As you move into senior and executive-level roles, creating impactful application documents poses different challenges.
At this stage of your career, recruiters and employers want to see clear examples of your performance and the difference you have made for both the teams you manage and companies as a whole.
The most effective way to quantify your leadership skills is to showcase the results you have achieved on your CV.
Here is our step-by-step guide to doing it!
Study the job description
By this stage of your career, you will have acquired a lot of experience. The tricky part will be determining which of your results are most relevant for each position you’re applying for.
The first place to start is with the job description itself. Read it carefully and highlight or note the core skills the position requires.
This also helps your application get seen, as many companies use ATS software to do an initial screening of the most relevant candidates for any role based on a specific set of keywords.
Do some fact-finding
Now you understand what the role requires, it’s time to learn more about the company.
Proactive research is one of the most effective ways to stand out in your CV. We previously wrote an entire blog post on the subject!
Taking this extra step helps you understand:
- The challenges being experienced
- Team dynamics
- Key trends
- Upcoming projects or milestones
With this context, you can review your own experience with a different perspective, and share examples of results you have achieved that directly relate to what the company needs.
Address the required competencies on your CV
It’s time to position yourself as the perfect candidate!
Here are two top tips to help you effectively showcase results on your CV:
Structure your examples effectively
A clear structure is key when showcasing results on your CV.
Try to base your results around SMART metrics as much as possible:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-Bound
Introducing the challenge you faced before achieving results can be an effective way to demonstrate your impact.
The CAR framework (Challenge, Action, Result) can be used to structure your examples.
For example: “Faced with outdated systems causing a significant impact on operational efficiency, I led a multi-departmental team to design, build, and roll out a £1.5 million CRM platform over 15 months. By streamlining essential workflows and automating key functions, we increased workforce productivity by 34%.”
Sharing results in this way can help employers see the impact you could have in their company.
Be specific
Any results you include in your CV need to be data-driven.
Use quantifiable metrics like:
- Percentages
- Finances – budgets, revenues, profits, and savings
- Periods of time – project duration, time saved, deadlines exceeded
- Number of people managed
Here are a few examples:
Before: “Exceeded revenue targets and improved profit margins.”
After: “Led a 25-person sales team to expand service offering into two underdeveloped markets, surpassing annual revenue targets by 18% and increasing profit margins YoY by 8.7%.”
Before: “Improved quality and accuracy of service delivery.”
After: “Automated and optimised deployment workflows, resulting in a 25% increase in system accuracy, a 38% reduction in critical service, and a 27% reduction in customer complaint volumes over 12 months.”
Before: “Managed a team to deliver client projects with high satisfaction rates.”
After: “Led a multi-departmental team to deliver a £3 million project over 18 months, resulting in a 43% increase in client revenue and further investment of £5 million.”
If you would benefit from further inspiration, Hays have written a useful blog post with more suggestions for the results you could include on your CV.
Create a results document
To make future applications easier, we recommend creating a master document that outlines all your key leadership experience, significant projects and initiatives, and the results you achieved.
Then, as roles arise, you can follow the steps above and select key achievements based on their:
- Relevancy: How relevant are these results to the position?
- Recency: When did you achieve these results?
- Impact: How did you contribute positively to wider team or business goals, and how does that relate to the company at hand?
If you update this document regularly, creating tailored applications for senior-level positions will become much easier.
Common pitfalls to avoid when showcasing results on your CV
- Being too generic: If you aren’t specific, you might get overlooked. Follow the guidance outlined above to ensure that your CV ticks all the boxes.
- Including too much detail: Keep the detail of your results succinct, as your CV should only be two pages long. You can go into more detail in your Cover Letter and interview presentation.
- Passive language and buzzwords: Emphasise your leadership role in any of the results you share with proactive action verbs, such as “directed”, “implemented”, “managed”, and “initiated”.
If you’re struggling to determine the most relevant results to include, a professional CV writer can help.
At The CV Guru, our talented writers will work with you directly to pull out your most impactful results and create an ATS-compliant document that helps showcase your extensive experience.
Only our most senior team members – including our Managing Director – write application documents for senior and executive-level candidates.
To find out more, check out our CV writing bundles for Executives and Specialists.