How Targeted Career Coaching Can Unlock Your CV & Career
For executives looking to take their careers to the next level, targeted career coaching & CV creation is often seen as a critical step in securing new opportunities. However, before an executive CV can be constructed effectively, career coaching serves as an essential precursor to ensure that the document reflects not just past achievements but, more crucially, future ambitions.
Aligning Skills and Experience with Future Goals
Coaching is invaluable in helping executives articulate what they truly want from their next role. While a CV traditionally focuses on past experiences, an effective executive CV should be forward-facing, ensuring that it highlights the skills and expertise the individual wants to develop further. Many executives possess a wealth of transferable skills, but without targeted coaching, they may default to listing past achievements without strategically selecting the ones that align with their future career aspirations.
Through coaching, executives gain clarity on which aspects of their experience should be foregrounded. For example, an executive transitioning from operational leadership to strategic advisory roles would benefit from de-emphasising hands-on execution experience and instead highlighting governance, stakeholder management, and high-level decision-making. Without this awareness, CVs often become repositories of historical successes rather than strategic tools for career progression.
Identifying New Roles and Opportunities
Another key benefit of executive coaching is that it can illuminate potential career paths that an individual may not have considered. The modern executive job market is evolving rapidly, with roles emerging that did not exist even five years ago. A coach can help executives see where their skills might apply in new sectors or industries and help them reposition their expertise accordingly.
For instance, an executive with a background in finance may discover, through coaching, that their leadership in risk management and regulatory compliance positions them well for a Chief Risk Officer role rather than a traditional CFO track. Without this strategic insight, they might have limited their CV to finance-centric roles, missing out on broader opportunities.
Defining the CV’s Design for the Target Audience
One of the most overlooked aspects of CV creation is its structure and design, which should be dictated by the target audience. A CV aimed at a board-level appointment will look significantly different from one targeting a C-suite operational role. Coaching provides the perspective needed to tailor the CV not just in content but in format.
For example, a visually streamlined, high-impact executive summary might be crucial for those targeting private equity-backed leadership roles, whereas a more detailed breakdown of change management initiatives could be essential for those moving into transformation-focused roles. Coaching helps executives understand these nuances and ensures that their CV speaks directly to the needs of prospective employers or boards.
Making the CV a Personal Brand Statement
Beyond listing roles and responsibilities, an executive CV should serve as a personal branding tool. Targeted career coaching plays a key role in shaping this narrative, ensuring that the document presents a clear and compelling leadership story. Executives who undergo coaching often emerge with a refined understanding of their unique value proposition, which translates into a more impactful CV.
An executive’s leadership philosophy, strategic vision, and cultural fit within an organisation are all elements that can be honed through coaching. Rather than passively stating past experiences, the CV then becomes an active declaration of leadership style, industry impact, and vision for the future.
The Key to a Future-Focused CV
Before embarking on CV creation, executives should consider targeted career coaching as a fundamental step in the process. It helps to align past experiences with future ambitions, identify new career opportunities, define the structure and messaging for the target audience, and transform the CV into a strategic personal branding document. Without this critical preparatory stage, even the most experienced executives risk producing a CV that fails to position them effectively for their next challenge.
If you want to learn more about how I can assist you, feel free to contact me on LinkedIn or schedule an appointment here: https://live.vcita.com/site/professionalcvexperts.traceythomas