Author Archives: Marilyn Maslin, Chief Talent Officer

3 reasons your company needs career transition outsourcing services

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The impact of technology and globalization has created an environment of change with companies in a state of flux, underscoring their need to ease personnel in and out of their organizations in a caring, empathetic way.

Here are three reasons you should minimize your expenses and expedite your transitioning processes by partnering with a Career Transition Outsourcing Service.

 

Cost of Unemployment Benefits

The longer a terminated employee remains jobless, the longer they receive unemployment benefits and the more that upcoming unemployment expenses will cost the organization.

When you hire an Outsourcing Service, your transitioning employees will be matched with a Certified Professional Resume Writer and Career Transition Coach. They will receive personal marketing documents, interview coaching, and career strategies to engage in a successful job search and land a new position faster, getting you off the hook for unemployment costs quicker.

 

Strengthen & Protect Your Reputation

Brand image can pivot overnight with a negative post gone viral. People are especially tempted during significant company changes or layoffs to share their frustrations on Glassdoor, Yelp or other social media sites.

Create a positive experience for everyone who encounters your brand by hiring a professional Outsourcing Service to help your transitioning people find a new work home.  Your potential, current, and departing personnel will see you as an empathetic and future-forward organization that treats people fairly and recognizes their dedicated service by providing smart, custom career assistance.

 

Prevent Potential Litigation & Lawsuits

Legal expenses are costly, not to mention the significant time and productivity lost to leadership and human resources when dealing with these sensitive, high-priority issues.

Prevent a wrongful termination lawsuit and show that you care by providing a caring, professional Outsourcing Service for your terminated staff.

 

Learn more about Resume Footprint’s custom outplacement solutions here and reach out today!

Customer Success Story: “Resume Footprint is a much-needed service for the busy executive”

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Lisa Whitehouse knows technology. A senior leader with big-brand experience, her career has been a progressive climb toward prominence. So much so that she has had little time to focus on defining and enhancing her personal brand.

Enter Resume Footprint.

“I would call myself an executive in transition,” Lisa said. “I’ve been on the corporate machine for 25 years and it’s time for a change.”

Lisa worked one-on-one with her Resume Footprint branding expert to re-position herself for the next step in her career.

“Working with Resume Footprint was a great experience,” Lisa said. “They built my brand statement from the ground-up. Now my marketing materials show the job market where I want to go, not where I’ve been.”

During her recent focus on rebranding her professional persona, Lisa realized something. It’s been a long time since she actively hit the job market.

“I haven’t looked for a job since I was 28 years old,” she said. “Things have changed so much and it’s intimidating to put yourself back out there without knowing current trends. My day job is 24/7 so there is hardly time to carve out for personal branding.

“Resume Footprint is a much-needed service for the busy executive.”

 

The Footprint Process

“Resume Footprint doesn’t just mark up your resume and make some edits,” Lisa said. “There is a strategic process that any executive can benefit from. (Chief Talent Officer) Marilyn Maslin actually made me change my thinking about how I was representing myself to potential employers and recruiters.”

And when Lisa worked through the process of forecasting her next career moves, she began to see a once fuzzy picture come into focus. “Marilyn’s team really understood what I wanted to capture in terms of my personal brand,” Lisa said. “She worked hand-in-hand with me to make sure the right story was being told.”

 

Need An Executive Branding Overhaul?

Check out www.resumefootprint.com to learn more about our services, writers, and company history.

Why You Need A Killer Elevator Pitch

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For every job searcher there are a few moments where you either crush it or crash. Amazingly one-well written Elevator Pitch artfully prepares you to succeed in each of these scenarios.

What exactly is an Elevator Pitch? It’s a brief passion-piece that explains what you do in a clear, concise and compelling story

Here’s why you need one!

Networking and Impromptu Conversations

If you have ever met a person who asked, “What do you do for a living?” and came up lacking in your reply, it is time to rethink your Elevator Pitch.

Because there is a huge difference between a New York elevator and an Omaha elevator, the length should be no longer than 150-250 words and you should feel comfortable presenting in one to two minutes.

