Career Planning

92% of recruiters, hiring managers, and staffing firms use LinkedIn to locate fresh talent and screen for interviews. In today’s world, your LinkedIn profile is the key to your professional branding strategy. A carefully curated profile that highlights your knowledge, skills, and experiences along with a robust network of connections will unlock your potential professional growth. 

Your LinkedIn profile is not your resume, nor is it a copy-and-paste template of either your resume or the resume that we create for you. It is your story, designed to communicate your personality, experience, and ambitions. It is a full service package meant to  compliment to your resume and other essential application documents.

We work with you one-on-one, taking the time to learn about you and your goals in order to craft a strategic, professional profile that will showcase your expertise, build your personal brand, and expand your network.

• A highly collaborative telephone consultation and branding/strategy session.
• Draft a new profile or revamp your existing profile to create a keyword embedded, engaging narrative.
• Headline maximization – personal branding with highly focused SEO keywords to help you land higher in search rankings.
• One hour Career Virtual Coaching Session with screen sharing option to demonstrate how to update your profile.
• Suggestions on use of securing and promoting meaningful endorsements targeted to enhance credibility.
• Recommendations for how to best leverage and maximize your LinkedIn profile.
• Recommendations for next steps to ensure 100% profile completeness.
• Video tutorials and step-by-step guidelines on using LinkedIn to create and build a professional brand.
• Guidance and resources on how get the most out of LinkedIn when searching for a new job.
• Delivery of your LinkedIn profile content in a Microsoft Word format for you to upload to your profile.

Did you know the average person spends 8.5 seconds scanning a LinkedIn profile? That’s a whole 2.5 seconds LONGER than they spend looking at your resume!

Your resume is one of the most important elements of your application package. Think of it as snapshot or an outline of your knowledge, skills, experience, and achievements. 

A professionally written resume will ensure that your application makes it through application tracking scanners and into the hands of someone who matters. 

Hiring Manager’s spend a mere six seconds scanning resumes to determine who they call in for an interview, which means you must make every second count. By strategically positioning and organizing key information using concise, industry-specific language, a professional resume writer will make sure that your qualifications stand out and highlight your expertise.

Our expert resume writing service delivers:

• Inside Perspective: We know what today’s recruiters and hiring managers want—and don’t want—to see in a resume.
• Resume Strategy: We will make sure your career objective and unique value proposition are explicitly stated and they will shape your work experience to underscore these criteria.
• Data Generation: We will help you build resume content by asking insightful questions to uncover and reframe your accomplishments and job duties.
• Compelling Content: We are aware of industry-specific keywords that are highlighted by scanning software and HR screeners.
• Language Expertise: We have in-depth knowledge of grammar, structure, and style (so you don’t have to worry about typos, misspellings, and grammatical errors).

COVER LETTER

Think of your cover letter as your first impression. It is the first thing a recruiter or hiring manager will see—whether in the body of an email or attached to a hard copy of your resume. While your resume is data, the cover letter is your voice speaking for you before your resume. A professionally crafted cover letter will showcase distinguishing elements of your resume and compel the reader to review your resume more thoroughly. 

This is why we prepare your cover letters as carefully as your resume. The customized letter we create also serves as a template for other job openings of interest, thereby extending its value beyond one use. 

DMD & Associates cover letters grab the attention of hiring managers by:

•  Introducing with a strong opening to immediately focus on how you fill the employer’s needs
•  Providing proof that you are uniquely positioned to make a positive impact
•  Succinctly describe how your apply your skills and insight to the targeted role
•  Develop enough interest so that the employer wants to turn the page, look at your resume and say, “Let’s call this one in for an interview”

THANK YOU

The most successful job-seekers send a thank-you letter immediately following a job interview —generally a brief email followed by a more detailed, hard-copy thank-you letter sent by postal mail. You want to ensure that the interviewer has your thank-you letter in hand no later than the end of the following day. DMD & Associates can host a de-briefing session with you after the interview and immediately craft a thank you letter designed to get the results you desire —a second interview or a job offer.

FOLLOWUP LETTER

The use of follow-up letters in this competitive employment market is becoming increasingly popular. A follow-up letter is sent to a potential employer either after submitting a resume or following an interview and is designed to reiterate your strengths and reinforce your interest in the position. A follow-up letter can increase your chances of getting hired as it sets you apart from other applicants. We will craft a custom follow-up letter after securing the information we need regarding your job search.

REFERENCE SHEET

After a thorough review and discussion of your references, we will help you analyze and select high-impact references for your particular job search. We then provide you with a reference sheet that matches the letterhead and stationary of your resume and/or cover, thank you, and follow-up letters. The continuity of style and content is central to a professional, personal branding strategy. 

EXECUTIVE BIOGRAPHY

An Executive Biography (Bio) narrates your career background and progression in an organically engaging and more concise manner.  Utilized by consultants and executives, we focus on critical career-defining milestones and weave your personal value, leadership philosophy and vision into this marketing piece.  This language is ideal for website biographies, speaking engagement introductions and publications.

Whether you are a seeking out your first career or navigating a planned or unplanned career change, our career coaching sessions are designed to help you develop a set of specific, short-term and long-term action steps to position yourself to move toward your ideal career.

