Why You Need A Highlight Reel Style Resume For Senior++ Technical Roles & How To Build One
As you rack up capabilities, experience, and accomplishments, fitting everything into a resume becomes increasingly difficult. Most readers never get to page 2 or 3, so a traditional resume no longer makes sense for people who have reached the senior++ career phase. It's critical to adapt your approach to meet reality instead of attempting to compress a decade or more into a single page.
The junior, mid, and senior resume format cannot extend to support a senior++ career, but it's still essential to have a resume that introduces your capabilities. That's the new objective, so the resume transitions from a comprehensive explanation to a highlight reel. For actors and athletes, a highlight reel shows their best work. No one will watch all their games or movies, so a highlight reel shows the best performances and plays.
At any level, a resume won't get you hired. It should be built to advance you to the next stage of the process. At a senior++ level, you can do a lot, so a highlight reel focuses on what you do best. It's a document that calls out the superlatives. You could be hired into several different roles, and the highlight reel shows where you will deliver the most value.
In this article, I'll provide an example of a highlight reel resume, explain each part, and provide some advice for developing yours.
My LinkedIn Highlight Reel
Author "From Data To Profit" (Wiley 23) & weekly newsletter: vinvashishta.substack.com
Founder & AI Strategy Advisor, V Squared – One of the oldest data science consulting firms. Clients: Fortune 500, SMEs, & startups. Industries: Retail, Manufacturing, Aerospace & Defense, HRTech, & Media.
Built & delivered digital, data, & ML-supported products with $100M+ ARR.
Over a quarter century in tech. 11 years in data science. Worked in technical individual contributor, strategy, and leadership roles.
Course instructor to over 1K students. Subjects: data and AI strategy, product management, leadership, and value-centric data science.
LinkedIn Top Voice. Gartner Ambassador. SAP & IBM insider.
Breaking It Down Line By Line – The Introduction
Am I pitching my book in that first line? Definitely, but there's more going on under the covers. Being a published author is the biggest credibility builder that I have. I include the publisher to separate myself from self-published authors because that's critical for credibility building too.
The first line of anything that needs to stand out in a crowd must capture the reader's attention and frame everything that comes next. Always assume you're vying for attention in a crowded room. Everyone is shouting about their abilities and experience. My room is filled with ex-Bain and former BCG, but none are published on data and AI strategy.
Those first few words explain why someone should keep reading my profile in a field of highly qualified, exceptionally intelligent alternatives. Your first line must work for the level you're targeting. That means you probably don't need to be an author, so what should you put here?