In her recent book, Job Seekers Gold, What Savvy Job Seekers Know about Resumes Dominique offers a “behind the scenes look” at corporate selection processes and coaches the reader through each step of developing a resume which resonates with each aspect and person in the selection process. Her book and consulting practice has helped thousands of job seekers design a top shelf marketing piece from the perspective of the employer and land an interview for the job they desire.

Dominique is a career transition coach who helps Job Seekers and corporations notice each other to match their career goals and corporate human resource needs. Dominique coaches individuals through the resume writing process from the employer’s perspective, resulting in a much higher rate of interviews than the typical resume which recites job history and is nicely formatted.

Prior to establishing her coaching business in 2005, Dominique spent 16 years as a Human Resource Specialist in Recruiting and Organizational Development.

In her consulting practice, Dominique offers a wide range of services for front line to executive Job Seekers.

Through enlightening Job Seekers of the technical aspects of how resume data bases work and how to research a job and company to identify the critical success factors and key words, Dominique coaches job seekers in tailoring their resume and interviews from the perspective of the employer’s needs and to highlight their transferable skills for the critical success factors of the job and company.

For corporations, Dominique offers expertise in assessing the technical, behavioral and cultural critical success factors for positions and integrating these elements into the selection process. By linking these selection processes with succession planning, Dominique assists organizations in establishing a competitive edge in attracting and retaining top talent.

Dominique offers a unique perspective, beyond the desk of the recruiter for both Job Seekers and corporations.
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So, how did all this happen…

Having a background and over 18 years experience in Human Resources and Organizational Development, Dominique has conducted many interviews and designed many hiring processes. Her success in creating successful resumes which land interviews comes from her inside knowledge of the hiring practices and priorities of companies when hiring to meet their corporate needs. Here, Dominique tells her journey to writing the book Job Seekers Gold, What Savvy Job Seekers Know about Resumes and the eventual creation of Job Seekers Gold, Inc.

Well, really, my life isn’t much different than any one else's. I grew up mostly in Ohio, went to school in Ohio, and still live in Ohio!

I have a great husband, without whose support and amazing technical skills, none of this would be possible. We have two teenagers, a junior and a freshman in high school and a 2 year old! --

This job has just evolved out of what I had been doing and with the support of my husband and family and friends, this is how Job Seekers Gold was born…

 

One day when conducting an interview for a hospital which marketed itself to the public for their compassionate care, I had a candidate for a nursing assistant walk in the interview with a necklace that spelled out an uncomplimentary word descriptor of her. I landed in a co-workers office laughing at the absurdity of the situation. We joked about it for days. Obviously this candidate had not a full understanding of the needs of the job or the culture of the organization for which she was interviewing. Eventually, I felt bad for laughing about it, realizing she really had no idea of the negative impact of her choice and how that had cost her a job.

It got me thinking though that there are so many elements which go into the selection of candidates which Job Seekers really need to know. It also occurred to me it would be beneficial for both hiring organizations and Job Seekers if these elements were known by the Job Seekers. It could really help individuals and companies find each other much more quickly and easily and help both determine if the partnership would be a good fit. People would be happier in their jobs and organizations would spend far less of their resources if the right candidates found them.

I kept “working for the man”, though, and kept my ideas to myself, not really having the confidence or know how to execute my vision.

Then one day my husband and I found out I was expecting a new addition to our family (12 years after his next oldest sibling… surprise!), and life and priorities changed quickly. He was a sick little dude and I needed to be home. I guess that was a God thing, because when I went in to tell my boss I wasn’t going to be returning to work, he told me instead that I wasn’t going to be returning to work. –(certainly eliminates the second guessing of the decision!)….

They’d eliminated my position as it was from part time and had restructured it to full time. Honestly, that was the best thing that ever happened to my career. Thanks to being kicked out of the nest, I finally learned to fly.

In staying home, I put my ideas together. Then one day my sister, who had worked for my dad for 15 years called me and needed a resume to branch out. She’d not really held an official succession of job titles working at my dad’s though she’d had lots of growing business responsibilities over the years. We reviewed her progression and I researched the company she wanted to work for and, voila, had a nice resume that really resonated with the future employer and she landed a job.

I started talking to friends and was amazed to find out how many people had been with family businesses or worked for the same company for 20+ years and didn’t have the confidence to branch out, despite their desire too. I’d work up resumes for them, all the while researching the companies they wanted to work for to identify their cultures and “price of admission” competencies and matching them with the transferable skills and attributes of the candidates.

People kept telling me I should write a book and kept referring me to their friends, and we kept getting results…… my friends and their friends were getting interviews from the resumes and cover letters we did and they were getting hired from the interview coaching we were doing.

I finally put up a web site and got some business with an airline who was laying people off and the rest is history…. Job Seekers Gold was born and is past the toddler stage now.

We keep getting business and even in a slow economy, our clients are getting interviews and getting jobs. I finally got so much business I couldn’t handle it by myself and took the time to transfer my knowledge into an e-book and give Job Seekers a step by step progression to building their own Masterful Marketing Piece, their resume.

This book will be able to reach far more individuals than I could ever help directly. I hope it takes the “dread” out of the process for Job Seekers. It might even get exciting when the phone starts ringing for interviews.

There’s a lot of satisfaction in helping people get past barriers that are holding them in unsatisfactory jobs or helping them take the next step or find their dream job. For so many, it is just a matter of getting the right information to them and a few tools. Once they understand what is valuable to the employers and start to think from the hiring employer’s perspective, they get on a roll and you can just see their confidence build. It’s a real rush for me taking people through this process, especially if they’ve recently lost their job or are deflated for other reasons. This process gets results and is a real confidence booster.

In the midst of all of this, my husband was laid off very unexpectedly. Funny thing is he applied for a job a few months before the lay off, just because it was a dream job for him and was immediately rejected. When he was laid off, we noticed the job was still open. We reworked his resume and employed everything I wrote in this book for ourselves from cover letter to interview and he networked some and he’s now in that position. He now is the Program Manager for this company who rejected him without interview 3 months earlier.

It is my sincere desire to help Job Seekers and take the dread out of the job search and resume writing process. Through my book and Job Seekers Gold Club Memberships, as well as additional free information, my goal is to make you well informed enough to empower you to design your own top shelf marketing piece and land the job of your dreams.

Here’s to your Success,
Dominique