This minimalist resume template minimizes lines and color, so it can maximize your job experience and highlight your professional achievements.
Like this template? Customize this resume and make it your own with the help of our Al-powered suggestions, accent colors, and modern fonts.
As the chief executive officer, you’re someone who can capture the big picture while caring about the details that make operations run seamlessly. A company’s path forward, including profits, rests on your shoulders, so this means you’re a skilled communicator and leader who’s able to delegate, challenge, and guide others toward accomplishing the company’s mission.
For such a tall order, build your CEO resume and create a cover letter with your competency to direct a company in mind. We’re here to help.
With our seven CEO resume samples and guide, you’ll be equipped to write an award-winning resume quickly, so you can land your next job in 2024 and get back to what matters most—caring about the operations and people that move a business forward.
As the CEO of an organization, you already know you’re humble brag kind of a big deal. You’re the big picture person, the one everyone seeks out to create a vision and a path forward for success. But, acting as the highest-ranking exec doesn’t mean you’re hanging around to bask in the glory. You became a CEO because you know how to put in the hard work, and you’re held to a high standard. Your resume is, too. Let’s walk through each of these essential ways you should build your resume to showcase your strengths and attract the attention of any hiring manager:
As a current or hopeful CEO, you understand that competition in the job market is stiff. In fact, when you submit your application for a job posting, there may be upwards of 100 other candidates applying. More and more, hiring managers are turning to Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software to filter out candidates whose resumes don’t have enough of the keywords desired.
Including a skills section on your resume can be the difference between Applicant Tracking System software being your best friend or your worst nightmare. That’s because, without a skills section, you’re unlikely to include the keywords ATS is searching for.
It turns out you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what the right skills are for the CEO position you’re interested in. Just check out the job description. Easy!
The example below shows keyword skills the candidate likely mined from a company’s job description:
A 1.15-page resume is enough of a formatting error to disturb some hiring managers. We don’t make the rules, but one of the most important formatting “DOs” is to ensure your resume is exactly one page. Though most people know this rule, some of the other important resume formatting ones go under the radar.
Resume formatting tips for ensuring ATS and hiring managers are happy:
This summary example gives you a good idea of how detailed and tailored yours should be:
On some specific occasions, you might want to consider adding a resume objective or summary statement to your CEO resume. They’re both short, two to four-sentence paragraphs, but the objective works best for individuals with limited work experience or those switching careers (possibly applicable to you!).
The summary, on the other hand, is for seasoned pros who have 10+ years of experience in the field. They offer you an opportunity to open up about your career history, your successes, and the skills you’ve honed.
Weak and strong objectives
Weak and strong summaries
You’re a CEO. You know everything always comes back to those pesky numbers. As much as it may pain you to crunch more numbers to put on your resume, trust us when we say it’s worth it. Not only do numbers prove your performance but also catch the eyes of hiring managers and encourage them to keep reading.
Take advantage of metrics, as in the example below, to show the following:
Let’s face it—would you rather hire the person who’s passionate about the company and has been interested in working with you for years or the person who’s probably blasting out their resume to your company and 50 other ones just to see who they can barter with to get the highest salary?
As much as it can be annoying to customize your CEO resume, we suggest you do it.
So, how do you customize your resume?
We know that updating your resume may be a task that comes with plenty of groanings, furious keyboard typing, and sighs. But, you’ve already taken a major step in the right direction by preparing. You now know the resume secret sauce: good formatting, customization, key skills, and quantification.
Take the next step and see how your resume stands up to the ATS with our free resume checker, or if you’d rather start from scratch and use AI-powered tips to build your resume from the ground up, you can try using our fan-favorite resume builder.
Gut the guesswork in your job hunt. Upload your existing resume to check your score and make improvements. Build a resume with one of our eye-catching, recruiter-friendly templates.
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