Resume Mastery Course
with Advanced Resume Writer Certification
Your Writing, Your Brand, Your Career: Make it Shine!
Welcome to CDI's Resume Mastery Course + Certified Advanced Resume Writer Credentialing for Professional Resume Writers.
Do you want to write professional resumes and CVs that are distinctive, dynamite, hard-hitting, and provide your clients with the edge they need to land job interviews?
Are you ready to earn the top resume certification of Certified Advanced Resume Writer (CARW)?
Would you like to be trained and certified through the only resume writing course created and taught by an award-winning, published and 6X certified resume writer?
Who is this resume writing course meant for?
This course is for everyone! It's for you if:
You've written resumes for friends, family and colleagues as a favor, seen them have results, and wondered how you could refine your skills professionally.
You're already a professional resume writer and want to maximize your talents, boost your confidence, and ensure you provide clients with the most up-to-date resumes.
You want to pick up new tips and techniques to share with subcontractors or career service staff.
You're a recruiter who wants to add value by upping the game of your candidates with one-stop services.
Who is the world class instructor for this unique resume writing course?
Meet Gayle Howard, a multi-award-winning Master Resume Writer.
She has three decades of experience, 51 Toast of the Resume Industry (TORI) nominations, 27 first-place accolades 30 awards total), and a World's Best Resume Writer award. She's written more than 15,000 resumes and has been published in more than 23 resume writing books internationally.
We are proud to have hand-selected Gayle to create and guide our resume writing course since resume writers around the world recognize her as one of the best-of-the-best.
Will you attain resume writer certification through the course?
Absolutely! Resume writing students passing this resume writing course with a Gold Pass will immediately achieve the Certified Advanced Resume Writer credential.
What if you could learn everything you need for success as a professional resume writer?
The course is robust, with the following key takeaways:
Understand your clients' needs, help them articulate their goals and all they have to offer, then produce a brilliant customized resume.
Effectively market your clients to potential employers and position them as highly qualified interview candidates with your resumes. You will learn to underscore their strengths and qualifications while minimizing, or eliminating their weaknesses.
Write a resume that will pass three major reviews to make your clients stand out:
First – the 5-second scan – keep or dump? … 95% are dumped.
Second – the 1-minute peruse – meet requirements?... further 3% dumped.
Third – a 3-minute read – worth an interview?... fewer than 1% make the grade.
Guarantee that the interviewer can understand your clients' most important skills and highlight reasons for hiring them within ten seconds in your resumes.
Significantly improve the words, organization, and design of your resumes to highlight strengths and create an unforgettable first impression.
Construct front-loaded achievement bullets, so that hiring managers have a blinding first impression when they skim your resumes.
Gain insight into forensic questioning to use with any client to ensure you get the information you need to sell their skills effectively.
Place resume data for maximum, strategic impact with employers.
Create resumes for various industries and levels from new grad and military transition to blue color, tech, creative, and executive.
Overcome challenges that various client situations (career changes, gaps) can produce.
Build scannable resumes that can survive the various systems that exist today.
Leverage forensic questioning techniques to make sure you can present client stories in rich context.
Use storytelling framework tricks that master storytellers use for sharing client successes in the most power way possible.
Study and use powerful, downloadable templates and samples to inspire and guide your writing.
What does this mean for your future as a professional resume writer?
You will be learning the tricks of the trade from one of the most respected resume writers. You will gain the information and knowledge that will enable you to blast ahead of your competition, command greater fees, and increase your client referrals. Is a TORI award in your future? Why not?
Through Resume Mastery you will gain full immersion into the how-to of resume writing from the all-important gathering of information with your client (this makes or breaks a resume) to designing it so that it's scannable, readable, results-focused, visually enticing, and gets interviews.
No matter what your level or goal, this course will deliver something new.
When completed, you will know you:
From A to Z, CDI is proud to have this stellar course available for you to become the most amazing resume writer you can be!
Can confidently meet your clients' demands for absolute quality.
Are at the top of the industry with the most up-to-date skills and service available to job seekers.
