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Posted By Administration,
Saturday, April 1, 2023
Updated: Thursday, March 30, 2023
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Darren was a repeat client whose original résumé focused on his five-year tenure at a local electrical supply company in Nashville, Tennessee. He progressed rapidly during those five years from counter sales to inside sales and finally to outside sales, where he thrived and became a top-performer for the company.
Fast forward two years.
Darren had used his previous résumé to help land a National Account Manager position with a Canadian-based company. His run of success continued. Because of the way we previously cataloged his experience, he knew to keep notes of his accomplishments along the way.
Instead of electrical supplies, this time Darren specialized primarily in the grocery sector of consumer products. And instead of only a regional focus, Darren expanded his scope to work with some of the largest and most well-known grocery brands across the country. The kind of names that, if you’re working in that sector, represent the holy grail of national accounts.
His career thus far was the equivalent of an under-the-radar minor league prospect who finally made it to the major leagues, enjoyed a strong rookie season, and really came into his own during his sophomore year. From a résumé perspective, it was important to spend as much space as possible describing those first two years of his major league success. This proved that 1) his rookie season was not a fluke, 2) his skill set yielded repeatable results in a game with higher stakes, and 3) there was no reason to assume he couldn’t do it again.
No major league player describes his or her career — even if it’s only two years — using the accolades and details from their time in the minor leagues, so that is the approach I took for the rewrite. You can still see his minor league progression and baseball card-sized highlights in a one-row table at the bottom of the résumé, distilled to two sentences and four lines of text.
But the star of this presentation is the way he handled those national accounts, so those are featured prominently in approximately the same amount of space we used to capture all five job titles with his previous employer. Looking ahead to Darren’s next move, I would expect to see that list of nine accounts reduced to maybe his top three or four, depending on the context and the scope of his new job.
Stories change, and so does the time and space it takes to tell them. The next time you have a client whose most recent efforts deserve the greatest amount of attention, think about how you position what comes after that. Does it support the current role, or is it a distraction?
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Posted By Administration,
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Updated: Tuesday, February 28, 2023
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So many times the essence of a résumé is distilled through two simple questions: what have you done and how well did you do it? Creative-types build portfolios to showcase their work because in many ways they carry more weight than the chronology of an employment history, but applying for work through traditional channels requires a bit of both. You can’t just submit a piece of paper or link with a note that says “Here’s my portfolio…have a nice day.”
Using a common structure, you can see how the following sample captures essential elements of both a résumé and a portfolio. It was originally a two-page presentation, with the second page dedicated to more projects and more pictures. Whittled down to one page, only a few highlights remain to achieve the same result.
And the question I ask myself is this; what does the résumé actually say?
To me it says “I’ve done my job at an award-winning level for three different employers spanning more than 15 years. Here is a representation of some projects I have been involved in and what I am capable of doing for you.…would you like to see/know more?
And that’s it.
For as much time as we spend in the details of our clients’ professional lives, selling a client on paper requires decisions about which details to leave in, which to leave out, and packaging them in a way that helps the reader get to a favorable decision point. We all process that information differently, and that’s how it should be.
By the time we get to a final draft, it is difficult to calculate or appreciate the number of decisions that have been made. What remains is a product that is supposed to open doors and facilitate a much deeper discussion of hard skills, soft skills, and everything in between. A complete stranger will make decisions about the fit and marketability of your client based only on what remains, NOT what could have been.
I could have easily made this a chronological presentation, with project highlights presented accordingly under each job…but I didn’t.
I could have easily added more details for each project…but I didn’t.
I could have easily directed the reader to a portfolio link, maybe just list the projects here by name and dedicate more space to the typical job description/accomplishments type of information…but I didn’t.
For all the things I could have done, any shift in priorities would have also slightly changed what I wanted the résumé to say (and likely the space in which I wanted to say it!). As little as people actually enjoy the process of reading, a résumé that talks has got to carry some kind of advantage.
Take a close look at either a résumé you are currently working on or maybe even the last résumé project you completed. What does it actually say? Does it speak impact and value to a variety of readers? Can the reader visualize your client doing whatever it is that they do best, for them?
If you can answer the question, “What does it actually say?” in three sentences or less, you get it.
Now share THAT brief and brilliant story with the world in a cover letter and you win the real prize.
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Posted By Administration,
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Updated: Tuesday, January 31, 2023
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We are writers.
