Get That Résumé in Working Order at GSX 

Career HQ at GSX is bringing back an incredible opportunity for attendees: a complementary résumé review and career coaching session

Located adjacent to the ASIS Hub at Booth 717, Career HQ has 13 professional career coaches with experience in the security profession lined up to help answer your questions about what a job search in 2022 entails and how you can make the best presentation of you possible. 

To ensure one of our coaches will be available when you can stop by the booth, we highly encourage you to schedule an appointment. What will be in store for you in your résumé review session? We asked Kathy Lavinder, founder and executive director of SI Placement, and one of the GSX coaches. 

Q: What should someone expect heading into one of these sessions? 

KL: You can expect that I will ask a lot of questions. I want to understand the context of their situation. Why are you looking? Why now? Where are you headed? What are your goals? All of those questions help unravel where this person is today, so that we can figure out how to move forward. We can help someone understand what the marketplace is looking for and how they can find alignment between it and their goals. 

Q: How do people get résumés wrong? 

KL: I’ve seen many, many résumés over 20-plus years of recruiting in this space. The biggest mistake people make is they view it as just a career history. They put down every place they’ve ever worked and include all the responsibilities they had at each stop. That thinking needs to be adjusted. Resumes need to be reframed as a marketing document, one that highlights the individual’s relevant skills, experience, and knowledge. Do that in a compelling and succinct way, then you are more than halfway home to getting someone to spend time reading your resume. My main advice is to knit together what it is you’ve done in a cohesive narrative that will quickly allow the reader to understand what you bring to the table. 

Q: Is this only for people actively searching for a new position? 

KL: I think this is a great opportunity for anybody at any point in their career. It’s always a good idea to get an opinion from a neutral party. I want to help them, but I won’t hold anything back. I’m going to give it to them straight. I believe it’s really important to be direct and honest in giving feedback. No matter how you feel about your current position, whether you’re happy or unhappy, whether you’re actively looking or just sort of keeping your antenna up, you need a résumé that’s ready to go. And you should always have your antenna up. Why wouldn’t you? You never know when a great opportunity is going to present itself. 

Organizations these days move very quickly. The job process of hiring and bringing on people is moving at warp speed. If you spend any time on LinkedIn, you see the flood of people saying they’ve started a new position. I’ve never seen such robust hiring in more than 20 years of recruiting. Having the resume ready is like having a career insurance card ready. You want to be ready if an opportunity is there, and this session can be a great opportunity to help you be ready to plug and play. 

Q: What do you get out of the sessions? 

KL: Volunteering feels good. I love to volunteer with ASIS and with other groups. As a recruiter I help organizations find people, but when I’m working with an organization such as ASIS, I just have exposure to a broader swath of people—people who are at different stages of their career and with different backgrounds, and it’s really interesting to hear their stories. And there’s always a story involved when you’re talking with people who are trying to figure out what their next step is or who are running into obstacles or challenges in their careers. So it’s a learning opportunity for me, and it feels good to try to help someone.