Stacie Fehrm recently retired from over 20 years as a Program Administrator and Career Advisor for GED programs in Massachusetts. She also worked at the Massachusetts One-Stop Career Center, writing resumes for newly unemployed clients.
She has written hundreds of resumes for people with a wide range of personal, educational, and life challenges. It’s one of the reasons I invited her to share her story; it’s a question I often see in our field, “How do I help a client with a nontraditional background or gaps in their experience?” Stacie will share some tips on this question in an upcoming issue of The Watercooler.
“My first job out of college was as a career education teacher for students who were not going to go to college,” Stacie says. “It was my dream job! We spent the whole year conducting self-assessments, exploring careers, and learning job-seeking skills.”
“I went on to work with foster kids and got a job as a school adjustment counselor in a public high school. Just having a resume gave them an edge. I started teaching that and writing with them side by side.”
Later in her career, Stacie worked as a career advisor and administrator of adult GED programs. She helped her students set career goals, leverage effective job search skills, and find satisfying work. She was a frequent speaker all over Massachusetts and presented eight times at the Annual Massachusetts Coalition of Adult Educators (MCAE) Network Conference. She also facilitated the Southeast MA Learning Group for Career Advisors and played a crucial role in developing the state-mandated Massachusetts Adult Education and Career Plan.
Today, Stacie owns her own business – Stacie Writes Resumes where she works with professionals from all walks of life to tell their compelling career stories.
Leaning on her background in creating “challenging” resumes, Stacie has expanded her services to include nurses, state police officers, finance executives, attorneys, and CEOs.
“I love listening to people talk about their jobs, and I’ll go, wow, that’s an accomplishment,” Stacie says. “I help them see strengths, attributes, and qualifications they don’t even know they have!”
“My real specialty is career changers – people who have stayed home with kids for 20 years or have elderly parents or significant gaps in employment. I just did resumes for two moms who hadn’t worked for 20 years. They thought they had nothing going for them.
“I bumped into one of them at a restaurant, and she teared up and said, ‘You helped me get my job.’”
Stacie operates from the belief that part of our role is to help people realize they have more going for them than they think they do.
“I can put their story into words,” she says. “It’s all about listening and digging in and ensuring I understand what they do so I can put it into words.”
Stacie says her professional resume writing friends helped her see the value of joining the NRWA. She credits Shoni Bell and Cathy Lanzalaco for referring her to our organization.
“Shoni spoke highly of the Writing Excellence course, and Cathy says she loves the giving and generous nature of the nonprofit model and volunteer leadership.”
After attending the NRWA conference in New Orleans, Stacie said her passion for our industry ignited a fire to build her business. Paula Christensen’s workshop on video interviews, Angie Callen’s seminar on building your business, and the ROAR awards were some of Stacie’s highlights from the conference.
But she says the networking was the best part of the conference.
“I now know faces, and I feel like I have work friends,” Stacie says. “When you’re working alone, you need those connections. That’s the best part of it – the people. Everybody’s so giving and sharing and wants to support each other.”
Next month, Stacie wants to expand her professional expertise by earning the Nationally Certified Online Profile Expert certification. She’s signed up for the NCOPE course and looks forward to using this expertise in her new business.
“I think it’s a great profession,” Stacie says. “I’m excited to do it Monday through Friday.”
Stacie holds an M.Ed. in Counseling from Bridgewater State University and a bachelor’s degree from Providence College. Learn more about her and connect with her at LinkedIn.com/in/stacie-fehrm.