We string words and thoughts together in ways most people can’t, and we do so to help people improve the health of their respective professional situations. Résumé writers in particular have a specialized relationship with “healing” powers that borrow in part from the economy of Hemingway, the style of E.E. Cummings, and the empowering voice of Maya Angelou.
And because we are professional writers, our clients deserve to know that the words we choose specifically for them are cloaked in good intentions, diligent research, ethical principles, and the most current version of best practices.
Physicians Bertalan Meskó and Brennan Spiegel recognized the same dynamic in the medical community. While the Hippocratic Oath has been around for centuries and has been revised as recently as 1948 by the World Medical Association, “the rise of digital health has dramatically changed the practice of medicine in a way that could not have been easily predicted at the time Hippocrates outlined his ethical principles of medicine.”
In 2022, Meskó and Spiegel published a proposed update to the Oath in the Journal of Medical Internet Research to reflect the changing demands of 21st-century health care. With a few modifications, this could work for our own noble profession as well:
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I will respect the hard-won gains and lessons of those writers, coaches, and clients in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
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I will apply, for the benefit of clients employed, unemployed, and under-employed, all measures that are required to prevent negative perceptions and capture the essence of their marketability.
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I will remember that there is an art to résumé writing as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the writer’s blunt turn-of-phrase or the programmer’s algorithm.
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I will treat my clients in professional partnership, and I will not be ashamed to say ‘I know not,’ nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a client’s benefit.
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I will respect the privacy of my clients and their data, for their professional job search problems are not disclosed to me so that the world may know.
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I will remember that I do not write solely for a pre-designed form, a data point, or the artificial intelligence of a sophisticated ATS platform, but for a human being as well.
These modifications reflect changes in our industry brought about by the digital revolution, advances in client empowerment, and the evolving role of technology in the everyday practice of résumé writing. In loving memory of PARW co-founder Frank Fox, I hope we continue to uphold the kind of standards that keep our industry relevant and impactful for our clients in years to come.
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Posted By Administration,
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Updated: Wednesday, December 21, 2022
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Every once in a while, an opportunity presents itself that’s too hard to pass up. That happened to me last month when a paralegal client named Michelle needed to update her résumé. It was the perfect storm of circumstances because:
1. She held the same job for the last 10 years.
2. Her skill set was consistent with what you would expect from a paralegal with 10 years of experience; nothing very exciting there.
3. I was only able to extract a few modest accomplishments.
Once I realized that I would probably not be able to create much of a strategic advantage from the content alone, I thought about formatting options. You can’t out-format bad content, but you can complement it to the point where the overall impression gets a little boost.
And that’s when I remembered that Microsoft Word has a legal document template, which served as the basis for the sample you see here. I modified it slightly and changed the font to Bookman based on the research below, which can be found in “Typography for Lawyers” by attorney and Harvard-trained typographer Matthew Butterick:
“…The US Supreme Court requires that Century family fonts must be used in all briefs. Recently, the Supreme Court of Virginia released a new list of acceptable fonts. And The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit states that lawyers should avoid using Times New Roman—so their audience will be less likely to scan legal briefs quickly without retaining the document’s contents. The Florida Supreme Court also recently released new appellate rules regarding fonts for lawyers. The new rules include changing page and word count limits for legal briefs and appeals filings for documents produced on computers. Specifically, they require that lawyers use Arial or Bookman Old Style in 14-point to ensure readability on monitors.”
I didn’t want the format or the font choice to dominate; I just wanted the résumé to resemble a piece of legal documentation so that it would be different from other vanilla presentations. It is essentially a skills-based résumé in a gift-wrapped package.
For those of you keeping score at home, recommended serif fonts for legal documents include: Bookman Old Style. Baskerville, Century, Georgia. Recommended sans serif fonts for legal documents include: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica.
More importantly, don’t be afraid to show that your client knows how to “speak the language” of their targeted profession. If the name of the game is to stand out, a unique format can help accomplish that.
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Posted By Administration,
Friday, December 2, 2022
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For the past few months, I have been featuring the work of some of our members instead of my own. After the last Thrive conference, it struck me how we have so many people writing résumés after only a few years at the level of quality it took some of us old-timers at least a decade to achieve. This is a good thing.
But more importantly, I wanted to emphasize how important it is to share your work with others as part of your personal growth strategy. Since everybody has unique perspectives and style preferences, it is easy to gain insight through the eyes of other people, whether they are certified writers or not. The value is in the first impression.
