Each year Career Directors International (CDI) hosts a resume writing competition called the TORI Awards (Toast of the Resume Industry) where resume writers from around the world compete for first, second, and third place standing and a chance to prove their ability to write strategic, well-written, and well-designed resumes and cover letters.

The competition is a great way for me as a writer to showcase my skills to the judges and it’s wonderful to receive an award, but my favorite aspect of the TORIs is that it keeps me on the top of my game and motivates me to explore new, creative, and exciting ways to position client achievements.

The TORIs have helped make me a better resume writer. And the designation offers a promise of value to my clients and piece of mind that when they hire me to write their documents they are partnering with a writer who knows how to use multiple strategies to position them for success in their job search.

This year, I picked up awards in three categories:

1st Place, Best Sales and Marketing Resume

1st Pace, Best Technical Resume

3rd Place, Best Cover Letter

I am happy to add these three new awards to the three I earned in last year’s competition and look forward to writing even better resumes in 2010 and beyond!

Each year, Career Directors International hosts the resume writing industry’s most prestigious Toast of the Resume Industry (TORI) resume writing competition.

Career Solvers is pleased to announce nominations in 4 categories:

Best Technical Resume
Best Creative Resume
Best Sales & Marketing Resume
Best Cover Letter

Winners will be announced in October at CDI’s annual conference in Orlando.

This week I was awarded the Breiger Award from the Human Resources Association of New York, HR/NY, the country’s largest chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM. The award honors exceptional service to the chapter and the HR community and I was recognized for my efforts to help build the chapter’s membership. And while I’m thrilled that the HR community thought enough of my service to recognize my contribution, the benefits to me have been equally valuable and my role as a volunteer has offered me countless opportunities both personally and professionally. Helping out a community or cause that you are passionate about helps you build new skills and visibility that can enhance your professional credibility and open doors that can accelerate a career or a job search. Here are just a few of the fringe benefits that come with volunteer service.

• Community. Volunteering in a professional organization or other association that you care about brings you together with people who share similar interests or values. This common bond helps build relationships and trust. People are much more willing to share information with people who are part of their community because their is already a connection to that person.
• Leadership. Taking on a leadership role in an organization allows you to showcase your ability to direct others and think strategically about a process or project. If you can successfully lead a team or project in a volunteer environment, people in that community will notice and will act as advocates for you when other opportunities to lead surface.
• Skill Development. Through volunteer opportunities you can begin to hone skills that may not be part of you current area of expertise but could be important to your future professional development. Skills acquired through a volunteer opportunity are no less valuable than those acquired through a paid opportunity and the skills you build through a volunteer experience could help position you for a paid opportunity down the road.
• Networking. Informal conversations about companies and job leads go on all the time in volunteer-based personal and professional organizations and affinity groups. Some of the best assignments are routinely communicated through people, not job boards or search firms.

Like any other type of relationship you build, approach volunteer relationships with a “give to give” rather than a “give to get” attitude. You will be helping others and generating some good karma, but in the long run you will probably be quite pleased with the “return on investment” of your volunteer efforts.

Career Solvers is pleased to announce a new free e-book on our site called The Best Career Strategies of 2009. This book has great tips  on personal branding, career branding, networking, LinkedIn, Twitter, resume portfolios, and much more more. Get your free download here.

Career Solvers has been selected to be a member of the esteemed panel of judges who will participate in the Career Directors International search for the World’s Best Resume Writer in the first-ever resume writing competition of this kind. Career Solvers will judge this competition alongside HR professionals and recruiters from several prestigious companies including Walmart, Kelly Services,  Loreal, Volkswagon, Pacific Sunwear of California, and eHire. Once the judges select the top three submissions, winners will be selected. In addition, a public choice competition of the top three submissions will be hosted through Facebook and Career Directors International to allow the public to pick their choice of first, second, and third place winners for the World’s Best Resume Writer Public Choice Award.

Career Solvers is proud to announce that our blog feed has been selected to be on Alltop, a leading blog aggregator that collects stories from all the top sites on the web and allows readers to search by categories. You can view our feeds and the feeds of other popular careers blogs here.

Each year, Career Directors International hosts the TORI (Toast of the Resume Industry) international awards competition. This year, Career Solvers received five nominations and three 2nd place awards in the following categories:

• Best Executive Resume
• Best Creative Resume
• Best Cover Letter

Career Solvers will be presenting three resume workshops for the National Society for Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA) at Columbia University on Saturday, September 13, 2008 to help prepare participants for the association’s national conference in Atlanta in October. Over 300 companies will be interviewing at the national conference and New York area participants will have the opportunity to brush up on their resume writing, networking, and interview skills at the New York event. Click here to learn more about the event and register.

Career Solvers’ article 15 Tips For Your Resume to Do List, recently received praise on The Riley Guide, as a marvelous list of short but great suggestions for creating a more user-friendly resume. Since 1994, the Riley Guide has been providing excellent career and job search information and we are proud to be mentioned among their resources. To download your free copy, follow the link at the bottom of our home page.

September is a time of new beginnings. The kids go back to school, Fall begins, and many companies start aggressively recruiting after the slower-paced summer months. September is the perfect time to update your resume. Here are a few points to consider if you plan on updating your resume in the coming month.

1. What successes have you achieved since you last updated your resume? Have you worked on specific projects that have helped the company make money, save money, save time, grow the business or keep the business? Have you completed mission-critical projects ahead of schedule or under budget?
2. Have you recently completed a degree or certification program or taken classes that better position you as a subject matter expert in your field?
3. Have you taken on any new leadership roles through professional/volunteer organizations?
4. Have you authored any books or articles, or presented at any industry events?

In honor of Update Your Resume Month, Career Solvers is offering all previous resume clients a complimentary reference dossier with any resume update during the month of September when you mention this blog post. If you haven’t worked with Career Solvers before, but would like to know if your resume is strong enough to get you an interview, check out our free resume assessment service here.