May makeover: Defining the uniqueness of your brand
roles, provoking questions as to her career target versus her desire to pursue her own ventures. In addition, Ashley’s resume was unnecessarily long based on the format due to redundancy and presentation of too much information.
New
Strategy was key in the development of Ashley’s new resume. Not only did the format have to pop, but also the content had to explore both her creative and technical skills. It was additionally imperative that the focus of her resume be employee-employer engagements. By removing the hybrid focus between employee and entrepreneurial ventures, we could avoid an employer thinking Ashley would be moonlighting on the side, biding her time until her business picked up and she could leave to pursue that full-time. On Ashley’s new resume, 100 percent of the content explores her impressive professional engagements, being sure to translate functions performed in the most transferable language possible.
Ashley’s resume also shrank from two pages to one. The length of her resume is important, as we wanted to create a concise marketing document that succinctly and effectively told the story of her professional career.
Because Ashley had performed similar duties in both her professional engagements and her entrepreneurial ventures, we were not doing her candidacy a disservice by not presenting her self-employment.
New
The right side of Ashley’s new resume showcases her education, strengths and technical skills.
By using a more creative format in both physical arrangement and style, which adds color for emphasis and an artistic — yet professional — design, Ashley is truly practicing what she preaches.
feedbAck
After some time with her new resume, Ashley followed up with me.
“What can I say? I love my new resume. It’s better than I could have ever imagined, and I’ve been getting compliments on it left and right. I don’t have a new job yet, but I’ve been getting some interest and expect to have a new position Samantha Nolan is a certified professional resume writer and owner of Ladybug Design, a full-service resume-writing firm. Have a question for Sam? She can be reached at dearsam@ladybug-design.com or 614-570-3442. Find out more at ladybug-design.com.