Sometimes that value is learning what NOT to do. A colleague might suggest taking a certain formatting approach that doesn’t resonate with you. So you stick with your guns, resolute that the choices you made serve the client better. Sometimes that value is seeing an option you never even thought about, and one you can use from that day forward to help more clients in the future. The good, the bad, and the ugly all come out to play…but you decide which new ideas become part of your repertoire.
THAT’s what was missing in the pre-internet days. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that books of résumé samples started being published on a wide scale. For the first time, we could SEE each other’s work, and we could appreciate the diversity of products our clients were being asked to pay for. For the first time, we could read a book written in our own peculiar language. In professional development terms, it was a game changer.
And because it was such a game changer, I strongly recommend to anyone that they find a way to incorporate this dynamic into their 2023 growth plan. Who are you sharing your work with?
How hard would it be for small groups of writers to conduct a Zoom call once a month, with each person sharing work and soliciting feedback from the group? How hard would it be to bring a small portfolio of your work to the next Thrive conference and listen to the impressions of your colleagues? How many first impressions does a résumé get?
I realize it is an act of bravery to share your work with others, but the growth potential is exponential. You’ll find that our community is a fascinating mix of dedicated professionals whose ideas come in all shapes and sizes. The more tools you have, the better prepared you will be to handle whatever challenges come your way. I am reminded of the popular anecdote below:
Why Do You Join an Association?
You don't buy a newspaper, you buy NEWS.
You don't buy life insurance, you buy SECURITY.
You don't buy glasses, you buy VISION.
You don’t buy circus tickets, you buy THRILLS.
You don't buy awnings, you buy SHADE.
You don’t buy a lamp, you buy LIGHT.
You don't buy a membership in an association. You buy the cooperation of people in your profession with whom you can join hands to do the things that you cannot do alone.
I shared the following sample with a few of my colleagues, and as a result, I changed a few things to improve the presentation. The body text is Calibri Light, the headings are Calibri, and the vertical border bars to the left of the bullets are a new design feature for me that I really like and will use quite a bit in the future.
Do you know what kind of first impression readers have about your work? Do you want to know? If so, make sharing part of your game plan in the new year. Happy Holidays to all!!
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Posted By Administration,
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
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Résumé writers love it when a client’s background and target are in perfect alignment — until they decide to move the target ever so slightly and you have to come up with a strategy that honors one of two possible directions.
Our featured writer described it this way: “This résumé was difficult because I was working with a client who had very specific experience – working in home healthcare management and elder care. His education and work history were all focused in those areas, but he wanted to move into a sales leadership role while keeping the door open to remain in the healthcare arena. I had to balance his somewhat ambiguous career objectives with content that would communicate his unique value to hiring managers across industries.”
Notice how a well-developed “Core Competencies” section can help accomplish this goal and showcase precisely those skills that are relevant to the client’s situation. Also, the job descriptions are very brief — allowing more space to beef up the quantifiable and transferable data for each position. You don’t get selected as the 2021 Best Résumé Service in your area by handing out bad advice; see Mark’s comments below and the sample that follows.
Writer Profile
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Name: Mark Misiano
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Location: Richmond, VA
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Joined PARW/CC in: 2018
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Started writing résumés in: 2018
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Earned CPRW in: 2018
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College/Degrees: Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Master of Business Administration
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How are you attracting new clients?
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Best advice for someone just getting started in the industry:
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Set yourself up for success by creating systems that work for you by trying different methods and processes. Finding ways to move quickly through non-revenue generating tasks will save you time and give you the opportunity to focus on the tasks that bring in money. Once you have your repeatable and simple systems in place, it’ll be easier to grow and manage more work without the stress.
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Never underestimate the power of your network. You might make a random connection who recommends you to their brother’s wife’s neighbor – that’s a new client you never would have found! Be able to explain what you do and how you bring value in less than 30 seconds, and others will spread the word for you.
You can contact Mark at mark@ready4resume.com or find him on LinkedIn.
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Posted By Administration,
Sunday, October 2, 2022
Updated: Wednesday, September 28, 2022
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Melissa Figueroa reminds us there are some ground rule differences between these two documents:
1. A CV is used for academic and research positions. A résumé is used for jobs in the industry. It includes professional experience and education.
