Writing a Chief Executive Officer CV

Your professional profile

You can insert a headline ‘chief executive officer’ at the top of your CV and should also position yourself as such in the first line of your profile. This acts as a good way of engaging the reader early on. In writing a Chief Executive Officer CV profile include the qualities that make you a great CEO. Your personal qualities and modus operandi are vitally important as you will lead by example in representing the company ethos and values internally and externally.

Keep your CEO CV short

Recruiters tend to scan read CVs when they first view them. These first few seconds are vital in providing enough incentive to give the CV a more thorough read. Whilst it is not strictly necessary to keep your CEO CV to two pages, you are going to create more impact and punch by keeping it brief. Focus on the most recent years of your career as these are likely to be the most aligned to your target roles.

Focus on achievements

‘It’s not what we do, it’s how well we do it’, as the saying goes. This is also very true for a CEO CV. Yes, give a brief summary of the role and your leadership responsibilities but major on your achievements. Show how the different change strategies and initiatives that you had led have impacted the organisation. Focus on the outcomes. Give specific examples and support these with facts and figures. This lends the CV concrete credibility in the eyes of the reader.

Tailor your Chief Executive Officer CV

Some job seekers use the same version of their CV for every job applied for. Successful job seekers will look carefully at the job description and person specification and align the CV to these requirements. The criteria and experiences for chief executive roles can be very different. By showing how you match the criteria of the role you are giving yourself a real head start against other candidates. Writing a CV from the point of view of the reader is one of the greatest secrets in how to write a successful CV.

Getting your CV through ATS systems

Many large firms and recruiters use applicant tracking systems to filter CVs before being forwarded to the recruiter. It is estimated 70% of CVs are filtered out during this process. They work rather like SEO and how search engines like Google look for concentrations of key words to find appropriate pages for your web search. The best way to ensure your CEO CV does not get filtered out is to include the key terms and phrases contained within the job description and person specification. It all comes back to tailoring your CV to maximise success.

This article is written by Neville Rose, Director of CV Writers. Please do connect with me via LinkedIn.

Check out our executive CV writing service with details of our packages that include LinkedIn profiles, cover letters and more. You can get things started with a Free CV review. I am also a qualified career counsellor and provide Career Counselling services for people looking to change career paths.