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The Resume Resource Featured on WomenPartner.org

WomenPartner.orgJanuary 1, 2012 –   The Resume Resource was featured on WomenPartner.org,  as one of the business women introduced during its 24-hour PR blitz to kick off 2012.    

Interview with Trish Thomas of the Resume Resource

About me:
I am the Owner/Operator of The Resume Resource. I help people looking to advance their career to stand out from the competition and get hired. I apply a holistic approach to personal branding and help them identify and express their unique value and establish their online presence.

In today’s competitive job market, a self-written resume no longer cuts it. An effective resume must be geared towards the needs of the employer and highlight the value the job seeker would bring to the position. Involved in the hiring process in previous corporate positions, I understand what the employer wants to see in a resume. I use this experience to design compelling resumes and cover letters that command attention. These professional documents stand out among other candidates’ submissions because they target the employer’s needs and values. To improve job search results, I also provide optimized LinkedIn profiles, career coaching, job search strategies and interview preparation.

I founded The Resume Resource in 2009 after writing effective resumes and cover letters for more than 10 years on a volunteer basis. I enjoy helping people and wanted to provide a cost-effective alternative to the resume mills that churn out cookie cutter resumes that do not actually help job seekers. I left the corporate world because I wanted a more balanced and rewarding life. I now have that. I touch people’s lives every day. I am finally helping to make the world a better place… helping one person at a time.

An active member of Career Directors International and The Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches, I strive to make a difference to the job seekers I serve. I continually participate in training on the latest industry trends in resume writing, social networking, job search technologies, and the changing job market.

My resumes and cover letters get results. More than 90% of the resumes I have written have resulted in immediate job interviews. So, if you are looking to improve your job search results, I can help.

Company:  The Resume Resource

Is your business Home Based, Virtual, and or Brick & Mortar?
The Resume Resource is home-based/virtual.

Type of Company:  Resumes and Career Services

URL:  www.the-resume-resource.com

City, State / Province: Simsbury, CT

Country:  US

Zip Code /  Postal Code:  06081

Email:  trish.thomas@the-resume-resource.com

Are you launching a new company, product or service in 2012? Or are you morphing into a different company to stay relevant?
One thing I love about running my own company is my ability to evolve to meet my clients’ needs. When I started my company in 2009, I only wrote resumes and cover letters. They were effective documents that were resulting in frequent interviews, but I found that many of my clients were not making it through the interview process. So, I sought out training on the subject and started to provide interview preparation. As the job market became more competitive, I added job search coaching to my offerings to help my clients succeed in the “hidden job market”. While Social Media was gaining popularity as a powerful job search platforms, I participated in several of LinkedIn’s training events geared towards career professionals. Since then, I have participated in dozens of webinars and workshops on using the various social networking platforms as job search tools. I will continue to add more career-related services as the needs arise. I enjoy technology and like to stay current on industry trends.

Who is your ideal client?
I help anyone looking to advance their career. I work with clients well established in their careers who are looking for their next (better) position. I work with displaced workers, some right after their departure and others who have been in transition for several years. Honesty, I get the most satisfaction helping someone who has been out of work for a while get their life back on track. I also offer entry-level resumes for fresh grads and those in the workforce for less than two years. Recently, I have been asked for resumes by high school seniors looking to increase their chances of being accepted by their top schools. They use the resume in addition to their official college application.

I always recommend that people keep their resume current. You never know when a job opportunity might present itself. Plus, it can be hard to write anything positive about yourself or your career right after a job loss.

List your top 3 products and services. What problem(s) do they solve for your clients?

My top 3 products are my professional resume, cover letter and optimized LinkedIn Profile.

RESUMES:

Your resume is the most valuable marketing tool you have. Reflective of your personal brand, it highlights your strengths and qualifications for prospective employers and persuades them to call you for an interview. In an instant, its contents and appearance can make or break your chances of landing an interview. Many human resource managers say they spend less than 10 seconds scanning a resume, while considering it for further review.

The way we ensure that our clients’ resumes stand out from the competition:

  • The resume establishes their personal brand and targets the needs of the employer.
  • We clearly identify their successes and achievements, demonstrating the depth of their experience, so that the hiring manager can understand how the company could benefit by hiring them.
  • Using a clean and uncluttered format, we highlight their specific skills and the qualifications that make them the ideal candidate for position.
  • As we synopsize their professional career, we include the relevant key words that applicant tracking software uses to flag resumes for review.

COVER LETTERS:

We write creative cover letters that help our clients stand out to prospective employers. As the cover letter is the initial document a hiring manager sees, it is the chance to make a strong first impression. It needs to convince the hiring manager to bring the candidate in for an interview. We tailor the cover letter to the position and highlight the strengths and skills that make our client the ideal candidate for the position. In the cover letter you can express your personality and include some of the soft skills not emphasized in your resume. A strong cover letter will increase the chance that your resume will be reviewed.

LINKEDIN PROFILES:

Utilizing LinkedIn’s best practices, we work with our clients to establish their personal brand online to improve their job search results. The LinkedIn profile represents a job seeker’s professional online image. We advertise the value the candidate brings to their next employer, highlighting their skills and talents so the right people and opportunities find them. The resume and Linked In profile should complement one another. They share most of the same information but the tone and overall feel of the profile should be more personable. Many hiring managers will compare the LinkedIn profile to a candidate’s resume.

We craft a compelling headline that will get them noticed and use the summary section as their Unique Value Proposition. This is where you can get some of your personality across and incorporate some of your soft skills that would generally appear in a cover letter. In the Specialties section, we include key words that a recruiter would use to search for candidates. We synopsize their professional experience demonstrating the benefits the employer would realize when they hire them.

Showcase your expertise by providing 3 business tips.

  1. Your resume should be forward facing and position you in such a way that the job for which you are applying is the next logical step in your career path. As past behaviors are indicative of future performance, hiring managers want to see your past professional achievements — not a list of your daily duties.
  2. LinkedIn is the most powerful job search tool today. To be considered a serious job seeker you must have a 100% complete profile which includes information in all sections, a professional head shot and at least 3 recommendations. You must also be an active participant on LinkedIn. Post frequent updates and take part in group discussions, to position yourself as a top performer in your field.
  3. Do not use the “spray and pray” job search strategy where you apply for every job out there and hope to get a response. Target the companies that are actually hiring and only apply for jobs that match your skill set. You will have better job search results if you put more effort into applying for jobs for which you are qualified.

What’s your New Year’s Special?
***My New Year’s Special*** A free LinkedIn Profile with every Professional Resume package purchased in January 2012. ($129 value)

Who is your ideal collaborative business partner?  My ideal collaborative business partners are recruiters who do not provide resume services (and need an effective resume before they can present a strong candidate to a client), and outplacement firms that need help when resume demand is heavy.

What types of marketing, PR and advertising projects are you open to sharing the cost of and time implementing?
I am open to discussing all sorts of marketing campaigns:

  • Back links to each other’s websites
  • Ads on each other’s websites
  • Mentions via Blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook
  • Joint Press Releases
  • Joint Print Ads
  • Networking Introductions

What is your top business goal for 2012?
My goal for 2012 is to have my business be self-supporting by Q3 2012.

Are you a member of any social media sites? If so, list the profile URLs so we can follow you online.

www.linkedin.com/in/thomastrish
www.linkedin.com/company/2112981?trk=tyah
www.facebook.com/TheResumeResource
www.twitter.com/Resume_Resource
https://plus.google.com/107938593923328107246

How do you plan to market your company in 2012?
We will market   our services using Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, Local women’s business groups, You Tube ads, and speaking and sponsoring at local women’s conferences.

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