2. A CV focuses on accomplishments related to research, teaching, and service. A résumé focuses on accomplishments and highlights skills.
3. A CV is self-display. You show how much you have done in the past; everything counts. A résumé is a marketing tool. You show how much you can do in the future; you are more selective on the things you want to include to make your case.
4. A CV is long. You want to include as much information as you can. A résumé is concise. You are more selective with information.
5. Although considered outdated in résumé writing, Times New Roman is the preferred typeface in CV writing. The entire formatting approach is pretty basic…flush left, a little bold type, and underlined section headings.
Since this client is in the Education sector, Melissa used the APA format for the publication and conference entries. Also, the client is a student. If the client were a professor, she would have added an “Academic Appointments” section after “Education.”
Finally, while language proficiency levels can be presented in different ways, Melissa prefers to use the standards by the Inter-Agency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale set by the U.S. Foreign Service Institute. Here is an article that explains how to highlight language proficiency during the job search.
Writer Profile
· Name: Melissa Figueroa
· Location: Ithaca, NY
· Joined PARW/CC in: 2021
· Started writing résumés in: 2021
· Earned CPRW in: 2022
· College/Degrees: Ph.D. in Spanish Literature, Cornell University
· Business Model: During this year, my focus has been increasing brand awareness. The main purpose of my business is to spread the message that professionals with language degrees can do more than teaching. However, I plan to expand my target market at some point. To increase brand awareness, I post daily on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. I subcontract with ResumeWriters.com.
· Best advice for someone just getting started in the industry: Be humble and learn from others who have been writing résumés longer than you. Be mindful of your learning and embrace deliberate practice to make progress. Writing résumés is a craft and it takes time to master it. Practice every week.
NOTE: Melissa recently accepted the position of Undergraduate Career Advisor at the Whitman Career Center Services at Syracuse University. You can contact Melissa at melissafigueroa1605@gmail.com, or find her on LinkedIn.
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Posted By Administration,
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
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As one of our recent Elite Circle Résumé Winners, Teresa Hutton has quickly developed a real flair for the art and craft of marketing people on paper. She faced a challenge you might be able to relate to:“The challenge with the Jean St. Croix résumé is the client has intuitive leadership and business skills, and is passionate about developing teams, team members, and the environment in which they work. Finding a way to highlight and balance the two sides on one page (by request of the client), and note previous positions and skills took a bit of trial and error.”
Résumé writers LIVE in the world of trial and error…but we all took a different path to get there.
Writer Profile
· Name: Teresa Hutton
· Location: New Berlin, WI
· Joined PARW/CC in: 2021
· Started writing résumés in: 2021
· Earned CPRW in: 2021
· College/Degrees: BS & MS Electrical Engineering
· How does an electrical/software engineer find their way to the world of professional résumé writing? I followed a piece of advice I learned some time ago – “follow-up on what is catching your attention”. After years of self-development, I started sharing what I learned and found I really enjoyed it. I started getting asked to look over résumés and updating my résumé writing skills grabbed my attention. I signed up for the Fundamentals of Résumé Writing course and volunteered to write résumés for my friends, family, and neighbors for practice. I found people were not only willing to let me write their résumé but were excited about it. I received positive feedback on my work. And, because I enjoy writing résumés – each is a puzzle to solve – I am pursuing it as a business.
· Business Model: I’m working on ramping up marketing as a goal for this year. Currently I have a business page on LinkedIn with a goal to post weekly. I also make sure my friends, neighbors, and family know I’m in the business of writing résumés (on the side until I build up the business a bit more). To get the word out locally I signed up to teach a one-night résumé writing workshop at my city’s rec center. I currently offer a free 30-minute résumé review. Clients sign up for a day and time for the review and submit their résumé on my website. After the review I send a link to sign up to work with me. If the client chooses to work with me, they pay in advance via credit card on the website and I get to work writing their résumé!
· Best advice for someone just getting started in the industry: Practice and get feedback by offering to write résumés for everyone you know. This will help you increase your confidence when you begin to charge for your services because you will know how to:
· handle feedback and change requests,
· understand what different people are looking for,
· identify common areas résumés can be improved,
· and it will give you a portfolio of résumés for people to view if they want to understand your approach.
You can contact Teresa at teresa.hutton@hey.com, visit her web page here, or find her on LinkedIn.
