As you progress through your career and undertake more senior-level roles, one part of the job application process can still prove to be a challenge:
Writing a succinct, engaging, and well-structured CV.
At this stage in your career, your CV must reflect your strategic value, impact, and leadership capabilities to prove you are the right choice for an executive-level role.
At The CV Guru, we have almost a decade of experience working with executives to create CVs. Over the years, we have noticed that a number of key mistakes pop up time and time again.
When these mistakes aren’t addressed, they can hold even the strongest candidates back in the application process. Luckily, once you know what to look for, these issues can be easily avoided!
In this blog, we dive into the seven most common mistakes we find on executive CVs, with real-world examples of how you can fix them.
Common Mistakes on Executive CVs
1. Covering all your experience
It’s tempting to try and cover as much of your previous experience as possible on your CV.
However, when you cover too much detail, the impactful parts of your experience and results will be diluted, therefore losing the impact you hope for.
Instead of listing all the examples of your leadership capabilities, focus on the most strategic and impactful examples for each position you apply for.
If you’re feeling stuck, you can use the job description to determine which information to include and which to forgo.
For example: If you are applying for a role as a Marketing Director, a key skill listed on the job description could be:
“Proven ability to develop and execute multi-channel marketing strategies that drive customer acquisition and deliver demonstrable ROI.”
A targeted and relevant example of your experience for this point should be something like:
“Led a multi-channel marketing strategy that increased qualified leads by 45%, boosted revenue by 28% over 18 months, and cut cost-per-lead by 38%.”
2. A lack of results
To make an impact as a candidate for a senior-level role, you need to be as specific as possible when talking about your experience.
It’s not enough to simply state that you led a team, managed a project, or created new revenue streams for the company. Include as much data as possible when talking about your experience.
When evaluating which parts of your experience to feature on your CV, ask yourself the following questions:
- How is this example relevant to the job description?
- How does this example showcase my value?
- Does this example demonstrate true strategic impact?
Your examples need to be results-focused. Feature figures, percentages, and statistics as much as possible.
For example: Instead of stating:
“Oversaw cross-departmental digital transformation.”
A more effective statement would be:
“Delivered a £3.2 million digital transformation programme across 120 national sites, reducing manual processing tasks by 37% and system downtime from 12% to 0.9%.”
3. Downplaying your leadership experience
Early and mid-level professionals focus their CVs on how they contributed to specific projects, risking being perceived as a ‘doer’ rather than deploying their strategic expertise.
Senior-level professionals need to build their CV around how they created and oversaw these projects.
The most important thing you can do on an executive CV is demonstrate how you are an effective leader.
Ensure your CV focuses on how your leadership has driven organisational success, such as:
- The size of the teams you have directed;
- Policies and initiatives you’ve created;
- Projects you have managed successfully – were they completed on time? Did they increase efficiencies or support revenue generation?
- Budgets you have directed.
Use action-based language to introduce these examples, such as “led”, “governed”, “developed”, and “chaired”.
For example: This example focuses on contribution to a project, rather than leadership over it:
“Coordinated the implementation of energy-efficiency initiatives across UK data centres, supporting ISO 14001 compliance.”
The following is a more appropriate example for a senior or executive leader:
“Developed and led the company’s first sustainability strategy, aligning with net-zero targets and ISO 14001 standards. Integrated green IT practices across UK data centres, cutting energy use by 33% and reducing carbon output by 19% in 24 months.”
4. A muddled structure
Did you know that recruiters will spend, on average, just six to eight seconds on a first glance at your CV?
To make sure recruiters take a closer look at what you have to offer, you need to make it as easy to read as possible and get your most important information across quickly.
A well-structured CV is your golden ticket to landing more job interviews and professional opportunities. If you haven’t updated yours in several years, you may need to update the format of your document to fit modern standards.
Use bullet points, subheadings, and white space to create an attractive layout and draw attention to the most important points.
Even though you have a lot of experience, your CV should be no longer than three pages. Don’t be tempted to make the text smaller to fit in more detail – this restriction actually helps you stay more focused on the most relevant information to include.
5. Not highlighting your value
Your CV is being written with one key goal: to help you secure your next role.
Therefore, it needs to act almost as a candidate pitch and demonstrate enough of your value to get you invited to the interview stage of the process.
Your professional profile, for example, is a key place to highlight your leadership style, unique strengths, and key successes.
For example: Instead of saying:
“Experienced operations manager with a proven track record of success.”
You should write something more specific such as:
“Award-winning operational strategist with over two decades of experience leading complex supply chain transformations in the FMCG sector, delivering cumulative savings of £5 million in cost efficiencies.”
6. An unclear career trajectory
When applying for executive roles, you need to create a CV that almost acts like a career timeline, demonstrating your growth and impact over time.
This needs to come across both in your Professional Profile and within the experience you cover in your Career History.
The goal is to show a clear evolution of your leadership and expertise, culminating in positioning you as the perfect person for the role you are applying for.
Creating a top-level narrative that showcases your USPs helps to frame your CV and unite your accomplishments under key common characteristics.
For example: If you have worked across a range of sectors, you can combine this experience into a compelling introduction in your CV, such as:
“Cross-sector social impact leader with a track record of delivering policy-driven transformation across the education, public health, and charity sectors at both a local and national level.”
7. No clarity on your future goals
Finally, your CV needs to go beyond what you have achieved in the past. You also need to demonstrate what you want to achieve in the future, so employers can understand your goals and evaluate your suitability for their open position.
Make sure your CV includes a clear and concise objective that encapsulates what you want to achieve next.
For example: If you are an HR professional seeking a Director-level role, your Professional Profile could be something along the lines of:
“Senior HR leader with over 15 years’ experience aligning HR with business goals and driving people strategy, organisational design, and culture transformation across multiple sectors. Delivered a 20% reduction in attrition and improved engagement scores by 25 points through data-led talent and wellbeing initiatives. Successfully led restructures and implemented digital HR systems that cut admin time by 40%. Now seeking a strategic HR Director role where I can shape inclusive people strategies, create high-performance cultures, and support long-term organisational growth.”
Create a professional executive CV with The CV Guru
Hopefully, you are now looking at writing your CV with a different perspective.
It can be difficult to view your own career objectively and select the right experience to position yourself effectively to recruiters and employers.
A professional CV writer can help you tell your professional story in the most compelling way, and tailor your documents individually to each role you want to apply for.
At The CV Guru, we specialise in working with senior and executive-level candidates, creating professional CVs, Cover Letters, and LinkedIn profiles that help you secure your next job interview.
Our Executive CV Writing Consultants work collaboratively with you to effectively showcase your expertise. We have a 100% satisfaction guarantee – meaning we won’t stop working on your documents until you feel they truly reflect what you have to offer.
Browse our executive CV bundles here, or book a call to chat to our team about your career goals.