Separating the Wheat From the Chaff in Job Search Strategies By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter It’s overwhelming, discouraging, frustrating and exacerbating – the quantity of blogs and articles telling you how to job search. By focusing on the latest ‘trends’ and progressive strategies, self-anointed experts continue to use their megaphones to sell their own...

Resumes With a Little Flair :: Filtering Out the Hype   By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter Has your resume run amok? Has attention-deficit diluted your writing prowess as you seek for the latest, hippest ways to market You, Inc.? If you have watched television programs or read articles from some of the major media lately, you’d think that “resumes gone...

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,...

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...

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...

7 Ways to Get Uncomfortable Writing Your Career Portfolio By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter #1: Metaphorically Speaking: Mix Prints | Get Colorful Have you ever revamped a stuffy wardrobe? For example, did your old wardrobe boast perfectly matched colors, solids and prints so that you would not stand out, be offensive or take a risk that someone may disapprove? During...

Disrupting Your Resume By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter “I feel like the resume is a good book I want to read again. It looked great the first time, but I know I’ll get more out of it when I read through it several more times.” The above quote was the BEST gift I could have received during any given business day –...

6 Key Traits of a ‘Good’ Resume Writer By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter “Beware hiring a resume writing amateur. A professional writer writes full-time and daily, and is well trained and experienced. Her words elicit a visceral reader response.” The above was a recent status update that I published on Facebook. It resonated with several...

Sail Into Career Dreams With Cathartic Resume Process By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter This post originally published at CourtingYourCareer’s blog. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “I have invested hours and hours in the attached (resume worksheet).  I found the process everything from cathartic, to exciting, to tedious and insightful.” These were the words of a recent...