It’s easier said than done to create a great resume when you’re under pressure to get it done. This is especially the case if you’ve had a long and complex career, and you’re unsure where your resume’s focus should be.

But, of course, ultimately there’s no excuse for having a subpar executive resume. Here are a few tips to help you improve your executive resume, and to help you focus that all-important job search document.

Define a Clear Target

One of the first things you want to do when organizing your executive resume is to define a clear target. You should know the mission of the company you’re applying with, as well as what would be expected of you in the position you want. This helps you prove that you’re the perfect person for the position.

Make Sure to Brand Yourself

At this point, you should be known for contributing something to your field. Regardless of whether you work in heavy industry, communications, manufacturing, etc, you should be famous in your field for your excellent work. To prove that you’re a potentially valuable investment, you want to show this branding of yourself in your executive resume. Make special note of your unique, valuable attributes, characteristics that make you and only you the perfect leader for the job.

Include a Success Story or Two

Again, at your level, you should be known for having accomplished a lot. You want an impressive resume that highlights your successes. It’s also helpful to show challenges you’d faced in order to achieve those successes.

Leave Room for White Space

When writing an executive resume, it’s often difficult to find a balance between including the right amount of information and leaving enough white space so that BlackBerry email cruisers won’t be overwhelmed with information. A great way to find that balance is to write short on-brand statements that are also value-driven. Potential employers will like an executive resume with a lot of content that’s still easy to read and scannable.

Edit and Re-edit

There is absolutely no excuse for having misspelled words or grammatical errors in your resume at the executive level. If you’re not the best speller or grammar buff, you most definitely should have everyone you can think of edit your resume to avoid the embarrassment of being overlooked for something so elementary.

Avoid Too Many Pages

You may have a lot of information you’d like to include in your resume due to your extensive experience; however, as you know, managers are busy people with little time to read pages of accomplishments. So instead of writing five pages of details about yourself, try cutting it down to two pages and only including essential personal branding and marketing information.

Hopefully these tips (and your short breather) have helped to give you some focus as you write your executive resume. Now it’s time to write the best resume you’ve ever laid eyes on.

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