Résumé Writing

You could argue that résumé writers are also data scientists. We don’t necessarily crunch statistics and use machine learning techniques to draw meaningful conclusions, but we certainly analyze, create, transform, and position data for maximum consumption by a human or technical audience. One of the fundamental concepts in data science is a process called “feature […]

As Executive Director of the Professional Association of Résumé Writers and Career Coaches (PARWCC), I understand the critical role career services professionals play in supporting individuals navigating career transitions. With the current shifts in the federal workforce, your expertise and guidance are more vital than ever. This blog post is designed to equip you with […]

A recent MFA graduate specializing in screenwriting has taken a job in the mailroom at Sony Studios. His undergraduate and graduate internships allowed him to work in several independent studios, largely in “gopher” roles that were heavily clerical in nature. The whole time he has been creating original work as well, earning recognition at a […]

If you need more proof that most people don’t understand what a brand is and how to use it, consider LinkedIn. Originally, LinkedIn offered a very powerful brand. They promised its members an efficient and effective way to use genuine networking to move their careers forward. For the first time job seekers could reach out […]

The good news is your practice doesn’t have one!  The better news is asking that question is a great way to open up powerful, new opportunities. In this article I’ll offer a rock solid plan to have your practice be the very best it can be. It all begins with your brand. Is your brand […]

My business model is going to change dramatically in 2025. Not because of the economy or artificial intelligence or the new administration or the increasingly large number that defines my chronological age. My perspective has changed, and I need a business model that supports it. The old one is a coffee-stained T-shirt that I adore, […]

Eleven people applied for the Recruiting Coordinator position at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC). As part of the four-person hiring committee, I reviewed all the résumés to help find the strongest candidates.  Two were immediately disqualified for targeting the wrong position in their cover letters. Of the nine résumés that remained: 8 were not professionally written. […]

Alvin has been involved in a lot of different engineering projects throughout his career. His original résumé mentioned quite a few of them in various levels of detail across four pages. The bulk of the detail captured his involvement with international projects that happened earlier in his career. More recently, Alvin has been in consulting […]

“ré•su•mé (rézumei, rezuméi) n. a summary. A curriculum vitae [F.]”  — New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language résumé n. a powerful, nearly magical document endowed with special powers that got someone else a job but is governed by arcane rules about which everyone has different opinions. —The lexicon of the layman, too […]

I am a bit fuzzy about the most important project I ever worked in my previous career—except it shapes the way I run my practice even today. I remember the project directly affected national security, was classified above Top Secret, and would be read by people whose names I saw regularly on the front page […]

A June 2024 research article in Science Advances presents another argument for writing simpler and more effective content. The research focused on how readers engaged with news headlines from the Washington Post and Upworthy, a storytelling website. Through a series of independent projects, they reached this conclusion: “In both lab-controlled experiments and real-world trials, headlines […]