You’re a senior executive and, after many years as corporate leader, you decided to target a non-executive or independent board director seat. Perhaps you reached the age of 50+ and your outlook changed, or you already are a board director and want to be on more boards. Either way, you can leverage your leadership experience and expertise to qualify for that seat on the governing body of a corporation.
 
1. Get Started: What do you do? Is the resume that you used for corporate roles appropriate for board director roles? It probably needs some changes. Most likely, information needs to be reweighted and job descriptions need streamlining.
 
2. Content & Design: A board resume covers a bigger picture of your career than the traditional executive resume. There is less need for early experience and day-to-day responsibilities, and more focus on strategic leadership, challenges faced, and the total scope of each role. In most cases, board resumes are shorter than executive resumes and can easily fit on one page.
 
3. Reweighting Information: For executives who already have board experience, most likely you listed that information near the end of the resume in your pursuit of corporate roles. Now is the time to bring that experience to the top half of the first page and elaborate. Describe your role on each board, committees on which you participated, results you generated, and issues you resolved.
 
4. Networking & Visibility: As in every executive job search, networking is essential and referrals are supreme. In addition to communicating your new goals to colleagues and peers, ramp up your visibility on LinkedIn; join board-related groups and demonstrate your thought leadership. And in closing, to create the possibility of connecting with thousands of AESC member executive search professionals, post your resume on the BlueSteps website along with a targeted cover letter.