For the past 2 years, my husband Pat and I have been traveling globally using a 10-year bucket list. We live a month at a time in a place we typically haven’t visited previously. It started with Palermo, Sicily with sojourns to Bordeaux, France; Split, Croatia; multiple visits to Spain (Sitges, The Canary Islands), and St. Martin. Our friends call it being on vacation. I call it working and learning abroad. In between traveling, I’ve been completing my “mid-life internship” as a career consultant for Dress for Success in Seattle and Austin. For those of you not familiar, the mission of Dress for Success is to empower women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, professional attire and the development tools to help women thrive in work and in life. Their vision is a world where women do not live in poverty. It’s a phenomenal organization. Please check it out.
Why Career Consulting?
I started my career as a marketing research consultant fresh out of MBA school. I enjoyed developing brand positioning for Fortune 2000 corporations, not-for-profits, and, ultimately, myself. When you think about your career, how you position yourself is what sells your audience — whether that’s a potential employer, manager, colleague, or customer. It’s what I call your personal brand image. After exiting 20 years in Fortune 200 corporate life as a people manager as well as individual contributor in business marketing and sales, helping others with their personal brand has been very rewarding. Over my career I have critiqued more than 1,000 resumés. In the past 12 months, I have developed and edited 150 LinkedIn profiles. Recently I decided to formalize what I can offer clients by creating a website with examples of resumés, elevator speeches, and LinkedIn profile makeovers.
Developing A Website
To start website development, I solicited requests for proposals (RFPs) from 5 vendors with a project description. I learned LinkedIn Pro is a great way to obtain bids. The response was amazing from proposals ranging from Hyundai to Ferrari pricing. There are many options when developing a web site. I narrowed it down to 2 vendors. One vendor could design the website but not host while the other wanted to fully manage with a perpetual monthly maintenance. I appreciated both approaches and expertise but neither quite fit what I had in mind. So I thought, why not do it on my own? The learning curve amped up. I’m always up for a challenge.
The Process of Developing
Although in my career I have sold hosting services, I was the utter novice in what it takes to build and design a website. Armed with only a domain name purchase — resumetech.guru — I researched blogs, tutorials, and best practices. I spoke with experts, colleagues, and friends. For my needs I found the best hosting provider (Bluehost), platform (WordPress), theme (Envato), and graphic design app (Canva). This ended up being a global project with assistance from vendors in Australia, India, and the UK. While Pat and I were spending the past month in the Canary Islands this project became part of my daily routine. And nightly routine. There were peaks and valleys. The roller coaster of emotions. I learned about AMP, DB optimization, back ups gone afoul, plugins, security, SEO, site maps, and theme developers who think very differently from me. Through it all engaging the brain with new concepts is a wonderful thing.
The Launch
The tsunami of learning continues. I’ve learned a lot about myself in the process. After 6 weeks of design and development, www.resumetech.guru has launched. Yes, “guru” is an actual domain like “com.” Pat found it for me during a brainstorming session. It highlights my focus of helping IT and Tech clients with their resumés but, more importantly, their personal brand to obtain job interviews and offers. I enjoy helping people meet their full potential. I’m back in Seattle so we can meet in person or chat on the phone (360) 316-9505. Would love to hear from you. Let’s collaborate to land your dream job! Don’t you deserve it?
Great article Monique! I read it at the airport getting ready to head back to KC. Your reference to Dress for Success hit close to home in a positive way. My wife passed away last year and I gave all of her work clothes to the KC chapter! What a great organization. By the way I retired from CTL last year after 29 years! Best of luck with your new venture!
So sorry for your loss Kevin! Life throws us heartbreaking moments. I wish you the best in your long earned retirement. Thank you for dropping me the note. Monique