Being hands-off is absolutely okay

I've been working with a project manager on his job search, and we're entering our second week of building his resume and cover letter. When we first started working together, he told me he wanted to be as hands-off as possible in creating the two documents.

He gave me an older version of his resume, a PDF of his most recent annual review, and sent me a voice message with a quick summary of his current career achievements. Then he told me to go to town on the first draft.

I love writing resumes, and I especially love building out career stories. It never bothers me if the starting information just covers the essentials. I took the material he gave me and brainstormed possible content to fill in the gaps. I wrote out additional achievements based on what I saw on his employers' blogs. I even researched his past and present colleagues for inspiration on other achievements he might have missed.

This morning, I submitted Draft 1 for his review, and he almost immediately responded with the words "WOW!!!" in the email. 😁 Now that he has the first draft in his hands, he's been adding comment after comment, expanding on the achievements that I researched.

I asked him if I could write this post today, and he gave me his blessing. The takeaway from this post: when we work together, you never need to worry about giving me your full career story or being an especially active collaborator. Being hands-off is absolutely okay.

You can trust me to take the source material and expand upon it with my own research. I know how to turn over stones. I know what questions need to be asked to write the best possible content. And I'm not afraid to do the work required to get you the exact results you're after.

—
Follow #GabbyTurmelle on LinkedIn