The Career Collective is a group of dedicated professionals who hope their advice and collaboration will help many job seekers navigate treacherous waters. This is our initial press release that describes why we formed the Career Collective and our goals.

Professionals Collaborate to Provide Guidance for Job Seekers and Careerists

Just-in-time advice for anyone hoping to stand out in a difficult market.

It’s not a “come as you are” job market. Today’s successful job hunters must be armed with information and the ability to use tools that may not have existed the last time they were vying for a new opportunity. The news reports that there are anywhere from four to six people for each job and the Bureau of Labor Statistics marks the average job hunt at 25 weeks, with many highly qualified professionals in much longer searches. There is a lot of advice online about how to optimize a job hunt. A Google search reveals over 42 million results for “how to job hunt.” Wading through information, some from unreliable or inexperienced sources, can overwhelm even the most savvy professional. Where can job seekers turn for solid, in-depth advice from experienced authorities? Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter, owner of Career Trend, and Miriam Salpeter, owner of Keppie Careers, hope to help job seekers via a new online community of expert career advisors and resume writing professionals.  The Career Collective, a collaboration of 21 experts in the career industry, will join forces once a month. Each member will use his or her own blog to respond to a timely question that vexes many job seekers. Career Collective participants will then link to other members’ responses so readers will have easy access to a variety of viewpoints. “There is no one ‘right’ way to look for a job that works for every person. Offering in-depth responses to the same question from so many thought leaders in our industry is one way to address confusing topics that paralyze many job seekers. While not all of our collaborators will agree, readers can be assured that Career Collective members are among the best in our field,” notes co-organizer Miriam Salpeter. Co-organizer Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter highlights another advantage of this program, “In order to be invited to the Collective, experts agree to blog several times per month, which means that job seekers will have a continued stream of information and advice. We hope our monthly question will offer a useful launching point for high-level discussion, provoke much-needed conversations and help job seekers connect with top-notch advice.” The first series of blog posts will go live on Thursday, October 8th and will address the issue of the “cookie-cutter” job seeker. Posts will offer suggestions to help stand out in a crowd and provide insight and information geared to giving job seekers a competitive edge. Members will promote their Career Collective posts in social networks, including Twitter, where designated posts will be labeled with the hashtag #careercollective. The following career experts comprise the Career Collective consortium: Co-Organizers Jacqui Barrett-Poindexter is a Master Resume Writer and owner of Career Trend. She composes career positioning documents for forward thinking executives/professionals. Her chief concern is to unearth and translate your value into words. http://careertrend.wordpress.com/ on Twitter: @valueintowords. Miriam Salpeter, owner of Keppie Careers, is a job search coach and resume writer with over 12 years of experience encouraging, enlightening and empowering job seekers. She authors a highly regarded blog at  www.keppiecareers.com and is well known as a top resource for job seekers on Twitter: @keppie_careers. Members Laurie Berenson, owner of Sterling Career Concepts, LLC, is a Certified Professional Resume Writer who guides her clients through resume development, job search strategy, and career progression. http://blog.sterlingcareerconcepts.com/ on Twitter: @LaurieBerenson. Chandlee Bryan, founder and owner of Best Fit Forward, is a resume writer and job search strategist. A former Ivy League Career Services Director, Chandlee also leads the NYC Job Seekers MeetUp, a Manhattan based group of over 850 individuals (www.meetup.com/nycjobseekers). www.bestfitforward.com on Twitter: @chandlee. Martin Buckland - Principal of Elite Resumes is one of Canada’s leading authorities on highly effective resume writing, high-impact cover letters, successful job-search strategies and interview tutoring.He has been providing executive career management services since 1993 . Elite Resumes Blog, on Twitter: @martinbuckland. Dawn Bugni, Certified Professional Resume Writer and owner of The Write Solution, creates compelling career documents helping clients find their professional bliss. She offers up a healthy dose of job search reality during the resume creation process and tempers the challenges of the search with