You can leverage this content to nail conversations at networking events, BBQs, and cocktail parties.

Tell Me About Yourself

One of the most challenging questions for job searchers to answer is, “Tell me about yourself.” It can make articulate candidates tongue-tied, yet it is one of the most commonly asked questions.

Use your Elevator Pitch to differentiate your background, brand and value. You can modify or add data including relevant experience and skills to align you to the position and company. This multi-use personal marketing document, when memorized, can serve as a persuasive introduction to the employer.

Practice your new pitch on your friends and family members before taking it to your professional interactions.

Cold or Warm Networking Emails

If you are job hunting or building your network for future opportunities, sending a warm or cold introduction is smart, but many active and passive job searchers avoid this step because of writer’s block. A well-written Elevator Pitch can be cut/paste into an email and sent.

But most often, people will use the Pitch as a starting point and customize the text looking to connect with the recipient and find common ground.

It is not often that we can solve three challenges with one solution. Take the time to craft a multi-use Elevator Pitch. It will pay off.

Need help with an Elevator Pitch? Let us help tell your story with a fully customized personal value statement.

Proven keywords for an executive job search

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I am regularly contacted by credentialed professionals who have tried to level up to an executive role, but for some reason their resumes and LinkedIn profiles are falling short – can keywords be the issue?

These professionals have paid their dues and are qualified to secure a C-suite position, but their personal marketing documents are not supporting their goal. Upon review, I find their documents lack the proper executive keywords to position and align them with executive opportunities.

A little background about keywords! A keyword is a digital marketing term used to find and tag information. Recruiters and HR professionals will use keywords (specific to the target industry and position) to source and hunt for qualified candidates. Applicants who have the proper keywords in their resumes, cover letters and LinkedIn profiles will greatly improve their odds of being contacted by hiring authorities.

Just as each industry and position has different keywords or terms, so does each organizational level. To be considered for an executive position (CEO, COO, CFO, CMO, CIO, CHRO, General Counsel, Partner, VP, Director, Business Owner, etc.) use the following keywords; for best results include specific examples and achievements:

Executive Keywords
Strategic Leadership
Mission Driven
Strategic Thinking
P&L Management
Budget Management
Risk Management
Strategic Planning & Execution
Relationship Management
Business Development
Board Governance
Partner Relations
Operational Leadership
Finance Management
Revenue Growth
Data Performance
Program Development
Team Leadership
Sales Planning
Marketing Strategy
Public Speaking
Contract Negotiations
Process Improvement

How to Beat the Bots (Applicant Tracking System hacks)

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Have you ever known someone who said, “I applied for a job that I was perfect for but never heard back?” It could be that their resume was never actually seen by the employer. To beat the bots, their resume’s format could be the determining factor as to whether they move forward in the hiring process.

Like every industry, technology has revolutionized the recruitment process through the implementation of applicant tracking systems (ATS), which are systems used by recruiters and managers to orchestrate the hiring/recruiting process. At the heart of an ATS is a database that warehouses applicants and candidates which is easily searchable using both automated and manual searches.

How Parsers Work
As an applicant, it is critical that your information is accurately entered into the database. Parsers are the tool that scan resumes and “decide” where to store the resume’s information including contact, work history, and education.

In some cases, parsers aggregate and categorize skills including the duration the skill was used and how long ago it was last used. For example, a parser may find the skill ‘accounts receivable.’ More sophisticated parsers determine how long the applicant has worked in A/R and how long ago since they did so.

If a resume isn’t formatted in a manner that these digital parsers “understand,” then either important information will be omitted or stored incorrectly in the database and therefore may not appear in search results for consideration.

What is a Bot?
After a resume has been parsed and the information has been stored in the ATS’ database, then another tool (sometimes referred to as a bot) is used to evaluate the candidate’s information to determine if it meets the criteria, including necessary keywords established by a hiring manager or recruiter.

The process to parse, evaluate, and route an applicant is nearly instantaneous.

