Behavioral Science Lab

Personality

The Personality Test Career Deep Read

Career Intelligence

Elevator Pitch AI Impact Map Personal Brand Strategy Ask Coached

The Lab

The Coached Model Coached Premium Coached Weekly Pricing
Coached Weekly
20-second career tip

How to write an executive or senior-level resume

About Rohan

Hey, I’m Rohan!

I write thoughts about life and career strategy a few times a month.

I run Coached, the behavioral science lab, and Resume Worded, the best software for job seekers.

A good place to start is our free 3‑minute, science-backed personality test.

If you're a senior job seeker — or an executive — you'll find this especially useful. Even if you aren't, skim through it anyway since a couple of these learnings apply to resumes at all stages.

Hiring managers expect different things from senior-level candidates than they do from mid- or junior-level applicants. Here are three examples:

🗣️  Highlight leadership and management experience. Tell hiring managers about the teams you led or how many direct reports you have. "Directed team of 5 to ..." can be a good phrase to use.

🧐  Leave off your graduation dates if they're 12+ years old to avoid age discrimination. Plus, leave off outdated software or skills (e.g. Windows XP).

📈  Emphasize promotions, particularly in your job titles. Bold titles that show obvious progression, like Vice President -> Director -> Managing Director.

🎯  You should also use a tool like Score My Resume to find out if your resume is effective enough — at any career level — including senior, mid and entry-level. It'll tell you if you've overlooked any mistakes that hiring managers look out for. Try it now.

Illustration of Rohan Mahtani
Written by Rohan Mahtani
From Coached Weekly, issue 321.

I also send these out by email.

This is Coached Weekly, my career notes where I share the tiny % of ideas that actually work in real careers. It takes 5 minutes to read, but could speed up your career by years. I write this myself (no AI). —Rohan Mahtani (LinkedIn)

Free. Unsubscribe any time.Read an issue first
Another tip2 min read

How to use the STAR method on your resume

You might have come across the STAR method, which stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result . It's usually known as an effective framework for answering interview questions.

Share this essay

From the essay

Original image ↗

Copy link