Will attract clients who recognize the value of investing with you.
Could easily handle expanding your business to effectively train subcontractors.
Hold a top industry certification.
From A to Z, CDI is proud to have this stellar course available for you to become the most amazing resume writer you can be!
So what exactly does this resume course cover?
Resume writing can create what our CDI President calls, "Blank Page Syndrome".
This course is designed a little different from programs that throw you in to resume writing. Rather, as you work through Resume Mastery to complete and pass each module, you will confidently be prepared to step into the next piece of designing and refining a resume.
Upon course completion, you will have mastered a methodology for success that you can repeat with each of your clients!
The modules cover:
Access foundational information about being a professional resume writer, what you need to succeed, and how to develop your skills. Additionally, you will review content to help you establish yourself in the world of professional resume writing:
- Key resume components.
- Who receives resumes.
- What resumes do not do.
- HR divisions and recruiters, and their view of resumes.
- Why resumes are important.
- Career marketing.
- DIY vs professional resume writing.
- What questions to ask.
- Getting known.
- Perils and pitfalls in resumes.
- Competing priorities you may face with your clients.
- Good value vs. cheap and cheerful.
- Pro bono vs "friend rates".
- When to turn clients away.
- Need for speed in resume writing.
- Pricing and packaging resume services.
This module helps you get straight, once-and-for-all, on what is myth and what is reality in what makes a resume work. This module encompasses:
- Your new appointment.
- Resume myths.
- Forget Word templates.
- Extracting information from clients.
- Understanding the important of presentation.
- Which format is best for varying situations.
- Introduction to resume formatting.
- Resume editing.
Learn the seven key steps of planning your resumes. This module encompasses:
- Navigating the 7-step foolproof action plan.
- Key words.
- Charting a case study.
- Allocating information.
- Information gathering.
Step-by-step your way through the word processing of your resumes. This module encompasses:
Putting all the data together.
Name and address styles.
Spacing and formatting.
Grammar and spelling.
Tweaking tricks to squeeze in a bit more.
Punctuation.
Em dash.
Underlining and capital letters.
Resume scannability.
MS Word basics.
It's time to dig in to development of your resume content. This module encompasses:
- Creating the fundamentals.
- Personal branding.
- Key words.
- Deeds and actions.
- Inclusions and exclusions.
- Forensic questioning.
- Job descriptions as your sole resource.
- The resume cliche.
- The tombstone resume.
Uncover how to handle resume writing projects for clients with challenging backgrounds, limited experience, or failure to provide you with strong data. This module encompasses:
- Job seekers stuck in a career rut.
- New graduates job seekers.
- Military conversion job seekers.
- Tech job seekers.
- Blue collar job seekers.
- Creative job seekers.
- Executive job seekers.
- Job seekers with job history obstacles.
- How to avoid disasters.
- More samples for technology and creative clients.
Words are power and this module will allow you to get out of your own way with repetitive or passive words and phrases, and learn to write resume content for maximum power without excess. This module encompasses:
- First person, third person and tenses.
- Power words.
- Setting the scene.
- Words that have lost their impact.
- Personal brands.
- Quotations and client statements.
- Techniques for highlighting data.
- Resume sample(s) for illustration.
Get excited because beyond all the writing tricks, treats and tips, design is critical to the value of your resumes. We do not live in a black and white world, so resumes need to pop. This module encompasses:
- Formats introduction.
- Special formats.
- Page borders.
- Shaded headings.
- Headers and footers.
- Making bullets pop.
- Shaded dividers.
- Shaded vertical lines.
- Graphs and charts that sell.
- Examples for inspiration.
It's critical to get clear on exactly what content should be avoided in the resume. This module encompasses:
- Unnecessary truths.
- Inclusions vs exclusions.
- Tricks with numbers.
It's inevitable that you will come upon clients who present unique challenges, especially when pursuing a career change. This module encompasses:
- Career changers.
- Easy and hard projects.
- Understanding target roles and industries.
- The "impossible" project.
