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As the chief executive officer, you’re someone who can capture the big picture while caring about the details that make operations run seamlessly. A company’s path forward, including profits, rests on your shoulders, so this means you’re a skilled communicator and leader who’s able to delegate, challenge, and guide others toward accomplishing the company’s mission.
For such a tall order, build your CEO resume and create a cover letter with your competency to direct a company in mind. We’re here to help.
With our seven CEO resume samples and guide, you’ll be equipped to write an award-winning resume quickly, so you can land your next job in 2024 and get back to what matters most—caring about the operations and people that move a business forward.
Why this resume works
- Crafting a CEO resume that walks the talk isn’t just about dropping a list of past gigs on a page. You want to paint a picture of a visionary leader who’s equipped to navigate the rough waters and lead the crew to a treasure trove of success. Let’s take a leaf from Christianne’s killer resume to get those creative juices flowing:
- Highlights like Increasing international interns and employees by 48%, reducing onsite accidents by 11%, and improved by 16% with clearer, measurable objectives are textbook tricks to flaunt your wins with some serious number game.
Why this resume works
- So, you want to win that lucrative lead role. Here’s the deal: a tailor-made founder and CEO resume that flexes your skill, garnishes your wins with hard-hitting numbers, and brims with powerful action verbs is your golden ticket.
- Truth bomb: you’ve got a mere 7-second window to dazzle that hiring manager. That’s quick, right? Make it count with metrics that leap off the page—something like “increase web traffic by 400% over 3 years” or “lowering the cost of production by 19%”
Why this resume works
- Step into the spotlight with a modern CEO resume that speaks volumes before you even get to the interview. That calls for ensuring every bullet point packs a punch and firmly positions you as the visionary leader no recruiter wants to pass up.
- Let’s face it, a resume without numbers just doesn’t cut it, which brings us to the need to make metrics your new best friends in your job search. See how phrases like “manage 520+ employees and expand the mission” and “attending 80% to lead, train, or capture takeaways” pop up in Malone’s resume.
Why this resume works
- A tailored hospital CEO resume like Mia’s calls attention to your professional wins and takes full advantage of action verbs, proven skills, and numbers to help you rise above the competition.
- Integrating your skills and expertise in industry-relevant software, such as IBM Watson Health, MedTrainer and Tableau, into work your work history is a classic tip that demonstrates your competence and uncomplicates your job hunt.
Why this resume works
- Crafting a compelling startup CEO resume might sound like you’re scaling a mountain, but it’s actually more like a walk in the park when you know the ropes. Here are the basics: you’ll want to quantify your accomplishments. Throw in action verbs and numbers and accentuate your skills. It’s that easy! Just take a cue from Lucas’ resume.
- Sprinkling in some numbers can make all the difference in your accomplishments. Think along the lines of “improved employee productivity by 33%” and “resulting in a 60% increase in total product sales”. That’s the kind of stuff that gets the hiring manager to sit up and take a closer look.
Why this resume works
- A job-winning non-profit CEO resume should, at the very least, get recruiters sold on your remarkable capability to drive results. Wondering how to do that? Follow Danika’s lead; combine metrics, action words, and skills to tailor your resume.
- For the finishing touch, tailor your piece to the job ad. Perhaps, like Danika, you can talk about meeting with the board of advisors a couple of times and ensuring brand consistency in events and campaigns.
Why this resume works
- A real estate CEO resume for this role without numbers or quantified accomplishments is downright boring. See “increasing client retention by 22%”, and “seeing an average ROI of 62%” in Emergarde’s piece?
- Shining the spotlight on your big achievements is a requisite. But don’t do that, show the recruiter your role in making such impacts.
Related resume guides
4 Expert Tips to Polish Your CEO Resume
As the CEO of an organization, you already know you’re humble brag kind of a big deal. You’re the big picture person, the one everyone seeks out to create a vision and a path forward for success. But, acting as the highest-ranking exec doesn’t mean you’re hanging around to bask in the glory. You became a CEO because you know how to put in the hard work, and you’re held to a high standard. Your resume is, too. Let’s walk through each of these essential ways you should build your resume to showcase your strengths and attract the attention of any hiring manager:
- CEO skills
- Formatting your CEO resume
- Quantifying your previous impact
- Customizing your resume for each job
Tip 1: Highlight your CEO skills
As a current or hopeful CEO, you understand that competition in the job market is stiff. In fact, when you submit your application for a job posting, there may be upwards of 100 other candidates applying. More and more, hiring managers are turning to Applicant Tracking System (ATS) software to filter out candidates whose resumes don’t have enough of the keywords desired.
Including a skills section on your resume can be the difference between Applicant Tracking System software being your best friend or your worst nightmare. That’s because, without a skills section, you’re unlikely to include the keywords ATS is searching for.