Parser Pitfalls
One of the major formatting errors that “confuse” parsers are nested job. Parsers choke on nested jobs (progressively promoted or otherwise). Every job needs a company, title, and date.

Nested jobs with aggregate tenure or people who have been promoted within one company. It will be interpreted as the date range of the first job.

Here’s the way the parser likes it:
• Company Name: For Date put “Progressively Promoted” (no date range); company description.

• Title Job 1, Date Range (notice no ‘Company’ because it will take it from above); summary/bullets

• Company, Title Job 2, Date Range; summary/bullets

• Company, Title Job 3, Date Range; summary/bullets

Here’s what parsers don’t like or get confused by:
• Fancy headers with spacing between letters between names (example L A R R Y)

• Lesser-known or multiple credentials after an applicant’s name (example CCNP)

• Graphics and images might be rendered unrecognizable and ignored

If you want to ensure that your resume parses smoothly before applying contact us at Resume Footprint. To ensure our clients’ success, we verify that our client’s resumes and other key personal marketing materials are parsed, evaluated, and routed successfully through an ATS.

We run all our clients resumes through a system popular with corporations of all sizes and recruiters. This is a tried-and-true process that has helped many of our clients beat the bots and land the job.

Resume Footprint mentioned in The Wall Street Journal!

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Resume Footprint would like to extend a BIG THANK YOU to writer Barbara Haislip and The Wall Street Journal for featuring our Chief Talent Officer, Marilyn Maslin, in their recent piece on remote worker collaboration.

Here is a snippet from the article:

What’s more, remote workers tend to be proactive and independent, and build camaraderie through freedom and trust, says Marilyn Maslin, chief talent officer and managing partner of recruiting firm Maslin Group and Resume Footprint, a personal branding firm for executive professionals.

 

“The minute you start to impede on their workspace by forcing mandatory meetings or requiring frequent travel, they may start to feel threatened or suffocated,” she says.

 

We hope the tips help any leaders looking for ways to better engage their remote workers. Please check our blog often for all things career trends and best practices. Reach out here to learn more about our personal branding packages!

Resume Footprint announces partnership with Wings for Warriors to provide free resumes to disabled veterans

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DENVER – Celebrating its 20th year in business, Resume Footprint is excited to announce a new partnership with Wings for Warriors, a volunteer-driven nonprofit focused on ensuring adequate healthcare and financial support for combat-wounded Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans.

For every resume order Resume Footprint receives between Dec. 1, 2019 and Memorial Day 2020, the company will create one resume for a veteran recommended by Wings for Warriors – free of charge.

“We are so proud to be able to partner with such an inspiring organization,” said Marilyn Maslin, Co-Founder and Chief Talent Officer of Resume Footprint. “This service is our way of saying “thank you” to the brave men and women who have risked their lives for our freedom.”

The partnership allows Wings for Warriors to extend its resources into the career services realm, offering wounded veterans expert assistance in positioning themselves for a new job opportunity in the government, military, or civilian market.

“Resume Footprint reached out to us with this idea and we couldn’t have been more excited to work together,” said Ross Murray, Wings for Warriors President & Chairman of the Board. “Especially during this time of year, this is a great way to show our veterans that we appreciate their service, but that we are also committed to their futures.”

How It Works

Resume Footprint has secured a list of wounded veterans from the Wings for Warriors organization. For every resume order it receives from now until Memorial Day 2020, Resume Footprint will choose a veteran from the Wings for Warriors list and provide them a free resume. Get involved today!

About Wings for Warriors

Headquartered in Phoenix, Ari., Wings for Warriors is a nonprofit on a mission to provide the necessary tools, insights and resources for wounded veterans as they go through the recovery process and transition into new realities. The organization has been featured by many media outlets, including Entrepreneur, TNT, Outdoor Channel, Huffington Post, CNN, The New York Times, People, and National Geographic.

