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    Cyber Week Specials

    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

    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:

    1. 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).
    2. 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.

    Learn more about entering the TORI Awards
    TORI Awards FAQs

    TORI Award logo

    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.

    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.

    2023 TORI Award Winners and Nominees

    Nominees are listed in no particular order. 

    Best Classic Executive Resume

    Scott Nichols – Advanced Method Resumes & Career Services
    Catharine Craig
    Deborah L. Schuster – The Lettersmith
    Renzo Luis Maurtua-Neumann – Area CV
    Eve Ruth – Compelling Resumes

    Best Classic New Graduate

    Monica O’Neill – Best Image Career Services, LLC
    Deborah L. Schuster – The Lettersmith
    Paula Christensen – Strategic Career Coaches
    Chelsey Opare-Addo – Not Your Mother’s Resume
    Sally Johnson – Omnia Writing Services

    Best Difficult Transition Resume

    Pam Foster – Career Stylr
    Alexandria Doyle – Resume Passion
    Yuvika Iyer – Careerlinko
    Renzo Luis Maurtua-Neumann – Area CV
    Rebecca Worthen – Career Keystone

    Best Executive Resume

    Arno Markus – iCareerSolutions
    Deborah L. Schuster – The Lettersmith
    Pam Foster – Career Stylr
    Yuvika Iyer – Careerlinko
    Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.

    1st Place
    Marie Plett


    CEO / COO
    Education, Manufacturing

    3rd Place
    Arno Markus


    CEO
    Communications & Technology

    Best New Graduate Resume

    Bridget Batson – Houston Outplacement Resume Writing and Career Counseling
    Carolyn Whitfield – Total Resumes
    Lucie Yeomans – Your Career Ally / Agave Communications LLC
    Yuvika Iyer – Careerlinko
    Amy Britta Watt – www.CareerMarketingCentre.com & www.PoliceTestTutor.com

    Best Classic Difficult Transition Resume

    Barbara Safani – Career Solvers
    Catharine Craig
    Jheneal McDuffie – The Resume Chic & Co.
    Charisse Green – C. Green Career Consulting
    Carolyn Whitfield – Total Resumes

    1st Place
    Catharine Craig


    Executive Director
    Non-Profit

    2nd Place
    Carolyn Whitfield


    Recruiter
    Construction, Hospitality & Travel

    3rd Place
    Charisse Green


    DEI Program Designer
    Entertainment

    Best Classic High Tech Resume

    Carolyn Whitfield – Total Resumes
    Amy Britta Watt – www.CareerMarketingCentre.com & www.PoliceTestTutor.com
    Barbara Safani – Career Solvers
    Deborah L. Schuster – The Lettersmith
    Chelsey Opare-Addo – Not Your Mother’s Resume

    2nd Place
    Deborah L. Schuster


    Senior Director
    Communications & Technology

    3rd Place
    Barbara Safani


    CTO
    Communications & Technology

    Best Healthcare/Medical Resume

    Bridget Batson – Houston Outplacement Resume Writing and Career Counseling
    Carolyn Whitfield – Total Resumes
    Yuvika Iyer – Careerlinko
    Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.
    Renzo Luis Maurtua-Neumann – Area CV

    Best High Tech Resume

    Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.
    Catharine Craig
    Eve Ruth – Compelling Resumes
    Yuvika Iyer – Careerlinko
    Bridget Batson – Houston Outplacement Resume Writing and Career Counseling

    Best Sales Resume

    Arno Markus – iCareerSolutions
    Yuvika Iyer – Careerlinko
    Carolyn Whitfield – Total Resumes
    Bridget Batson – Houston Outplacement Resume Writing and Career Counseling
    Marie Plett – Aspirations Career Services, Inc.

    Special Thanks to 2023 Judges:

    Director of Awards – Gayle Howard – Top Margin Executive Resumes & Coaching
    Angela Watts – MyPro Resumes & Recruiting
    Ashley Watkins – Write Step Resumes
    Danielle “Elle” Holmes – Career Services by Elle
    Erin Kennedy – Professional Resume Services, Inc.
    Robin Schlinger – Robin’s Resumes
    Dawn Bugni – The Write Solution
    Tammy Shoup – Breakthrough Resume Writing Service, LLC
    Grant Cooper – CareerPro of New Orleans / Strategic Resumes
    Amy Adler – Five Strengths Career Transition Experts
    Mary Elizabeth Bradford – Ceoresumewriter.com
    Gillian Kelly – Outplacement Australia / Career Edge

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