Our experienced coaching team focuses on helping executive women increase their effectiveness, identify their strengths and development needs, build confidence and support to make bold moves and set and achieve challenging goals.

Michelle Riklan

Chief Career Marketing Officer

Riklan Resources

Michelle is an expert in employment issues, employee relations, training and development, and coaching.  She creates individual career marketing tools, educates professionals on how to position themselves to attract opportunities, and provides the fuel and support needed to accelerate career growth.

Michelle delivers fresh insights and practical real-world strategies focused on attaining professional career growth. Her expertise spans the personal career-marketing spectrum, from leveraging LinkedIn to find and be found by opportunity, to executive resume writing. As an internationally recognized subject matter expert on careers, a storyteller, and an entrepreneur, she is passionate about assisting individuals to market themselves effectively and overcome challenges - individual by individual and one audience at a time.

As part of the coaching team at Aspire Ascend, we asked Michelle to share with us a few insights for women executives and their resumes:

“We live in a job market that demands candidates are well equipped with effective marketing tools, and a resume is one of the most crucial components to a personal career marketing campaign. A resume’s purpose is to communicate the value an individual has to a potential employer in a way that compels the reader to call the candidate for an interview.  One of the first things we tell clients is as a potential candidate, you are a “product” that requires branding, marketing, and selling!”

Here are some tips from Michelle:

With 6 seconds to make a lasting impression, these sections are crucial, and they need to hit hard. They consist of the following:

1. Contact Information
   
2. The Header
   
3. The Value Proposition Statement
   
4. Core Competencies / Key Skills
   

1. CONTACT INFORMATION: Must be easy to read and on each page. Provide only one phone number and only one e-mail address. Include a personalized LinkedIn URL. Create hyperlinks from e-mail and the LinkedIn URL.

2. THE HEADER: Products have labels, and that is how we start. When a reader picks up a resume, it must be crystal clear to that reader who the person is and how they potentially fit into the organization. They do not want to waste time trying to find that information and you may get passed over if this information is not obvious at first glance.  Begin your resume with a header and if you’d like to be more specific, even a sub-header.

Example:

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Hospitality | Hotels | Multi-unit Restaurants | Private Country Clubs

Notice how the header defines the candidate and the sub-headers offers more details.

3. VALUE PROPOSITION STATEMENT: Sometimes known as a summary section, this section is the hook.

We are often questioned about an objective statement instead of a summary…Never use an objective statement - you are an executive!

A Value Proposition Statement is designed to grab the reader’s attention right from the start and persuade the reader to continue reading. Our rule of thumb is if someone else can cut and paste what you wrote and put it on your resume, then it is not very effective. This is an opportunity to differentiate from other candidates by offering more than generic information.

4. AREAS OF EXPERTISE:  You need to include keywords, and make sure they represent the level of the position you seek. There are skills that are not necessary to list in this section such as "Strong Communication Skills," "Organizational Skills," etc. Instead, use applicable keywords that indicate that you offer expert knowledge and experience.

When crafted properly, the above will fill the first 1/3 of the resume and can put an executive at an advantage from the competition.

These are just some of the career advice we provide through our Career Management program at Aspire Ascend.  Learn more and become actively engaged in your own career direction and your online presence on a regular basis. The time spent working with a career management coach will help you increase your financial reward and better position you as an executive.