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 wild” is the way to go. Here […]
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 strong, capable footwear, I needed to […]
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, owner’s, manager’s) needs and wants. Deeply dig into their needs — […]
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 the ‘career expert’ myths that float […]
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 both exaggerations, in my experience. While you certainly must sprinkle words […]
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 job-search flops and missteps and keep your career messaging infrastructure solid. […]
Your Resume: Be the Red Balloon in a Field of Yellow Ones
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 back and wait for the phone to ring. Before you hit “send” […]
How To Resolve Conflicting Resume Advice
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 endured through my trial-and-error start-up years, having invested in years of training, […]
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 cohesive story is […]
How to Draw Your Resume Billboard
By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter Hooking the reader during the initial scan of your resume is key to cinching a job interview. Your professional and/or executive summary positioned in the top one-third to one-half of your resume is the billboard, if you will, meant to entice your audience with a hint of things to come. It’s the […]