Earlier this year I met Brian Briggs, founder of Kinetic Resume. One thing I love about meeting entrepreneurs who have invented their own product is that they are very, very passionate about what they’ve come up with (and with good reason)! Brian is no exception.
Brian is the brains behind Kinetic Resume. We’ve had a chance to talk in-depth about where he is coming from and where he is headed, and spent some time going over the product, Kinetic Resume. Here’s my very brief run-down of what it is (or, what I like):
- Kinetic Resume is software to download and put on your PC
- It presents a hand-holding process that helps you understand what should be on your resume
- It’s almost therapeutic in that it walks you through a number of questions, beyond just the fill-in-the-blank stuff, to help you figure out more who you are and what you want
- It has all the little cheats, tips and helps such as action words, etc. to help put the shine on your resume
- It has some kind of logical validation that checks for too many uses of a certain phrase and other irregularities
- It takes your data and allows you to spit it out into various formats (word, rich text, etc.) – this is a life-saver for anyone that knows how easy it is to mess up a regular word document
- It has some nice features such as drag-and-drop and video tutorials (to help understand the “why’s” of the process, not just how to use the software)
A lot of thought has gone into this product. It’s not for the faint of heart as you’ll really need to buckle down and go through the exercises. Introspection is never easy and don’t expect this process to be a cake walk.
Is this a replacement for resume writers? Not at all. Brian says “We’d also agree with you that no software product will ever replace a good professional resume writer.” This is for Do It Yourself (DIY) folks that want to try and figure out all this stuff on their own, and think that going through the process on your own adds tremendous value. I agree with this – you SHOULD understand all the stuff you’ll realize once you are done with Kinetic Resume process (or else you didn’t do it right).Check out the KineticResume website.
You’ll want to take the two-minute video introduction and then download the free trial. If you choose to upgrade it’s pretty inexpensive (right now it’s $29.95), in my opinion. Also, the folks behind Kinetic Resume are offering a special discount to one of the big layoffs that was announced recently. If you worked at Motorola and got the boot you’ll be interested in this press release.
If you don’t get what you think you should, or you aren’t getting results when you are done, don’t hesitate to call in a professional.
Have you used resume software to put your resumes together? The only other one that I’m familiar with is Emurse.com, but these two are dramatically different products. Tell me your experiences (here are CM Russell’s thoughts).
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I am all for products and people that coach us through the process. And while I haven’t tried the tool, I am wary–by actually writing your own resume, you learn mroe about yourself than you ever thought possible. You work through what sounds good and what doesn’t. And you practice reading and writing your own brand–almost a requirement in business these days. If you let a resume writer write it for you or a tool do most of the project, you lose the value of the actual experience.
Susan, I agree. This is one of those things that should not be outsourced. One thing that I like about this software is that it really walks you through a lot of thought-process questions. It isn’t a fill-in-the-box and you’ll be done thing. With regard to resume writers, I personally think that the valuable end product isn’t the written document, rather the time spent with them as they ask you questions and help you understand the stuff you are talking about in your comment. This is essentially coaching you to help you understand your value props, what’s important, what to leave off (and out of an interview, etc.). The coaching you get during this process is, I think, way more valuable than the end document. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the end document should be the bomb.