep? A two-page limitation will force you to decide which details are the most important an d which details can be left out. Put yourself in the recruiters shoes, and go line-by-line through your resume. Is everything relevant and compelling? Great mucksmuschenstill having trouble? This leads us to our next tip 8. Include only your past 15 years of experienceAt this point in your career, youve built up quite the history of companies, positions, and responsibilities. How will you fit it all in? Fortunately, you dont have to. Instead, restrict your resume to experience garnered in the last 15 years, give or take. If there are positions outside of this time frame that you feel are relevant, you can include those in a Prior Experience section just forgo the lengthy details. Still running out of room? Feel free to indicate a Career Note toward the end and list out noteworthy titles or company names in a more condensed format.9. Move your education to the end of the resumeAs a recent college graduate, your degree is often one of your biggest selling points.A few years into your career, it may have been your relevant work experience. But now that youve worked your way up the ranks, its time to shift the focus of your resume. Move your education details to the end of the resume, with the exception of any advanced degrees (see tip 1).10. Remove dates outside of the 15-year timeframeFor degrees, certifications, or other prior (but relevant) experience that fall outside of the 15-year timeframe, go ahead and remove the dates associated with them. The reason for this? They simply dont matter. If you feel like including relevant early work, like if it showcases the way your career has progressed, thats great Flaunt that not your age.Ready to upgrade to that corner office? Ensure that your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile are polished and professional with our Executive Priority resume review package.Recommended Reading5 Signs You Need a Professional Resume CritiqueThe Fastest-Growing Industries for Executive JobsHow to Write a Standout Career Summary

5 ways you can prove youre not worth of trust in less than 10 seconds

5 ways you can prove youre not worth of trust in less than 10 seconds5 ways you can prove youre not worth of trust in less than 10 secondsKnowing whom to trust is an important social and business skill. But its not that simple although it is fast. It took me only seven seconds to assess your confidence, competence, status, likeability, warmth, and, yes, your trustworthiness.You cant stop me (or anyone, for that matter) from making these snap decisions. The menschenwrdig brain is wired that way.Whenever we meet new people, our brain automatically and immediately begins to categorize them in some way male or female, same or different, friend or foe in order to predict what is likely to happen next. Because few of us have the mental agility to consciously perceive and process all the factors needed to make these calculations, we rely on estimates, or guesses, based on our past experiences and preconceptions. While these mental shortcuts work reasonably well most of the time, they als o leave us vulnerable to a variety of judgment traps.When I decided not to trust you, my snap judgment was influenced by the category I put you in and the traits I assigned to that category. In your case, I labeled you as untrustworthy for five reasons - none of which had anything to do with your actual trustworthiness.1. You werent like meThere is a well-known principle in social psychology that people define themselves in terms of social groupings Any group that people feel part of is an in-group and any group that excludes them an out-group. (You know, its the us and them division.)Similarities make us feel comfortable. We assume we know what in-group people are like theyre good people, like we are. Differences, on the other hand, make us a little wary. When we see people as part of an out-group, we are more likely to judge them as untrustworthy.Because you didnt remind me of myself, I saw you as part of the less trustworthy out-group.2. You behaved suspiciouslyWe all have a te ndency to make judgments about another persons integrity based on our ideas of appropriate behavior. This shows up in lie detection when we believe that we know how wed act if we were telling the truth and that other truthful people would/should behave the same way.You didnt act the way I would when we met. When you said you were happy to meet me, you didnt smile or offer to shake my hand. Because of this off-putting behavior, I became suspicious of your motives.3. You had low eyebrowsBy studying peoples reactions to a range of artificially generated faces, researchers in Princetons psychology department found that faces with high inner eyebrows, pronounced cheekbones, and a wide chin struck people as trustworthy. Conversely, faces with low inner brows, shallow cheekbones and a thin chin were deemed untrustworthy.Of course, I realize that eyebrow shapes and cheekbone prominence have no relationship with trustworthiness. But the moment I saw you, I unconsciously overrode my rational mind to make this instinctive judgment.4. You didnt make eye contactThe