Corporate Resume Templates

What is a Corporate Resume Template?

Do you want to understand what a corporate resume is? Then you have to understand what a corporation is first.

When we talk about corporations in general, we mean a larger company or group of companies acting as a single entity. These businesses have shareholders that receive dividends and can sell their stocks for profit. A typical characteristic of a corporation is the limited liability of its shareholders. This means that they are not personally responsible for the company's debts.

In general, the main objective of a corporation is to make a profit. The exceptions are incorporated nonprofit charities. It is also typical that each big corporation has its own distinctive internal culture and traditions. Another important thing that you have to know regarding corporations is that they are very formal. Procedures, management style, decision-making and hiring always follow a certain set of rules.

So, what is a corporate resume template?

The corporate resume is formal and professional above all. Numbers, metrics, facts, statistics and results are its cornerstones. This document must show that you have attention to detail, and you are a doer. This type of resume is packed with action verbs demonstrating your organizational and analytical thinking skills. All business resumes are about achievements.

In the world of human resources management, the terms executive, business and corporate resume are overlapping and can be used as synonyms.

When to Use a Corporate Resume Template?

• Personality: This type of resume template is suitable for entrepreneurial and business people. If you are interested in the corporate world, management and entrepreneurship, this is the right one for you. One of the most valuable traits in the business world is being a team player, so you need to demonstrate it through your resume. Being a team player does not exclude your ability to supervise teams. You must also be a leader. You can be a formal or an informal leader, and the corporate resume is where you need to demonstrate it.
• Professional field: The corporate resume is suitable for companies offering executive or managerial positions. The professional field does not matter if the job has something to do with management, marketing, or sales. The executive resume is a must when you apply to a firm specializing in banking, finances, investments, law, marketing, management, sales, etc. with no regard to hierarchy.
• Company: If you want to work for the top 100 corporations in the world such as Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, HSBC, Barclays, Kirkland & Ellis, BlackRock, Allianz, etc. your best opportunity will be to submit an impeccable resume in a formal corporate style.
• Background and education: The background and education of the candidates submitting corporate resumes reflect the industries mentioned a few lines earlier. They almost always come from business, management, or sales backgrounds and schools. The applicants for high executive-level positions usually have MBAs.
• Hierarchy: All business-related positions require a professional corporate resume. You could be submitting a resume for an intern position, but you still need to show that you know the rules.

The corporate resume shows your future employer that you understand the rules, and you will play by the book.

Tips for building the best corporate resume

Design

The design of the corporate resume should be formal and reserved. The minimalist approach is the safest one in this case. You can use infographics to present information related to numbers in a way that will save some space.

Bullet points in the Job Experience and Education section are highly recommended. You can also use small stylized icons for your Achievements and Skills sections, but make sure they are not too expressive.

Make sure your sections’ headings are bold and impressive. This will make the resume easy to navigate and will suggest a strong character.

Play safe and do not add a background color. Your resume can still be attractive with a white background.

Font

Arial is often used in official correspondence, so it is a good choice, albeit a bit boring. Enhancv resumes use Lato as a more modern, yet ATS-friendly font. You can also choose other fonts as long as they are readible serif and sans-serif.

Do not use more than two fonts. You can write your headings in a different font than your other content.

The font size should be 11-12 but not less than 10 and the headings should be between 14 and 18.

Colors

The use of colors on a corporate resume should be limited and subtle. Do not use more than 2 different colors. You can highlight your sections’ headings and your header. A little trick you can apply is to use the color of the company you want to get a job at. Each corporation usually has distinctive colors they use on their logo, slogan, or corporate website.

Layout

The layout is very important because it should allow the recruiter to take a good look at your resume in less than 10 seconds. This is how much time you will get. Remember this. How your hiring would benefit the company should be clear immediately. This is why the most important information must be presented in a condensed way in the Summary section. The first one-third of the resume will get the most attention.

The Header is what the recruiter will see first. It should contain your name, address, phone number, email, and social media accounts.

You can use a bigger font size for your name to make a statement. Use size 14-20. Do not forget to include any honorifics if you have one.

Your email should look professional and contemporary. Use your name instead of a nickname and modern email service such as Gmail.

If you have a LinkedIn, you should also include a link to your profile in the Header section. This is also a good alternative if you decided not to include a photo. In this way, the recruiter will be able to see your photo on LinkedIn.

The header is also the place where you can include a headline. This is a short phrase or a statement that describes you best. Few examples of headlines

• Goal-Oriented Senior Manager with Ten Years of Management Experience.
• Creative Online Marketing Campaigns Manager with Focus on ROI.
• Restaurant Manager with Extensive Fine Dining Experience.
• Award-Winning Web Designer Skilled in HTML
• Detail-Oriented Sales Manager with a Record of 100 Million USD in Annual Sales

Next comes the Summary section. This is where you can shine in a few short sentences. Make sure to describe your most relevant achievements and skills. Mention your education if it is relevant. Above all, mention numbers. Preferably, profits or turnover you achieved. Remember what we said about why corporations exist? To profit!

But wait? What should I write if I have no experience and achievements and I apply for an entry or training position in the corporate world? Well, in this case, you should add an Objective section instead of a Summary. There you can describe what you want to achieve with your new job and how you intend to use your motivation to help the company.

Next is the Work Experience section. This is the essence of the resume. Try to be short and precise and show some numbers. List your experience in a reverse-chronological order starting with the most recent post. Include the name of the organization with a brief overview, its location, and your job title. Show the period of your employment by adding month and year. Use bullet points to present your duties and responsibilities through the prism of your accomplishments.

Make sure to leave no gaps in your work history or be prepared to explain it during the interview. If a position is not relevant, you worked there a very long time ago, it was in a different industry, or you only worked there for a short period you may not include it depending on the case. The other option is to include it but exclude any details and list it just for the record.

After the Work Experience Section, you can place your Education section. Do not include your High School information if it is not relevant to the position. Start listing your degrees in reverse chronological order.

If you decide to use a two-column format, you can add your Achievements and Skills section just opposite the Education and Work Experience sections, aligned right. In this way, you can put emphasis on the most important information and present it right at the beginning of the document. You can use stylized icons in both sections. Use keywords and short phrases. Make sure to support the information you share in both sections with more details in the Job Experience and Education sections.

In the Achievements section, you could add not only job-related information but also academic or other achievements that are relevant.

The same applies to the Skills section. You can list skills acquired on the job or through courses and education.

Do I need to include any Additional sections? We recommend you include a Languages section if you speak foreign languages. Languages are very useful in the corporate world. Especially if you work at an international corporation. A foreign language can open the gates to lucrative positions abroad and make you a very prospective candidate for every organization.

In a corporate resume, you could also include more sections such as Certificates, Awards, Projects, etc.

Number of pages

One-page resumes are the best choice in almost any case. The executive resume is one exception. The reason is that unless you are applying for an entry corporate position, chances are your Job Experience will not fit on one page. Feel free to add a new page for every ten years of Job Experience you have.

Corporate resume templates pros and cons