‘The Write Approach’

The Melbourne Age
Wednesday 27 August 2003

Winning Resumes is the endeavour of Lisa Schindler and Sally Campbell, Brisbane and Gold Coast based professional résumé writers.

IT ALL STARTED in morning peak hour traffic when we realised that success at university and in the corporate world had not made us happy. With each step higher on the corporate ladder we felt more stifled and less inspired. Friends and colleagues were confused. We had great careers, great husbands, beautiful homes and good friends, why should we expect more?

Our reply: It wasn’t success we were looking for – it was value. Why not achieve our dreams and help others achieve theirs at the same time?

The hardest part was not to settle for mediocrity, to think big and start small – but most of all, just to start. A few months later we left to begin Winning Resumes. We ignored past employers’ trivialization of our business idea and we ignored presumptions that as young women, we were leaving because we couldn’t hack the corporate pace.

Within weeks, our success in assisting applicants to secure their dream job identified a great need in the market. Winning Resumes offered a fresh and exciting approach to résumé writing, positively affecting the lives of others with personal marketing solution, including résumé, cover letter and selection criteria writing and design services for people of all occupations.

Through excellence in customer service, delighted customer referrals and our dedication to help people win, Winning Resumes has emerged as a leader in the market. We now extend our services to individuals Australia-wide, through national Careers and Employment Expos and working closely with recruitment companies to improve candidates’ opportunities.

Currently, training providers, employers, career advisors and recruitment agencies are in abundance. The majority of these services agree that to compete in today’s job market, you need a professional and eye-catching résumé. Yet few are able to offer practical solutions.

‘Résumés That Work’

The Adelaide Advertiser

IT’S TRUE, South Australia is a great place to live and work. From the Barossa to the Beach, the living is easy. According to Lisa Schindler, Director of Winning Resumes, “it’s just the ‘working’ part that makes things tricky”.

Everyone dreams of the ideal job offering personal satisfaction as well as financial security. A born and bred South Australian and professional résumé writer, Ms Schindler believes that while there may be plenty of these jobs in Adelaide ready and waiting to transform your life, there are many more South Australians ready to fight you for them. “In the battle for your future, your secret weapon is your résumé,” Ms Schindler said.

With so many candidates now vying for the same positions, Winning Resumes Co-Director, Sally Campbell says applicants must now compete on paper. “You must speak the employer’s language, impress them with your format and presentation and inspire them with your composition and prose”, she said.

So what does this mean for the time poor applicant and non-professional writer? Ms Campbell believes that candidates should endeavour to submit the best possible application. “This may often involve consulting a professional résumé writer”, she said.

“Winning Resumes is a boutique résumé consultancy offering a fresh and exciting approach to résumé writing. We provide résumé, cover letter and selection criteria writing and design services to equip job seekers with the practical tools they need to win in today’s increasingly competitive job market”, she said.

When selecting a professional résumé writer, Winning Resumes recommend you look for a company that offers the following:

If in doubt, checking a companies website is often a good starting point.

'Close Look at Résumés'

The Courier-Mail
Wednesday, March 19, 2003

ACCORDING to Winning Resumes director, Sally Campbell, most people could be underselling themselves by using the same résumé for multiple applications over a number of years.

“Your résumé is your personal marketing kit and just like any other product promoted in today’s market your résumé needs to move with the times, target the right audience and follow the trends”, Ms Campbell said.

Ms Campbell said that in Australia’s increasingly competitive job market there are a few golden rules that will help your résumé stand out from the crowd.

Ms Campbell suggested:

“If you are not a professional writer or confident in your ability to target your skills in the language of the employer, our best advice it to employ the services of a professional résumé writer”, Ms Campbell said.

“Winning Resumes is a boutique résumé consultancy offering a fresh and exciting approach to résumé writing. We provide résumé, cover letter and selection criteria writing and design services to equip job seekers with the practical tools they need to win in today’s increasingly competitive job market”, she said.

'Skills to Catch the Eye'

The Gold Coast Bulletin
Sunday, January 26, 2003

SUPPLYING a prospective employer with a good rèsumè and covering letter is vital when it comes to catching the eye.

Winning Rèsumès Director, Sally Campbell said layout, keeping up with what’s happening within the industry and style were the things that encouraged employers to pick up the phone and invite an applicant for an interview. “Myself and co-director, Lisa Schindler have been doing rèsumès for years, but not so long as to become entrenched in outdated methods. Our rèsumès are very different to those of our competitors – they’re a bit more contemporary”, she said.

“Having a good rèsumè is pretty vital. When combined with your covering letter, it’s the best self-marketing tool you have”.

“It’s exactly the same as any other company marketing its product – you are putting your product, yourself, in the public eye. So if you expect to win an interview in this competitive job market, you need a winning rèsumè. When you are competing, despite your great skills, if someone else’s rèsumè is more eye catching and demands the employers attention, then they are more likely to be called for an interview”.

Ms Campbell said that the style of the rèsumè also depended on the industry being targeted. She said a profession such as law would require a more conservative rèsumè than an applicant vying for a position with Virgin Blue!

“There are so many different ways to format a rèsumè, so it’s important to tailor them to speak the language of the employer you are targeting. There has been a great deal of advancement in the way that rèsumès are designed and distributed. Most employers require an electronic as well as hard copy of your rèsumè.

“Your rèsumè must be flexible to accommodate online applications. You should always use a PDF copy or at the very least ensure your résumé is locked as ‘read only’ when delivering your personal information by email’’.

She said that the USA in particular had seen huge advancements in rèsumè design and delivery, including the growing trend toward html formats. “Yet I don’t think Australian employers want their applicants to go that far. They are still more interested in quality than show”.

More important, she said, was finding new ways for job applicants to professionally impress. And a covering letter was equally important as it held the whole application together.

“You should re-look at your rèsumè every time you apply for a new job. The cover letter is a tool to further target your application and drive your abilities home. It is unprofessional not to have a cover letter as it is opportunity to address the advertised key competencies and duties.”

"Your cover letter is the executive summary of your rèsumè. It should hook the reader as does the review on the back of a book. It is the teaser that will encourage employers to read your rèsumè.”

She said if an applicant had a badly written or presented cover letter, the employer may still look at the rèsumè, but the damage from a negative first impression will have already been done.”

Ms Campbell said that it was important to go to a professional that knew how to ‘speak an employers language' rather that to risk writing it incorrectly yourself. ‘’You can be an absolute genius, but if you can’t put that into the words an employer needs to hear, it’s wasted.”

"In general people have many misconceptions about rèsumès, from whether they should use colour, what type of folder if any should be it be in, to how long a rèsumè should be. Employers do not want to wade through great blocks of text, however an executive with many years experience needs to make this clear.”

“Ms Campbell quoted a recent national survey of Australia’s top employers conducted by ‘Aussie Rèsumès’ of Western Australia stating that more than 82 per cent of employers demanded rèsumès be 3 to 4 pages in length for mid to high level career professionals.

“I believe your rèsumè must concisely and efficiently reflect your worth. Are you only worth 1 page? The best advice? Leave it to a professional rèsumè writer,” She said.