People often wonder if they should use a topical rather than a chronological résumé and ask if I can prepare a topical résumé for them. But is that the best strategy? Of course having written thousands of résumés, I can do so. But before I do I like to share a few insights with them. […]
Posts By: Nadine
Discovering our natural gifts and talents.
I believe that all of us are richly endowed with natural gifts and talents. Isn’t it obvious when we sit in a performing arts center and listen to a voice like that of Pavarotti, or Sarah Brightman. These are people who discovered and used their gifts to bring joy to others, and ironically, they have […]
Acceptability verses unacceptability in our interview process.
What is it about an interview that connects with all the youthful messages we carry about acceptability verses unacceptability? Somewhere in time, someone indelibly impressed on our souls that as we lived our academic lives, there was some kind of transcript of life we were recording with every missed class, unfinished assignment, or lesser grade. […]
How much should you invest in your résumé?
People often wonder how much they should invest in their résumé. In harder times, we are forced to cut back and analyze every purchase we make. The question is, can we afford to cut the budget on our advertising, our résumé, and our reaches to the marketplace? Can we afford to budget on the key to […]
Is our Interview or Customer Traffic a Measure of our Talent?
In down times, we may be tempted to wonder if our interview frequency or customer traffic is a measure of our talent. My daughter is an entrepreneur and a talented, gifted artist, and I am a professional writer. Often I remark on how God gave us different gifts so that we could help one another. On […]
Use relevant keywords and outsmart applicant tracking systems.
Keywords are your ticket to assuring the relevancy of your résumé and successfully sidestepping the potential hazards of Applicant Tracking Systems. Such systems store, scan, and select job applications and résumés for prospective employers. This once traditionally major company recruitment methodology has now evolved into a standard approach for small and large companies alike, and […]
Should résumés have an objective?
Years ago, we would try to craft a generic résumé objective that would open the playing field for prospective clients. Today, résumés are trending away from objectives. A résumé should tell your story, what you have done and how well you have done it. But the objective is more specific and from that perspective, we […]
What makes a distinctive and impacting résumé?
A well-performing résumé must be distinctive, impacting, and accomplishment focused. Résumés have undergone a serious evolution in the past 10 years. Whereas a résumé was once regarded as an amenity, it has now become a required “passport” or right of passage to the professional marketplace. A résumé can no longer pass as a simple job […]
Collaborative Writing – A Vital Résumé Writing Tool
As a professional writer, I discovered early that collaborative writing was a vital résumé writing tool. When I began résumé writing 20 years ago, I hired a front-line representative that booked appointments and filled out questionnaires for callers. When I tried to write from such material, I realized very quickly that I had many unanswered […]
Should you write your own résumé?
Should you write your own résumé? There are a number of people that may think that their résumé must be crafted in their own words and emulate their personal communication style. Others think they can use templates and do a “slam dunk” job of developing an employment list. And yet others simply feel they can […]
Do I need to create a résumé to target a specific job?
People frequently ask me to write a résumé to target a specific job. While some believe this is a viable strategy, it can be a very risky and expensive proposition. Unless a person has had two distinct careers and corresponding experience, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to do this. The truth is, our […]
Designing leading-edge résumés —
Your passport to exciting career opportunities!
Professional résumés that perform in the marketplace!
“Within a day of posting my new resume from you my searches and reviews online increased dramatically. I was immediately getting hits and requests for interviews.” – Chris K. Savage, MN
Fighting Discouragement & Depression
How can we fight discouragement and depression as we embark on a job search or a career transition? Recently, I had to have two surgeries, 10 days apart, one of them a foot surgery that was supposed to put me out of action for a couple of months. The trouble is as a business owner, […]
Success is a blend of 90% persistence and 10% talent!
It occurs to me that although success is truly a blend of persistence and talent, I would rate persistence as a 90% success factor. I say this because talent is like a raw material, a gift that can only be transformed into value by relentless effort, without which there can be neither results nor success. Have […]
Become a Chameleon in Today’s Job Market
When I visited Florida, I became fascinated with the amazing capacity of these little chameleon creatures to change their color to match their environment. We can learn from them! It’s not that they become something they are not. Instead, they use resources within themselves to become what they need to be at a given moment. That’s […]
Skiing the giant moguls of unemployment in today’s economy.
Unemployment can present a daunting, discouraging, and formidable challenge to a job seeker. As a professional writer and have had the privilege of writing resumes for over 8500 people of every walk of life. Over the past 20 years my work has been mostly about helping people to get better jobs and professional opportunities. Today, […]
Navigating Career Transitions
Over the years I have had the privilege of working with thousands of clients who were endeavoring to navigate career transitions-─some weary of their career path, others interested in pursuing a lifelong dream, and others still looking for a life change. One young man told me that he had all the accountabilities of a manager without […]
What Makes a Résumé Successful?
There are many diverse ideas about what makes a résumé successful. People can be very dogmatic about what to do and what not to do when preparing a résumé . There are many different résumé styles. There are chronological, topical, and functional résumé approaches. Of course the final judge of what make a résumé successful […]
What Makes a Winning Cover Letter?
A winning cover letter is our introduction to a prospective employer. They must be rich in content and motivate our interviewer to meet with us. Cover letters can be a successful compliment to our resume. We therefore must give careful attention to how we write them! Over the years, I have reviewed many cover letters […]