biggest body language myth about deception is that liars avoid eye contact. While its true that some liars find it difficult to lie while looking you in the eyes, other liars, especially the most brazen, actually overcompensate to prove that they are being truthful by making strong, direct eye contact and holding it steadily.You may have been shy, or an introvert, or from a culture in which direct eye contact is considered intimidating or impolite. But all I noticed was that you didnt look at me when you spoke, and that made me think you were being deceptive or, at least, not authentically invested in what you were saying.5. You had your hands in your pocketsHand and arm gestures are not only an adjunct to speech gesturing may have been our oldest method of communication. Researchers now believe that early humans communicated using a form of mime. Somewhere in our evolutionary history speech took over from gest ure as the main form of communication, but gesture still retains its power as illustrators and trust indicators.While I would have evaluated your open palm gestures as a nonverbal signal that you had nothing to hide, your concealed hands made it difficult for me to trust you.But now that I know you, I see that you are candid, honest, and highly trustworthy. Ive learned that deciding whether or not to trust someone by the initial impression they make, is a process that can, and often should, be revised.Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an international keynote speaker and leadership presence coach. Shes the author of The Silent Language of Leaders How Body Language Can Help or Hurt How You Lead and creator of LinkedInLearnings video series Body Language for Leaders. For more information, visithttps//CarolKinseyGoman.com

4 books that will show you how to create the best morning ritual

4 books that will show you how to create the best morning ritus4 books that will show you how to create the best morning ritualEating the same oatmeal every morning that Bill Gates does is not going to make you a billionaire. And even if the Dalai Lama started every day with a double bourbon and unfiltered Marlboros, that doesnt mean its going to be your personal path to eternal wisdom.We do know morning is a special time. Research shows your mood when you wake up affects how you feel the entire day - and how productive you are. And we know rituals are powerful. Used properly, they have been shown to increase happiness, reduce procrastination, and boost confidence as well as performance.So whats the best morning ritual for you? Ill be honest I have no idea.I mean, really, how the heck would I? (We dont hang out much. You havent invited me over in weeks.) There are some things that work well for fruchtwein people. Ive written about general morning routines for happiness, productivity , and wisdom.But the problem here is that we all have different goals, different moods, and different idiosyncrasies that can drastically affect how impactful any system will be. So this here suit needs to be tailored. Rather than just giving you off-the-rack answers, what follows is going to be more like a DIY kit.So where do we start? Big picture. What is the point of a morning ritual?1, What the Most Successful People Do Before BreakfastLaura Vanderkam interviewed a lot of successful people asking the question what should you really be doing during your morning ritual? The answer is going to sound a little crazy at first You should be doing stuff that does not need to happen today. Or any particular day.Can you put off todays workout and still be in shape? Sure. If you dont see your family today will your relationships suddenly burn to the ground? Nope. Do your big plans for the future have to made by 5 PM? Of course not.None of these things are time-sensitive but theyre all vita l to living the best life you can. But because they dont have to be done now, often they get done never.Laura says the best morning rituals are about nurturing nurturing one of three fundamental areas of lifeNurturing your career Making long-term plans. Building skills. Looking beyond todays chores.Nurturing your relationships Making plans for your family. Hugging your family.Nurturing your self Exercise. Meditation. Improving yourself by reading amazing posts on that blog with the unpronounceable URL.What do I like about this book? (So kind of you to ask.) Not only does Laura give clear focus to what a morning ritual should do, she also provides 5 steps for implementation. She explains how to get it up and running, and how to make aya it evolves as you do.Check it out here.Alright, we have the 10,000-foot view. But we need somewhere to start. What is this beast really going to look like and what will it entail? To meet this challenge were going to use the same time-tested technique that got me admitted to an Ivy League university Copying answers off the smartest kid in class.Seriously, were going to look at the specific routines of some very successful people 2. My Morning RoutineSpall and Xander talked to everyone from military generals to Olympic athletes to the head of Pixar. They provide not only the routines of each but also a clear breakdown of the