Career Integration Program

Integrate them into a single story so you don’t end up with 72 resume versions.

During my first meeting with potential clients, nearly 70% of professionals share that they’re considering more than one career path.

They also confess frustration with creating a modern résumé that meets the skimming and reading needs of today’s human reading and technology ingestion experiences.

Even more challenging is writing a single story that resonates across 2-3 potential career directions—all through the same story.

To most it can feel impossible.

Ironically, most of them are highly successful by external standards, but because they don’t sit around thinking about résumé writing all day, every day, they find themselves in one or two of these scenarios:

• Unfocused and managing 72 résumé versions

• Overwhelmed and nursing a résumé that has slowly bloated since graduation

• Hanging onto a rag-tag LinkedIn profile that doesn’t attract much but spam

I designed The Career Integration Program to help people resolve those problems, synthesizing their career stories into a single personal-professional branded narrative.

Together, we position their career story and materials into a single integrated brand that almost always addresses the 2-3 career directions they’d like to pursue, including:

• Obvious next steps (e.g., direct-hit positions, lateral moves in the same industry, new jobs with a title upgrade)

• Adjacent roles (e.g., same roles in different industries or contexts)

• Aspirational moves (e.g., promotions, board appointments, advisory roles)

If you’re like most of my private clients, you’ll also resolve uncertainty and feel more integrated when talking about your skills, experiences, and fit with a company.

And you’ll have a LinkedIn profile that serves your underlying (and sometimes confidential) career intentions while making you appear publicly as being “happy where you are.”

Got just one career direction? Check out the Resume Readiness Package (optimizing job search preparedness for a single role). Totally uncertain? Check out the Career Explorer Program (integrating multiple roles into a single brand, while exploring unknown job types).

Step 2 of 3: Review package and program details

In-depth work ahead.

Rarely in life, professionally or personally, do we have a chance to slow down, look ahead, reflect, and take steps that actually make a difference before change is thrust upon us.

The Career Integration Program helps professionals do all of that before change shows up on their doorstep. In particular, the program is designed for people who want to pursue 2-3 possible career directions.

It isn’t easy, but for those who undertake it, it can be transformative. Many even report that it’s fun.

The Career Integration Program leverages a thoughtful blend of research, collaborative decision-making, and fact-based, non-hyperbolic writing so you emerge with a holistic public brand (e.g., executive resume, addendum, LinkedIn profile, executive bio) that’s no longer a relic of your past. Instead, it’s a streamlined, forward-looking personal-professional brand.

But make sure it’s right for you.

This isn’t a $49 résumé written by a faceless copy editor in a résumé mill. With my clients, every nuance counts, and nuance can’t be manufactured in a vacuum.

Simplicity, clarity, and brevity happen only with deep examination.

If we work together, expect an intensive but fun experience where you and I invest significant time and effort thoughtfully examining your professional life.

Here’s how it works:

The following details are designed to make the most of our first conversation.

After all, the work is meaningful and deserves a thoughtful approach. As you review each phase, jot down questions for me to answer when we connect. I’ll have plenty for you, too.

Since our goal is for you to use a single set of branded materials for multiple career goals, the Career Integration Program is a bit more complex.

Why?

Because we need to look out the windshield instead of the rear-view mirror when it comes to telling your story.

We need to (a) settle on the career directions you want to pursue, (b) identify the unique and overlapping pillars those career directions are built on, (c) map the intersection between your past, present, and future, and (d) scaffold / frame your story so your story flexes to meet all of the aforementioned audiences and their respective needs.

Only then can we design and write a story using the language that will speak to all of your possible career directions using the same copy—and thereby prevent 72 resume versions.

The trick to all of this effort is simple:

• Get in front of your story.

• Realize you can be a lot of things, but you can’t be all things to all people, which is a common mindset when we go into job-search mode.

• Elevate language so it speaks to muliple career targets using the same copy — a special kind of linguistic gymnastics.

I’ll guide you through that process, typically across three sessions.

• Future Prep Session 1 (60 min)

• Future Prep Session 2 (60 min)

• Future Prep Session 3 (60 min)

• Are we fixed at three sessions? Nope. We can use all of the sessions, trim them if they’re not all necessary, or expand them if we need more time.

Phase 1 of the Career Integration Program blends practical homework assignments like my Job Description Analysis with interactive Zoom sessions that (a) set up your story strategy, (b) best present unchangeable details, and (c) create modular elements of your background that we’ll use later to support your intentions through well-written copy.

In our collective effort to explore, shape, and reshape your career possibilities around a single story, we’ll also consider a wide range of questions that you’ll likely be asked by recruiters, hiring committees, and so on, so our work will simultaneously serve as interview prep.

Once we've settled on a realistic set of roles, career directions, and job targets during the Future Prep phase, our approach will become a bit more formalized.

Armed with clarity and a roadmap about the future from the Future Prep phase—and settled a realistic set of roles, career directions, and job targets—we’ll become a bit more formalized as we map your past to your future goals.

You’ll be an integral part of the decision-making necessary to writing your own story, so the résumé writing process serves as a tool for gaining career clarity across a series of screen-sharing, Zoom-enabled work sessions, including:

• Résumé Writing Session 1 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 2 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 3 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 4 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 5 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 6 (60 min)

• Résumé Writing Session 7 (60 min)

• Overtime is elected 40-60% of the time. It’s available when needed.

