Modernizing your resume for executive IT leadership

For IT leaders seeking a new position, condensing an extensive and storied employment history into a short, readable resume can be daunting. But by embracing modernized approaches to resume presentation, and eliminating outdated and redundant content from your CV, a streamlined resume that stands out can be readily achieved.

To give an example of this in practice, we paired a CIO with an eye on continuing their executive leadership career at a new company with Stephen Van Vreede, president, executive resume writer, and coach for ITtechExec.com, to help improve their resume and modernize the overall look and feel.

[ See also: CIO resumes: 9 best practices and 8 strong examples and CDO resumes: 5 tips for landing a chief data officer role ]

It may seem like window dressing, but familiarizing yourself with current resume style and format trends is crucial for a career move at the leadership level. And if it’s been a few years since you’ve evaluated your resume, it’s likely those standards have changed. In this resume makeover, Van Vreede modernizes the resume of a seasoned IT leader, who wishes to remain anonymous, updating the aesthetic while delivering a clear, strategic message to draw in recruiters and hiring managers.

A modern look to catch a hiring manager’s eye

When updating your resume, content shouldn’t be your only focus. In the past decade, it has become easier than ever to create aesthetically pleasing documents without having a graphic design degree, and it’s important to use these accessible design tools to your advantage.

In this resume makeover, Van Vreede noted that the candidate’s resume “came across as antiquated because a very old format was being used.” The candidate’s original resume was visually basic with black text on a white background, bulleted lists, and no visual elements to draw the eye across the page. This outdated style creates a dense document that is hard to read, making it more difficult for recruiters to quickly scan for relevant skills.

[ View the original resume for “Patricia T. Nguyen” ]

Formatting your resume doesn’t have to be intimidating — utilizing options available in Word is all it takes. VanVreede decided on a blue theme for the candidate’s resume, highlighting each section with complementary light and dark blue tones, while utilizing larger fonts for the candidate’s name and the various section headers.

Using color and fonts help break up the document, making it easier for the reader to take in each section and better focus on the information presented. Creating visual stop points also helps hiring managers and recruiters more readily find the information they are looking for without having to labor through the entire document. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for the first person reading your resume to quickly identify why they should consider you for the role.

Van Vreede also suggests making strategic use of simple font enhancements, such as bolded text and italics. For example, in updating the candidate’s resume, Van Vreede ensures each section has the most relevant and crucial information bolded, enabling recruiters and hiring managers to pick out the most important skills and accomplishments quickly and then go back after to read for more detail once they’re pulled in and interested in you as a candidate.

A strategic summary shift

An executive summary at the top of your resume has become a popular way to identify relevant skills and experience from the jump. But remember, each detail in this summary must convey your professional brand, so make every word count.

This section should signal to the reader that you are a strong candidate for the role, and entice them to delve further into your experience and background. Design this section for the job you want, not the job you have — and illustrate why you would be the ideal fit.

In this case, the candidate’s original executive summary was short and redundant in the context of the rest of the document, and the experience section “came across as a laundry list of duties,” positioning the candidate as an “IT manager focused on tactics instead of a CIO focused on strategy and organizational value,” Van Vreede says.

The original resume also included two brief sentences about the candidate’s general experience, noting that they have a “proven record of achievement in reducing costs, streamlining operations, stakeholder satisfaction, creating business strategies and how to best leverage technology.” While these are valuable experiences for the sought-after role, it’s better to provide substantive examples of how each accomplishment was achieved.               

Van Vreede addressed this in the revised resume by first shifting the executive summary message to “position the candidate as a technology and operations executive who helps drive growth, scale, and profitability into the business,” he says. To enforce this shift from “tactical to strategic ” leader, Van Vreede also expanded the summary to include information that would highlight the candidate’s “achievements and business impact statements,” he says.

[ View the revised resume for “Patricia T. Nguyen” ]

In the revised document, Van Vreede included specific accomplishments such as “rebuilt IT and modernized technology stack, led strategic projects and change management programs, managed 501c3 IT business operations, and modernized higher education IT operations and technology ecosystem.” These are more clear directives that demonstrate the candidate’s competency as a CIO, emphasized in bold, with additional context for each point included after for anyone who wants to know more.

This not only helps create a more cohesive narrative for the resume, but also ensures it will stand out and be “more likely to be read on a quick first review,” says Van Vreede. You want to establish your professional brand right from the start, and lead with the most compelling information to hook the reader.

Brevity makes a difference

The candidate, who felt their original resume was “too long and detailed,” wanted an updated resume that better reflected their “current role as an executive leader” in a more succinct manner. Here, Van Vreede says that applying a “strategic content and messaging focus” throughout a resume is the key to streamlining decades of experience into a professional brand.

For instance, on the candidate’s original resume, each job included an extensive list of often repetitive or outdated information. Moreover, the candidate’s career history on the original resume went back to 1997, with multiple bullet points for each position. In the revised version, Van Vreede condensed the oldest work experiences to a list of job titles under the heading “Select Additional Experience.” In this section, he also highlighted a few key accomplishments, removing everything that was outdated. Under the “Professional Experience” section, Van Vreede included the candidate’s four most recent positions, with the most space devoted to highlighting their two most recent positions.

In making these choices, Van Vreede emphasized the candidate’s CIO career path. For example, including the candidate’s two positions as business operations manager in their Professional Experience section outlines how these two positions led to the candidate’s later positions as director of IT operations and technology and CIO, the descriptions of which include far more detail and bullet points because they’re the most relevant to the candidate’s sought-after role.

For the candidate’s experience as a business operations manager, Van Vreede focused on accomplishments such as “championed cloud enablement, elevated organizational culture, and drove revenue and profit attainment surpassing business objectives.” These help demonstrate how the candidate’s path to leadership began, in managerial roles where they began flexing their leadership and strategic skills. It makes it easy to see how the candidate eventually found their way to the C-suite, highlighting their earliest accomplishments in these relevant areas.

The final result

It’s common to struggle with understanding which accomplishments to highlight on your resume, but thanks to the resume makeover process, the candidate says that Van Vreede helped them see how they were underselling themselves.

“I was impressed by the expert’s professionalism, expertise, and feedback. They were very supportive, attentive, and responsive throughout the process. I enjoyed the collaboration and communication with the expert. They listened to my needs, goals, and preferences and incorporated them into my resume,” says the candidate, who also noted that Van Vreede offered valuable tips on how to tailor the resume for different positions and industries.

“I learned a lot from the process, such as how to highlight my achievements, skills, and keywords, format and structure my resume, and tailor it for different opportunities,” the candidate says. “Thanks to the resume rewrite process, I feel more confident and prepared for my job search. I think it gave me a competitive edge and a positive impression.”

[ Compare the original resume with the revised version. ]

More on IT executive resumes:

• CIO resumes: 9 best practices and 8 strong examples
• CDO resumes: 5 tips for landing a chief data officer role