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Posted By Administration,
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
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Along with creative fiction and textile art, Alicia has recently added résumé writing to her list of professional skills. Her unique perspective came in handy with a client who wanted to transition from administration and real estate jobs that paid the bills to something she was truly passionate about — Animal Activism. Because the client already had a personal website, Alicia made it a point to borrow from that branding template to match the color scheme and font in the résumé. The following sample shows you how she brought it all together.
Other formatting and strategy decisions included:
· Using quotes and content personalization to showcase the client’s passion and sense of mission on equal footing with job skills and impact.
· Grouping her animal activism and administrative experience in a quasi-functional style.
· Emphasizing her time spent living overseas and fluency in multiple languages.
· Setting the client up to launch or justify her entry into legislative fights for animal rights.
Writer Profile
· Name: Alicia Hall
· Location: Redmond, WA
· Joined PARW/CC in: March 2021
· Started writing résumés in (year): 2021
· Earned CPRW in (year): August 2021 (plus the CDCS in 2021 and the CVCS in 2022)
· College/Degrees: BA in Comparative History of Ideas from University of Washington, Seattle, WA; MA in Teaching Social Sciences 6-12 from Western Governors University, Salt Lake City, UT
· Business Model (How are you attracting clients? Do you have a website? Do you work for another company? Do you subcontract?): I subcontract with resumewriters.com. I’m paid by order and usually average about 12 packages per 2-week period since starting there in August 2021. I have had personal clients find me through LinkedIn but those are rare. I adore having someone else find the clients so I can focus on the writing part that I’m passionate about. Resumewriters.com also compensates me for my phone time spent with clients doing some mild career coaching and confidence building. I do have my own LLC for billing resumewriters.com and paying myself just in case someday I want to really start an independent business.
· Best advice for someone just getting started in the industry: Remember what you are worth. You’ve done a lot to get here, and your expertise is valuable. Take the time to figure out what you need and what you want to consider yourself successful – talk to mentors and colleagues. Also, figure out a reliable and consistent system that works for your brain to track orders, clients, and correspondence – the more promptly you give clients individual attention, the happier they are.
You can contact Alicia at alicia.hall.writer@gmail.com or via LinkedIn.
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Posted By Editor,
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
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Chase Lee started writing résumés six years ago. He recently worked with a successful female entrepreneur who is currently studying for a master’s degree in Bangkok and wants to return to corporate work after several years mixed with running her own company, freelance experience, a gap year, and other positions. While she is weighing options between finance and sales/business development jobs, she knows she wants to pursue her career in other international cities.
Among his many strategy decisions, Chase outlined these in particular:
- Highlight skillsets related to the target positions with numerical results.
- Design a brief introduction to summarize her roles and responsibilities so recruiters/hiring managers can quickly understand her background.
- Utilize boldface and underline numerical achievements and other essential information to catch the recruiter’s eyes.
- Showcase “interests” to differentiate her and show her caring and “willing-to-take-challenges” personality.
- Adjust the working period in the entrepreneurial experience to make the overall timeline more consistent.
- Re-package her working titles from Founder/CEO to “Director”, “Co-founder” and highlight only the job functions related to her target position.
His client loved the use of essential keywords and the conciseness of a one-page résumé, as well as the way he handled her skillsets, her working geography and timeline, and her overall competencies. She was also impressed with how each bullet point was straight to the point and still allowed her personality to shine through. Chase has a genuine passion for the art and craft of résumé writing...not to mention a six-year head start on the certification process! See his story and sample below:
Name: Chase Lee
Location: Taiwan
Joined PARW/CC in: 2022
Started writing résumés in: 2016
Earned CPRW in: Preparing to get certified this year. College/Degrees: B.B.A. in International Business; B.A. in Slavic Language & Literature, National Chengchi University Business Model: 1) Establish a professional website to build brand identity; 2) produce digital content (blogs, job/ interview articles, and social media posts) to make the website more SEO-relevant, cost-effective, and customer- friendly; 3) acquire customers via word-of-mouth, referrals, and SEO rankings.
Best advice for someone just getting started in the industry:
“Be open-minded, brave, and bold to clients from various industries and positions even if you don’t understand their expertise. Get trained in best practices and always be confident about yourself. Join PARW/CC—a community to interact with industry peers. (I wish I had found PARW/CC earlier!!!)”
You can contact Chase at chase.yc.lee@gmail.com or via LinkedIn.
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