I’ve known loss. Haven’t we all? A blizzard storms through our lives, creating paralyzing white-out conditions In my life, a painful storm of divorce, from which I not only survived but from which ashes I also arose to rebuild a new and BETTER life, occurred. Within months, I was thrust into life-altering decisions that, even under […]
The Heart of Your Value Proposition
In its most basic sense, a unique value proposition is defined as, “a clear statement that describes the benefit of your offer and what distinguishes you from the competition.” It’s a positioning statement that explains what benefit you provide for who and how you do it uniquely well. In some circles, “unique value proposition” is […]
Resume Story – How to Emote Tenacity
How to Write Who You Are Marjorie Liebert, a former dancer, said, “We dance who we are.” Similarly, when writing your career story, you must, “Write who you are.” As who you are evolves, so does your story. While being authentic in expressing who you are is important, it is equally essential to be selective in what you parlay versus […]
Spark Interviews With a Distinctive Resume Voice
By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter Distinctions Between Voice and Tone In a recent blog conversation with an admired colleague, Debra O’Reilly, job search strategist and certified resume writer, we discussed the distinctions between voice and tone. In particular, we discussed how those distinctions might matter when writing a resume. Debra offered pithy, valuable points in regard to ensuring the resume voice aligns with the candidate’s personality, […]
Without Words, Stories Will Wither
By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter “We hear the mantra everywhere: make it visual, use more pictures, forget text–it’s all about images,” said Neicole Crepeau in her recent blog post, In the Age of Images, Why Words Still Dominate. Throughout her weighty article, Neicole addresses the image-crazy digital world we live in, with social sites like Facebook and […]
Are You Just One of the Herd? The “LinkedIn-Is-Your-Resume” Debate Continues.
By Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter “My goal — and what attracted me to your website — is that you can portray the essence of who I am. It’s not just skill, but it is everything else that I bring to the table – my attitude – all of the life experience, the drive, the energy that I […]
MATCH(.COM) YOUR WAY TO A NEW JOB!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER First impressions matter in dating and job search. I know this all too well as I have moved through dozens of first-date impressions during the seven years following my divorce and before I remarried in 2008. My husband, Rob, and I met online via Match.com. Besides the first-impression story he wrote in […]
Does your job currency stand out like a shiny coin?
According to Altan Khendup, senior technology leader, strategist and advocate in Silicon Valley, California, when people think you’re interesting, they start listening; they become engaged, and then you can inject your pitch and your value. I’ve had the pleasure of keeping in touch with this forward-thinking technology leader (oh, and by the way, a client […]
You can thrive in, not just survive, an economic slogging!
As co-coordinator with my colleague Miriam Salpeter, I am pleased to participate in our second round of posts from our community of expert career advisors and resume writing professionals called the Career Collective. This month’s articles are in response to Quintessential Careers Job Action Day. I encourage you to visit other members’ responses, which will be linked […]
I’m not a career coach, and that’s okay
Okay, so by default, I weave guidance into my in-depth resume writing processes that smacks of coaching. Recently, Recruiting Animal (@Animal) took note of this in his blog post: “The Resume Writer.” However, today, I beg to differentiate myself: I am a word wrangler, message clarifier and career story teller (i.e., resume writer) – not […]