Executive Summary Resume
How to Write the Top of a Senior CV, With Eight Examples

The key insight:

A senior CV summary has one job: to tell a reader, in under ten seconds, the scope you run, the sector you know and the result that defines you.

Search for an executive summary resume and you will find templates written for someone leaving university. A senior CV needs something different. The four to six lines at the top, called a CV personal profile or a personal statement in the UK, are the only part most readers are certain to see. They decide whether the rest of the document is read at all.

TheLadders ran an eye-tracking study with thirty professional recruiters and found that they spent about six seconds on an initial look at a resume, with most of that time on a handful of data points such as names, titles and dates. It is vendor research, published in 2012 by a company that sells resume services, so treat the figure as a guide to how brief the first look is rather than a precise benchmark. The point stands: your summary has to work in seconds. This guide covers what a search consultant looks for there, how it differs from a graduate statement, eight before-and-after examples and the phrases to cut. If you want to see how your CV scores first, analyse your CV for free and read on.

What the top block must do

The summary is a positioning statement, not a biography. It answers three questions in the order a reader asks them: who is this, what do they run, and why should I carry on reading.

Prospects, the UK graduate careers service run by Jisc, advises a personal statement of no more than 150 words, tailored to each application and free of bland lines such as "I work well independently and as part of a team". For a graduate the content is education, early experience and ambition. At senior level the content is entirely different, and shorter. Aim for four to six lines, or roughly 60 to 90 words.

The four things a search consultant looks for

A search consultant or board reader scans for four items before anything else.

Scope. How many people, how much budget, how many markets. "Leads a team of 120 across four countries" tells a reader the size of the job in one line.

Scale and type of business. Listed or private, family-owned or sponsor-backed, regional or global. The context changes what the same title means.

Sector. What you know. Say it plainly, so a reader searching for a specific sector sees it at once.

The one result that defines you. One outcome with a number, not a list. It is the line a reader repeats when they describe you to someone else.

A fifth element sits at the end of the block: the role you are aiming for, in half a line. It lets a reader place you without guessing.

A workable template: "[Title] with [scope] across [sector]. [One defining result]. [Second strength]. Seeking [target role]."

Eight before-and-after examples

The examples below are illustrative. The figures show the form, so replace them with your own.

1. Finance director

Before: "Results-driven finance professional with a proven track record of delivering strategic financial leadership."

After: "Finance Director leading a team of 45 across a USD 600m group in industrial services. Brought close from day twelve to day four and led the finance integration of two acquisitions. Seeking a CFO role in a sponsor-backed business."

2. Commercial VP

Before: "Dynamic sales leader passionate about driving growth and building high-performing teams."

After: "VP Commercial responsible for USD 220m revenue across the Middle East and Africa in medical devices. Moved the business from distributor to direct in three markets, lifting gross margin by six points. Seeking a regional managing director role."

3. Chief operating officer

Before: "Experienced COO with excellent communication skills and a strong operational background."

After: "COO of a 2,400-person logistics group across six countries. Cut unit cost by 11 per cent while holding service levels, and built the operating rhythm that two successive CEOs have used. Seeking a CEO role in logistics or infrastructure."

4. Chief human resources officer

Before: "Strategic HR leader with a passion for people and culture."

After: "CHRO of a listed, family-influenced group with 9,000 employees. Rebuilt the senior reward structure after a merger without losing a named executive, and built a succession bench that has produced eight internal promotions in 24 months. Open to board-level people roles."

5. Chief technology officer

Before: "Visionary technology executive who loves innovation and transformation."

After: "CTO responsible for a 180-person engineering function and a USD 40m budget in fintech. Led the migration of 40 services to the cloud with no customer-facing outage and cut run costs by a fifth. Seeking a CTO or chief digital role in a regulated business."

6. Chief executive officer

Before: "Seasoned CEO with a track record of leadership and growth across diverse industries."

After: "CEO of a USD 450m consumer goods business across the Gulf and North Africa. Returned the group to profit in 18 months and doubled e-commerce share to a fifth of revenue. Seeking a CEO role in a turnaround or growth setting."

7. First-time non-executive director

Before: "Senior executive looking to bring my experience to a board."

After: "Former CFO with 20 years in consumer and retail, audit committee experience at a private-equity-backed company, and board exposure across eight transactions. Able to challenge on capital allocation, controls and reporting. Seeking a first non-executive role with an audit committee remit."

8. General manager, Gulf

Before: "Hard-working general manager with substantial regional experience."

After: "General Manager running a AED 180m business unit with 300 staff in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Took the unit from loss to break-even in 18 months and won two government framework contracts. Seeking a managing director role in a regional group."

Phrases to cut

Most summaries lose their force through filler. Cut or replace these.

Check the block before you send

Five quick tests. Scope: does it state people, budget or markets? Sector: could a reader place you in your industry in two seconds? Result: is there exactly one defining outcome with a number? Difference: could this paragraph appear on a colleague's CV unchanged? If so, rewrite it. Target: does the last line say what you want next?

The summary leads into the rest of the document, so keep it consistent with the body. Our guide to writing an executive CV covers the whole document, and our shortlist of senior CV achievements covers the bullet points below the summary. If you use LinkedIn, our guide to executive LinkedIn headline examples covers the matching line there. Our guide to answering why should we hire you shows how the same positioning is spoken aloud, which is why the two should say the same thing.

Find the right lead with a profile

The hardest part of the summary is deciding what to lead with. A useful exercise is to ask which of your strengths a reader should remember. If you are not sure, you can take the free Leadership Psychometric, a 50-question leadership profile that scores five dimensions and shows which are genuinely high relative to senior peers. That tells you which strength to put in the second line. If you want to see what it covers first, there is a public overview of the Leadership Psychometric. Our guide to leadership strengths covers how to evidence them.

Once you have a draft, the CV Rewriter produces a version tailored to your target market. Sign up to rewrite your CV and compare it with your own.

For the executive search side, JOH Partners publishes its executive search insights for boards and hiring leaders. The wider CV & Applications collection covers the rest of the document.

Key takeaways

• The summary is a positioning statement: who you are, what you run and why a reader should continue. It is read in seconds.
• A senior summary is four to six lines, roughly 60 to 90 words, and differs from a graduate statement by leading with scope, sector and result, not education.
• Include four things: scope, type of business, sector and one defining result. Add the role you want next in half a line.
• Cut filler such as "results-driven", "proven track record" and "passionate about", and replace each with a fact.
• Keep the summary consistent with the body, your LinkedIn headline and what you will say aloud.

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