A Modern Resume Guide for Board-Bound Women

Career advancement isn’t always up the ladder. Expand your impact on a board of directors.

16.9% of corporate board seats are held by women globally, according to Deloitte’s Women in the Board Room Report, 6th edition, with 2,987 women having a seat at the table in the United States.

Yep, you guessed it. Your voice (and skills) are needed in the boardroom. Equip yourself with the tools you need to nab your seat, including a tailored board resume.

Wait to blow the digital dust off your document and know your audience first before crafting your resume for a board position.

Think through questions like:

Are you targeting a corporate or nonprofit board?

Does the company or organization that is supported by the board fall within a specific industry?

How are board members recruited, screened, and selected?

What skills, expertise, and experiences are relevant to board service?

Your answers to these questions will not only influence your direction, but the overall tone of your resume, what to include (and leave out), how to frame your accomplishments and the keywords you infuse into your document.

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The Skinny on Board Governance

Type of Board: Nonprofit or Corporate

There are a couple overarching differences between corporations and nonprofit organizations that we should get out of the way first.

• For-profit corporations are owned by stockholders; their focus is on generating money for the owners, and they measure success by profits.

• Nonprofit organizations are owned by the public; their focus is on serving the public, and they measure success by meeting the needs of the public.

Defining Board Characteristics

Whether a board oversees a for-profit company or a nonprofit organization, there are more similarities than differences. Every board:

Has written articles of incorporation, bylaws, and governing principles that outline the responsibilities of the board of directors

Standard board policies cover member independence, conflict of interest, conduct/ethics code, expectations, confidentiality, and indemnification. Taking the time to familiarize yourself with these when targeting a specific board of directors will help you formulate your resume strategy.

Guides the organization’s strategic plan

Because they generally have a higher level of participation in developing strategic plans in its initial stages, members of nonprofit boards and start-up companies often serve on one or more strategic planning committees and desire strategic thinking in their directors.

Oversees the financial wellbeing of the organization

This is a primary responsibility of corporate and nonprofit boards. However, there are some key differences. Corporations have an obligation to deliver a financial return to stakeholders; therefore, corporate boards are focused on net earnings, stock prices, and dividend rates.

Although many nonprofit organizations have turned their attention toward building and managing investment portfolios, they still rely heavily on fundraising. Therefore, nonprofit boards have a different focus in how they operate and consider a member’s net worth (or ability to financially support the organization) as essential to fulfilling their mission and goals.

Emphasizes diversity

Bringing in a variety of perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences is integral to a high-performing (and egalitarian board) culture. Whether the board is for-profit or nonprofit, board member social diversity (e.g., gender, socio-economic background, race, religion, age and nationality) and professional diversity is a high priority.

Serves as ambassadors for the organization

Board members support and educate influencers and the community about the importance of what they do.

Most boards face the same key challenges — rapidly changing technology, market competition, regulatory restrictions, limited resources, and finding and retaining good people.

Just as a jobseeker’s resume must illustrate an understanding of these challenges and the candidate’s ability to address them, a resume for a board of director candidate must do the same.

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Choose Your Board: Corporate or Nonprofit?

Know which type of board (and why) you want to join before crafting your resume.

Corporate Board

For-profit board searches are often conducted by executive search firms. Typically, a nominating and governance committee will work with a recruiter to discuss their needs and identify board candidates. The company CEO — and possibly the entire board — will interview and select finalists.

Competition for a seat on a corporate board is fierce. Since for-profit companies have an obligation to deliver a financial return to shareholders, they seek board members with experience starting, running, and growing successful businesses. Expertise in a specific area of operations — such as finance, mergers and acquisitions, or legal — may also be desirable.

Nonprofit Board

With the exception of large, high-profile organizations, there is far less competition for nonprofit board positions. Nonprofit boards often act as a stepping-stone for corporate governance opportunities. Like for-profit boards, nonprofit boards look for candidates with a wide range of skills, particularly with expertise in nonprofit programming, community relations and fundraising.

