The Career Portfolio

I've been meaning to write an article on Career Portfolios for Resume Writers' Digest for a long time now ... but just haven't gotten around to it. (If you'd like to write one and submit it, I'd love it!)

A few months ago, I wrote about a presentation that Phyllis Shabad gave on developing career portfolios at the National Resume Writers' Association conference in 1999 in New Orleans that I think was the best information I've ever heard on the subject.

She called a career portfolio a "secret marketing tool" that will allow you to control 50% of questions in an interview.

I wanted to share some more information -- from my original notes -- about developing the portfolio. What can be in your client's portfolio? Here are some examples:

• The client's resume (of course!) with yellow highlight on key accomplishments related to the job being sought
  
• Reports and graphs
• Thank yous and testimonials
• Company research (competitive information, articles, stock information)
• Publications
• Research
• Projects
• Five-Year Plan
• Accomplishments
• Credentials (certificates, awards, diplomas)
• Press Clippings
  

How do you create the portfolio? Start with a 1" binder, page protectors, and section dividers. It should include no more than 25-30 pages of documentation. Create themes for no more than five main sections. Organize the information. Make copies -- don't include any originals. Put two copies of each item in the page protector, so you can give one copy to the interviewer.

Free Resume Examples

A few months ago, I blogged about "Free Resume Samples On Your Website-Yes or No." My feelings on the subject are "generally, yes."

To take this idea a bit further, a while back, many of us in the careers industry received a solicitation from a website looking for resume samples -- FreeResumeExamples.net. The pitch was that we'd be able to expose our work to prospective clients, at no charge to us. Their business model was simple -- attract visitors to their site by offering them free resume samples, and make money off the traffic by cashing in on Google ads.

Wanting to know if this was a solid lead generation idea for professional resume writers, I e-mailed a couple of colleagues whose work is featured on the site.

"I'll market myself anywhere if it's free," says Greg Faherty, CPRW, of A Perfect Resume. "Every bit of exposure helps. Unfortunately, I don't have exact numbers for how many people actually ordered resumes from me after seeing the resume samples posted there -- maybe five or six?"

It was Greg's Military Conversion resume sample that caught my attention -- according to FreeResumeExamples.net, that resume has registered more than 1,000 views since being added in August 2007. Considering Greg pays nothing for the exposure, generating 5-6 sales (at an average fee of $200) is an extra $1,000. Not bad.

Another satisfied participant is Courtney Pike, with JobBound.

"We have received a significant amount of traffic on jobbound.com due to FreeResumeExamples.net. We track our clients and sales, and many customers have found JobBound through Internet searches," Pike noted. "We think JobBound's work speaks for itself, so we saw this site as a great venue to showcase our expertise."

Pike said they would "do it again" as the partnership has improved their web site statistics.

Another resume writer, Margaret Burkholder, of Advantage Writing in Tucson, hasn't had much luck with the site.

"I have not gotten any business from the site. All of my business has been generated locally from personal efforts, the Yellow Pages, and 'word of mouth,'" she notes. "I received an email soliciting resume samples and I responded, thinking I'd have nothing to lose and only something to gain."

Baseball Season

Baseball season is coming up, and it reminds me of a presentation that Robert Middleton, of Action Plan Marketing, made at the 2002 National Resume Writers' Association conference.

Robert had a client acquisition strategy he called "Marketing Ball." He said you need to have a system to get consistent, powerful results with your marketing.

One of the things that struck me most in his presentation was that "If you try to hit a home run, you'll strike out." Instead, you need to make base hits.

First, you need to say "the thing" that gets prospects saying, "That's interesting. Tell me more." Middleton said, if you get that, you get to first base.

Next, you try to get to second base. The way to get there is to give people more information.

To get to third base is the sales process. It's capturing their interest and having them want to move forward.

Middleton said the hardest part for independent professionals -- like resume writers -- is getting to second base.

As resume writers, we try to hit home runs -- like getting a client to agree to a $1,000+ project (resume, cover letter, bio, branding work) without doing the work of base hits.

Remember that on Opening Day.

Article on Justifying Conference Attendance

I came across this article today on "How to Justify Conference Attendance" and it caught my attention because of the survey I'm conducting on professional conference attendance among resume writers. (Remember, if you want the link to take the survey, e-mail me at RWDigest@aol.com -- and be sure to sign up for the Resume Writers' Digest mailing list using the form in the upper-right hand corner of the blog.)

Of particular use is the worksheet to estimate costs to attend -- and then some suggestions for improving ROI.