CAREERS AND EDUCATION

The executive resumé makeover 3 Ways to highlight your leadership story

It’s the age of LinkedIn and AI. You might ask: do we still need a resumé? The surprising answer is “Yes”. While your LinkedIn profile is great, it cannot take the place of a document that clearly highlights your career accomplishments and potential. At the same time, the best resumés should not be laundry lists of accomplished tasks, but ones that tell the story about who you are as a strong leader.

Here are three tips to help ensure your executive resumé fully reflects your leadership profile.

1It’s not just a resumé: It’s your leadership story Don’t just refresh. When updating their resumés, most people just update and add whatever they have done since the document was last saved. Instead, start at the beginning and write down every leadership activity you can think of. The resumé should definitely include anything that left an impact or defined you as a leader.

If you are using a cover letter, add value to it. Instead of a long-drawn narrative, make it short, punchy and data-oriented. The first section that meets the eye is the top one-third of your resumé or cover letter. Start with a compelling introductory statement. Follow it up with a bullet-point summary that is clearly laid out and makes the hiring manager want to know more.

Research keywords common in your industry and the position you are applying for. And add them to your resumé. In today’s digital age, keywords are screened and captured by the ATS, i.e an automated Applicant Tracking System, used by employers to scan and rank job applications they receive for open positions. Using the right keywords in your resumé can enhance your search rankings and place you in front of anyone searching for your specific experience.

2Showcase your preparedness The leadership resumé is one that strikes just the right balance of experience and the important accomplishments, especially your ability to serve as a leader. The goal is to convey not only your expertise, but indicate your potential to succeed in the next role. first, and then add in other accomplishments. Remember that an executive recruiter is first trying to establish whether you can do a specific job. And then, he or she is trying to figure out if you have leadership potential.

3Paint the full picture of your leadership experience At the executive level, it makes sense to include evidence of soft skills. Strong human relations skills that enable you to productively interact with others can set you apart. You can also provide evidence of previous executive accomplishments. One way to do this is to quantify it with measurable results. Instead of just listing job functions, strengthen your narrative with real statistics.

And lastly, it pays to be more elaborate when it comes to listing an accomplishment.

Why cut it short by just saying: • Revamped the management team with a new strategic plan When you can be a little more elaborate: • Revamped the management team with a new strategic plan • Aligned with HR to develop new performance metrics • Achieved double-digit improvements in engagement • Increased annual employee retention by over 20 per cent

As you can see, any recruiter will definitely want to go with the second candidate. Whatever the context of the situation, clearly articulate the steps you took to deliver an outcome. This helps the hiring managers understand what you can do for them.

In summary, the process of updating your resumé can be just as important as the end product. This is the time to take inventory of your career. Updating your resumé offers an opportunity to reflect on what you’ve learned and accomplished in the recent past — and, more importantly, what makes your leadership story unique.

Murali Murthy is an acclaimed public speaker, life coach and best-selling author of The ACE Principle, The ACE Awakening, The ACE Abundance and You Are HIRED!. He is also chairperson of CAMP Networking Canada. Learn how he can help unlock your magic at unleashyourwow.com.

CAREERS & EDUCATION

HIGHER LEARNING How to be more organized

Set yourself up for academic success

There are many good reasons for students to get and stay organized, from achieving greater productivity, saving time, decreasing stress and increasing feelings of being in control. When organized, you will be ready to tackle your work and feel confident that you haven’t overlooked critical dates and deadlines. With the global pandemic and other concerning issues, staying productive and focused can be tough. Still, keeping your academic work organized is even more vital. Being an online student makes the need to be organized even more important; you cannot rely on inperson interactions with professors or classmates to remind you of what needs to be done.

Three tips to stay organized

So, how can you be organized? We decided to speak to some organized and hardworking students and provide you with some first-hand tips.

1. Keep your things organized: This will help you find what you need, and it makes you feel more prepared and ready to work. Start with labelling everything from notebooks to binders. This helps you differentiate between various classes. Then get page flags or separators. These two things might seem insignificant, but they can help you keep your notes organized by unit, importance or priority. Dating your notes may also be helpful in ensuring they are kept in order. This is true for not just your papers but also for online work and notes. It is especially critical to label everything from notes to documents so things are easier to find. Keeping separate folders for classes on your computer is also a good idea so you can keep your

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academic work organized by class.

2. Keep your space organized: Having a tidy and uncluttered space can add to your motivation and help ease you into getting started. It can be difficult to concentrate when you have piles of things in front of you. Ideally, you need to have space in your home designated for studying so that you can keep your home life separate from your schoolwork, especially now that many people are studying from home.

3. Keep your time organized: Using a planner is crucial for keeping track of critical events such as assignment deadlines, group meetings and exam dates. This can also help you balance your school, work and home responsibilities. If you like paper and find that writing helps, you can buy a planner that is already printed with a certain layout. This is a good option if you don’t have time to customize a planner. Some academic institutions print student planners based on the academic year and make them available for free or at a low cost. The second kind of planner is a bullet journal, which is simply a notebook that you can customize for your own needs. There is a large community on social media providing tips on how to customize a bullet journal, so it works best for your needs. If you prefer using technology, there are many programs and apps online to help you organize your time such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. These online calendars allow you to set reminders for important dates and events that you don’t want to miss.

Avoid unnecessary distractions if you can, especially from your computer device and the phone. Google Chrome has a free extension called Forest, which allows you to create a list of websites that you

want blocked for a certain amount of time so you can focus on what you need to do, so you don’t find yourself repeatedly and mindlessly checking your social media feeds. Turning off notifications or putting away your phone can also help you maintain attention to your task.

Other tips include using one planner for all of your activities including school, leisure and work rather than using separate ones. This way you won’t inadvertently double book yourself and can plan your study time while taking into account all your commitments, obligations and needs.

Start your day by making a list of what you would like to accomplish. Remember to prioritize what’s most important and be realistic – a list that is too long may leave you feeling like you didn’t get much done.

Avoid perfectionism when organizing. As in most things, moderation is key. You want to get organized but you don’t want to spend so much time doing it that it ends up squeezing out actual available study time.

While being organized is useful for most learners, students with learning disabilities, attention problems, chronic procrastinators and the over-committed may find it particularly necessary.

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Geneviève Beaupré and Susan Qadeer have extensive experience working in university and college settings, providing career, academic and personal counselling to international and immigrant students.

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