Top Secret Executive Resumes
This practical and helpful guide takes you step by step through the process of writing and formatting a job-winning resume. Steven Provenzano starts off with advice on identifying and expressing one’s special talents and abilities. Worksheets are included throughout to help readers get organized and motivated.
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Good Reference for Business Resumes
If you are just starting on your resume or have been working on it for awhile and are stuck, this could help you. There are a lot of great examples in a fairly consistent format. The recommended format is close to what the expensive resume shops recommend–white space, concise, clear wording, chronological format, etc.
Generally the examples are for business executive resumes–CEO, VP, finance, marketing, etc., and the book is an excellent guide to that type of resume, but it won’t help much if you are in a technical, non-executive career path.
This book could probably cut ten hours off of the time it takes to prepare a winning resume, so it is well worth the price.
4 Stars Very good guide
The book had very good examples of resumes and a good step by step process. The worksheets were helpful and provided a good outline to focus my thinking.
4 Stars Wish to have more different examples
This is one executive resume reference that’s consistent. The writer spend a few chapters on resume writing skills and you can find how he walks his talk in the examples that followed. He certainly delivered his message quite clear, and I had certainly benefitted. He is specific in his approach, and he stands by it.
The shortfall I found in this book is that most of the examples are pretty similar. Some of the starting phrases are exactly the same, and you find differences in the job descriptions - this is particularly obvious in the Profile section throughout. Considering these resume is original work by the author (and colleagues), I am not surprised (nor disappointed) though I wish for different examples.
But overall, if you have the patience to read through the begining chapters, you most likely will find it a good reference. Good job.
1 Stars very light on use content - other resumme books are better
I got this book to redo my resume. In the process I ordered a few resume books to get some different prespectives. In the end, this book was the one I wish I didn’t spend the money on. All of the examples are very similar. Despite the fact there is some commentary on how many interviews each specific resume got, it does not go into any detail on why it performed the way it did. I highly recommend you save your money and invest it in “Resume Magic” which I found to be the best all around resume book of the ones I purchased.
4 Stars A Good Reference for Executive Resume
This is one of the better executive resume reference book I had come across. If you are in the transition to your mid-career, and is having trouble to put your career in a bigger picture so that people can understand, then the author has done a wonderful job in offering you examples and insights on how to put things in order - from an employer perspective.
The only drawback of this book is probably only the ‘repetitive’ phrases and approaches the author used. The examples in the book, claimed by the author, were real-life examples created either by him or his staff. Therefore, as you read through the book you will find similarities in almost all the resumes. Though this is understandable, I personally think this can be improved somewhat.
In terms of usefulness in refernce, I would have given this a 5-star. In terms of value, I will have to settle for a 4-star rating.
Filed under: Resume Writing Book Reviews