Resume Writer & LinkedIn Certification: Certified Career Storyteller

What does this career storyteller course cover?

There are 17 total modules within the 6-part program. The content is VERY comprehensive and covers:

Part 1: Work with Story-Based Deliverables and Create a LinkedIn Profile (3 sessions)

This module is first because you will be able to use it in your practice right away, as it creates the perfect foundation for your introduction to the story-based brand map and resume.

You will work with provided story-based brand maps and resumes as source materials to see what a story-based LinkedIn profile looks like and actually create one from the provided materials.

In this part you will:  

• Become familiar with story-based career marketing materials.
• Learn the fundamentals of LinkedIn search algorithm optimization and why it’s only 50% of what’s needed to make a LinkedIn profile effective.
• Discover how to “hook” readers with branded headlines and career summary openings.
• Understand how to build on readers’ interest with a summary body that tells a story, conveying important data in a memorable way.
• Uncover how to position career experience sections in support of the story—without “giving away the farm.”
• Gain “stealth” tools to optimize LinkedIn when clients must keep their job search confidential.
• Utilize a super simple technique for creating a branded cover photo for LinkedIn. (Humans are visual, and what we see is just as much a part of the story as the words we read).
• Get refresher coverage of how to create a story-based 30-second pitch. (Covered in detail in the free preview webinar, Story-Based Value Propositions: The Career Writer's Key to Remaining Relevant).

Part 2: Get a Resume Writer's Crash Course MBA & Job Search Understanding (3 sessions)

Lack of business understanding and job search landscape often prevents excellent writers from “hitting the mark” with their documents. What this means is that beautiful documents are delivered and writer and client feel great—until the client comes back months later to report they’re not getting any interviews.

In this part you will: 

• Gain a basic understanding of which business concepts are important for a resume writer to master in order to ask the right questions and hone in on the most important aspects of client accomplishments, career stories, and brands.
• Learn how recruiters, hiring managers, network contacts, and computers view resumes and how to ensure your documents will be effective on all platforms. (This will be revisited after the resume is written as well, but a foundational discussion here will help you with strategy decisions).
• Learn common places to look for the heart of a career story for each major business function.
• Use learned business themes to create a frame (over-arching theme) for a career story with sub-stories (accomplishments with context) that support that broader theme.

Part 3: Build a Story-Based Brand Map (2 sessions)

The story-based brand map is where the gold is at guiding you through turning information gathered from a passive "intake" exercise to a collaborative brand coaching process that draws out the client and engages them in their own career story.

In this part you will: 

• Understand how to frame your brand coaching session to properly set client expectations.
• Capture the tools to hold space for your client and be fully present so they feel safe, supported, and creative.
• Learn what to ask to draw stories out of your clients and get context for accomplishments so they are more meaningful.
• Gain skill to connect the dots, identifying themes across the client’s life and career and how to present them to the client for feedback/discussion.
• Perceive how to align the client’s brand assets with the needs of their desired market.
• Attain multiple ways to document the branding session for your use as you create deliverables.
• Uncover what a brand map is and how to use it as a valuable stand-alone client deliverable as well as a tool to unify your clients’ communications whether you are doing the writing or working with a subcontractor.
• Learn how to create a brand map, including target, communications strategy, brand description, brand-critical qualities backed by the client’s own accounts, and the possible inclusion of additional dynamic elements (quotes, drivers, favorite authors, etc.).

Part 4: Write the Resume (4 sessions)

What you've been waiting for: how the resume blossoms from all this story-telling magic. This is where you see that all come together.

In this part you will: 

• Commit to a strategy and learn the benefits of a planned strategy in terms of time and quality. But also understand when it makes sense to remain flexible and how to address this with the client.
• Gain access to Kim’s resume samples in Word for use in practicing design, addressing strategic challenges, and as starting points for your own resumes. (These are the keys to her TORI kingdom!)
• Learn why you should write the body of the resume before the top summary and what notes to keep as you work so that writing the opening profile becomes a breeze and you have a head start on the LinkedIn profile and letters.
• Capture strategies for handling difficult situations: age discrimination, work gaps, career changes, scandalized former employer, etc.
• Write an opening profile and design a first page that concisely and compellingly presents the most important aspects of the client’s brand, career story, and supporting data. In other words, get readers to call the client in for interviews and read the rest of the resume.
• Understand when and how to add visual elements to the resume and how to do an aesthetic edit to ensure the look of the resume is inviting and on-brand. You'll access Kim’s techniques for making graphs and charts more impactful and how to visually indicate success when numbers from the client are vague.
• Learn how to create presentation resumes in Word and PDF and when aspects of more complex designs can cause challenges with applicant tracking systems (ATS).
• Watch Kim create story-based brand assets from branding session notes in real-time.

Will you really get design strategy and templates? The answer is YES! 

Kim writes:

The design aspect is the focus of one of the sessions and covers how to incorporate the career story visually, how to create white space and direct the reader to critical information, and how to achieve impactful visuals using only Word. There is also a bonus video in that segment showing how I make graphs more compelling and attractive. You also get several of my TORI entries in Word, which you are then welcome to use as templates in your business and play with and build on as your skills develop.

Part 5: Translate Skills to Additional Story-Based Deliverables (4 sessions)

With the brand mapped and the resume written, the heavy lifting is done! Now you will uncover how to translate this foundational work into other communications.

In this part you will:

• Learn to create a custom cover letter with a story-based, branded hook that will get people reading about and remembering your candidate.
• Create a stand-alone value proposition letter that will enable your clients to expand their network by introducing themselves to new people—and why this is best done without a resume.
• Write long-form and short-form bios that tell your client’s story.
• Learn how to write a board resume.
• Revisit LinkedIn learnings.

Part 6:  Access Selling Tools to Boost Your Success

In typical CDI course fashion, we want to make sure you can sell this program to your prospects. Therefore, Kim has created this bonus session.

In this part you will:

• Learn how to incorporate story-based career communications and your new certification into your marketing materials and sales conversations so clients are calling you wondering how they can sign up to work with you.
• Listen to Kim host a live session with a client.

(No test on these concepts—but your financial planner will congratulate you on paying close attention here!)