Career Integration Program

Since our goal is for you to use a single set of branded materials for multiple career goals, the Career Integration Program is a bit more complex.

Why?

Because we need to look out the windshield instead of the rear-view mirror when it comes to telling your story.

We need to (a) settle on the career directions you want to pursue, (b) identify the unique and overlapping pillars those career directions are built on, (c) map the intersection between your past, present, and future, and (d) scaffold / frame your story so your story flexes to meet all of the aforementioned audiences and their respective needs.

Only then can we design and write a story using the language that will speak to all of your possible career directions using the same copy—and thereby prevent 72 resume versions.

The trick to all of this effort is simple:

• Get in front of your story.

• Realize you can be a lot of things, but you can’t be all things to all people, which is a common mindset when we go into job-search mode.

• Elevate language so it speaks to multiple career targets using the same copy—a special kind of linguistic gymnastics.

I’ll guide you through that process, typically across three sessions.

• Future Prep Session 1 (60 min)

• Future Prep Session 2 (60 min)

• Future Prep Session 3 (60 min)

• Are we fixed at three sessions? Nope. We can use all of the sessions, repurpose them into Phase 2 if they’re not all necessary, or linger in Phase 1 if we need more time.

Phase 1 of the Career Integration Program blends practical homework assignments like my Job Description Analysis with interactive Zoom sessions that (a) set up your story strategy, (b) best present unchangeable details, and (c) create modular elements of your background that we’ll use later to support your intentions through well-written copy.

In our collective effort to explore, shape, and reshape your career possibilities around a single story, we’ll also consider a wide range of questions that you’ll likely be asked by recruiters, hiring committees, and so on, so our work will simultaneously serve as interview prep.

Once we've settled on a realistic set of roles, career directions, and job targets during the Future Prep phase, our approach will become a bit more formalized.

Armed with clarity and a roadmap about the future from the Future Prep phase—and settled a realistic set of roles, career directions, and job targets—we’ll become a bit more formalized as we map your past to your future goals.

You’ll be an integral part of the decision-making necessary to writing your own story, so the résumé writing process serves as a tool for gaining career clarity across a series of screen-sharing, Zoom-enabled work sessions, including:

• Résumé Writing Session 1 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 2 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 3 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 4 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 5 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 6 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 7 (60 min)

There may be a bit of overlap between Phase 1 and Phase 2, but when we finally settle into these résumé writing sessions, we'll focus entirely on translating everything we uncovered in the Future Prep phase into a highly strategic resume. We’ll consider a surprising volume of questions as we pitch and tune your story around our Future Prep findings, as well as decisions you’re making at every step along the way.

And since we do all of the writing while our screens are connected, you'll have complete authority and insight into why every word is written or omitted.

We'll do "everything from flooring and sheet-rocking to interior decorating" during the Resume Writing Phase. You’re welcome to do some of the drafting between sessions—and at some point I will hand over the draft to you for work—but I’ll generally handle a majority of the writing.

There are times when clients exceed the number of anticipated sessions. It’s never a surprise because we’re connected by Zoom at every step. Clients actually frequently ask for more time because of the value they derive. The possibility of overtime is critical to mention because I want what I offer to be right for my clients, and if time and resources is a concern, we should discuss it before we even start.

One process, multiple benefits:

Here are a few of the common byproducts of the introspective work we do together:

• Self-Perception: Insights you gain may shape how you present yourself in your daily work life, while influencing your self-perception and professional image.

• PR Strategies: The content we develop can be repurposed by your company’s PR team for various materials, such as investor relations, RFPs, pitch decks, and corporate bio pages.

• Interviewing: The process often serves as valuable preparation for common interview questions, helping you better articulate your experience, and how that experience might help a new company.

• Executive / Board Bios: If applicable, the content can be used for executive bios and board bios, with additional time allocated as needed.

We’ll use the clarity and copy we develop to eventually build a LinkedIn presence that serves your short- and long-term goals.

Unlike a résumé that you can tune to each job spec and submission, LinkedIn needs to be all the things to all the potential readers. So, for instance, someone targeting an in-house CFO role *and* an in-house advisor role at a pension fund has a challenge.

Become poachable by elevating the story to be seen by both audiences as if it’s written for them alone, while developing your LinkedIn as a tool for business as usual—telling your public story in a way that doesn’t invite speculation from your connections about your underlying intentions to make a career move.

How?

• Be strategic about how you position your public story, instead of simply copying and pasting your résumé into LinkedIn.

• Despite what many people will tell you, think of your LinkedIn profile as genuine tool for business instead of merely as an online résumé (“Your LinkedIn Profile Might Be Giving Away Trade Secrets”)

• Set your profile as a “quiet lure” to attract passive attention, while powerfully supporting your active or stealth job search intentions.

How we’ll do it:

When your résumé is nearly or completely finished, we'll shift our attention to LinkedIn. The "About" section is where a lot of careful strategy and attention can make the whole profile transformative.

That said, I’ve done this work and I’m still surprised by how challenging the “About” section can be. It’s also the most fun and the most rewarding section once completed.

Long before we begin crafting your LinkedIn copy, you’ll begin working on my LinkedIn for Business Questionnaire (I'll release it during Phase 2). When we finally begin writing, we’ll carry out the work over several writing sessions, again using Zoom’s screen-sharing capabilities so you’re smack in the middle of crafting your own public-facing story.

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 1 (60 min)

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 2 (60 min)

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 3 (60 min)

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 4 (60 min)

• Overtime is available when needed, and elected 40-60% of the time.

Writing your story is the foundation of our work, of course, but you’ll receive a total of three modules that will comprehensively guide you through the broader overhaul of your LinkedIn profile, ranging from the pros and cons of various LinkedIn features (what's good for a recent grad isn't necessarily great for a company leader), to the full public treatment of your career story.

Dual purpose profile, aka the secret sauce:

Because I work mostly with people who don’t want to give away their real intentions on LinkedIn, I generally position client profiles as a tool for business, with all of the inline keywords, underpinnings, dog whistles, halo effects, indirect references, and other subtle strategies that lets them appear “happy where they are” while making them findable for the roles and opportunities we identified in Phase 1.

It’s not all fun and games. Our lively, challenging, sometimes-grueling, but hopefully fun Zoom-based work sessions will ultimately result in usable materials for your next move.

Our bursts of visionary insight and practical grinding-at-the-details will eventually produce a forward-looking Library of Master Documents, which includes:

1. Executive Résumé (for humans and machines)

2. Résumé Addendum (if needed)

3. LinkedIn Overhaul

   1. LinkedIn Module 1 of 3: Principles & Philosophies

   2. LinkedIn Module 2 of 3: Sections, Connections & Technical Tidbits

   3. LinkedIn Module 3 of 3: Public-facing Copy

4. Cover Letter Kit

5. Variable Introductory Paragraphs for Cover Letter

6. Thank You Letter Template

7. Thank You Email Templates

8. References Sheet

9. Salary History Sheet (not necessary in all U.S. states)

Add-ons available include executive / board bios and pitch decks, as well as short-form bios for book jackets, speech introductions, social profiles, and beyond.

CURRENTLY BEING PILOTED: Clients routinely report that our work together helped them interview more confidently. I am currently piloting a potential new deliverable called, “Interview Answer Bingo,” where answers to potential interview answers are formally captured as they emerge during our work. In some cases, clients are allocating standalone time for the activity at the end of a project.