Career Warrior Podcast #323) Leveling Up Your Resume for a Promotion

Episode Transcript

Chris Villanueva 0:00
But these are the types of things that we’ve seen work really well in resumes that are leveling up and looking to effect even greater results here.

And welcome to the Let’s Eat, Grandma Career Warrior Podcast, where our goal is not only to help you land your dream job, but to help you live your best life. Today, we’re talking about how to level up your resume for something greater examples of this would include, say you were looking to get promoted from manager level to director level, or perhaps you’ve been a VP at your company for a long time. And with no upward mobility, you’re looking to apply for executive positions, maybe you’re already doing VP level tasks, but your company is so dang big that it’s branded you as a senior manager, but you know, you deserve that VP title. Well, this episode is for you.

We’re going to discuss how to level up your resume so accurately reflects your qualifications. So you can stand out for a specific position. Alright, so this is one of the most commonly asked questions. This has been a big theme we’ve gotten so far from job seekers in 2024. So we are offering a free resume review and in the review, we say, “Okay, what questions do you have for us as we look over your resume? And this was the big thing, that guy or gal who was applying for VP level positions, but they haven’t had that specific title?” Or the question like, “Does this look like an executive resume? I am applying for CFO positions or CEO positions, and it doesn’t look like it reflects those ‘executive level’ qualifications that I have.” So if you are mid or senior level, head on over to letseatgrandma.com and submit your resume for a free review, we’ll be more than happy to look over your specific situation. But in this episode, we’ll give you the actionable steps you can take to elevate your resume to something more like “Director or VP or Executive-level” whatever that means for you, you have to start looking at your resume a different resume than what it was before. So with this episode, I’ll try to give you some tools, as well as my high level advice.

Chris Villanueva 2:19

But let’s start with a hypothetical story of a guy named Chris. Chris has been a supply chain VP for a company based out of Houston, and he wants to apply for C suite positions. He’s like, “I have this great gift of leadership that I want to offer the world. And I’ve been stuck kind of doing the same thing for the last 10 years. And I just feel like I’m called this something greater. I want to apply for executive level positions, and I’m ready to go.” So what I would tell Chris, in this example for his resume is it’s really important to focus on those results rather than skills and abilities. I’m not saying not to include skills and abilities, but just your resume is looked at through a different lens. And oftentimes, they tend to be more focused on those tangibles and the specifics so the resume tends to be more leadership focused as you progress.

We know this, obviously, but examples might include strategic thinking, ethical decision making, financial risk management, cost savings, these are the things that need to be backed up with results and not simply dumped into a core competencies section. That’s really important to note. So we’re including, of course, these key words in our documents, but we’re not, again, just telling recruiters and hiring managers about the skills we’re showing them through the results we’ve been able to affect. So bullet point crafted for Chris here, again, in this hypothetical is, quote, transformed a struggling supply chain department into a profitable revenue center through process improvements that drove a 20% increase in the company’s bottom line. So this bullet point, of course, includes the number we talked about in our last podcast episode how to include numbers even when we think that that’s impossible, but it focused on that result rather than just including cost savings or process improvements there. So it’s important to zoom out and show how you are being strategic as you move up in your career.

When one thing that I’d recommend, of course, look at your job postings I say this every episode but the job postings can give you all those clues and hints to what types of what type of language to include in your resume what types of keywords are important to include in your resume, but one often forgotten thing is the ratios look at your ratios of how much leadership oriented language or in Chris’s example executive language is on the resume versus the things that are not oriented. And towards executive speak. So 80% of your resume, I’ll just kind of throw this number out there. But I think it’s a really good rule of thumb but 80% of your resume should now reflect that upper level that you’re applying for, regardless of if you’ve held the position or not. So if you are speaking about all of your manager level experience, but you’re applying for VP level roles, we’ll make sure all of those bullet points are oriented towards VP level language and types of results that you would affect 80% of your resume. It should speak to the higher level, don’t just slap a few sentences on the top of your resume or within just like one professional experience and say, like, “Okay, it looks VP level or director level,” no, you really need to make sure you comb through the entire resume and go to work to really make sure that you’re branding yourself as VP level. So you really care about the position, you really want to get promoted, make sure that that is accurately reflected.

So let’s talk about some specific things that you can do to your resume that can level it up and to get you the confidence and results that you deserve here. So the first thing I will ask you to look at is your summary is your summary accurately reflecting your brand. And when I say your brand, I mean, what you were looking to get in the future here as it pertains to who you are as a professional. So what is your brand? And how does that connect to that VP, executive level position. So some things you can do with your summary to really make sure that it starts speaking to the role you want to get? Well, one obvious way that you can do that is by including the actual position title that you’re applying for. So let’s say you were applying for a director of finance position. And this still again, applies if you haven’t held that title before, you can actually include Director of Finance at the top of your resume.

Ethically, yes, even if you haven’t held that position before, this not only captures the keyword that is going to be used in in an ATS search. But again, you’re aligning yourself with the job posting properly, folks are going to see that the last position you’ve held Yes, it’s not director of finance. But the thing that you’re trying to convey here is okay, I am here showing why I’m qualified for this director of finance role. These are the reasons here in the summary, why I am a really good fit for this role. A really good tip from one of our resume writers was to include in parentheses profile, if you don’t feel comfortable just throwing that position title on the top of your resume, you feel like it might not come across as accurate, you’re more than welcome to put a profile on there as well. Another example of a thing you can do within the summary again, to showcase more of your leadership traits is to include a tagline in our managing director here, even we were speaking earlier about ways to level up your resume. And they mentioned perhaps even including a vision of your leadership, so including like a tagline or a statement that speaks to your leadership. So an example that I kind of just made up here before this podcast was quote, driving exponential growth through the power of Kaizen, orchestrating gradual and methodical improvements that doubled company results within a year.