DISCOVERING YOUR PATH

Career planning is the exciting process of finding your ideal career based upon your intrinsic interests, motivational traits, personal work style, personality, values, experience, and aptitudes. Studies show that people who are working in a career that aligns with their intrinsic interests are happier, more successful, and generally more fulfilled. 

This service includes three sessions in which we will analyze your skills and experience, develop a customized career guide, and review the decision-making process to put you on the path toward a career that aligns with your core values. Additionally, we will identify any potential roadblocks and proactively develop strategies to ensure success.

As you engage in the career planning sessions, we will develop your customized career guide, which will serve as a useful reference for research and decision-making throughout your career.

Your career guide will include: 

• The central characteristics of your ideal career
• An extensive yet specific list of career possibilities
• An outline of career research steps and strategies
• A personalized action plan
• A goal-oriented timeline

LAUNCHING THE JOB SEARCH

You don’t have to go it alone. 

The modern job market is fast paced and technology-driven, with and overwhelming pool of potential resources, which can easily leave you feeling stuck at the starting line. 

Working with a professional career coach usually results in higher income, shorter searches, higher quality decision-making, and increased satisfaction. Effective career coaches are focused on helping you develop a career, as opposed to simply “finding a job;” although, they focus on the practical side of the search as well. 

The goal of our job search session is to help you determine your career goals, develop a strategic action plan, and provide you with the specifically targeted tools and resources that you will need to successfully execute your job search. We will then explain in detail how to effectively utilize each resource for a successful job search.

Your Job Search Guide will include:

• Targeted Action Plan with step by step action items including deadlines and personal commitments
• Professional Networking Plan  
• Recommended associations full of supportive members to boost your professional network
• Customized database of potential employers
• Volunteer opportunities for networking and/or acclimating to new area
• List of targeted Recruiters/Headhunters (if applicable)
• Manual on using social networking (LinkedIn) during the job search
• Salary indication- realistic, market-specific benchmarks for negotiating your salary
• Job boards – proprietary to demographic location and desired occupation
• Acclimation and community resources (if you are relocating to another market)

Haven’t interviewed in a while? Need to brush up on your skills and gain a little more confidence? 

Our custom resume package may open the door, but the interview is your make-or-break opportunity to showcase your job skills in person.  

Our interview session(s) will thoroughly prepare you to enter your upcoming interview with confidence and to leave a lasting impression. Each interview rehearsal session is administered by a DMD & Assoc. career coach, trained to help you improve your skills, develop specific strategies for answering the toughest questions, and engage with thoughtful questions of your own.

Our  Interview Coaching will: 

• Develop your personal brand strategy and personalized interview responses 
• Reveal the qualities that interviewers look for
• Demonstrate how to quickly establish a common ground with the interviewer
• Include sample interview questions targeted to your occupation 
• Provide methodologies for creating impact based responses to tough interview questions
• Include a mock interview rehearsal
• Show you curveballs they may ask
• Develop questions to ask when interviewing to assess culture fit
• Result in controlling nervousness and making a memorable impression

If you want to negotiate your salary or ask for a raise, we provide a coaching session complete with industry-specific resources, insider tips, and proven negotiation strategies and secrets. Planning is the key to effective negotiation. Long before you sit at the negotiation table, you must lay the groundwork for success by establishing your expectations, planning for obstacles, and rehearsing to ensure that you enter negotiations with confidence. 

Each one-hour session will help you discover the do’s and don’ts of negotiation so that you can effectively secure your initial salary or ask for a raise. We will help you to negotiate an ideal compensation package by thoroughly analyzing your background and professional achievements. Whether you are a new hire, your performance review is coming up, or you’ve taken on new responsibilities, the prospect of negotiating your salary can be daunting. We will make sure that you are equipped with the perfect strategy and tool kit to express your professional value and worth.

You’ll learn how to:

• Get the raise or salary that feels impossible to achieve
• Identify each and every benefit, perk and concession to negotiate
• Overcome the most common fears that make you reluctant to ask for a raise
• Leverage the top secrets to negotiating the highest amount
• Communicate the proven strategies to become the #1 candidate so you can negotiate a top salary

Is running a small business the next career change for you? Waffling between owning your own business and working in a traditional employment setting can keep you running in circles. If multiple career and job changes have affected your confidence and clarity, it’s no wonder you may be “on-the-fence” about taking a business risk. You may want to determine whether entrepreneurship is right for you – and we can assist you with that important step.

We will work with you in evaluating the entrepreneurial ecosystem and identifying strengths and needs, engaging local entrepreneurs and community stakeholders, and providing actionable strategies that can implemented with ease.

We can become the objective resource for solopreneurs or small business owners who need strategic advice and guidance and aren’t sure where to begin.

Coaching and Presentation of a targeted entrepreneurial action plan includes:

• Entrepreneurial Assessment
• Determining a Clear Vision 
• Step-by-Step Action Plan with built in deadlines to guarantee ongoing progress
• Customized  Entrepreneur and Small Business Resources
• Insight into Business Structures
• Business Plan Resources
• Competitive Research
• Market Research
• Marketing Resources
• Online Presence
• Community Resources
• Tips on Managing the Dip and knowing when to Scale up