READY RESUMES

The following business profile was written by John Bown (a journalist from Wollongong Your Online Community) for their weekly newsletter called "Ezine" (published on the Internet on 22.10.06).

THE RIGHT RESUME CAN TURN YOUR LIFE AROUND

("The perfect resume can be achieved by ensuring it is relevant to a prospective employer and through T.A.S.K. – time, application, skill and knowledge” – Sharon Cousins.)

Sharon operates her business “Ready Resumes” from her home at Mangerton, offering professional assistance to a range of people, in the correct way, to prepare a resume for whatever position they might be applying for. She describes her business as an innovative and successful resume writing service. 

Born in Sydney, but raised from an early age in Wollongong, Sharon is the daughter of one of the city’s best known dentists, Dr. John McGovern. After leaving school, Sharon joined the insurance industry and moved to London, later becoming an account executive, servicing a number of high profile clients, including a member of parliament, who owned his own castle.

Marriage to an Englishman and two children followed and then after 16 years abroad, Sharon and the family came back to Wollongong, at which time she registered with a child care agency so that she could spend time caring for her children and working casually.

Purely by accident, a 19 year old unemployed cousin from Geelong in Victoria, came here looking for work and Sharon studied his own effort at a resume and immediately saw flaws in what he was trying to get across to any prospective employer. “My work in creating insurance reports had given me a flair for writing”, she says. Sharon spent many hours helping her cousin to get his resume in shape and the effort proved worthwhile. “Not only did he get work but his self esteem changed dramatically and his life took off in the right direction,” she says.

What followed was an intensive study of any available information on resume preparation and with a small advertisement in The Yellow Pages (under "Resume Services"), a new career was launched. She developed her own website www.freewebs.com/readyresumes/ and business cards and was helped by referrals from existing clients and well known recruitment firms. It wasn’t long before her new small business was right on track. Sharon says that with time, including the initial client appointment, the preparation of the right resume can take up to 15 hours of work, and at the most 30 hours, which includes answering selection criteria questions and preparing a quality covering letter.

CONCERNS AND SUCCESSES

She has concerns though, especially when companies limit their time when looking at a prospective candidates own resume. If people want to get interviews, they should be given time and help in learning how to construct a better resume. This is another reason why, she says, a resume document needs to be totally professional and relevant to a prospective employer. It is important, she says, that with each resume, the use of the words to describe the applicant’s talents are not inflated, but they provide an interesting and informative background about the person.

Sharon is however, more than happy with the number of people she has successfully helped to find employment, in a diverse range of positions. In fact, in the last 12 months her success rate in winning interviews and jobs, runs at between 90 and 95 per cent, and she has lifted her client base by 150 per cent. 

Most of her clients, she says, are tradesmen, many of whom have an interest in finding work in the growing mining industry. She has also helped a number of unemployed women to get back into the workforce, after having children. Sharon recently surveyed a number of her clients and the feedback has been, in her words, “amazing and satisfying”. For example:

*Glen – “One employer was so impressed with the quality of the documentation they said it was the best resume and covering letter they had seen in a long time”. Glen, who was a long term unemployed youth with limited education and experience, was immediately hired, without an interview.

*Suzanne – “I was chosen by a Sydney law company as the top applicant because of the quality of the resume”.

*David – “The resume not only got me the job I wanted, but changed my whole life”.

Sharon’s latest business move will be to try and secure an arrangement with local high schools to educate upcoming school leavers on how to get their resume right and find a position in our competitive workforce. 

In addition, Sharon has produced a training manual for a resume writing workshop. She believes many individuals as well as employment/recruitment firms can benefit from her expert tips that can be passed on as a useful resource. With these new ventures, Sharon Cousins hopes she will help more people to find employment, by knowing

“how to write a resume that gets results”.   __________________________________________________________________________________

TO HELP WITH RESEARCH ON YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE ILLAWARRA, SHARON COUSINS OF READY RESUMES, WAS ONE OF MANY WHO WERE INTERVIEWED BY A RESEARCHER FROM IRIS. THE FINAL REPORT (100+PAGES) WAS COMPLETED IN JUNE, 2008 AND SUBMITTED TO WOLLONGONG CITY COUNCIL AND THE FORUM COMMITTEE. A SMALL CONTRIBUTION WAS INCLUDED IN THE REPORT.....pages 65 & 66. 

(Case Study on Glen - an unemployed young man who was helped by Sharon Cousins in 2003, by writing an effective resume and cover letter, which secured an immediate job.)

PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO OPEN AND SEE THE INFORMATION SUBMITTED.

http://www.freewebs.com/readyresumes/Ready_Resumes-Glen Case_Study[1].doc