How Doug Levin Turned His Corporate Resume Writing Career Into a New Work Opportunity in His Second Half

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Doug Levin is the owner of JobStars USA - a career services practice dedicated to serving entry through executive-level professionals. Doug is a certified professional resume writer, career coach, and small business owner with 10 years of experience in the career services niche. Doug's firm offers expert resume writing services for professionals in broad-ranging private sector industries.

Doug Levin is the owner of JobStars USA – a career services practice dedicated to serving entry through executive-level professionals. Doug is a certified professional resume writer, career coach, and small business owner with 10 years of experience in the career services niche. Doug’s firm offers expert resume writing services for professionals in broad-ranging private sector industries. The goal is building ATS-friendly and visually appealing documents that communicate a specific message and help you stand apart from the competition. By working collaboratively, Doug and his team focus on gathering information and taking leadership over the development of your new documents.

In this episode, Doug talks about how he was able to “Flip the Script” and turn his corporate resume writing career into a new work opportunity in his Second Half.

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Doug’s Gift to all SecondAct’ers: Get 10% Discount to Any JobStars Service:

Coupon Code: SECONDACT10

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“There's kind of a comfort level when you're an employee of an organization. Whereas when you're on your own and you're not salaried, then there's more pressure .”

- Doug Levin


Key Takeaways for Second Act’ers: What is Doug’s process of being a business owner.

  1. Through experience by trial and error. Figuring out what he wanted to do and how he wants to spend his time.

  2. Exploring different avenues of what would make him happy and strike the right balance for him.

Topics Covered:

04:16 - How not getting the promotion despite being qualified brought Doug to his ‘flip the script’ moment 

05:39 - How Doug used his corporate background to establish his own business, switching his full time employment experience to becoming a freelance resume writer, getting his hands dirty to learn the resume writing craft

09:13 -  The mindset shift from employee to consultant and business owner, the legwork he had to deal as a business owner from getting an LLC, filing tax, keeping his productivity and stuff

16:36 - Resume and Linkedin tandem: Optimization that will get you your dream job, why should there be an alignment between your credentials, what do headhunters and employers look for

Connect with Doug Levin

Connect with Tim Hansen


Transcript:

Tim Hansen  0:44 

Welcome Second Act'ers. Today I'm pleased to announce Doug Levin is the owner of Job Stars USA a career services practice dedicated to serving entry to executive-level professionals. 

Doug's a certified professional resume writer, career coach and small business owner with 10 years of experience in the career services niche. Doug's firm offers expert resume writing services for professionals in a broad-ranging private sector industry. The goal building a team is friendly and visually appealing documents that communicate a specific message and help you stand apart from the competition by working collaboratively. 

Doug and his team focus on gathering information and taking leadership over the development of your documents. Please do announce it, announced Doug at this moment. And let him take a little bit here from there and kind of tell you more about his story and how he can help benefit you and some of the things you can learn along the way from his story. Take it away, Doug. 

Doug Levin  1:30  

Hey, Tim, thanks for having me on. Yeah, I'm a certified resume writer, career coach and the owner of JobStars USA a career services practice. My team and I work with entry through executive-level professionals, resume writing, career coaching, jobseeker related services. My background includes both corporate experience as well as entrepreneurship small business. And so yeah, I'm glad to be on your show and I look forward to sharing my story a little bit.

Tim Hansen  2:00  

Well, excellent. But before we get too far into this, I just want to make sure I didn't butcher your last name too much. I want to just make sure share with the audience how to pronounce that correctly. I wanted to make sure that I'm, you know, making sure everyone knows the proper pronunciation of your name.

Doug Levin  2:14  

Thank you. Yes. Doug Levine. You got it just right, thanks.

Tim Hansen  2:17  

Okay, awesome. Well, the reason I wanted to have you on the show is again, in addition to your story, and coming from corporate and going out on your own is some of the things I know that's really important to my audience that I don't offer. 

But it is really critical to help me and helping them is, you know, as I share with them certain things to do from an online perspective, what they need to have their resume look like their LinkedIn profile look like and all those things. Sometimes they know how to do it themselves and write that I give them some recommendation and guidance there. But I think your expertise in that that is exactly what you do for a living would really, really help in addition to what I'm coaching and also help them from the writing perspective. So excited to have you on.

