The Perfect Executive Director Resume Writing Tips

Do you want to apply for an Executive Director position to help you get closer to your career goals? Applying for jobs on Seek, LinkedIn, and other job boards can be a time-consuming process, however, to streamline the process, you can ensure your resume writing helps you to stand out from the crowd, and your online profile helps you to get an interview!

If a recruiter or hiring manager are looking for an Executive Director, they are searching for specific transferable skills. With less than ten people being interviewed for the job and hundreds of people, just like you, applying, The Perfect Resume team have created Resume Writing Tips to help you stand out from the others.

What do recruiters look for in an Executive Director resume or an online profile?

Tailoring your resume to an Executive Director position is mandatory today to ensure that your application will pass Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). In doing so, your resume will be read by the prospective employer. Then, fingers crossed, you will be shortlisted as a potential candidate and be called for not one, but multiple job interviews!

Firstly, before you apply to be an Executive Director, you need to be acquainted with what an Executive Director does!

Executive Directors handle the business' strategic direction and future planning.

Hiring Managers are looking for a self-motivated and results-driven Executive Director to assist in creating business plans, overseeing day-to-day activities, improving performance, developing organizational culture, supervising heads of departments, reporting on revenue, and directing organizational strategy.

To be successful as an Executive Director, you should have knowledge of necessary corporate procedures, be open to learning, and have strong communication skills. Ultimately, a high performing Executive Director should be able to achieve organisational growth and staff alignment with the vision, mission and values.

Knowing this, your resume and online profile should include the hard and soft skills that the recruiter or hiring manager is looking for in a candidate.

The Executive Director position description template will also contain pivotal information about what the candidate will need to do daily. Such as:

• Developing and directing organizational strategy.
• Drafting organizational policies and philosophies.
• Overseeing day-to-day business activities.
• Conducting performance reviews.
• Preparing comprehensive budgets.
• Reporting on revenue and expenditure.
• Engaging with community groups.
• Creating sound business plans.
• Coaching department heads.
• Overseeing financial accounts.

You will also have some requirements and personal attributes that you will need to demonstrate in your resume to ensure your potential employer will take your application seriously, such as:

• Masters in business administration or equivalent.
• Financial management experience.
• Highly organized.
• Project management experience.
• Highly ethical behavior.
• Effective communicator.
• Motivational skills.
• In-depth knowledge of financial practices.
• Public relations and marketing knowledge.

You may also want to do some industry research to find out what other companies want in their Executive Directors.