Full Strategy: How to Write Your Executive Resume

Gone are the days where a freshly printed resume and a firm handshake was enough to get you in the door. Today, the world is flooded with resumes. Hiring leaders receive them by the bucketload, and they don’t have the time or inclination to sift through the garbage and figure out what to do with everyone.

That said, the resume is one of the most overthought and overcomplicated pieces of the job search process. Executives agonize over it, and in many cases pay inordinate amounts of money to have a 'professional' write it for them in the hope of gaining an edge in beating the ATS or getting them in the door.

But this approach misses the point entirely. Using your resume as a starting point for your job search is a weak play.

Your resume should be written only after you understand the hiring manager’s priorities, their organization’s goals, and the obstacles they face in achieving them. It then has one simple objective: show the hiring leader why you are the solution to their problems. Every section, every metric and every detail must work towards that.

The way to get results is to:

1. Make contact first: Do the work required to become known to the hiring leader (the the decision maker, not HR or an internal recruiter — they are gatekeepers). Understand their challenges and pitch your value as the solution while speaking to them, and while you can control your narrative.
2. Use your resume as a follow up: It fills in blanks and reinforces you as the solution, tailored to their exact situation, challenges and objectives.

The goal is not to overcomplicate. The goal is to make you the inevitable choice.

Creating Your Resume

Before you start creating tailored resumes, it makes sense to to create a master version - a working document that includes everything, that you can then cherry-pick relevant content from. It doesn't need to be pretty.

Jot down your career history, and make a list of all of the things you’ve accomplished that are relevant to your long-term objectives. This also includes challenges that you overcame. If your prospective hiring leader is in a similar bind or is likely to encounter similar problems based on where their business is at, these can add a lot of weight. 

Step 1: Identify the Employer’s Core Challenges

The first step is to define the specific challenges the organization is facing. These come from conversations with the hiring leader, research into the company and insights into the industry landscape.

Write them down. Avoid vague generalities. The more precise the challenges, the stronger your alignment will be.

For example:

• Sales growth has stalled due to ineffective account penetration and a lack of alignment between marketing and sales.
• The company is losing market share in its core verticals as competitors introduce innovative products.
• Customer engagement is low, with declining repeat purchases and a weak loyalty program.
• Operational inefficiencies are delaying time-to-market for new product launches.

You can then use these to guide how you present your achievements. The goal is to demonstrate that you’ve solved similar problems before and can do so again.

Step 2: Professional Summary—Your Value Proposition

The professional summary is your value proposition, framed to show how your expertise directly addresses the employer’s challenges. It should be succinct, outcome-driven and include key metrics that highlight your track record.

Key Guidelines:

• Focus on outcomes that align with the employer’s challenges.
• Keep it brief, no more than four lines.
• Use numbers to demonstrate the scale of your impact.
• Focus on track record, rather than individual accomplishments that you'll repeat further down the page.
  

Example for a VP of Sales:

Early-stage SaaS sales leader with 15+ years of experience driving double-digit revenue growth. Successfully scaled two SaaS platforms from $1M to $20M+ ARR. Expertise in improving account penetration, reducing churn by double-digits and aligning sales and marketing for predictable growth.

Step 3: Professional Experience: Metrics with Context

Your professional experience is where you prove your ability to solve the hiring leader's problems. Metrics are crucial, but they must be contextualized. You don't need to include a laundry list of your responsibilities, they already know what your role entails. This is about showing a track record of impact.

Structure:

1. Context: Briefly describe the company and your mandate.
2. Actions and Results: Focus on what you did, how you did it and the measurable outcomes.

To see how that works in practice, let’s assume the hiring leader at an early-stage fintech company has the following challenges:

The Hiring Leader’s Challenges

1. Revenue growth has stalled at $10 million ARR, with difficulty penetrating mid-market financial institutions.
2. Customer acquisition costs are rising, and marketing efforts lack focus and efficiency.
3. Operational inefficiencies in the go-to-market strategy are slowing deal cycles and causing missed opportunities in competitive markets.