Typically in job search you are filling a well-defined slot in an organizational chart, but board appointments tend to be more like a jigsaw puzzle. The challenge is to find someone to appoint on merit and fit to complement the existing boardroom.

Both for-profit and nonprofit boards are legally obligated to follow their bylaws, which may include specific criteria for board size, structure, and composition. Recruitment matrices are a common tool used to break down a candidate’s areas of expertise, leadership qualities, access to a variety of resources, network/connections, as well as personal style, age, gender, race, and ethnicity.

Board Resume Breakdown

Know your career-defining expertise

Now that you know about the type of board you are targeting — corporate or nonprofit — and what criteria go into the selection process, you can begin planning your resume.

First, identify your areas of expertise and how they will benefit your target board. Both corporate and nonprofit boards have a need for members whose experience and expertise fall within the following areas:

budgeting and finance, human resources, technology, strategic planning, risk management, succession planning, legal, compliance, marketing, public relations and/or consensus building

Experience within the same or similar industries, and insight about customer/client needs is also essential. Both types of boards value members who have strong networks and access to a variety of resources (government connections, attorneys, accountants, consultants, etc.).

Select your resume format

The overall format of your board resume is not that different than your job search resume; however, sections that are considered optional or secondary to actual work experience have more credence when positioning yourself for a board of director’s role.

Letterhead

As with your job search resume, design your letterhead so that your name is formatted as the most prominent feature. For contact information, include your city, state, and ZIP code (not your full mailing address), email, phone and your custom LinkedIn URL.

Headline

Instead of beginning with an actual job title that identifies what you do, the headline should make it clear that you are targeting a board position. The headline may include some key functional areas of expertise you bring to that position (and industry) in which you have gained this expertise.

For example:

Board of Directors — Commercial Banking & Finance

Financial Analysis | Mergers & Acquisitions | Audits

Branding Statement

Use a short three-to-five sentence paragraph to showcase how your professional qualifications and leadership led to impact in the community or industry in which the board is involved. Highlight important connections, industry commitment and skills (like consensus building and strategic thinking).

Employment Experience

Think big picture in your employment descriptions. Unless your responsibilities and tasks are specifically relevant to the role you would perform on the board, keep the information high level. Integrate relevant keywords when specifying accomplishments, framing them in such a way to demonstrate collaboration.

Optional Sections

These optional sections may be the big differentiators compared to your employment resume. Sections you can consider are:

Board Experience: Include organization names, cities, states, and service dates.
Professional Affiliations/Memberships: Include any leadership in these organizations, too.
Recognition & Awards
Community Involvement: Commonly known as volunteer experience.
Presentations

You may also want include key traits that you would normally downplay on a job search resume. Clues about diversity (age, gender, race, ethnicity, etc.) may be one of them as they can be key considerations when selecting board members.

Education

Include your degree as well as leadership roles and honors received. Professional credentials and certifications fit in this section in addition to conference and workshop attendance.

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Key into Resume Keywords

Corporate Board

Corporate boards look for global experience and expertise in matters such as mergers and acquisitions, research and development, IPOs, shareholder proposals, and investments.

A few terms that are commonly heard in corporate boardrooms — and that you’ll want to consider including as keywords in a corporate board resume — are earnings per share, EBITDA, quarterly returns, stock buyback, real estate transactions, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Dodd-Frank.

Nonprofit Board

Nonprofit boards, however, seek members whose expertise may include grant writing, fundraising campaigns, donor relations, endowments, 501(c)(3) applications, and volunteer management.

Some of the keywords that you’ll want to include in a nonprofit board resume are donor capacity, restricted/unrestricted gifts, stewardship, community education, foundations, and capital campaigns.

Soft skill descriptors that matter to both corporate and nonprofit resumes include consensus builder, collaborator, communicator and diplomatic.

No matter corporate or nonprofit, joining a board is a sure-fire way to grow professionally, enlarge your network and expand your impact (and visibility).

Professional Women: Organizations need your voice and skills.