Transitioning into an executive-level role is an exciting career milestone. But when writing a CV, many people struggle to balance the technical expertise they’ve built up over the years with the leadership abilities employers look for in senior positions.
In this blog, we will explore how to balance technical and senior capabilities on a CV to show prospective employers you’re the ideal candidate for a leadership job.
Professional Profile
Your Professional Profile should be a clear and succinct summary of your technical and senior-level skills.
Use this section to illustrate the ways you’ve shown yourself to be a leader, and mention specific technical strategies and solutions you have implemented.
Be as specific as possible so you can demonstrate your expertise and background.
For example:
- Do you have a background in a particular industry such as FinTech, RegTech, or Saas services?
- Have you led digital transformation or major projects?
- Do you have a specialism that would be relevant to the role you are applying for such as cyber security, cloud/hybrid, or AI?
Keep it simple – you can go into more detail about your achievements in the Career Summary.
Example: “Accomplished IT Executive with extensive experience shaping technology strategy and delivering transformation in complex government environments. Proven success in crafting IT roadmaps, leading high-performing teams, and streamlining processes to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and drive value. Skilled in managing cross-functional digital transformation initiatives, implementing cloud-first solutions, and aligning budgets with corporate goals. Adept at partnering with C-Suite leaders to ensure compliance and technology success.”
Key Skills
At this stage of your career, your Key Skills section should focus primarily on your leadership skills and role requirements.
These include the core evergreen soft skills recruiters always seek out in candidates as well as the current in-demand competencies that show a deeper understanding of today’s workplace requirements, such as:
- Strategic planning
- Governance
- Budget and Resource Optimisation
- Leadership, Coaching and Mentoring
- Change management
- Digital transformation
- System Architecture
- Cyber Security
You can list your technical expertise under this as a separate section if this is your first leadership position, but if you have been in a leadership role for some time you don’t necessarily need to.
Education
The Education section can include both your practical education and the leadership skills certifications you have earned throughout your career to demonstrate you’re a well-rounded candidate.
Relevant formal qualifications could include an MBA or postgraduate studies. Professional development courses you have taken will depend on the industry you work in and the role you are aspiring to attain. An example could be a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.
Career Summary
This is the largest section of your CV, and where you get to highlight your professional achievements and expand on your technical and senior capabilities.
You need to back up the information you have shared in other sections of your CV here with statistics and figures to show recruiters exactly how you have been an asset to previous organisations.
You should demonstrate how you have evolved into a technically skilled senior leader.
When reflecting on earlier positions, focus on how your technical expertise has driven growth in the companies you have worked for. Mention the software and platforms you have used and back up your claims with data: for example, how you have cut costs or boosted reliability.
Example: “Designed and executed a cloud migration strategy that transitioned 95% of the company’s infrastructure to AWS, reducing operational costs by 40% and improving system reliability to 99.99%.”
More recent positions should highlight your move into leadership roles. You’ve already covered your technical knowledge, so now you can focus on more senior achievements, such as ways you have increased productivity or how many people you’ve managed.
Example: “Led a cross-functional on- and offshore team of 25 software developers and architects, achieving a 30% increase in team productivity by adopting agile workflows and creating structured mentorship initiatives.”
Across all of your previous roles, you should emphasise your strategic thinking skills. Think about times you have created long-term plans, made data-driven decisions, and used your technical background to keep projects and teams on track, and mention them here.
Final Tips
Before you send off your CV, complete these last-minute checks to make sure you’re striking the right balance between technical and leadership skills:
- Review the job description: Focus on keywords in the job listing and check how they are reflected in your CV. Is there an important skill you haven’t mentioned?
- Check each section thoroughly: Go through each section of the CV individually to ensure you’ve mentioned your technical expertise and leadership experience in equal measure. If it seems to focus on one aspect of your background too heavily, rework it to keep things balanced.
- Remove unnecessary jargon: Too much technical jargon will automatically overshadow leadership skills on your CV. As a leader, you will not be expected to perform technical aspects of projects – but you must be able to sense-check them. Therefore, focusing on leadership skills and examples is key. Cut out complex terms as much as possible to show your career has evolved beyond technical experience.
When you have gained so much valuable experience, it can be hard to strike a balance between your technical and senior capabilities on a CV. We hope this blog has given you some new ideas on how to present each section of your CV to show employers you are a versatile candidate.
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