Last updated: 24th Feb 2026
The U.S. job market remains tight. The hiring rate is at lows we last saw early in the pandemic and during the Great Depression. And in situations like this, executive hiring becomes more deliberate. Your resume’s format suddenly matters more – because you can’t afford to make a misstep.
A poorly formatted resume signals poor thinking. An executive recruiter’s brain will unconsciously assume that a candidate with a poorly formatted resume is less credible.
Let me show you how to avoid this – and exceed recruiters’ expectations.
Reverse-Chronological Format Still Wins (But Only If It’s Strategic).
Let me make this easy for you.
You must use a reverse-chronological format on your resume. Don’t listen to executive resume writers who advise you to use the functional resume format instead.
Did You Know?
The reverse-chronological format presents your work history in – you guessed it – reverse chronological order. Your most recent roles appear first.
Above: The second page of an executive resume is where the format becomes obvious. Note that the most recent role is on top.
This format is ideal for executive resumes because it:
- Places your most important info within easy reach. Recruiters appreciate not having to weed through pages of text to find your most recent role.
- Provides an at-a-glance overview of your career trajectory. Recruiters are looking for evidence of expanding scope and high promotion velocity.
The functional format, meanwhile, has traditionally been used by candidates who have something to hide (e.g., huge career gap, short tenure, sideways career moves).
This unintentionally puts the recruiter on edge, and they can’t help but wonder whether your choice of resume format is a form of damage control.
Your Executive Resume Must Be 2-3 Pages (But Only If You’ve Earned Them).
Ignore the “experts” scaring you that recruiters don’t read resumes that are longer than one page.
A graduate resume can certainly be one page. But try cramming 15-30 years of an executive career into that limit – and you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot.
Especially if you’ve had a complex career with multi-country P&Ls, transformation mandates and board roles.
Here’s a rule of thumb I follow:
- Aim for two pages.
- You’ll end up at just under three.
(If you aim for three pages, you’ll end up with four – and that’s too long for U.S. recruiters).
If you’re struggling to stay under the tree-page limit, you’re likely making at least one of the following errors:
- Your ego is driving the show. You’ve “done a lot”, and you want to show it all off. Culling it seems like “a waste”. Your resume has grown into a generic listicle of all your skills, responsibilities and projects – rather than a positioning document with a sharp focus.
- You’re underselling yourself. You’re overselling your management and technical skills – rather than your leadership skills and strategic impact. Recently promoted executives are particularly guilty of this.
Remember – your resume is a business case – not a biography. And as an executive, you’re hired to manage complexity, not tasks.
Your resume’s #1 role is to convey how you’re uniquely positioned to solve a commercial pressure a specific business is facing.
Expert Tip.
Get clear on your unique value proposition – then frame every word through the lens of its commercial outcomes.
For example, do you offer EBITDA uplift in stagnant enterprise SaaS businesses? Or margin recovery in Trump tariff-affected global FMCG supply chains?
3 Executive Resume Format Blunders You’re Probably Making.
The following mistakes are not fatal, but they do make your application look less impressive. Shall we fix them?
- Delete the “Objective”. This is an outdated inclusion that dates back to the 1990s. Noone cares that your goal is to “obtain a senior leadership position where you can elevate your leadership skills while growing the business”.
- Remove “table-stakes” skills. Strategic leadership? Culture building? Building high-performance teams? All of these are expected of you. No need to list them – you’re just wasting space on your resume (and – worse – recruiter’s time).
- Delete your date of birth, gender, religion and political affiliations. All of these can be used to discriminate against you.
I hope this little executive resume format guide helped you whip your resume into shape. Remember – resume format is a competence filter – not a surface cosmetic detail.
Irene
