Resume Writing Award Winners
(TORI & WBRW)
Award-Winning Resume Writers and Their Winning Resumes
Toast of the Resume Industry Awards
Each year, CDI hosts the resume writing industry’s most prestigious Toast of the Resume Industry™ (TORI) resume writing competition. This is an international competition in which contestants submit their best work in a category.
Learn more about the TORIs
The Toast of the Resume Industry (TORI) resume writing competition award winners represent the epitome of excellence for job seekers to stand out from the competition.
Here’s what you need to know:
- Resumes CAN be both ATS-friendly and offer low to high visual design levels. (See member video tutorials for high design and our step-by-step tutorial course for more information).
- Not all jobs are found through online application or recruiters and may initially happen with a networking resume and be finished, as/if needed, with an ATS-friendly resume.
When viewing the winning resumes below you’ll see two types from 2021 to present – high design for networking, unless they used the techniques in our trainings, or classic design, which are ATS-friendly yet still attractive.
At the end of the day the focus is first and foremost on writing. Judges time and time again do not pick the fanciest or most visually dynamic resume IF it is not also the best written.
According to CDI President, Laura DeCarlo, “TORI winners are the best of the best in their overall strategy of visual formatting and design, personal marketing, understanding and targeting of employer/position requirements, and use of powerful language. In a world where visual presentation and self-marketing has become an art open to everyone with smart phone apps, to win a TORI is the ultimate stamp of approval a resume writer could attain.”
Winners are selected by a blind panel of global industry experts. Nominees are selected followed by first, second, and third place winners in each category.
Selecting a Resume Writer to Hire
A resume writing award is just one of the criteria you should consider when selecting a resume writer to hire. We recommend you take a few moments to learn more about selecting a company at CDI’s How to Select a Career Service Provider page.
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Here is the accordion information
Click to learn about CDI Resume Awards & ATS System Compatibility
Addendum 3/08/2021: CDI has changed the game with the TORI competition by introducing classic design categories.
Addendum 1/20/2020: It is now possible to make graphic resumes ATS-friendly! CDI has released a 94 minute video training that is free to members entitled How to Design ATS-Friendly Graphic Resumes. Now claims that these design-heavy resumes cannot be ATS compatible is no longer true. However, the following is still our current standing on the TORIs while we encourage everyone to embrace the techniques in this training.
TORI and World’s Best Resumes are networking resumes, which are used for job seekers in networking their way into jobs. Networking is the method in which over 80% of all job opportunities are found.
A scannable resume or an ATS resume, meant for automated tracking systems, is needed when a job applicant is applying online or when that type of resume is requested. Professional resume writers will advise their clients to first have a visual resume — one that combines visual impact, spatial segmentation of content for readability, and strategic branding to tease out the job seeker’s unique value. To complement this resume, a scannable version is always needed. Depending on the method of job search this may be an ATS resume which is customized for each position or it might simply be an ASCII resume. Both of these require dumbing down the format by stripping out the elements that make it friendly for a human while ensuring the key words are needed to match the job ad.
When opportunities emerge for a job seeker where there is limited certainty on what version to use, it is a good idea to send both. A simple line in the cover letter stating, “For your convenience I have also included an ATS-friendly resume” will suffice.
Bottom-line, the TORI and World’s Best resume represents the epitome of excellence for job seekers to stand out from the competition in a personalized, networked job search. An ATS-friendly resume is a necessary complement to that resume but should never be the ONLY tool a job seeker uses since they dehumanize the document. Until machines are the sole decision maker it will always be necessary to appeal to the human aesthetic.
2025 TORI Award Winners and Nominees
Nominees are listed in no particular order.
Best Classic Executive Resume
Eve Ruth – Compelling Resumes
Pam Foster – Compelling Resumes
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann – Area CV
Kamee Gilmore – Paradigm Solutions | PRCS Canada
Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.
