What Goes in an Executive Portfolio?

Other than a resume and a biography, what’s included in your executive portfolio will depend both on your background and on your career goals. With a resume limited to three pages at the most, there may be additional information you would like a hiring manager or board to see. Including addendums to showcase items relevant to the work you are applying for is the appropriate way to do this. Concise, one-page sheets on a specific subject is all that you need.

How do you choose what to include? First, consider the level you are seeking. For anyone looking to be hired as an executive, leadership skills are a must, and an addendum with successful initiatives is one way of illustrating this. You can also take it a step further and think about specific leadership skills you want to highlight (for example, turning around underperforming departments).

Next, keep your target industry in mind. A Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will oversee divisions with two very different industries. Each will have different goals, and this needs to be reflected. In this case, a CFO could detail cost-saving initiatives and results, while a CMO could have a case study on how much money was generated due to a successful campaign launch.

What else should you include in an addendum? Some additional examples include publications, a list of speaking engagements, additional education, or specific items within your industry (for example, “re-branding campaigns”). There’s no limit to the number of addendums you can include, and no restriction on the subject. However, here are a couple of guidelines:

1) It should be relevant to the position(s) you are seeking.
2) It should be concise. This is not the place to list every detail; items can be
expanded upon in the interview.

Keep these two “rules” in mind for everything you write, and you’ll be sure to have a winning executive profile.