Although the résumé has origins in feudal England, the submission of a résumé only became customary after World War II as a means for employers to eliminate unqualified candidates among the scores of GIs looking for new employment. Not much has changed in present day. The pursuit of a board seat is similar to an employment interview and almost all of us have first-hand experience with that. Every individual, starting a board search, needs to begin by developing a résumé. Board nominating committees only spend ten seconds scanning them, looking for anything that does not meet their concept of the ideal applicant.

Many individuals expect that once they pass this initial assessment, a more detailed look at their experience and educational background will further entice the board committee. The reality is that a résumé cannot do the heavy lifting in a board search. Its purpose is to act as a marketing tool—to attract the board committee’s attention and consequently initiate a conversation with the decision maker. It is up to the opportunity seeker to sell themselves. The résumé should only be utilized as a means of generating interest and commencing a discussion with the decision maker.

In order to generate an interview, the résumé must align the applicant’s skills and accomplishments with the desired board committee, presenting the candidate as ideal to the target decision maker. It is vital that a résumé matches the potential executive’s core competencies with the prospective board committee’s core governance responsibility. This enables the candidate to potentially transfer his/her skills to a different industry than that in which they had previously worked. Our goal is to present the individual’s background and accomplishments as clearly and succinctly as possible, in a visually appealing format, that is easy to skim and which will work in tandem with follow-up calls made directly to decision makers.

Though there is no standard format for a résumé, the most common approach is reverse chronological. This is the method Executive Advisory uses. Functional résumés give the impression that the applicant has something to hide, such as a lengthy period of unemployment or irrelevant experience. A reverse chronological résumé is straight forward, honest and easy to follow. It highlights the candidate’s most recent and generally most important, experience by emphasizing it in the most prominent position on the page. It puts an individual’s accomplishments in context by placing them in juxtaposition with other achievements made at the same time, in the same position and with the same company. This allows the reader to quickly locate any accomplishment, in an individual’s past experience, when they refer to it in a conversation. Thus, not only does the résumé generate the interest necessary to initiate a conversation, it also works in conjunction with the follow-up call process, supporting an individual’s assertion that their experience and accomplishments allow them to fulfill the board’s needs.

In addition to using a straightforward reverse chronological résumé format, Executive Advisory aims to simplify an individual’s experiences and present them in a succinct, compelling manner. With approximately ten seconds to attract the reader’s attention, it is important that the prospective decision maker immediately gains a sense of the candidate’s background. It is vital to have a clean, visually appealing document, with bold headings emphasizing the company names, executive titles and sufficient white space with most important facts first. Upon the completion of the initial scan, it is our goal for the decision maker to have a general sense of the candidate’s experience and governance capability and to be sufficiently interested to look at the résumé in more detail.

It’s important that, as a decision maker reads the résumé more closely, they are able to quickly and easily locate the most important information. Since the majority of individuals will begin reading at the top of the résumé, we start the résumé with a profile section, which details the individual’s unique value proposition to the prospective board. This statement must be specific and directly align the applicant’s skills and experience with the desired governance committee, in order to present the candidate as ideal to the target company. A targeted profile statement will confirm the employer’s initial impression that the candidate is well-suited for the board and encourage them to read into the individual’s experience.

Since most individuals, at the executive level, have increasing responsibilities and accomplishments with each successive challenge, the more recent positions will have the most relevance to a prospective board. On a résumé, this should be the most detailed and compelling section of the individual’s work experience, especially since many decision makers will not look any further than this.

Accomplishments should be listed in short bullets that begin with a strong active verb, as a reader will easily become distracted and disinterested when presented with large paragraphs of text. When possible, a bullet should describe results quantitatively, rather than simply detailing activities, as accomplishments and outcomes distinguish an individual from dozens of other prospective board candidates with exactly the same responsibilities.

Remember, the ultimate goal with your résumé is to get your message across. You need to convey to the decision maker that you can be an asset to their board. You cannot do that if the individual does not understand what you’ve written. If they need to spend a minute figuring out whether you meant “project risk management” or “partner relationship management” when you used “PRM” in your résumé, your meaning is lost. If your résumé is cluttered with phrases such as “synergistic alliances” or “paradigm shift”, it becomes difficult for the reader to notice the concrete, quantitative results you’ve achieved. Decision makers want to appoint people to their boards who achieve results, not those who can cloak their actions in wordy, evasive and vague language.

The clarity and readability, in the second excerpt, speak for themselves. The language is transparent and the meaning is unmistakable. This is the kind of impression you need to convey in your résumé, and simple, straightforward language is the only way to achieve this.

It is also important to include only those pieces of information that enhance the individual’s candidacy. Many individuals make the mistake of including extraneous personal information, hobbies or interests that are, at best, irrelevant to the position and, at worst, can reveal subtle personal biases that may lower a candidate’s chances. Other information should be excluded because it adds little value to the résumé. This includes reasons for leaving previous employers, remuneration and references, all of which can be discussed during or upon the completion of an interview.

A perfectly tailored résumé can only be successful when it ends up directly in front of the decision maker, where your background is “preaching to the choir.” At any given point in time, there are board members leaving for mandatory retirement, health reasons, conflicts of interest or time constraints. This creates a window of opportunity where the decision maker is considering a smaller pool of candidates. Getting a résumé in front of the decision maker in that period of time can drastically increase an individual’s chances of being nominated, as busy executives would much rather select from a small group of qualified candidates than sort through hundreds of résumés.

In order to get the résumé in front of the decision maker, it is important to use direct mail, rather than email, which can easily be deleted, caught in a spam filter or intercepted by an administrative assistant. A hard copy also avoids software incompatibility issues and ensures that the potential decision maker sees the résumé formatted precisely as it was written. Furthermore, it creates a more lasting impression and is easy to reference during a follow-up call. Since 80% of a nominating match is based purely on chemistry between the potential decision maker and the candidate, the Executive Advisory résumé is designed specifically to initiate and support the follow-up call process. Only this interaction between the decision maker and the candidate can generate success in the board search process.