Amy Lindgren

“Send me your materials.”

Résumé? Curriculum vitae? Biography? What should executive-level candidates forward when recruiters make this request? Lesson one for executive job search: In this situation feel free to reply, “What do you prefer?”

For the moment, the most adaptable and widely used document is your résumé, so that’s a good place to start. Once you have that organized, you can improve your LinkedIn profile, draft a one-page bio, and consider whether a CV is needed. Here are some tips to help you get prepared.

Résumés for the C-Suite

If you’re focused on a C-suite position, that is, a leadership position with the word “chief” in the title, your résumé needs to promote your “C” qualities. For example, CFOs (chief financial officer) are long past the days of entering financial data or developing quarterly reports. Those skills are assumed but unlikely to be used — which means they don’t need to be highlighted.

If a CFO isn’t going to showcase accounting skills and a CTO (chief technology officer) isn’t going to brag about software packages, what are they going to describe instead?

Leadership. Plain and simple, executives are hired to lead. They must also know their discipline, of course, but they’re unlikely to be hired based on that knowledge alone. To position yourself as an executive or high-level director, follow these résumé strategies:

1. Lead with an Executive Summary: Also called a Professional Profile, this short synopsis provides your leadership experience and related training while setting the tone for the résumé.

2. Highlight key leadership skills: Some categories might include: Strategic planning, change management, diversity and inclusion, financial oversight, team building, and communication. Think about your own leadership skills, and then create a résumé category to call them out with some detail provided.

3. Demonstrate expertise in your discipline and industry: Back to our CFO or CTO example — what are they specifically good at in their disciplines or industries? Examples could include corporate tax strategies, mergers, cyber security, etc. Either candidate might be well-versed in an industry, such as hospitality or retail. Create another résumé category to capture these points, making it easier for employers and recruiters to see your strengths.

4. Keep job descriptions short: Focus on numbers and high-level projects rather than daily tasks. For example, “Led 30+ accounting team members in preparing / reviewing financials for six corporate acquisitions over two years, totaling $3.6B in value.” The goal is to provide a scope of your capabilities, not an exhaustive litany of the steps involved.

5. Consider a Projects section: If our CTO masterminded an enterprisewide technology changeover, that might merit its own paragraph. Consider major projects you led to see if any fit this concept.

6. Include community engagement: Have you led fundraising committees or served on a nonprofit board? Perhaps you helped your house of worship improve their building with a new kitchen. The higher the level of your community involvement, the more important it is to include on your résumé.

Is a CV needed?

In most fields, that answer will be no. The CV, or curriculum vitae, is a traditional tool used by physicians, academics, attorneys and others with letters after their names (MD, PhD, etc.). It’s generally used when moving from one “like” position to the next — from being a doctor in one hospital to being a doctor in another hospital, for example. But if this doctor is now applying to be a hospital executive, the hiring committee might be calling for a CV. If so, the best strategy is to modify the traditional CV format with some of the elements used for executive résumés.

What about LinkedIn?

Yes, you need a LinkedIn profile. It’s one of the first places recruiters will check, either on a blind search for candidates, or as part of their due diligence after receiving your résumé. One strategy is to modify your LinkedIn as a mirror of your résumé, by including elements from your leadership and expertise categories in the About section of the LinkedIn profile.

And a bio too?

Maybe, and maybe not. An executive bio can be useful in your candidate package, describing you with more warmth and personality than your other materials can do. It’s usually just a few paragraphs with a photo, but it needs to feel professional to be effective.

Now that you know more about the materials used in executive job search, you can get started on creating yours. For more background on executive job search, check my columns from the last two weeks on strategies for identifying and finding high-level roles. Next week we’ll complete the series with leadership books that have crossed my desk recently.

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Amy Lindgren owns a career consulting firm in St. Paul. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.

As the Orioles packed up their lockers in the visitors’ clubhouse at Globe Life Field last week, John Means had similar — yet also different — feelings of disappointment.

Means diligently worked for 16 months to make his way back from elbow surgery and pitched like one of Baltimore’s best starters in September, only to have a flare-up in his left elbow two days before the American League Division Series against the Texas Rangers started.

“Yeah, it was tough,” Means said about missing the ALDS after the Orioles’ loss in Game 3. “These guys have been so good all year. But obviously I wanted to be out there, try and help this team, but it just wasn’t in the cards.”

That elbow discomfort Means felt during his two-inning simulated game turned out to be something “small,” he said, and the decision to hold him out of the ALDS was “just one of those precautionary things.”

Past the disappointment of missing the Orioles’ first playoff appearance since 2016, Means’ elbow being structurally OK is good news for the left-hander and Baltimore’s rotation in 2024. Means said he expects to have a “normal” offseason and head into spring training ready for a full season.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Means said. “I should be ready to go. I’m looking forward to spring training when I’m not held back.”

Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias said during his end-of-season news conference last week that Means’ elbow is in “good shape.”

“His elbow just kind of barked at an unfortunate time for him, but we’ve gotten it looked at and he’s gonna be fine, so he’ll be a full-go in spring training,” Elias said. “Nothing needed for treatment with him other than just kind of time and rest.”

Means suffered through the Orioles’ painful rebuild as the club’s best starting pitcher. He was an All-Star and AL Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2019 and the team’s opening day starter in 2021 and 2022. But in his second start of the 2022 season, he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow and later underwent Tommy John elbow reconstruction.

Three weeks after his surgery, the Orioles promoted catcher Adley Rutschman and transformed into a playoff contender. From the time of his injury to when he returned in September 2023, Means watched from the side as Baltimore emerged from the rebuild to play important games through the 2022 season and then spend the first five months of the 2023 campaign as one of MLB’s best teams.

