If you’ve ever spent time in the executive job market, you’ve probably heard the common advice: “Always tailor your résumé to each job posting.”
For mid-level roles, sure. Keywords, applicant tracking systems, all that matters to get past the ATS.
At the executive level, a résumé isn’t just bullet points and job titles. It’s your story, the arc of your career, how you’ve led teams, scaled businesses, turned around divisions, or built cultures that last.
Your story doesn’t magically change because of buzzwords in a job posting.
Fitting a resume for a job posting is for the managerial-level employees doing transactional jobs. The executive-level resume is one way of relaying your story and that story doesn’t change based on the reader.
Build one résumé that nails your story like a “hero narrative” in a great novel. Highlight the themes and wins that define your career. Make sure it reflects the leader you are ‒ and would be for them.
Your story – your “hero narrative” – tells of your worth, value, reputation, and the natural gifts you bring with you. You’re the hero of the story looking for the role that aligns with your talents…you’re not a participant in some reader’s “Choose Your Own Adventure Story” where the hero blindly follows a path determined by the person holding the book!
You’re the protagonist of the story with skills, talents, and goals seeking a company plagued by the kind of dragon that you specialize in slaying.
That’s the problem you solve and the story you tell. Your resume must focus on only that problem.
The effective executive-level résumé tells one clear, consistent story of your leadership brand. Tweaking your story every time you apply somewhere leaves you at risk of having no message, the wrong message, or a confusing message ‒ that’s a problem when your entire search should be centered around your messaging.
Think about it from the perspective of a company with a product: Apple doesn’t rewrite its brand identity every time it launches in a new market. It leans into what it does best. Executives should do the same for themselves. If you are the person who gets XYZ done everywhere you go, your resume should focus on how “at each of these stops I got XYZ done.”
Keep your résumé focused on your story, updated with your biggest wins, and backed by the measurable results you achieved related to what you are telling people you get done. Do this while making it clear what kind of leader you are…and will be for someone lucky enough to land you. Understand, that it’s about owning your brand, not twisting yourself to fit someone else’s checklist.
To connect the dots to a specific opportunity you use your cover letter and the conversation with the recruiter or company decision maker. That’s where you can say, “Here’s how my story fits what your organization needs right now.”
At the end of the day, executives don’t land roles because they customized a résumé. They land roles because they show up as authentic, consistent leaders with a clear, powerful story that contains measurable results related to a problem the hiring company needs solved.
