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| What's in Your Career Portfolio - Executive Career Marketing |
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While your resume is the foundation of your career marketing portfolio, most accomplished executives are unable to fit their 15+-year career on two pages. To compound the issue, first interviews are typically limited to one hour. So how do you present yourself as a viable candidate with this limited landscape of exposure?
Shorter resumes? Why?
Here are a few ways you can further support your candidacy:
- Career Biography:
Also known as an executive profile, career profile, professional profile, or simply a “bio,” these documents ranging from a few paragraphs to two pages have been used for years to profile board members, C-level executives, renowned professionals, speakers and authors.
As executives have had to take charge of managing their own career, the bio has become an essential piece of the career marketing portfolio.
Additionally, with the proliferation of online networking opportunities, the condensed bio has become a critical piece of your online presence.
- Leadership Profile:
While you may have included a sentence or two in your resume about initiatives that you led, you can expand on them by creating an addendum. An addendum is a separate page that has a format similar to your resume and is titled “Leadership Initiatives” or “Leadership Addendum.”
You can use this document to provide more detail regarding the challenges, opportunities, actions and results of your leadership initiatives.
- Value Proposition:
To further support your overarching value proposition in your resume profile, you can create an addendum that explains the incremental steps and rippling effects of the value you consistently delivered to every company throughout the last 15 years of your career.
- Performance Highlights / Performance Milestones / Major Contributions:
If you have condensed a significant achievement to one or two lines or a single bullet point on your resume, create an addendum that breaks out the situation or challenge, the actions you took, and the details regarding the resulting value for the company.
- Career Milestones:
If you want to showcase your career path to demonstrate your candidacy, create an addendum focused on your career progression, increased roles of responsibility, expanded knowledge base, lessons learned, and how this path has benefited you AND the company.
- Competency Highlights:
If you have a diverse range of experience, create an addendum for each core competency. For example, create an addendum titled “Logistics Highlights,” “Branding Highlights,” “New Business Development Highlights,” etc. and highlight your competencies in those areas.
- Global / International Leadership:
If you are a global/international leader, consider creating a portfolio showcasing your global/international expertise. Provide case studies demonstrating your experience in foreign culture, economy, markets, politics, and languages, and the value this has delivered to the company.
- M&A Chronology:
If you are a senior-level executive and your resume only touched on a few of your most high-profile deals, create a chronology focused purely on your M&A activities and the outcomes of each.
- Pioneering Initiatives:
If you are a leader in your field and are continually pioneering new initiatives and blazing new trails, consider creating an addendum focused on how your initiatives have revolutionized the industry, transformed the market place, and delivered industry leadership to companies where you have worked.
- Other addendum titles include:
Product Launch Chronology, Representative Project Highlights, Speaking Presentations, Publications, Patents, Training & Certifications, or Technology Skills. We could go on and on, but this should give you some ideas of how to further showcase your accomplishments and position you as the perfect candidate.
When to Use an Addendum (in addition to your resume)
- When applying for a position advertised by an executive search firm:
Send an addendum when you have made contact with a recruiter who is “requesting” your resume.
- When sending your resume to a corporate hiring decision maker (not human resources):
Send an addendum when you have made contact with the corporate hiring decision maker and s/he is “requesting” your resume.
- When interviewing:
Take your entire portfolio with you to the interview. You may not need all of the documents you have created however, the decision maker may have a different position description in mind versus what was advertised. Having an addendum focused on an area the interviewer may unexpectedly bring up may help you overcome the interviewer’s perception of your lack of deep experience in a particular area.
- As a leave-behind marketing piece:
Plan to leave an addendum with each person that interviews you. This will help the interviewer remember who you are and enable him/her to reflect on your qualifications after you’re gone.
- At networking opportunities:
Be prepared to hand out your addendum to an important contact that has a specific opportunity in mind.
Bottom Line
These wonderful marketing documents provide more detailed and specific information that will help support your candidacy while allowing your resume to remain within the customary boundaries for content, format and length.
Providing a resume, cover letter, and an addendum can seal the deal.
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© Copyright, 2009, Beverly Harvey. Beverly Harvey has been coaching senior-level and C-level executives in job search, career transition and career management for over 17 years. She has helped thousands of executives land their next position quickly. Beverly is the founder of HarveyCareers.com and holds eight certifications in resume writing, branding, job search, career transition and career management. She is a resume expert for six executive job boards; contributor to more than 20 career books; Director of the Job Search Academy; and is the author of Career News & Trends. She can be reached at 386-749-3111 or 888-775-0916.
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