honesty, a quick wit and a touch of humor. Dawn’s Blog. On Twitter: @dawnbugni. Megan Fitzgerald is an expat career and personal branding coach and owner of Career By Choice. She helps expatriate professionals and entrepreneurs use their personal brand on and offline to build a career or business that fits them and their international lifestyle. http://www.careerbychoiceblog.com on Twitter: @expatcoachmegan. Katharine Hansen, associate publisher and creative director at Quintessential Careers, is a writer, educator, blogger, social-media junkie, career practitioner and a leading proponent of storytelling for career advancement. http://katharinehansenphd.com on Twitter: @kat_hansen. GL Hoffman, chairman of LINKUP and author of What Would Dad Say, is an entrepreneur, business leader and friend to many. www.whatwoulddadsay.com on Twitter: @glhoffman. Gayle Howard, owner of Top Margin Career Marketing Group is a Master Resume Writer, Certified Expert Resume Writer, Reach Certified Personal Branding Strategist, author and multiple TORI Award Winner providing bold, authentic, audacious career branding for next generation executives. Gayle’s Blog. On Twitter: @gaylehoward. Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder/president of Come Recommended. She specializes in working with Generation Y. You can read her personal blog at HeatherHuhman.com or follow her on Twitter at @HeatherHuhman. Rosalind Joffe, founder and president of http://cicoach.com, is a chronic illness career coach with 10 years of experience working with people with chronic illness to find and keep jobs that they can thrive in. She blogs at Working With Chronic Illness and is on Twitter at: @WorkWithIllness. Susan Joyce Erin Kennedy, CPRW, is the President of Professional Résumé Services and has been writing power-packed executive level résumés since 1999. To read more about Erin and her services, visit http://exclusive-executive-resumes.com or follow Erin on Twitter: @erinkennedycprw. Grace Kutney is a career development professional with 11+ years experience in career advising. She operates Sweet Careers, a not-for-profit website and career consulting service offering free career and job search advice to college students and recent grads. On Twitter: @sweetcareers. Meg Montford, owner of Abilities Enhanced, is a Master Certified Career Coach and Career Management Fellow who motivates and supports executives and professionals while they work to achieve radical career changes. http://www.coachmeg.typepad.com/career_chaos/ on Twitter: @KCCareerCoach. Hannah Morgan is a Career Sherpa, a guide for lifetime career navigation. She writes and speaks on topics related to career management and is recognized for her energetic, compassionate and no non-sense style for conveying information. http://hannahmorgan.typepad.com/hannah_morgan/ on Twitter: @careersherpa. Heather Mundell is a life and career coach and owner of Dream Big Coaching Services. A former HR director, Heather helps professionals make key career decisions that fit who they are and what they want. http://dbcs.typepad.com. On Twitter: @heathermundell. J.T. O’Donnell is a nationally syndicated career expert, author and founder of the top-rated career site for young professionals, ages 18-40, CAREEREALISM.com. She can be found on Twitter: @jtodonnell and by e-mail over at www.careerealism.com. Andy Robinson is CEO & Executive Career Coach at CRG Leadership Institute LLC.  His passion is helping business professionals love what they do for a living and achieve lasting career success. Blogsite: CareerSuccessPartners.com.  He also co-hosts the Career Success Show on Exceptional Wisdom Radio.  Twitter: @AndyinNaples. Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers, has 15 years of experience in career management, recruiting and executive coaching. Barbara partners with companies and individuals to deliver targeted career and job search strategy programs. She is a author of Happy About My Resume: 50 Tips for Building a Better Document to Secure a Brighter Future. For career advice, visit her blog and follow her on @barbarasafani. Rosa Elizabeth Vargas is Owner of Creating Prints Resume Service and is a triple-certified writer (MRW) Master Resume Writer, (NCRW) Nationally Certified Resume Writer and (ACRW) Academy Certified Resume Writer. For over seven years, Rosa has been helping careerist by equipping them with powerful career marketing tools that steer job search campaigns. http://resume-writing.typepad.com on Twitter: @resumeservice. Debra Wheatman - President and Chief Career Officer of ResumesDoneWrite, a career planning company that helps clients from diverse backgrounds establish roadmaps for professioanl happiness and success. Debra is a certified professional resume writer (CPRW) and certified professional career coach with over 18 years of experience, including working in resource and recruitment for Fortune 500 companies. Visit her blog and find her on Twitter @DebraWheatman.