As an executive career coach, I am often asked to look at, or critique, a senior level candidates executive resume. There are many styles of CV, but as part of my career counselling and career coaching service, the CV often stands out as the one stumbling block that can prevent you from getting enough job interviews.

As my company focuses on working exclusively with executive level clients I have discovered that one career coach will offer slightly different views from another, on what makes a good executive level CV or resume. So what is the advice from recruiters? What do they like to see on a senior level resume / CV?

This advice is based on a lot of feedback from a large number of senior level headhunters and recruiters, and they are the people who can get you more interviews, so it’s their insights that I’m passing on directly to you; keep it simply formatted, have a compelling executive summary (sometimes referred to as the personal profile) at the top of the page, supported by a well thought out, impactful series of bullet points within your career history (using the s.t.a.r. format in detail throughout. I’m happy to elaborate on this; just drop me a line). If you stick to this simple but effective format you should start to gain more traction and more interviews as a result.