Your path to a
successful career

As we ring in 2018, we’re excited to introduce you to Point Road Group!

Our new name and parent brand reflect our growth and the broader range of services we provide to individual and corporate clients. While Resume Strategists has strong brand equity, we’ve been doing a lot more than resumes since the company’s inception almost 15 years ago! Point Road Group broadens our impact and enhances our position as career and personal branding experts.

Sharing your time and talent with others isn’t just something to feel good about; volunteering pays off in different ways that ultimately can drive career advancement.

The efforts you put into volunteer activities are a worthwhile investment of time, whether you lead a professional association committee, serve on the board of a nonprofit, assist with an college alumni event, mentor students, act as a brand ambassador of a charitable organization or even roll up your sleeves on a relief project or mission.

Events of almost any kind provide great opportunities to “get out there” and increase your professional visibility and enable your personal brand to come to life. Whether it’s a conference, networking event, seminar, benefit or party, these gatherings provide an environment ripe for meeting others, expanding your network, building new relationships and strengthening existing ones.

First impressions matter, and your LinkedIn profile is often someone’s first (or second) impression of you when cultivating a professional relationship. Your profile is an important part of your personal brand and since you have complete control over what to include, it’s up to you to put your best foot forward in every section.

“Are you going to wear that?” How many of us heard our mothers ask this question when we were younger? She asked because she knew something important: first impressions matter. Even before you speak a word to someone, how you dress — and what you wear, specifically – can impact both the initial impression you make on others and their subsequent expectations about you. While your style alone cannot guarantee success professionally, it can help shape outcomes of business meetings, networking events and job interviews, for better or worse.

If you’re considering a job change, there’s a good chance you’ll work with a recruiter or executive search consultant. These professionals are often gateways to opportunities because they evaluate talent to recommend to their clients (who are the companies with job openings, not individual job seekers), and so they can be vital to your job search.

To ensure you stand out in the talent pool, we asked some leading executive search professionals to share their insights and expertise on what separates strong candidates from the weak ones.

A successful interview depends on how well you prepare for it, including how and what you research. A cursory review of topline information about a company may help you to kick-off a conversation, but it won’t sustain it. Spending time to gain in-depth knowledge not only conveys your degree of interest in the position, but it also influences the types of conversations you’ll have with interviewers.

So what is deep-dive research and how can the information help during an interview?

A strong network is essential throughout your career, whether you’re looking for a new job or board seat, sourcing talent or vendors, seeking new business or speaking engagements – or even helping someone secure an internship. Yet, people regularly admit to us that they’ve let their networks lapse…

Writing a thank you note after a job interview is not optional. This expression of gratitude after an interview is not only good manners, it’s good strategy, keeping you top-of-mind with a potential employer. The thank you note is your opportunity to reinforce why you’re a strong candidate and reiterate your interest in the role you’ve interviewed for.

You know that a strong resume is vital as you market yourself for a new job, but how do you know if yours is the best it can be? In less than half a second, a Google search for “resume writing advice” yields 1.89 million results. Instead of scrolling through a virtually endless list to figure out what to pay most attention to, here are 10 strategic essentials for what you should — and shouldn’t — do to ensure your resume makes the strongest possible first impression.