There may be a bit of overlap between Phase 1: Future Step, and this phase, but when we finally settle into these resume writing sessions, we'll focus entirely on translating everything we uncovered in the Future Prep phase into a highly strategic resume. We’ll consider a surprising volume of questions as we pitch and tune your story around our Future Prep findings, as well as decisions you’re making at every step along the way.

And since we do all of the writing while our screens are connected, you'll have complete authority and insight into why every word is written or omitted.

We'll do "everything from flooring and sheet-rocking to interior decorating" during the Resume Writing Phase. You’re welcome to do some of the drafting between sessions—and at some point I absolutely will hand over the draft to you for work—but I’ll handle a majority of the writing.

There are times, of course, when clients go beyond the anticipated sessions. It’s never a surprise … or shouldn’t be … because we’re connected by Zoom at every step. Clients actually frequently ask for more time because of the value they derive. The possibility of overtime is critical to mention because I want what I offer to be right for my clients, and if time and resources is a concern, we should discuss it before we even start.

Concurrent value to the writing process:

Note that many of our findings during this period will, or should:

• Make their way into your self-perception and inform the way you begin presenting yourself to others in your day-to-day work life.

• Be repurposed by your PR team (e.g., investor relations, RFPs, pitch decks, firm bio or corporate bio page)

• Serve as interview prep for questions you face later from recruiters asking the same questions.

• Used for executive or board bios written by me if they’re supportive. If so, we'll add the time separately.

We’ll use the clarity and copy we develop to eventually build a LinkedIn presence that serves your short- and long-term goals.

Unlike a résumé that you can tune to each job spec and submission, LinkedIn needs to be all the things to all the potential readers. So, for instance, someone targeting an in-house CFO role *and* an in-house advisor role at a pension fund has a challenge.

Become poachable by elevating the story to be seen by each audience as if it’s written for them alone, while developing your LinkedIn as a tool for business as usual—telling your public story in a way that doesn’t invite speculation from your connections about your underlying intentions to make a career move.

How?

• Put the right lures in the water.

• Position, elevate, and scrub your public story, instead of simply copying and pasting your résumé.

• Think of LinkedIn as genuine tool for business instead of merely and online résumé despite what many, many people will tell you.

• Set your profile as a “quiet lure” to attract passive attention, while powerfully supporting your active or stealth job search intentions.

How we’ll do it:

When your résumé is nearly or completely finished, we'll shift our attention to LinkedIn. The "About" section is where a lot of careful strategy and attention can make the whole profile transformative.

That said, I’ve done this work and I’m still surprised by how challenging the “About” section can be. It’s also the most fun and the most rewarding section once completed.

Long before we begin crafting your LinkedIn copy, you’ll begin working on my LinkedIn for Business Questionnaire (I'll release it during Phase 2). When we finally begin writing, we’ll carry out the work over several writing sessions, again using Zoom’s screen-sharing capabilities so you’re smack in the middle of crafting your own public-facing story.

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 1 (60 min)

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 2 (60 min)

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 3 (60 min)

• LinkedIn Ideation & Profile Development Session 4 (60 min)

• Overtime is available when needed, and elected 40-60% of the time.

Writing your story is the foundation of our work, of course, but you’ll receive a total of three modules that will comprehensively guide you through the broader overhaul of your LinkedIn profile, ranging from the pros and cons of various LinkedIn features (what's good for a recent grad isn't necessarily great for a company leader), to the full public treatment of your career story.

Dual purpose profile, aka the secret sauce:

Because I work mostly with people who don’t want to give away their real intentions on LinkedIn, I generally position client profiles as a tool for business, with all of the inline keywords, underpinnings, dog whistles, “halo effects,” indirect references, and lots of other subtle tricks that lets them appear “happy where they are” while making them findable for the roles and opportunities we identified in Phase 1.

It’s not all fun and games. Our lively, challenging, sometimes-grueling, but hopefully fun Zoom-based work sessions will ultimately result in usable materials for your next move.

Our bursts of visionary insight and practical grinding-at-the-details will eventually produce a forward-looking Library of Master Documents, which includes:

1. Executive Résumé (for humans and machines)

2. Résumé Addendum (if needed)

3. LinkedIn Overhaul

   1. LinkedIn Module 1 of 3: Principles & Philosophies

   2. LinkedIn Module 2 of 3: Sections, Connections & Technical Tidbits

   3. LinkedIn Module 3 of 3: Public-facing Copy

4. Cover Letter Kit

5. Variable Introductory Paragraphs for Cover Letter

6. Thank You Letter Template

7. Thank You Email Templates

8. References Sheet

9. Salary History Sheet (not necessary in all U.S. states)

Add-ons available include executive / board bios and pitch decks, as well as short-form bios for book jackets, speech introductions, social profiles, and beyond.

CURRENTLY BEING PILOTED: Clients routinely report that our work together helped them interview more confidently. I am currently piloting a potential new deliverable called, “Interview Answer Bingo,” where answers to potential interview answers are formally captured as they emerge during our work. In some cases, clients are allocating standalone time for the activity at the end of a project.

Step 3 of 3: Compare all three paths and book a New Client Consultation

If you’re making the investment, make sure you choose the right path.

Book a New Client Consultation