Executive or Director Level CVs
Discussion
I'm looking to move up the ranks with my next role and so have been busily applying to various IT Director / Head of IT level positions, most of which are less about physical IT skills and more about business acumen and the ability to perform as the link between the Board and the coal-face.
I've not been getting very far with these applications and a couple of specialist recruiters have intimated that the reason for this is likely that my CV is no longer appropriate for the seniority level of the roles I'm applying for. This may very well be the case as it's a CV that I've used for almost 15 years now through most of my career.
It strikes me that the best way of sorting this (short of paying for an expensive professional CV) is to emulate the CV of someone at that level already.
I know we have all levels of people on PH, is there anyone at Director or "A" grade exec level who would be willing to ping me over a copy of their CV (redacted where / if necessary) that I could emulate??
I'd be most grateful.
I've not been getting very far with these applications and a couple of specialist recruiters have intimated that the reason for this is likely that my CV is no longer appropriate for the seniority level of the roles I'm applying for. This may very well be the case as it's a CV that I've used for almost 15 years now through most of my career.
It strikes me that the best way of sorting this (short of paying for an expensive professional CV) is to emulate the CV of someone at that level already.
I know we have all levels of people on PH, is there anyone at Director or "A" grade exec level who would be willing to ping me over a copy of their CV (redacted where / if necessary) that I could emulate??
I'd be most grateful.
If it were that easy, the same CV would be being used by everyone and everyone would be securing Board and Director level roles!
It’s obviously more than that, so whilst you will certainly pick up some tips when reviewing others CVs, every candidate is different and every role in every industry is different too. Additionally, at that level, a CV is only part of the application process.
Happy to be that reassuringly expensive CV development guy!
Joking aside, I’m dirt cheap, but thoroughly enjoy supporting others, particularly those like you that recognise that something isn’t quite working.
Drop me a message if you’d like to chat.
Otherwise, good luck!
It’s obviously more than that, so whilst you will certainly pick up some tips when reviewing others CVs, every candidate is different and every role in every industry is different too. Additionally, at that level, a CV is only part of the application process.
Happy to be that reassuringly expensive CV development guy!
Joking aside, I’m dirt cheap, but thoroughly enjoy supporting others, particularly those like you that recognise that something isn’t quite working.
Drop me a message if you’d like to chat.
Otherwise, good luck!
Maybe a good starting point would be to achieve a Director position where you are currently? Someone looking at your CV may be thinking "Derek's current company doesn't think he's Director-level, I'm not sure I want to take a chance that he can step up"
Another possibility - I stepped up from Director by taking on a senior interim management role (approached on LinkedIn) for a year, which established a level of responsibility and compensation
Another possibility - I stepped up from Director by taking on a senior interim management role (approached on LinkedIn) for a year, which established a level of responsibility and compensation
mikef said:
Maybe a good starting point would be to achieve a Director position where you are currently? Someone looking at your CV may be thinking "Derek's current company doesn't think he's Director-level, I'm not sure I want to take a chance that he can step up"
Another possibility - I stepped up from Director by taking on a senior interim management role (approached on LinkedIn) for a year, which established a level of responsibility and compensation
Sadly not an option Mike, the company I work for is too small to have that level, I am already the most senior IT person here and report directly to the board, as I have done at my previous companies also.Another possibility - I stepped up from Director by taking on a senior interim management role (approached on LinkedIn) for a year, which established a level of responsibility and compensation
I had this a few years ago. I was interviewing for a chief product officer role and the spiky CEO in front of me tore my CV apart and told me that it was one of the worst he had ever seen (this despite it and its format having done pretty well for me in the past.) I think his interview style was to make you uncomfortable and see how you react.
His logic was that a long format cv with lots of detail going back multiple roles didn’t actually tell him anything about me and the way I work. He couldn’t care less about my products and projects of 10 years ago and wanted to know more about my ethos and approach and how it applies today.
It was a kick up the backside to realise that a good cv to get one type of role is not good for all roles.
He asked my to go away and rewrite it completely with his suggested approach of only describing your past as it relates to the position you are in now rather than a dull list of what you’ve done. Explain what you learnt in each of the past roles and tell the story of how it applies to you now.
And he was a stickler for the no more than two pages rule (which I don’t completely buy but stuck to all the same).
But I did go and do a ground up rewrite of my Cv and I think it’s much better because of it. It sounds likes you need to do the same. Happy if you want to PM me and I’ll review yours if you want (my field is hi tech / software Saas / product management so not IT as such but probably close enough)
His logic was that a long format cv with lots of detail going back multiple roles didn’t actually tell him anything about me and the way I work. He couldn’t care less about my products and projects of 10 years ago and wanted to know more about my ethos and approach and how it applies today.
It was a kick up the backside to realise that a good cv to get one type of role is not good for all roles.
He asked my to go away and rewrite it completely with his suggested approach of only describing your past as it relates to the position you are in now rather than a dull list of what you’ve done. Explain what you learnt in each of the past roles and tell the story of how it applies to you now.
And he was a stickler for the no more than two pages rule (which I don’t completely buy but stuck to all the same).
But I did go and do a ground up rewrite of my Cv and I think it’s much better because of it. It sounds likes you need to do the same. Happy if you want to PM me and I’ll review yours if you want (my field is hi tech / software Saas / product management so not IT as such but probably close enough)
K50 DEL said:
Sadly not an option Mike, the company I work for is too small to have that level, I am already the most senior IT person here and report directly to the board, as I have done at my previous companies also.