It turns out you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what the right skills are for the CEO position you’re interested in. Just check out the job description. Easy!
The example below shows keyword skills the candidate likely mined from a company’s job description:
Tip 2: Make sure your CEO resume format works
A 1.15-page resume is enough of a formatting error to disturb some hiring managers. We don’t make the rules, but one of the most important formatting “DOs” is to ensure your resume is exactly one page. Though most people know this rule, some of the other important resume formatting ones go under the radar.
Resume formatting tips for ensuring ATS and hiring managers are happy:
- The One-page Rule: As we already mentioned, this rule is important. Hiring managers want the highlight reel, not your whole life history.
- Bullet Points: Bullet points break up chunks of text in your work experience, making them easier to read and more visually appealing.
- Say No to Icons/Images: Pictures, as lovely as they may be, don’t work for ATS, and they should be avoided.
- Title of the Job: List the job title you want at the top of your resume and not the one you currently have.
- Decide: Should you add a resume objective or summary?
Resume Summary
- This a highlight reel of your work experience and relevant skills. A summary could benefit you if:
- You have many years of experience (preferably more than a decade)
- You have specific, relevant accomplishments that effectively highlight your work contributions
This summary example gives you a good idea of how detailed and tailored yours should be:
On some specific occasions, you might want to consider adding a resume objective or summary statement to your CEO resume. They’re both short, two to four-sentence paragraphs, but the objective works best for individuals with limited work experience or those switching careers (possibly applicable to you!).
The summary, on the other hand, is for seasoned pros who have 10+ years of experience in the field. They offer you an opportunity to open up about your career history, your successes, and the skills you’ve honed.
Weak and strong objectives
- Weak Resume Objective: Executive with experience in leading people. Looking to continue climbing the corporate ladder and making decisions for an organization.
- Why’s it weak: Unspecific, doesn’t mention specific skills, a job title, metrics, or ways in which the applicant would benefit the organization.
- Strong Resume Objective: CFO for 3+ years with Pearsons Co. Seeking a change of career as the CEO at CoreOps, where my background in financial analysis and strategic decision-making would strengthen the company’s long-term fiscal trajectory and develop a greater sense of accountability from within the organization.
- Why it’s strong: Specific, with a target company and position explicitly mentioned. The skill set of the applicant is highlighted, as well as how those skills make them a valuable candidate.
Weak and strong summaries
- Weak Resume Summary: CEO who’s been in the industry for years, many of which resulted in growth for companies. Motivated to become the CEO of your company and help it grow.
- Why it’s weak: Non-specific, vague, lacks metrics, and a general waste of valuable resume space.
- Strong Resume Summary: Seasoned CEO with 15+ years of executive experience. Specialized in improving long-term financial outlooks, enabling InkStaple to maintain 2020 performance despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Managed companies with over 1.5K employees, strengthening brand buy-in and work output from the ground up. Motivated to lead strategic vision changes for Fisco Supplies to improve public and staff perception and support.
- Why it’s strong: It’s specific, mentioning job titles, number of years of expertise, relevant skills, and how they’ve benefited companies over the course of their career.
Tip 3: Quantify your achievements as a CEO
You’re a CEO. You know everything always comes back to those pesky numbers. As much as it may pain you to crunch more numbers to put on your resume, trust us when we say it’s worth it. Not only do numbers prove your performance but also catch the eyes of hiring managers and encourage them to keep reading.
Take advantage of metrics, as in the example below, to show the following:
- How hiring policies and training improved under your lead
- Improvements in long-term company projections and ROI
Tip 4: Customize your resume for each CEO job
Let’s face it—would you rather hire the person who’s passionate about the company and has been interested in working with you for years or the person who’s probably blasting out their resume to your company and 50 other ones just to see who they can barter with to get the highest salary?
As much as it can be annoying to customize your CEO resume, we suggest you do it.
So, how do you customize your resume?
- The objective/summary: If you include one of these sections on your resume, make sure to mention a specific job title, company name, and skills that are particularly relevant to the role (hint: read the job description).
- Skills: Read the job description to create a fully-customized skills section according to the keywords found.
- Work experience bullet points: Is the company hoping you’ll make its name more relevant in the eyes of consumers? Then you should highlight times you’ve worked as the public face of the business or approved funding for popular campaigns on social media. If they need stronger internal leadership, reshape your bullet points to highlight your related experience.
Key Takeaways for Your CEO Resume
We know that updating your resume may be a task that comes with plenty of groanings, furious keyboard typing, and sighs. But, you’ve already taken a major step in the right direction by preparing. You now know the resume secret sauce: good formatting, customization, key skills, and quantification.
Take the next step and see how your resume stands up to the ATS with our free resume checker, or if you’d rather start from scratch and use AI-powered tips to build your resume from the ground up, you can try using our fan-favorite resume builder.
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