- Questions to ask the career changer.
- Case studies.
No resume is complete without a cover letter. This module encompasses:
- Cover letter and enote overview.
- What's changed in cover letters.
- Anatomy of a cover letter.
- The elephant in the room.
- Case studies.
- Samples.
- Cover letter formatting.
- Sign-offs and signatures for cover letters.
- Enote subject lines.
- Enote body content.
- Enote formatting.
- Sign-offs and signatures for enotes.
- 120-word enote examples.
- Post-interview thank you letters and examples.
You're done so it's time to complete your project. This module encompasses:
- Writing more efficiently.
- Questioning efficiently.
- Resume section review.
- Pragmatic accountability.
- Proofreading assignment.
- Assignment documents for final resume development.
- Reading and resources.
- The business of resume writing.
Again, the content builds from module to module so that you are able to create winning resumes for your clients at completion.
What level of clients will I learn to write resumes for in this course?
Through a series of incremental modules, this course aims to clear the path for you to write effectively for job seekers at all levels from technically-inclined to new graduates and top executives.
Job seekers today know more than ever that they need a great resume, but they rarely know how to produce one for themselves.
In this course, the power of that initial resume document in never underestimated.
We recognize that it is the thrust of the content in this critical document that will paint a picture and solidify your client in the reader’s mind. If that picture is unclear, muddied by an unbalanced presentation of the candidate’s job chronology, ridden with clichés, or filled with jargon and acronyms that confuse the reader, then that document is actively sabotaging the client’s prospects.
In Resume Mastery, you will refine your craft as a resume writer and help your clients realize their ultimate potential.
Is this resume writing course a fit for me?
This course is directed towards professional resume writers keen to enrich the quality of their practice and service towards their clients. Pre-requisites are simply a desire to improve and an understanding of resume fundamentals. The e-course is self-paced and allows each participant the opportunity to absorb information and respond within the confines of existing jobs, projects and lifestyle. Each module has been created to take in a specified order, much like the layout of a resume.
How is this resume writing course taught?
You will receive access to a user-friendly online learning system with videos, downloadable PDFs, and one-on-one assignment mentoring.
There are no further purchase of books required.
This is e-learning so you can progress at your own pace and schedule -- no needing to reschedule your life to participate!
You are able to set aside your own time for learning and at your own pace. No hurrying to play catch-up or missing important points because you are writing notes.
Do it on the weekends, at night, or when the kids are at school. You get to work on this course when you feel the time is right and you are ready to learn for a more prosperous life.
How do I get support and feedback on my resume writing?
You will have a mentor to review and support you all the way.
While you are engaging online with the materials, this course is very much human-powered.
You will have your new knowledge tested, validated and assessed because you need to know that you've understood and can apply your new skills properly.
Gayle Howard, award-winning Certified Master Resume Writer with more than 28 years of resume writing experience will be your support mechanism, mentor and cheerleader throughout your training.
Complimenting the fun, animated videos and downloadable PDFs, will be Gayle providing the mentorship and support to help you learn when and where you need it and without the complications of waiting for teleseminars or being directed to canned responses.
She will be able to resolve questions pertaining to the use of the site and course content.
Her feedback and support, including the creation of personalized videos to "show you" the answer to your situation is absolutely invaluable. You will be able to return to this information again and again as you grow in expertise.
How do I attain resume writer certification?
After successfully completing each course module, you will be provided with a series of notes as if having talked with a client in person or on the telephone. From these notes, you will develop a resume using the lessons you have mastered through this course.
You will also write a small essay/brief to justify your reasoning for the content and style used. (We refer to this as your chance to "speak" for your resume in your absence. Once complete, the document will be assessed for a “Gold Pass” and CARW certification.
How long does the course take to complete?
Since it is a self-paced curriculum, you can take as long as you need within one calendar year of registration.
However, Gayle has found that most students will complete it within only 10 weeks. When you first start the early modules may take as little as a half an hour to an hour.
Towards the end where the intensive writing exercises/assignments are, you could be spending four or more hours for the last couple of modules.
