We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mary Carden a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mary, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned in school and why that lesson is important to you?

When I was in fourth grade, my local library held a writing contest. It wasn’t specifically for children, but I didn’t let that deter me from entering a short story I had written the previous October about a vampire with a conscience. To my shock, my story took first place — and my community took notice. I received a feature in the middle school newsletter, which caught the attention of a local news reporter, who interviewed me for a short piece. In that 200-word article, I had one quote: “When I grow up, I want to be an author, like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King.”

Although I was too young to read much of King’s writing, he was on my mind because one of the contest prizes was a copy of “On Writing” by Stephen King, a practical, no-nonsense guide to improving one’s writing practice. He wrote the following: “Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It’s about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.”

I took this advice to heart: I wrote constantly, both in school and on my own time. Most of it was for my own eyes only, but I decided some pieces were fit to share with others. As I advanced in my academic career, I committed myself to every writing assignment with zeal, and even challenged myself to make the assignments more difficult. For example, a high school prompt asked me to dissect a passage from Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Archbishop.” I closed my eyes, opened the book to a random page, and found something there to inspire my essay. The entire page was a description of cave rocks. I followed my own rule and I made it work.

This paid dividends at Duke, where I double-majored in two equally writing-intensive programs. I told my friends, “If the sun came up today, I have a paper to write.” The deadlines were never oppressive; on the contrary, I found them motivating. Just like our athletes worked out every day to get better at their sport, I strengthened my writing muscles by using them intensely every day. I didn’t write to please my professors — although their feedback was never far from my mind — I wrote to enrich my life and be happy.

Years later, now that I am a full-time writer getting paid to produce thousands of words of copy each day, my perspective has shifted. Today, my vocation is to write to enrich others’ lives and make them happy. Everyone needs a resume, but some need one more than others. The stay-at-home parents returning to work after a decade at home, the career-changers who don’t know how to get from A to B, the recently laid-off who struggle with feelings of worthlessness, the beleaguered executive who can’t find 30 spare minutes to make a home-cooked meal, the fresh-from-school professional who feels the intense pressure of competing with people with far more experience. Those are the people whose lives I enrich with my writing.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Job Market Solutions / Get Resume Help is a resume writing practice. That may seem straightforward, but many are surprised to learn that we offer nearly a dozen specialized services for professionals at every stage of their career, whether they’re currently seeking a job or not. We provide a range of professional branding materials that includes resumes, CVs, professional bios, LinkedIn profiles, cover letters, and even more involved deliverables like business plans and presentation decks.

Nothing we provide is cookie-cutter: Every word is handcrafted and targeted for the client’s specific circumstance, including their role, industry, location, background, skillset, and goals. Every client is an individual, so the resumes we produce are equally unique. Our process includes an initial phone call, detailed questionnaire, and ongoing engagement through every step of the writing and revision process. In this way, we become experts in each client’s career. As a result, everything we produce is extremely customized, as well as optimized to current industry standards. Our resumes get interviews.

I arrived in this vocation after spending several years in the academic publishing industry, where I held a series of challenging but grossly underpaid editorial roles. When my contract was nearing its end, I machine-gunned my resume across every job board I could find. While my approach was not as strategic as it could have been, my resume was read by the right person. Mir Garvy, the owner of Job Market Solutions, invited me to an interview, then a series of writing tests, then invited me onboard full-time.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I am extremely proud to say that our clients are our biggest cheerleaders. Referrals are one of the most consistent sources of new business leads. A satisfied client will refer us to their cousin, who purchases a new graduate package for their son, who tells his friends about our service, and so on. This word-of-mouth daisy-chain is not only incredibly effective, but it’s also free. We can accelerate this process by offering incentives to past clients, such as a discount on a future service or a small freebie.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I can only scale my business as much as I can scale my own productivity. The more projects I am able to take on, the more money I can make — but that comes with a time ceiling. The Pomodoro technique is an extremely effective methodology for increasing one’s productive time without risking burn-out or exhaustion. It’s customizable to an individua’s schedule and absolutely free to implement in one’s workday with an egg timer or timer app. This may seem overly granular, but Pomodoro has nearly doubled the amount of work I can produce on a daily basis.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jobmarketsolutions.com / www.getresumehelp.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-carden