The Painful Process of Naming Yourself   By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter I hear it repeatedly, how painful and intellectually rigorous my writing processes are. Collaborating with clients on their career stories, I hear that my career-intel gathering phase is both “demanding” and “mind-bending.” However, I have learned,...

Pink Tennis Shoes and Resumes By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter I recently bought a pair of (hot-pink) Nike tennis shoes. I researched, consulted with the sports store pros and tried on several pairs to ensure a confident purchasing decision. On the heels of a focused 12-month exercise and fitness journey that has reinforced the value of...

Get Over Yourself When Writing Your Resume By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter It may seem counterintuitive to take the focus off of YOU when writing a value-packed resume. However, since a resume is a personal marketing document masterfully written to ignite the reader’s interest, you must focus fully on THEIR (hiring decision maker’s,...

Not All Career Advice Is Good: 10 Tips to Ignore By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter “There’s a lot of bad advice out there.” “As somebody who has helped people find jobs for over 15 years, I’m amazed at the number of myths that still float around.” These are just two of the eight comments on my recent post challenging 10 of...

Unraveling the Resume Keyword-Packing Myth By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter Analyzing applicant tracking systems and stuffing your resume full of keywords are popular activities right now. In reality, the purported “science of resumes” and the idea you must perform a hairsplitting task of gaming your resume to meet algorithmic settings are...

Are There Cracks in Your Career Communications Strategy? By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter Shedding light on your target audience, becoming intimate with your own value and drumming up muscular career stories that transport your reader all are essential action steps to forge a rock-solid resume. This foundational aspect of today’s job search helps prevent...

Your Resume: Be the Red Balloon in a Field of Yellow Ones image via flickr | thelou137 By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter It seems so simple, doesn’t it? After all, who better knows where you’ve been and what you’ve done than you? Open up your Word file and dump all that information into a pleasing format, forward it to a prospective employer or two, then sit...

How To Resolve Conflicting Resume Advice image via Laughlin | flickr By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter I’ll readily admit that I am one of the writers in the blogosphere who consistently spouts resume advice. With 15 years’ experience owning my own resume writing business, I feel qualified to focus in on this area of tip-giving. Having...

How People With Multiple Careers Can Design Cohesive Resumes By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter Are you concerned that your diverse skill set and multiple career jobs have left you unemployable? Do you feel confused and conflicted when trying to build your resume, concerned that your work as a nurse does not tie into your earlier role as a teacher, and that creating a...

How to Prevent a Career Nosedive image: flickr_wanderinghome By Robert P. Poindexter Feast or famine. Steak today, cheeseburgers tomorrow. Here today, gone tomorrow. Sometimes the hammer, sometimes the nail. We have all used one of these phrases at some time or another and they remind us of just how temporal success can be. That being...