You know, moving on, I'd like to just talk get more into your story a little bit and kind of figure out what led you to moving from corporate and what you're doing right now. And usually, in my experience in chatting with other folks, sometimes that's a life-changing moment. Sometimes that's a planned exit. You know, so with that in mind, can you share with me what was your worst career moment at the stage of your life that started to show you you needed a new way of looking for new work and Income opportunities? 

Doug Levin  3:30  

Absolutely. So, you know, I'm 36 turning 37 next week, came out of undergrad. So I have about 15 years under my belt of work experience, dating back to 2005. So from 2005 to 2011. I was a full-time employee at Career Builder, the large job board, my last two years at Career Builder. I manage their resume service, it was called CB Resume. And that's where I got into the world of resume writing and career coaching. 

So this was later in my tenure, probably about 2010. Shortly after I had earned my MBA and had been with the company for a number of years, and the company actually helped pay for my MBA.

Someone who is less tenured than me, someone without the degree, earned a promotion over me. And that was probably my worst career moment where I felt like I was deserving of an opportunity and was bypassed.

And that is the point at which I realized that I don't know that I was cut out for the corporate world. I always felt like it was a meritocracy based on your work and performance. However, I felt like I got bypassed because frankly, you know, the person making the decision was friends with the person they promoted. So it was kind of like a clicky environment. And that was the point at which I realized Okay, I don't know if I'm going to win the clicky game.

Tim Hansen  5:04  

Right? Well, I think you're you've kind of lead right into the next question and you're there right now, usually, when folks hit these points, I call that a flip the script moment where you're starting to see the writing on the wall for lack of a better term and trying to make a decision on which direction you're going to go. So you seen that it sounds like you hit that moment and that sounds like that was your flip the script, you know, type of moment there. From that moment on, tell us a little bit of your story of how you were how you then decided to take your background and move on to something else.

Doug Levin  5:39  

Yeah, so shortly after that, all occurred, I decided to just up and quit, which was you know, it was a it was a decision not based on emotion. It was a decision based on partly on emotion but partly on like I said, the logic of just realizing that it was time to move on. 

So I put in my really gave them three months’ notice and was starting to explore opportunities, you know, externally.

So the flip the script moment was, you know, deciding to quit my comfortable corporate job, you know, I wasn't pushed out, I was comfortable, happy, or at least, you know, taken care of and all that all the benefits of working for a company, however, yeah, the writing was on the wall. So, at that point, I did put in my notice, I decided to quit. 

And taking the knowledge and experience that I had over those last two years of learning the resume-writing world. I went from running CB Resume, which was their resume service, it had a team of close to 50 resume writers. So I was running that team, and I left and joined the team as a freelance resume writer. 

So after I quit Career Builder I stayed on as a contractor, writing resumes. Making you know, 50, 60, 70 bucks a resume, which isn't very much, but learning the craft, throwing myself into the fire. I've always been a good resume writer. And that was kind of the minute where I switched from full-time employment to being a freelance contractor and learning a craft.

Tim Hansen  7:19  

Excellent. Excellent. It is so you were able from as I understand your story, correct. And I want to clarify this for my listeners because we've seen this to be a very successful strategy for people kind of going through this. You know, sometimes you can turn your past employer into your first client. That sounds like that's what you did. Is that accurate?

Doug Levin  7:37  

Yeah, exactly.

So I stayed on in a contracting role. I guess initially, I made the decision to leave without that thought of, but then I realized, ‘Okay, I'm gonna need some sort of income.’ And then I put two and two together, and I was like, well, there's definitely room on the team. I'm a good writer. I understand this area.

So yeah, exactly. 

Tim Hansen  8:00  

Excellent, excellent. And so that was your first you turned your past employer and your first client? And do you have any thoughts on how you grew your business after that? Can you share that with the audience? 

Doug Levin  8:10  

Absolutely. So this is dating back to 2011. May 2011, is when I made that transition from full-time employment to being a freelancer. At that point simultaneously to you know, being a freelance resume writer, I started my own business.

So that was the very foundation of like filing an LLC, opening a bank account, you know, securing a domain name, the real basics, and so over the course of a good four to five years, while doing freelance resume writing and those types of gigs, I on the side, so nights, weekends, any chance I had, you know, put efforts toward building out my business, my website developing you know, a menu of services and trying to, you know, build a business. 

Tim Hansen  9:03  

Excellent. Excellent. And so you've now been doing this on your own since 2011.