Key Takeaway: The hiring leader needs someone who can scale revenue, optimize customer acquisition and create efficient processes for rapid growth.

Resume Example: VP of Revenue

VP of Revenue
GrowthStream, New York, NY | 2020–Present
Hired to scale revenue growth, refine go-to-market strategy and improve customer acquisition efficiency for an early-stage fintech platform.

• Scaled ARR Growth: Grew ARR from $10 million to $40 million in three years by introducing an account-based sales strategy targeting mid-market financial institutions, capturing 20% of the regional market.
  (Tied to Challenge 1: The hiring leader needs to scale revenue and penetrate mid-market institutions. This demonstrates the ability to grow revenue in the same market segment.)
• Improved Customer Acquisition Efficiency: Reduced customer acquisition costs by 30% through the creation of a targeted marketing program and sales enablement tools, leading to a 25% increase in qualified leads.
  (Tied to Challenge 2: Rising acquisition costs and unfocused marketing. This hows they can address inefficiencies while driving qualified lead generation.)
• Optimized Go-to-Market Strategy: Shortened the sales cycle by 20% by implementing a streamlined CRM system and launching a cross-functional alignment process between sales and product teams.
  (Tied to Challenge 3: Operational inefficiencies slowing deal cycles. This highlights the ability to improve processes and speed up revenue generation.)
• Expanded Market Presence: Launched operations in three new geographic regions, driving $12 million in incremental revenue by establishing local partnerships and adapting the sales playbook for regional compliance.
  (Addresses the broader need for growth in competitive markets, showcasing adaptability and strategic execution.)

Why This Example Works

Each metric and achievement in the resume example directly ties back to one of the hiring leader’s challenges.

It shows:

• How the candidate scaled revenue and targeted mid-market institutions (Challenge 1).
• How they improved customer acquisition efficiency and reduced costs (Challenge 2).
• How they optimized processes to shorten the sales cycle and accelerate growth (Challenge 3).

Repeat this formula for earlier roles. Early-career roles that aren't relevant can still be listed, but avoid unnecessary detail.

Example:

• Senior Sales Manager – CloudTech, Chicago, IL (2010–2014)
• Sales Associate – DataFlow, Austin, TX (2008–2010)

This ensures a complete career narrative without detracting from the most relevant experience.

Step 4: Education: Relevant and Concise

Your education section should support your narrative without distracting from your core achievements. Be brief. Additional detail isn't needed unless it specifically matters to your profession.

Example:
MBA, Strategic Management
Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

B.A., Economics
University of Michigan

Key Principles to Follow

1. Align with the employer’s needs: Every section of your resume should focus on addressing the employer’s specific challenges. Cut out all the rest. Be brutal.
2. Use metrics strategically: Quantify your results but always provide the context behind the numbers.
3. Be strategically broad. Avoid any metric that may box you out of the target role (e.g. team size could be off-putting if it’s too small/large). The key is to include enough that it will pique further conversation at subsequent interviews, without giving everything away. This leaves you with control over your narrative.
4. Focus on impact, not volume: Include only the achievements that are most relevant to the role. Past glories are meaningless if they aren't related.
5. Be concise: Attention spans are short. Sentences should be succinct.
6. Demonstrate how, not just what: Explain how you delivered results to show your strategic thinking and leadership skills.

The Bottom Line

Before finalizing your resume, step back and ask yourself:

• Does this clearly address the hiring leader’s needs?
• Does each achievement directly connect to solving their problems?
• Is there anything that adds zero value and should be cut?

The hiring manager is scanning your resume with one question in mind: Can this person solve my problems?

Your job is to ensure the answer is unmistakably yes.

Every word, metric and detail should reinforce that you have the expertise, track record and strategic insight to deliver results.

Need inspiration? Here's what a great resume looks like.