The hope was Means could return in July, but a muscle strain in his back delayed his return by about two months.

“It was up and down, for sure,” Means said of his 2023. “I was glad I made it back eventually. I was hoping to make it back for more, but, yeah, I was happy with how I felt when I was back, so I guess that’s all you can ask for.”

Even though he only started four games and didn’t pitch in the postseason, he still played an integral role down the stretch. He posted a 2.66 ERA in 23 2/3 innings, including a masterful start in Cleveland in which he took a no-hit bid into the seventh to help end a three-game losing streak.

“The guy came out of nowhere and saved our division title in Cleveland, and I’ll never forget that,” Elias said.

Not having Means in the ALDS did play a factor in the sweep, although whether the left-hander would’ve made a big enough difference to turn the series is unlikely. It’s also unclear whether Means would’ve started Game 3 in Arlington, Texas, or come out of the bullpen sometime in the series, but manager Brandon Hyde said not having Means affected how he could use the rest of his pitching staff.

“It’s just one of those things that happened. It’s unfortunate, but it happened and it didn’t allow us to have one of our starters go in the bullpen,” Hyde said.

In 2024, Means could once again help lead the Orioles’ rotation, but one that’s much better than the ones he headlined during the rebuild. Kyle Bradish emerged this season as one of the AL’s best starting pitchers, while rookie Grayson Rodriguez bounced back from a poor first half with a stellar second, although he struggled in his one postseason start.

After the Game 3 loss to the Rangers, Means said getting playoff experience will be beneficial for a team that’s still on the upswing.

“This is something that, you know, is going to be very useful down the road,” he said. “This team is so young and so talented and so smart, too, that they’re just going to be able to be even better next year.”

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There’s a double-layered sense of self-reflective nostalgia baked into Alexander Payne’s misfit holiday movie “The Holdovers.” Set in 1970, there’s nostalgia for the time period, which is textured and rendered with care and conviction on-screen. But the film itself, a warm, spicy brew of humor, poignancy and irascible charm, also inspires the odd desire to be rewatching it while you’re watching it, a kind of nostalgia for the present moment. That funny feeling is reflected in the plot too, in which a trio of near strangers form an unlikely but indelible bond over Christmas break at a Massachusetts boarding school.

“The Holdovers” crackles and pops with film grain, like a roaring fire might. Right away, Payne places us in a vintage setting, with 1970s-style production logos aiding his time travel mission, allowing us to settle into the era, like sinking into a brocade sofa with a few fingers of Canadian Club in a coffee cup.

There is a certain warmth to “The Holdovers,” though the environs are chilly. We find ourselves on the snowy campus of Barton, a tony all-boys private school, over the holidays, where the administration has shut off the heat, leaving the few stragglers with nowhere to go to bunk in the infirmary. There is also a warmth to the sentiment of “The Holdovers,” though the characters are irascible and cranky, none-to-pleased to be stuck there.

In the witty and wondrous script by David Hemingson, our players are Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) an ancient civilizations teacher known as “Walleye” for well, his walleye, and reviled for his gleefully sadistic grading and creative insults. He’s been tricked by another teacher into supervising the holdovers, but he doesn’t have much else to do or anywhere else to be anyway. The group of boys includes the brilliant but troublesome Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa); their meals are provided by Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the cafeteria manager who is grieving the loss of her only son who died in Vietnam. There are a few other students around, but they are soon dispatched in a helicopter for skiing at Haystack, and our unlikely trio ultimately embark on a surprising emotional journey in which they learn and grow from each other in their own gruffly sentimental ways.

Payne shows us these characters within Barton first and then expands our understanding of who they are, outside of Barton. There are a few other folks around, Danny (Naheem Garcia), the custodian who has a friendship with Mary, and Lydia (Carrie Preston), a charming administrative assistant who takes them in for Christmas Eve, but the focus is on these three, because they are all profoundly lonely people grieving someone, or something: a child, a family, one’s own potential, lives dashed out before they even got started.

That desire to preserve some shred of possibility is what rallies Mr. Hunham and Mary to Angus’ cause. He’s rebellious and a jerk, but he’s brilliant, and has the capacity to change and grow. And in believing in his future, they liberate themselves from their own emotional prisons, moving forward in their lives where they’ve been stuck grinding their gears.

Payne affords this story the time and patience that it deserves, as Hemingson’s script slowly peels back the layers of character, pushing past their walls, guarded by sharp barbs, to reveal their sorrow, and their joy. This isn’t a story of found family that stays together, but merely a snapshot of a moment in time, in which an unexpected experience with other people leads to growth and change, even if it’s just learning to be decent to one another.

This funny, sad, poignant, sharp-edged character piece is a grouch with a heart of gold, with emotions that are deeply felt and utterly earned, embodied by three unforgettable performances. Giamatti and Payne have been a match made in grumpy heaven since “Sideways,” and Sessa, in his first film role, holds the screen in a challenging part opposite two titans. But it’s Randolph who is divine, holding the fragile Mary together with a sense of inner strength and a sliver of hope.

Payne and cinematographer Eigil Bryld weave a period-specific spell using vintage lenses on digital cameras, layering the grain in postproduction, while the production design by Ryan Warren Smith is note perfect, down to the haze of cigarette smoke. Choral renditions of Christmas carols and ‘70s folk favorites lend themselves to the time and the season. “The Holdovers” is an instant addition to the holiday movie canon, and it’s not hard to let it wiggle its way into your heart, providing an especially potent tonic for feeling sad, lonely or out-of-sorts around the holiday time.

‘The Holdovers’

4 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for language, some drug use and brief sexual material)

Running time: 2:13

How to watch: In theaters Friday

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