consistent trends they found in their 64 interviews.As the authors say What we discovered as we got deeper into the process of interviewing people about their morning routines is that almost none of the worlds best and brightest leave their mornings to chance.What do I really like about this book? Reading the perfect platonic form versions of a morning ritual is nice but life is rarely that simple. Things get complicated. Plans go wrong. What do you do then?So the authors made sure to ask their subjects some very realistic questions like, How does your routine vary when you travel? How does your partner help, hinder or affect it? And if you dont ask yourself some of the same hard, near-cynical questions about the realities of your morning routine then I hope you like Disney vacations - because youre living in Fantasyland.Check it out here.Okay, we have a big picture view and solid examples to work from. But maybe youre a go big or go home kinda person. Thats my style too. Looking at the successful people of today is fine and dandy but lets also take a gander at what the greatest of all time did in the morning3. Daily RitualsMozart. Freud. Picasso. Tesla. And a lot of other people so famous that I only have to mention their last name for you to know who I mean. How did they start the day?This book is a nice complement to My Morning Routine. Its less rigid and specific, doesnt get mired in modern problems like schmelzglas overload and spends more time discussing those idiosyncratic factors that helped the greats be at their best - even if those things made no sense to anyone else.Ben Fr anklins morning ritual involved taking what he called an air bath. Thats what you and I call sitting around naked. Not for everybody, granted, but we all do silly things that inexplicably just work for us. And this book tells you thats not only okay, but it might even lead to greatness.What do I like about this book? Actually, I dont like this book - I love it. Its inspiring. I may not opt to smoke 20 cigars a day like Freud, but its good to know the titans werent all perfect, smoothly functioning machines. Historys geniuses were weird. And, frankly, I find that soothing.Check it out here.Alright, we know what a morning ritual is and have examples from modern successes and historys geniuses. Thats enough to fashion a great, tailored method for starting the day, right?But then you get to work and everything goes to hell. That morning routine wasnt the beginning of a master plan, it was a transient exception to the chaos that is your day.So how do we transition from a morning ritual into a meaningful, productive workday?4. Deep WorkRituals shouldnt stop once the morning is over. Georgetown professor Cal Newport spells out six that will help you get focused on doing the things that really move the needle.What do I like about this book? It brings us full circle. Cal not only covers what it takes to maximize focus during the day, but he also includes one more vital routine the shutdown ritual. Its the flip side of the morning ritual, making sure youre able to power down and relax at night.Check it out here.Okay, you have your DIY morning ritual kit. Lets round it all up and learn about one more book that you might consider the prequel to everything weve discussed so far Sum upHere are 4 books that will show you how to create the best morning ritualWhat The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast Covers what a morning routine is, what its focus should be and how to design the fundamentals.My Morning Routine Lotsa lotsa smart rituals from super successful people. Tweak as necessary, add salt to taste.Daily Rituals The routines from the creative titans of history. Read it and be inspired just dont be inspired to smoke 20 cigars a day.Deep Work How to not totally blow it when you make the transition from morning ritual to the maelstrom that is daily life.A morning ritual is a powerful tool. But its just that - a tool. If you dont know what youre building, what youre nurturing, where youre headed um, whats the point?What is your definition of a successful life? And what does it really take to achieve it out there in the big schwimmbad world? Which leads us to our bonus bookHey, whaddya know, the guy who wrote it - thats me. I looked at the research to dispel a lot of the myths weve been told about a successful life. And weve been told a lot of myths.To be happy, to get where we wanna go, we need to know what really produces success - in our work and our personal lives. Without those answers, a morning ritual is an empty ritual. It needs to be in service of something to be useful. And we need to know whats truly effective.Check it out here.When you know what you want and what will actually get you there, you can start the day with a routine that clears your mind and nurtures your goals. And then the path ahead comes into focus.The volume gets turned down on the distractions life throws at you. You stop reacting and start determining. You go from defense to offense.You seize the day. You dont let the day seize you.Join over 320,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email here.This column first appeared on Barking Up The Wrong Tree.