Doug Levin  9:09  

Exactly. I've been self-employed. I haven't been on a salary since then.

Tim Hansen  9:13  

Fantastic. So can you share a little bit just about the mental shift because I know that you went through from being the employee mindset into the consultant. because now usually in folks in this stage of life, I'm finding sometimes that they're very skilled at what they do. But now when you come in, if you're going to go this direction, you also have to start thinking of how you're going to build a business and think like a business owner. And that's a different mentality. If you can share just a little bit about what helped you just make that mental jump if you have any thoughts or tips to share their that I know our audience could benefit from that.

Doug Levin  9:47  

Yeah, that's a massive shift. I probably didn't fully realize what I was getting into.

Tim Hansen  9:58  

Happens to a lot of us

Doug Levin  10:00  

Yeah. And so I learned through trial by fire. But yeah, I mean, there's a lot of differences. So I went from a corporate environment where I was on a team going to an office every day surrounded by co-workers and friends, to none of that, right?

So working from home, having everything on me as far as any production, you know, like, there's kind of a comfort level when you're an employee of an organization. Whereas when you're on your own and you're not salaried, then there's more pressure.

That's a big part of it, you know, figuring out how taxes work, you know, just all that kind of stuff like filing quarterly taxes. I didn't know I needed to do that until I learned that I needed to do that.All those sorts of things.

Tim Hansen  10:47  

Sure. And along with being self-employed, I've found that there's, you know, there's a certain new element of freedom that comes with this lifestyle, some relish that some have never learned how to be so discipline to structure their day now that they're on their own. Sometimes that takes a little while for different folks to learn. Can you share a little bit about what that process looked like for you? 

Doug Levin  11:09  

Yeah, it was definitely a process of trying to figure out what I wanted to do and how I wanted to spend my time. You know, I think early on, I was just kind of, I just, it was almost like, I wanted a vacation from what I was doing in the corporate world. So it was kind of exploring different avenues of, you know, what would make me happy? What's going to strike the right balance for me? Yeah, it's just kind of trial and error. 

Tim Hansen  11:34  

Excellent. Yeah. And I found that as people go through this phase that there is no, you know, there, there is no one road path. Everyone's got different personalities, financial pressures. There are some commonalities that are going to come into play. But I always tell folks that you know what, this could be the best time of your life to where you can now use your past experiences and skillset to create an environment and work that fits around your life at this point, and there's some things you need to learn, but it's definitely worth it. And sometimes that's what I call a planned event. 

Sometimes people get forced out, layoff, reduction in force, whatever you want to call it. Sometimes there's a psychological aspect, the emotional hit that people take, when they go through it, I get that I went, I've been there done that. 

And you know, it does take some time to have the grieving process for lack of a better term. However, on the tail end of that, after myself going through it and talking to other people in different stages, it's turned out to be for most folks, I know the best thing that ever happened to them quite a few I've met are not only making more money, they also have a lot more freedom in their schedule, or if they're not making as much money a lot of that's by design because they don't have to and they want to travel more. 

Yeah, and the more I talked to them if I say would you ever go back to corporate not a one is ever said they're going back. 

So you know, there's a time and place for everything. I always say you just got to find out where you fit, and that's okay. Some people go in between the freelance world the corporate kind of bounce back and forth, that's okay. That's the beauty of this.

 I think having the freedom and the ability to be able to kind of make your own shot, call your own shots. Getting self-disciplined along the way takes a little bit of practice. And I found that when you get around other people, other entrepreneurs, they may or not, may or may not be doing what you do. 

But if you're in a co-working site or things like that, you can kind of share ideas. And that helps I call that my informal board of directors. Kind of help keep me on track. Keep me excited, you know, I bounce ideas off those guys all the time. 

You know, as we're coming to the end here, I'd like for you to just share a little bit about how our listeners can get of hold of you via your website, your phone number, email, whatever you'd like to share

I know the service that you provide is something you know, I highly recommend and advise in my coaching program. I don't personally do it, but I know it's massively critical. If you're not good at writing. You've got to have someone who knows what they're doing to help you. 

And I get that request quite a bit. And that's why I was excited to have you on the show because I really think my audience could benefit from your expertise. So having said all that, please share with the audience the ways they can reach you, the name of your company, any discounts that you'd like to offer, specialty, promotions, things like that.

Doug Levin  14:19  

JobStars.com is the website. So I have a team of resume writers and I'm in the kind of, in the process, working with clients directly. 

