We are so excited to announce the winners and honorable mentions of CDI’s 2020 Career Innovator awards!
Every two years CDI hosts the competition, which draws innovative entries from resume writers, career coaches, outplacement professionals, trainers, and authors for consideration. This year was harder than many with such a variety of entries it was hard for judges to agree. In fact, the quality was so impressive that once again we have added an Honorable Mention category.
Please spend a few moments to learn about these outstanding tools created by some of the industry’s most innovative career industry leaders.
2020 Career Innovator Award Winners
In no particular order:
Stacey Murray of Human Spark (FKA The Resume Creative – Resume Writing for Return to Work Success course
This course empowers parents (mothers and fathers), carers and people recovered from injury and illness with the resume writing and job search skills to successfully secure a reentry to the workforce. The course is accessible online and comprises 26 bite-sized modules which can each be listened to or read in approximately 10 minutes or less (most under 5 minutes – great for busy lives and not at all overwhelming), complete with exercises, reading materials, video demos, and audios.
Meg Guiseppi of Executive Career Brand – CareerBrandVideos™ for Job Search, Career and Business | Personal Branding Video. (Innovation is a collaborative effort with Hannah Morgan and André Palko.)
CareerBrandVideos™ is a customized Done-For-You video system designed to meet the need for affordable, high-quality videos that don’t have the problems associated with video resumes and DIY video platforms.
Videos come in sets of 3, one for each of the critical aspects of personal branding: Personality, Subject Matter Expertise and Testimonials. A 17-Point Video Optimization Process is baked into each video to maximize online visibility. And career practitioners can join the Partner Program to earn commissions by offering these videos to their clients.
Evelyn Salvador of Creative Image Builders – Resume Keywords for All Professions V. 6 (contact creator for V. 6)
The entire Resume Keywords product contains 70,000+ keywords and covers about 15,000 positions to ensure all critical keywords are included so careerists’ resumes are screened in—not out. All Keywords are categorized by profession and were gleaned from current job openings and actual employer keyword lists. Each profession-specific document allows users to check off all relative keywords to include in their resume.
Each also includes sections that cover their “Technical Skills,” “Primary Personal Attributes,” and “How These Attributes Help in Your Profession” along with the “Employer Benefits of Your Attributes.” All important information to get their resume screened in.
Kristin Sherry of YouMap LLC – The YouMap® Career Profile
YouMap® was created to fill a market gap for a holistic, actionable and intuitive career profile tool. The YouMap® profile uncovers all four pillars of career fit, which include strengths, values, preferred skills and personality, all of which must align to bring fulfillment. Other profiles only look at one (or two at most) of the pillars. The YouMap® Career Profile also has companion workbooks for job seeker/career changer, entrepreneur, organization/employee, life coaching, students, and military veterans.
Barbara Safani of Career Solvers – Job Search Networking Tracking System (available from https://www.careersolvers.com/)
The Job Search Networking Tracking System is a tool that helps job seekers track their networking activity throughout the entire life cycle of their job search. It keeps them organized and accountable and it turns what many view as an overwhelming task into a system that gives them structure and control.
2020 Honorable Mentions
Nickquolette Barrett of iRock Development Solutions, LLC dba iRock Résumés – iRockS.T.A.R. Method (You’re HIRED! – 10 Tips to Rock Out Your Interview and Land Your Dream Job – The method begins on at Chapter 7)
From interviewing hundreds of job candidates in my career as a leader in corporate America and with my clients, I found that people get caught up in telling their story or situation and forget to tell the end result. This led to the I developed a new way of helping job candidates interview better. I call it the iRockS.T.A.R. Method or R-S.T.A.R. Method, which helps job candidates to interview better when answering behavioral or competency-based questions. It’s a better way to utilize the S.T.A.R. method successfully.
Jennifer Hay of IT Resume Service – Information Management (BI and Analytics) and Data Management courses for job seekers interested in these fields
These courses provide an overview of the 27 most common specialties in information management and data management fields. The courses were designed for:
- Recent graduates and those fairly new to information technology to help them decide the next steps in their career by giving them a foundational understanding of each specialty.
- Recent graduates are often taught concepts and techniques for several specialties but are not taught how each fits into the overall field. They don’t have a real understanding of the job roles and how they interconnect; for example, who would depend on them and upon whom would they depend.
- Those people who are considering a job change into information technology and need help deciding what specialty is right for them.
- Those people who want to help shape successful interviews by demonstrating their understanding of the roles and responsibilities of others within their team.
Meg Applegate of Hinge Resume Collaborative – Resume Branding Workbook
The Resume Branding Workbook is an e-workbook with a resume branding statement writing formula to help job seekers hone their value and articulate it from resume to interview. The DIY workbook specifically focuses on crafting a resume branding statement unique to their competitive edge, career accomplishments and job target.
Special Thanks to 2020 Judges
Without the dedication of these professionals, efforts like the Career Innovator awards would not happen. We thank them deeply for the time and thoughtfulness they took considering and evaluating each entry.
- Laura Labovich, The Career Strategy Group
- Rachel Raymond, RVP Career Services
- Lucie Yeomans, Your Career Ally/Sick Resumes
- Marie Plett, Aspirations Career Services, Inc
- Skye Berry, Skye is the Limit Resume & Career Solutions
- Lori Jazvac, Creative Horizons Communications – Resumes
- Rebecca Henninger, The Job Girl @ RH Resumes