About Resume Footprint

Headquartered in Denver, Colo., Resume Footprint is a premiere executive branding firm offering a wide range of services and materials, including resumes, LinkedIn profiles, cover letters, and executive coaching. Founded in 1999, the company also offers comprehensive corporate services to company partners to provide outsourcing and executive team branding solutions. It has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and Fit Small Business.

Press Contact: Press@ResumeFootprint.com

It’s About Time: Why good executives are stuck with bad resumes

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As an executive, you are by definition great at business. You own your lane in the road, whether it be operations, technology, innovation, or marketing. But when it comes to telling your story on paper in a powerful way, you come up short.

The No. 1 barrier to resume effectiveness?

Time.

Executing a deep dive into your executive resume seems nearly impossible in between back-to-back meetings and critical projects. By the time you pop your head up for oxygen, the day is spent and you are focused on indulging in some well-deserved family time.

So how can you put time to work for you? How can you sift through the endless distractions of the day to carve out some personal marketing time?

Read on for three reasons good executives find themselves stuck with bad resumes – and for tips on how you can overcome the barrier of time.

1 Time is Not on Your Side

Odds are, you’re a bit like the fabled shoemaker devoting so much energy to taking care of the business at hand – in your case, transitions, innovations, company culture, and personnel issues – and no real time on yourself or your happiness.

Before you know it, your personal marketing materials have been left unattended for years and you’re left badly underprepared for a career pivot that could change your life. Neglecting your executive resume for too long can leave you spinning your wheels on an uphill battle to get back on track. And with the job market clicking like it is now, time is of the essence.

Understanding your time limitations is the first step to overcoming them. Working with a certified resume writer is a great way to delegate the responsibility of refining your personal marketing materials with a minimal time investment.

2 The “Wins” Gap

It’s not that you lack the ingenuity or the ability to create a dynamic resume, it’s just that you struggle in explaining your wins.

When a baseball player hits a game-winning home run, sportswriters want to know about his approach at the plate and the pitch he hit. No one asks about his third-inning single or seventh-inning diving catch. The most important thing for him to cover in postgame interviews is his home run.

Do you struggle with the “wins” gap? Is your resume focused on too many details about unnecessary projects rather than zeroing in on the monumental wins in your career?

Tell recruiters and hiring managers about your home runs. They dig the long ball.

3 Overcoming Paralysis by Analysis

At Resume Footprint, many of our executive clients are fully capable of telling their own story but completely paralyzed on where to start. They find themselves stuck in neutral when it comes to overhauling their personal marketing materials.

Meanwhile, great job announcements are passing them by on a daily basis, being awarded to executive candidates who have invested in having their resumes and LinkedIn profiles professionally written.

Your resume is more than a paper or digital story of your professional life. It’s a personal marketing document that can help open doors in your industry.

When it comes to rebranding yourself and making your personal marketing materials stage-ready, time can be your best friend or biggest enemy. Start working with a professional today.

It’s about time.

Extreme Halloween Resume Makeover: The Addams Family’s Cousin Itt

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Do you ever think about fictional television characters from the 1960s and wonder, “How would he survive in today’s job market?”

Glad we’re not the only ones!

With Halloween hitting our calendars today, we set out to brand one of our favorite characters from the classic television series, “The Addams Family.” Cousin Itt and his kooky clan are more popular than ever, thanks to the newest iteration hitting theaters earlier this month. The lovable hairball is played by none other than Snoop Dogg, bringing Cousin Itt into the 21st century with a bark.

So let’s take a look at how our executive branding specialists at Resume Footprint might go about positioning Cousin Itt as a successful fashion executive looking for a new role in 2019.

Enjoy!

Download the full resume here: Cousin Itt Resume

 

Extreme Halloween Resume Makeover

Resume Design: Clean and modern featuring plenty of white space, this resume design gives Cousin Itt a format that speaks to his fashion-forward approach. Recruiters do not have time to dig through pages and pages of information. We hit them with the most critical components of any great fashion designer candidate: A personal statement, executive summary, professional experience, and education.