On average, Gayle estimates 2-2.5 hours per week for 10 weeks. Please be advised that you must maintain an active CDI membership to complete any phase of the program.
How does the scoring and pass/fail process work?
While theoretical knowledge is important, in resume writing it is practical application of that information in the form of creating a compelling, dynamic resume document that is the key. The overall assessment reflects the reality of the real world as follows:
Mini quizzes results at the conclusion of each module represent 15% of the final score.
The final resume submission represents 85% of the end result.
There are three pass levels:
— Six months of additional access to the e-course to continue professional development and hone skills.
— Feedback by the course facilitator in the form of critiques and recommendations on five (5) resumes written for the student’s own clients. Facilitator will provide feedback on how these five resumes could have been improved using Career Director’s International official score sheet used by the CDI Certification Committee.
— Invitation to re-submit a final resume assessment within six months based on one of the four e-course scenarios. Five resumes must have been submitted for feedback (above) to the course facilitator for feedback to be eligible for this invitation.
If a Gold pass can be attained in this period, the CARW credential will be conveyed.
What if I don't agree with your assessment?
Transparency is important and you have the right to appeal your assessment. If you believe that your level of pass is inaccurate you will be given the opportunity to have your final resume assessment reviewed by CDI’s Certification Committee. The sample will be submitted “blind” and this will be the final avenue for appeal. You will still be given the rights and opportunities available to Bronze Ticket Pass students.
Are there minimum system requirements to take this course?
This course is video-based with supportive downloadable materials. Therefore, the ability to play videos is important.
This course is friendly for modern computers (Windows or Mac) as well as mobile devices such as iPads and tablets.
If you are able to watch videos on line, you should be fine.
What all do I get with the course?
All the content and takeaways described above in:
A total of 25 hours of materials are packed into this amazing course to prepare you to win accolades as a top, professional resume writer.
If I earn the CARW are their renewal requirements?
The CARW Certification must be renewed every two (2) years by earning 30 industry-related continuing education units (CEUs). This can be completed through a variety of activities such as: employment-related book reviews, career-related community service, completing related coursework or study, publishing resumes, and/or authoring articles, blog posts, and related materials on resume writing.
The renewal fee is $50.00.
Why is renewal necessary? Because the craft of resume writing is dynamic and is swiftly changing with the advances in computer technology and applicant tracking / scanning as well as emerging legal issues involving resume fraud. These are just a few concerns that make it necessary for professionals to demonstrate ongoing education and knowledge of modern resume writing techniques.
After earning the CARW is it possible to have it revoked?
All requirements of CARW certification, renewal, and CDI membership standards must be maintained in order to retain a CDI credential. CDI reserves the right to revoke a CARW credential for any of the following: Renewal requirements are not maintained and completed within required timelines. Membership lapses due to non-renewal. Individual is found guilty in a court of law for a grievance within the industry (unprofessional, unethical, unlawful conduct and/or business practices).
Are you ready to start on the road to resume writing success?
Get on the fast track to certification now and start learning what the top professionals know while nurturing your talents, boosting your confidence, and securing your place among the industry leaders.
Sign up below to begin learning the insider secrets and wisdom from a guru with 22 years at the top of the profession.
PS…to ensure you get personalized, quality coaching, we limit the number of clients we coach at any one time. Once the limit is reached, new clients are placed on a waiting list until we have space available. We will notate here if there is a current waiting list.
Sign up now to start on your journey to certification and more satisfied clients.
*Not a Member of CDI? Membership is a prerequisite.
If you are not currently a CDI member, please select the Non-Member rate below as it includes mandatory membership.
Non-member registration includes one year of individual membership ($347 value) to Career Directors International: Your Pathway to Success, rich with ongoing support, networking, and new information.
For non-members who desire a 3-pay option, membership must be purchased first from the Member Benefits page. Afterwards, you can then select the 3-payment option above to purchase the product.
Still have questions?
Contact CDI for more information at info@nullcareerdirectors.com.