Senior hire: trimming twenty years without losing impact

Helen, a finance director with twenty-two years across listed and PE-backed firms, needed a three-page CV trimmed for external searches without burying transformation work. Executive recruiters spent seconds on the first screen; page three never loaded. She was not rejected for lack of achievement — she was hard to scan.

Issues on the original CV

• Roles from the 2000s carried equal bullet count to the current post
• Summary was a paragraph of adjectives without revenue or EBITDA scope
• Board and M&A wins were buried under compliance duty lists
• Each application reused the same file regardless of mandate (growth vs turnaround)

The approach

Helen kept a master CV, then used job-description comparison to produce two-page tailored versions. Analysis flagged keyword gaps for “post-acquisition integration” on a specific mandate — she expanded one bullet on a carve-out she had led rather than adding new roles. Older positions collapsed to title, employer, and one line unless directly relevant.

She paired software passes with one session from an executive coach on narrative — software handled iteration speed; the coach challenged whether she was targeting the right mandate size.

Result

Helen reported stronger recruiter callbacks and more focused first conversations. She still faced a long market for FTSE-adjacent roles; no tool shortens macro hiring cycles. The win was efficiency: less time sending generic histories, more time on relationships and due diligence.

See ideal CV length and the complete CV guide. Analyse your senior CV against a live job description.