Non-monster branding note: For senior leaders looking to differentiate themselves in a crowded marketplace, it’s highly important to consider your audience and their preferences versus your own. You may be tempted to share every past experience or achievement, but the art of knowing what to share – and where to share it – can make or break your chances of landing an interview.

Personal Statement: Not every resume should include a personal statement. In fact, our team of executive branding specialists rarely includes one, saving more personal information for cover letters or LinkedIn profiles. But given Cousin Itt’s industry, we felt it necessary to give recruiters, headhunters, and hiring managers a little taste of his value statement. Good luck not singing it aloud as you read.

Non-monster branding note: Take a few minutes this weekend to think through your personal statement. Do you clearly understand your personal value proposition and what you bring to the table professionally? If not, how are others supposed to derive it from your resume?

Meet the new Cousin Itt played by Snoop Dogg!

Professional Experience: Obviously, brushing over your professional experience – no pun intended – is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when creating a resume. This is where the meat of your past experiences, skills, and achievements live within the resume, so it’s critical to tell a succinct, yet powerful story here.

Non-monster branding note: For the sake of space, we kept Cousin Itt’s professional experience section pretty light. When detailing your past positions, it’s crucial to separate “tasks” from “achievements.” This way your reviewers can get a quick glance of what you feel to be your most important accomplishments within each role.

Executive Summary: A strong executive summary helps recruiters and hiring managers gain an immediate understanding of how you will fit into their company. We positioned Cousin Itt as a “Fashion-forward innovator respected in the industry.” We also added keywords we know will show up in ATS parsers, including “problem-solving” and “communicator.”

Non-monster branding note: Our executive branding specialists think outside the box when crafting custom executive summaries. You must find your unique voice, tone, and content for a strong executive summary if you want to stand apart.

Education: Cousin Itt’s educational activities are tongue-in-cheek, but they give recruiters a bit of color around his academic pursuits. We included them to help him land a new opportunity (after all, he’s been with the same brand for 55 years!).

Non-monster branding note: Ditch the details if you’ve been out of college for 10+ years. Recruiters do not need to know about your GPA, coursework, or sorority or fraternity affiliations once you’ve established yourself as a professional. Keep it simple and let your degree or university do the talking for you.

Ready to rebrand your resume? Give the ghouls and boys at Resume Footprint the opportunity to help get you market-ready. Check out our services and reach out today!

Resume Footprint earns prestigious BBB Torch Awards honor for ethics excellence

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DENVER – Resume Footprint, an executive branding firm headquartered in Denver celebrating its 20th year in business, won runner-up for at the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Torch Awards celebration Oct. 17 at Infinity Park in Glendale.

The award, presented by the BBB serving Greater Denver and Central Colorado, recognizes businesses for outstanding ethical practices. Resume Footprint was honored in the “small business” category.

“We have always taken pride in delivering an outstanding customer experience rooted in ethical business practices and service-first principles,” said Marilyn Maslin, co-founder and chief talent officer for Resume Footprint. “To be recognized by the Better Business Bureau for our efforts is major validation that we are doing things the right way.”

Resume Footprint has delivered thousands of resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles to busy executive clients across the country. Its well-rounded staff of remote resume writers and branding specialists utilize a client-first process to gather, analyze, and translate requirements into top-notch branding materials.

The BBB’s independent committee reviewed various documents and interviewed senior leadership according to multiple rigorous criteria when evaluating Resume Footprint for this honor.

“Our clients and corporate partners will be excited to learn that our region’s BBB has found value in our model and the way we handle our business,” Maslin said. “This is a big moment for us during an exciting 20th year in the industry.”

About Resume Footprint

Resume Footprint is a premiere executive branding firm offering a wide range of services and materials, including resumes, LinkedIn profiles, cover letters, and executive coaching. Founded in 1999, the company also offers comprehensive corporate services to company partners to provide outsourcing and executive team branding solutions.

About the Torch Awards

The BBB is a nonprofit, business-supported organization that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. All BBB services to consumers are free of charge. For more information on the BBB, visit www.bbb.org.