Sometimes having an outsider look at your background can make all the difference in the world as to how you perceive yourself. I recently had a senior executive who lamented how difficult it was for him to reenter the job market as he had left a significant corporate position for a job in academia where he has spent the last 7 years. He was concerned that his strength in creating and executing a company vision/mission would not be perceived because of his “sabbatical”.

Perhaps the most important part of the resume writing process is to define your positioning statement or “elevator pitch”. And in the process of defining your positioning statement, you need to give some thought to your overall search strategy.