So again, we’re getting results oriented, but it also speaks to my leadership philosophy that, again, aligns me with these higher level postings, I have also seen testimonials and quotes used effectively within executive level positions. So if you have a mentor or a past supervisor who can speak to your leadership ability, then an example of that would be if you have this person give you a testimonial about your Kaizen approach. So quote, with a patient and strategic approach, Chris transforms departments with a commitment to gradual improvement, achieving sustainable success. So again, I don’t really see these things in entry level or mid level resumes, but I’ve seen them effectively used for those higher level resumes. So that’s another tool you can use here.

Finally, as I’ve seen, resumes progressed more and more. So from manager all the way up to executive, I tend to see career highlights getting used more and more. And I think this is a good thing. So career highlights can bring those results that you’ve been able to affect over the last 15 to 20 years to the forefront of your resume. And this is I think one of the best things you can do, especially if you’ve been in multiple positions that are really kind of like leading up to this culmination this crescendo of the position you’re about to apply for. So include the top three career highlights at the top of your resume, perhaps you can sit this in your summary or put this just below your summary but these are the types of things that we’ve seen work really well in resumes that are leveling up and looking to effect even greater results here. So executives especially should have some sort of career highlights, but make sure to include this, especially as you progress through your career and look to make those advancements. So these are some tools you have at your disposal to level up your resume, of course, remembering that it’s not all about the darn resume, you have your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile, and it’s especially important to speak to other professionals, perhaps a mentor of yours who has already made this leap and asking, Okay, what were the things that helped them get through their transition period here, so don’t forget to look at your job search, of course, holistically, your resume is pretty dang important.

This is coming from someone who has a resume writing service, but it’s not everything. Statistically speaking, we know that as you apply. For higher level positions, the competition becomes fiercer, because there are less of these positions available, your job search may be longer than it what it was, Do not be discouraged. Keep moving forward, keep fine tuning your resume, if one thing doesn’t work, keep tweaking it until you finally get the result. That’s the thing that matters the most. And of course, remember that there are people out there who are here to help. So whether it’s a career coach who can help you to get clear on what types of positions you want apply for, or a resume writing service like ours who genuinely wants to help you to write a better document, but to also get those results, we’re here to help you as well. So again, if you are looking to level up in your career, you are more than welcome to go to our website. Let’s eat grandma.com and submit your resume for a free review. And I hope that this episode was useful here.

One final thing that I want to offer up and especially now if you’re like listening to this episode now, and you’ve made it to the end of the episode, you must really care about your job search here, which is awesome. But I’ve never acknowledged in over 323 episodes that sometimes our success and not just sometimes back to like all the time or success, it goes so much beyond just resume advice, or even advice on how to be like an awesome networker, or a better person or things like that. But if I’m honest with myself, that these things are affected through something greater. And I don’t know exactly what that is, I don’t know if anyone can tell you how the universe works or how God works. But as I was reflecting upon my work here, let’s see grandma during Lent, us Christians here we have lent that just happened after Fat Tuesday by No, no, if anyone here got that on Tuesday, I didn’t really read much. But I think it’s just a funny thing. But it was just reflecting upon the help that I can do as a resume service. And so much of that is limited, right? Our resumes are just one element, again, as I said in the job search, but some of that goes beyond just the things that are happening physically on this earth here.

So I would just like to offer up a quick prayer for those job seekers who are going through a tough time, or folks who just have like a lot of anxiety right now in regards to their careers here. So I don’t know if I’ve ever done this. I’m not trying to push any particular agenda or anything like that. But I just know that so much of this goes beyond just career advice here. So, dear Lord, just want to say thank you so much for bringing this podcast to the ears of the folks who are listening to this episode right now. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve the job seekers who listen to this episode, I would like to offer a special prayer for every single job seeker right now who wants to transform their career and wants to level up their career, God, I want you to be with them as they are struggling or striving to make progress in their career. And we know that it is not an easy thing. It can be extremely stressful. And we know at the end of the day that you are the one who’s in control. And you are the one who takes takes care of all of us no matter what. So be with these job seekers here. And now as they look to work on the resumes to apply for these positions. And get them exactly to where they need to be help them to use their gifts. In Jesus name. Amen.

All right. So never done that on a podcast episode. But I felt really convicted to do so. So please reach out to us if you need anything. And again, we release these episodes every two weeks. And we really want to be there to help you out here. So if you have any suggestions for future episodes, you can always connect with me on LinkedIn and say, Hey Chris, how about an episode about XYZ? Again, I review the data and I review what our jobseekers are saying so I will most certainly listen to what you are asking for here. Again, thank you so much for tuning into this podcast episode and I will see you next time to live career warrior podcast.

And before you go remember if you’re not seeing the results you want and your job search our highly trained team of professional resume writers here at Let’s Eat, Grandma can help head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast to get a free resume critique and $70 off any one of our resume writing packages. We talk all the time on the show about the importance of being targeted in your job search and with our unique writing process and focus on individual attention. You’ll get a resume cover letter and LinkedIn profile that are highly customized and tailored to your goals to help you get hired faster. Again, head on over to letseatgrandma.com/podcast. Thanks and I’ll see you next time