So it would be fair to describe yourself as the Head of IT in a CV?hajaba123 said:
OP- pay Rog for a career coaching session and CV review. It'll pay for itself in no time
Totally agree with this. Despite being experienced looking at CVs of all levels, I find it’s very hard to do my own. A good consultant can really sharpen what story you want to tell, challenge you on the relevance of some things you’re attached to, and spot things you didn’t feel were notable but help your case when highlighted.
Find the right person and however clear you think you are on what you want to do, you’ll get helpful insights. Takes a bit of humility to accept someone can help, but well worth it I think.
if you're clear on what the expectations are for the next level, then you already know the things that should be made clear in your CV. The question is can you link your job history and achievements to those things? The challenge is to be succinct but impactful. It's fairly hard to walk from a non-director job in one firm and into a director job in another firm - you tend to make the move internally. I could be wrong about your industry though. Consider a CV writing service or a freelancer that does this.
Just thought I would post to say that I recently had a session with PH'er rog007 and it was excellent.
Rog didn't just rewrite my CV for me, and talk through interview techniques/skills, he talked me through the reasons and purpose behind the various elements of my new CV, and taught me the skills to rewrite it myself for whatever job opportunity may appear.
Really opened my eyes to what professional and director/Exec's should look like, and how to approach interviews at that level. Probably more importantly, the discussion made me think about what I wanted to do with my career going forwards.
Rog is a really nice guy, endlessly helpful, and I highly recommended speaking to him if you want CV and interview help and advice
Rog didn't just rewrite my CV for me, and talk through interview techniques/skills, he talked me through the reasons and purpose behind the various elements of my new CV, and taught me the skills to rewrite it myself for whatever job opportunity may appear.
Really opened my eyes to what professional and director/Exec's should look like, and how to approach interviews at that level. Probably more importantly, the discussion made me think about what I wanted to do with my career going forwards.
Rog is a really nice guy, endlessly helpful, and I highly recommended speaking to him if you want CV and interview help and advice
911sse said:
Congrats, only out of interest, did you take up any of these stands of advice? Or, how did you manage to make the 'jump' in the end?
A little bit of Fat80b's advice above (reduced the CV to 2 pages) but it was a head-hunt situation in the end so I didn't actually have time to do much more. I guess the interviews did the trick but either way 2022 sees my career move on another level which is great.K50 DEL said:
911sse said:
Congrats, only out of interest, did you take up any of these stands of advice? Or, how did you manage to make the 'jump' in the end?
A little bit of Fat80b's advice above (reduced the CV to 2 pages) but it was a head-hunt situation in the end so I didn't actually have time to do much more. I guess the interviews did the trick but either way 2022 sees my career move on another level which is great.Only seeing this now.
A while back I was in a position at head of department level. Had what I thought was a well built CV that was fine tuned over the years. I wasn't getting interviews.
An agent whom I hadn't chatted to for years came back on the scene, had a chat and he simply said my CV wasn't good enough. He gave me a friends number who was a professional CV writer. We had a chat and he simply took two bullet points from my CV and wrote them his way. We had another chat.
He had my payment within 5 minutes.
The next three job applications resulted in three interviews and two job offers.
Congrats on the role OP
A while back I was in a position at head of department level. Had what I thought was a well built CV that was fine tuned over the years. I wasn't getting interviews.
An agent whom I hadn't chatted to for years came back on the scene, had a chat and he simply said my CV wasn't good enough. He gave me a friends number who was a professional CV writer. We had a chat and he simply took two bullet points from my CV and wrote them his way. We had another chat.
He had my payment within 5 minutes.
The next three job applications resulted in three interviews and two job offers.
Congrats on the role OP
Interestingly, a CEO of a publicly listed SME who needs to make a move made contact only this week as they weren’t getting much traction.
They had been using an agency who had fed back on their CV and had given them an example and their top ten tips.
It became really clear why they may not have been getting that traction they were after.
This just confirms the challenge we all face when trying to get across our competencies and impact in the most effective way possible via a very short written document; as there’s no internationally accepted and regulated CV format or style, you have to rely on proven best practice, some great wordsmithing and a small dose of simple common sense.
They had been using an agency who had fed back on their CV and had given them an example and their top ten tips.
It became really clear why they may not have been getting that traction they were after.
This just confirms the challenge we all face when trying to get across our competencies and impact in the most effective way possible via a very short written document; as there’s no internationally accepted and regulated CV format or style, you have to rely on proven best practice, some great wordsmithing and a small dose of simple common sense.
I've been a contractor for many years but took a permanent CIO / Head of IT role a short while after lockdown started. Having been a contractor for so long and knowing loads of recruiters, I did get some help from those guys as my CV was very much 'Look at what i've done / been involved with' as that works ok in the contracting world, but needed a different style CV as this was permanent and needed to show I could do THAT job and not just have been successful in the roles I'd previously had.
The biggest change for my CV was mainly the language as this role is more about leading than doing so had to show I'd led on loads of stuff rather than delivered. It also moved away from the things I did to the outcomes that were achieved - reduced costs, raised productivity by 40%. It was all about what the outcomes were for me!
I also used Rog007 many years ago and will say to anybody it's worth it
The biggest change for my CV was mainly the language as this role is more about leading than doing so had to show I'd led on loads of stuff rather than delivered. It also moved away from the things I did to the outcomes that were achieved - reduced costs, raised productivity by 40%. It was all about what the outcomes were for me!
I also used Rog007 many years ago and will say to anybody it's worth it
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