So it's kind of a team-based process, I have an information-gathering approach. So I kind of serve as the resume project manager, my job is to gather the clients information, conduct an intake call with the client, trying to put myself into the shoes of the client, figuring out you know, their value proposition and the things that matter in building a resume that aligns with their goals. 

And then like I said, I have a special small team of certified resume writers that work with me in a scenario where I'm able to dictate, 'Hey, these are the things that we're trying to achieve with this client.' And then allowing the writer to you know, really focus on the words on paper, I always QA which means, you know, kind of quality assurance documents before they go out to the client. So it's a real collaborative effort. 

So like I said, it's designed to, on the front end, gather client information sufficiently, and then really take clients through that process of building documents align with their goals. Once a client receives first drafts, there's a 30-day window for edits and revisions. So there's plenty of opportunities to tweak, refine and improve things. So certainly the collaborative partnership to build documents.

Doug Levin  15:47  

So yep, JobStars.com, you can click on the resume writing tab. What I can do after this podcast is set up a coupon code, so we could call it SecondAct10 so no spaces second act and the numbers one, zero. And that will be a 10% discount for any purchase.

Tim Hansen  16:09  

Oh, perfect. So what'll happen is I'll have that in my show notes. Because I know a lot of my listeners, sometimes their communicating and they're in the gym, things like that. They may be in a situation where they could not have written that down, I want to let the listeners know that that'll be in the show notes. So no worries there. And also, Doug, in addition to the resume writing, I know you mentioned you also help folks on their LinkedIn profile. Can you briefly touch on that?

Doug Levin  16:36  

Yeah, absolutely. So the LinkedIn profile, you know, I have a, it's called LinkedIn Optimization whereby after we build your resume, then we create bespoke content for your LinkedIn profile. So there are some nuances and differences between what you would want to do on the resume versus your LinkedIn profile. 

You know, for instance, using first-person your LinkedIn profile is acceptable and normal, whereas you wouldn't do that on your resume. And so actually, the resume and the LinkedIn profile work together and should complement each other. 

So sometimes, you know, you want to keep your resume relatively short. So 2-pages max is kind of except, you know, in certain scenarios, maybe a CV that goes through your longer but I try to keep things at two pages where, you know, that can be a challenge and sometimes offloading information from your resume over to your LinkedIn profile, where there's more space, there's more categories. 

You know, the key to LinkedIn is you really want to populate your profile with content using all the categories that they make available to you. And so there's just kind of a style approach and as a philosophy to building a resume and LinkedIn profile that are truly working in tandem. 

You know, you don't want your LinkedIn profile to feel like it's a straight copy, paste. is from your resume. And I'm sure you've seen that quite a bit. I know I have too.

Tim Hansen  18:05  

I have in my recruiting practice, which I've run that now for 15 plus years, some of the things you mentioned, I can tell you as a headhunter are a spot on. When I'm working with folks from the resume side, even at the executive level, very rarely Will I ever look at anything more than two pages. Just from a time perspective. 

Tim Hansen  18:22  

So the relevancy they're short, brief, what's relevant, makes perfect sense. And also be able to have the LinkedIn profile to a good extent mirror, the same story that's absolutely crucial. As a recruiter as well as coaching folks. That's the first place I look almost more than your resume. I'll go right to your LinkedIn profile. I kind of live, breathe and die by that. For a large extent, when I'm in the infancy of talking to people so everything you've said, I can tell you as someone who hires people also for a living is spot on.

I wanted to thank you for clarifying that quite a bit. And I wanted to make sure that we got that little blurb in there about LinkedIn because I know that That's going to be very, very important to a lot of my listeners as they go forward in this next stage of life in this way. 

Well, Doug, I want to thank you for your time today. And thank you for the coupon code for my listeners, I'm sure that they will appreciate that. And again, for all my listeners, if you didn't have a chance to write that down, don't worry about it. This will all be in the show notes is once the show is edited and alive. 

Thank you again for your time. Looking forward to having my audience reach out to you and also working with you professionally on my end as well. Thank you, Doug.

Doug Levin  19:32  

Thanks so much, Tim. I really appreciate it being on your show.

You've been listening to the second act career coaching podcast. For more tips and advice on how to successfully flip the script and helping you find new Work and Income opportunities. Please visit us at www.secondactcareercoaching.com

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