My role in the Wausau Daily Herald's 3-part "Job Search Makeover."

I knew it was coming but I was delighted to find the above note from my oldest son on top of today’s Sunday paper.

I collaborated on the Job Search Makeover project with the Wausau Daily Herald staff. The reporter, Jake Miller, photographer, Corey Schjoth, and multimedia editor, Carrie Hutton all came to my office and spent four hours in two sessions as Missy Szarkowitz, the recipient of the makeover and I probed her for accomplishments to write her new resume and offered her new job search strategies.

Camera rolling on our resume / job search session

As unusual (and a bit unnerving) as it was to administer the DISC behavioral assessment, conduct the resume interview, and write the resume while cameras were rolling and the microphone was sitting on my desktop, I enjoyed the process. Since I built my business on the model of the client with me in the office (and now across the nation or even the world on Skype), I really am used to writing resumes and other marketing documents when people are watching.

DISC Assessment Insight into new career options

Missy was given the Career Success Insights DISC assessment which gives some of the career choices that fit her personality profile so she can explore potential other opportunities. The assessment also gave Missy insight into much of her personality characteristics and as you will see in the video, she found that very amazing.

Though she has an Associate Degree in Human Services, she was finding that to get the jobs she might enjoy in that field, she would have to explore additional education.

She loves her role with the Boy Scouts and has been very creative in helping them to gain visibility using new strategies like creating the troop Facebook page. She is an encourager in the success in the pursuit of the Scout projects, such as the Zero Degree Project. We talked about finding ways she could use her love for working with children in a new job.

I introduced Missy to LinkedIn’s benefits and I think she will be using it more as she becomes more familiar with the tool. I gave her Jason Alba’s LinkedIn for Job Seekers DVD to help her gain rapid understanding of all of the different facet’s of LinkedIn. Jason clearly outlines everything in the 3 hour DVD.

The benefits to the career industry

When local or national media profiles a professional resume writer or career coach like myself, it benefits all of us because often people are not aware of the industry despite the many blogs that career professionals are now writing.

In the past, I worked with media frequently on stories for Wausau Whitewater or Kiwanis but even when the press releases came from my main e-mail account, reporters still seemed unaware of my other role in the career industry.

This story opens new doors. The main goal is to have Missy’s new resume, coupled with her new confidence, will make her job search process much more successful and get her back working again. Missy was very open to my coaching about how job search has changed and you have to look beyond job postings that are obvious.

In addition, I hope that both locally and nationally, people are becoming more aware of the role of the professional in a career search and how beneficial it can be to help shorten job searches.

Dispelling the myths of jobs search is one of my goals. People who are using ineffective tools get so discouraged. I love hearing my clients voice when they call to tell me that they start their new position in two weeks.

Or getting e-mails like this one I got last week:

I just wanted to tell you that I sent out my resume to one company and I was offered a job, which I accepted. This is a dream job for me… I really feel the resume you put together for me made all the difference!

Resume writers love success stories, like this one I tweeted earlier this year:

“Just got my first client success story of 2011! Hired! starts in February at Director level! “

Despite my long history in the career field, I felt somewhat invisible. So far today, I have only gone to church and to the grocery story but in both places, people came up to tell me they read the story. Throughout my career, I have delighted in the look on my client’s faces when they finally see the value they had all along.

If you would like to read the full story of Missy’s makeover with me, you can find it here for the next few days.