1st Place
Eve Ruth
2nd Place
Kamee Gilmore
3rd Place
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann
Best Classic Difficult Transition Resume
Ferrell Marshall – Spotlight Coaching
Eve Ruth – Compelling Resumes
Rebecca Worthen – Career Keystone
Barbara Safani – Career Solvers
Dr. Jeannine Bennett – Vision to Purpose
1st Place
Eve Ruth
2nd Place
Rebecca Worthen
3rd Place
Dr. Jeannine Bennett
Chief Operating Officer
Consulting & Professional Services, Military
Best Classic New Graduate Resume
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann – Area CV
Dr. Jeannine Bennett – Vision to Purpose
Karen Adams – Job Hunt Like a Pro
Barbara Safani – Career Solvers
Amy Britta Watt – www.CareerMarketingCentre.com & www.EmergencyServiceCareers.com
1st Place
Dr. Jeannine Bennett
2nd Place
Amy Britta Watt
3rd Place
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann
Best Classic Sales Resume
Eve Ruth – Compelling Resumes
Barbara Safani – Career Solvers
Deborah Schuster – The Lettersmith
Amy Britta Watt – www.CareerMarketingCentre.com & www.EmergencyServiceCareers.com
Dr. Jeannine Bennett – Vision to Purpose
1st Place
Eve Ruth
2nd Place
Deborah Schuster
3rd Place
Amy Britta Watt
Best Difficult Transition Resume
Rebecca Worthen – Career Keystone
Deborah Schuster – The Lettersmith
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann – Area CV
Bridget Batson – Houston Outplacement Resume Writing and Career Counseling
Barbara Safani – Career Solvers
1st Place
Deborah Schuster
2nd Place
Barbara Safani
Personal Trainer
Healthcare & Pharmaceutical, Sports & Recreation
3rd Place
Bridget Batson
Best Executive Resume
Krista Mitchell – iCareerSolutions
Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.
Yuvika Iyer – Careerlinko
Deborah Schuster – The Lettersmith
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann – Area CV
1st Place
Deborah Schuster
2nd Place
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann
3rd Place
Yuvika Iyer
Best Healthcare/Medical Resume
Tamara Cameron – iCareerSolutions
Paula Christensen – Strategic Career Coaches
Pam Foster – Career Stylr
Irma Rojas – RSO Resumes
Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.
1st Place
Marie Plett
2nd Place
Pam Foster
3rd Place
Tamara Cameron
Best High Tech Resume
Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.
Deborah Schuster – The Lettersmith
Laura Hartnell – Laura Hartnell Career Transition Services
Tamara Cameron – iCareerSolutions
Bridget Batson – Houston Outplacement Resume Writing and Career Counseling
1st Place
Laura Hartnell
Senior Project Manager
Communications & Technology, Consulting & Professional Services
2nd Place
Deborah Schuster
3rd Place
Marie Plett
Best New Graduate Resume
Pam Foster – Career Stylr
Deborah Schuster – The Lettersmith
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann – Area CV
Amy Britta Watt – www.CareerMarketingCentre.com & www.EmergencyServiceCareers.com
Bridget Batson – Houston Outplacement Resume Writing and Career Counseling
1st Place
Pam Foster
2nd Place
Deborah Schuster
3rd Place
Bridget Batson
Best Sales Resume
Amy Britta Watt – www.CareerMarketingCentre.com & www.EmergencyServiceCareers.com
Renzo Maúrtua-Neumann – Area CV
Deborah Schuster – The Lettersmith
Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.
Krista Mitchell – iCareerSolutions
1st Place
Deborah Schuster
2nd Place
Krista Mitchell
3rd Place
Amy Britta Watt
Special Thanks to 2025 Judges:
Director of Awards – Gayle Howard – Top Margin Executive Resumes & Coaching
Charisse Green – C. Green Career Consulting
Jheneal McDuffie – The Resume Chic & Co.
Alexandria Doyle – Resume Passion
Jay Mesa – Higher You LLC
Scott Nichols – Advanced Method Resumes & Career Services
Tiffany Hardy – TiffanyHardy.com
Ashley Watkins Thomas – Write Step Resumes
Erin Kennedy – Professional Resume Services, Inc.
Dawn Bugni – The Write Solution
Amy L. Adler – Five Strengths Career Transition Experts
Mary Elizabeth Bradford – Ceoresumewriter.com
Gillian Kelly – Outplacement Australia / Career Edge