By Crystal Elaine Thomas
What's Included?
Beyond the aesthetics, I work closely with each client to create skill-based resumes and online profiles that highlight academic and professional achievements over a span of time. The final result is a personalized portfolio that is tailored to each client's personal essence and future professional goals.
Due to the granularity of the transformative services I provide, the ideal candidate who seeks my assistance will be in the planning stages of next steps and will have an extended time horizon for the successful creation of new documents and profiles. As the old adage goes, the best time to have a professional resume on-hand is when you don't currently need one!
I offer 4 all-inclusive career packages (see pricing below) that are 2 months in duration and include the following services:
- A pre-questionnaire that prompts reflection about professional successes and personal interests (beyond what's captured on current resumes or profiles)
- A 60-90 minute "Getting to Know You" initial consultation (live or virtual)
- One master version of your resume, cover letter, and thank-you note (general in nature)
- Updated LinkedIn profile
- PDF and editable original files via Dropbox
- Basic interview preparation
- Basic guidelines for salary negotiations
- Unlimited advice & counsel
- 1-2 week turn-around on draft documents and on-line updates. 4-6 week turn-around on final documents & on-line updates (based on client availability for draft reviews and commentary)
Resume Length
One Page or Two?
This is the question I get asked most frequently, and is the one that is most open to debate.
We all learned in high school, college and in many business settings that a resume should never be more than one page. I whole-heartedly agree that this guiding principle applies to the vast majority of high school grads, college grads, and professionals with less than 5 years of work experience.
However, I am a firm believer that a two page resume can be a viable option for many individuals with 5+ years of work experience, and/or those with expertise in divergent professions (e.g. a mid-level manager in an office setting who also manages her personal business as an artist or musician during non-office hours). Attempts to squeeze years of accomplishments into a one page summary solely for the sake of tradition can take you out of the running before you even enter the race!
Providing there are enough justified accomplishments to extol, a two page resume with focused categories of achievements, ample paragraph spacing and larger fonts is less time consuming and easier to read than a resume that attempts to convey the same amount of information on one page.
The key take-away from this discussion is very simple: this is not your mother's resume.
Crystal Thomas
