As an Executive Resume Writer, I work with many executives who, after devoting the majority of their career to one industry, or in one job function, are ready to try something else as sort of a pre-retirement “last hurrah.”
Below is the writing strategy I used to support Carter, who recently made a successful leap, in large part thanks to career marketing collateral that reframed his past accomplishments as perfectly aligned with the new role he was targeting.
Carter approached me last year after having accepted an attractive severance package. He’d spent the past 24 years as a Marketing Executive at several top tier Advertising Agencies, where he’d led teams that created branding and campaigns for many beloved products.
His stint volunteering as the President of the Board of Directors of a nonprofit association peaked his desire to explore nonprofit Executive Director roles for his next move.
Examine Job Postings to See Where Standing Out is a Must
As a first step in recrafting his resume and LinkedIn profile, we examined several job postings for nonprofit Executive Directors. This research revealed 3 primary qualities that organizations were looking for in a candidate. We knew that to stand a chance of standing out, we had to highlight these 3 characteristics:
- Mission driven
- Team leader
- Strong professional network key to fundraising
In addition, there were 3 areas of experience we identified as readily transferrable between advertising and nonprofit industries:
- Finance leadership
- Operations leadership
- Ability to balance advocacy with diplomacy
Executive Resume Writers Lead with the Transferable
Armed with several qualities and areas of experience that absolutely had to be addressed – I worked to make sure they showed up “above the fold” in both his resume and LinkedIn.
This strategy ensured no reader would be left scratching their head or unable to understand how a Marketing Executive could readily fill the shoes of a nonprofit Executive Director.
Here’s what we did for the headline and summary section of his resume:
When determining which skills to include directly below his headline and summary section, I strategically chose to include only those competencies that related to his new job target, and omitted skills I might have included if he wanted to remain in marketing.
Highlight Strategic Accomplishments
When crafting his resume’s experience section, I made sure to lead with his nonprofit leadership experience (so it was the first thing the reader sees!) and include his agency experience directly below it.
I intentionally cherry-picked accomplishments from his marketing career that were readily transferable to the role and industry he was targeting.
To help the reader further connect the dots between industries, I included a “micro-headline” at the start of each and every bullet to highlight the transferable. Here are examples of two bullets I wrote that showcase this strategy:
Duplicate Themes Front and Center in LinkedIn
Moving onto his LinkedIn, like most Executive Resume Writers, I made sure to maintain the themes from his resume front and center in both the headline and About section.
Here’s the headline we went with:
When writing his About section, just like with the resume’s summary section – I focused on highlighting the qualities and experiences identified as critical to making him an appealing candidate.
Rather than a cut and paste of his experience directly from his resume to his LinkedIn, I chose to share his experience in a narrative format, explaining why he jumped into each role and what he was proudest of upon reflection. Much like the resume, however, I focused on highlighting only those accomplishments most relevant to his new job target.
Executive-Level Career Pivots Are Possible
Many worry that after spending so many years entrenched in one industry or in one type of role that career change simply isn’t possible. I’m here to disagree.
In my experience as an Executive Resume Writer, time and time again those that successfully pivot due so in large part by creating career marketing documents that focus on the must-haves and the transferable.
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