4 ms·
I looked at your site for a few minutes. The quick impression I got was it seems very informal and not super professional. Here's some quick feedback on thing
by tedmiston 9y ago
I looked at your site for a few minutes. The quick impression I got was it seems very informal and not super professional. Here's some quick feedback on things you could resolve with not too much extra work:
- It seems like you've done a good amount of work, I think I saw 1000+ docs revised in there, but then the sample work available and testimonials was pretty small / weak. Clear outbound links to your published work would speak volumes. I would rather read your samples than anything else.
- Switch your official email to a non-Gmail address and use your domain proper (even if you forward behind the scenes and use an alias to respond in Gmail which is an easy setup).
- On the resume editing page, I thought it was repetitive to have the price listed 4 separate times. (First thought in my head — did he/she proofread this?)
- I also looked for a way to find more info about you, like an About page, or preferably a link to LinkedIn or something like that, but I didn't find one.
These things are all presentation and ones you can easily resolve without changing much about your core work, but it's the kind of thing a client might pass on services for.
- DoreenMichele 9y ago- I also looked for a way to find more info about you, like an About page, or preferably a link to LinkedIn or something like that, but I didn't find one. What type of information about me are you looking for? I get told a lot I talk too much about myself and that needs to stop. In this very post someone suggested I redact a "personal anecdote" that they felt was overly personal and not pertinent. It indicates I was a military wife and homeschooling mom for a long time, yet had a high call back rate on my own resume when I did go to job hunt. I feel that is pertinent. I have lived a very private life. I participated in an educational organization because I was a homeschooling parent. People label that personal info. I was an educator. I ran a small private school under California state law, but my students were my own children. Tokenadult is also a homeschooling parent. I knew him elsewhere before I joined HN. He ran a homeschooling website for a time, as did I. But he also is a school teacher. I can seem to find no means to claim my experience and credentials. It all gets dismissed as private, overly personal, anecdotal, etc. No one wants to hear, much less give me credit, for those accomplishments. It seems like a trap I cannot escape. Having been a homemaker, it is like nothing I do will ever count. I have six years of college. I have moderating experience. I have run websites for years. Men here who run websites are webmasters and it is respectable. I am dismissed as a mommy blogger for doing the same thing. So what info about me do you want? Because that is the opposite of what I get told routinely and seems to be a Gordian knot I can find no means to cut. I'm not a man. I haven't lived like a man. Every single thing I have accomplished seems to not count because of it. Thank you for taking the time to look it over and reply. Some of that is very good info. Please don't take the focus of my question as a negative. I hope you can say something that helps me sort this particular detail out.
- tedmiston 9y agoRe: more info - Just a brief 1–3 paragraph professional bio and perhaps a link out to more info about how long you've been doing writing / editing, not necessarily a resume, but something like a LinkedIn perhaps. I don't have much opinion about personal anecdotes on a professional site that ties into your professional work; I keep it to a minimum myself, and it's not something I'd discount for a one-person company where their business and their self are somewhat intertwined, but I don't explicitly seek out personal info. I think being a teacher is potentially relevant to the business you're doing now and communicating feedback to your customers. My mom is a teacher as well and that was influential in the way I learn(ed) at a young age (Montessori method) and still today. Re: experience and credentials - I feel like the best way to demonstrate it in writing is just to link to a variety of sample work before/after. If you want to build a base under that with past experiences, I think that can be helpful but as you've stated, it can be challenging to convey how seemingly unrelated experiences tie in to current work.
- DoreenMichele 9y agoThank you.