How Design Resumes Wausau Began

All good stories start with:

Once upon a time, way back in 1983, I entered the world of resume writing. It was long ago and such a vastly different world than it is today.

How Design Resumes Wausau began

This journey continued with me building an understanding of what was needed to create a strong resume.

The love of writing anything has been a part of my make-up for as long as I can remember. I stumbled on writing resumes in the beginning on a whim and found a market. I started finding out that it was a much bigger world than I thought.

Join the Professional Association of Resume Writers?

I was invited to a group called PARW and was curious but not enough to join the group. Professional Association of Resume Writers sounded impressive but were they real? It took until 1999 for me to take the chance.

What a world that opened!

Instead of being a lonely resume writer in Central Wisconsin, I met many people just like me, all over the United States. Even better, those resume writers were all over the world.

The internet opened so many new opportunities:

  • I talked to those writers on the e-list.
  • I learned how they were managing their businesses.
  • I made friends!

I didn’t take long to join a second group in 2000. The group that became Career Management Alliance (CMA), it was then the Career Masters Institute, now is Career Thought Leaders.

Me? a Certified Professional Resume Writer?

In 2003, encouraged by resume writer and career coach, Susan Guarneri, I took the exam to become a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW). It was another move I should have made long ago. [Note: I now hold the Certified Master Resume Writer (CMRW) and Certified Executive Resume Writer (CERW) both from Career Directors International.]

This journey placed amazing resources at my fingertips from the greatest career management specialists in the world. My career friends are amazingly generous and willing to share their knowledge.

Today with Design Resumes, I’m not anywhere close to the end of my journey

Today in 2022, my resume clients are worldwide with a broad base of clients throughout the United States. My clients today are often top executives (CEO, CFO, COO, CRO, CISO, CMO) but I work with graduates, managers, directors, and many more who are on their own career journey and select me as their guide.

My interactive resume writing style easily transitioned to virtual long before the pandemic. The services, products, and tools encompass much more than the resume. Together with two coaches, Susan Barker, Leadership and Executive Coach and Alex Freund, Interview Coach aka the Landing Expert, we provide everything the job seeker needs to succeed.

I suspect that my journey is not unlike many of you.

You make choices, you hold back, you take a chance, and often you find that in taking that chance, you are blessed.

Together I hope we can make your career and life journey better. This is how Design Resumes Wausau began.

Land your dream job! Design Resumes helps job seekers via interactive coaching sessions to formulate a personalized job search strategy, learn more here. 

How Design Resumes Wausau Began

2 Comments

  1. Steve Gallison on February 27, 2014 at 12:26 pm

    Nice to read about your journey.



    • Julie Walraven on February 27, 2014 at 12:35 pm

      Thanks, Steve, I was helping a client look at blogging and she knew my current content but this was my very first post and it was fun to share it out again. Thanks for stopping by! I hope all is well with you. I am eagerly awaiting spring in Wisconsin but still enduring subzero weather here in late February.



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Julie Walraven, Design Resumes

Julie Walraven

Professional Resume Writer

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