History
The Resume Place, Inc. was founded in 1971 by Kathryn Troutman. The company was first located in Washington, DC on K Street, NW. The initial client base was law students from five local law schools. By 1973, the law students came to the office in droves! They waited in long lines because the resumes were well-designed and beautifully-formatted. The students would all tell their friends and The Resume Place became very successful. The company purchased printing and typesetting equipment of the highest quality to meet the demand.
The Resume Place continued to grow and expanded its customers to federal employees and those seeking federal jobs. In 1996, everything changed when the federal government changed its application process. Under the leadership of Vice President Gore, Congress approved the “Reduction in Paperwork” act. One result of this was the elimination of the SF-171 form, the application for government jobs. By this time, The Resume Place were experts with the SF-171, as well as the private industry resume.
Kathryn Troutman tells how this happened: “I decided that I would just jump in there and write a book about the new “federal resume” that would replace the SF-171. This book was called the Federal Resume Guidebook and became the leading publication in the industry, now in its 4th edition.”
“I wrote this book in 1996 just risking everything. I interviewed HR specialists to determine the best format. It turned out that I did create the federal resume format, the name “federal resume” and the first book on the topic. Therefore, I have since become the leading expert in federal resumes and am recognized as the guru of federal resumes.”
“In 1996, I needed a Line of Credit to support and market the first Federal Resume Guidebook. I wrote a business plan and received a $100K line of credit. Our sales increased from less than $500K to almost $1 million annually.”
“After publishing the book and spending an additional $50K from a 2nd mortgage on my house, I turned the book over to a publisher for its 2nd printing and subsequent 2nd edition..”
As a result of her first books success, Kathryn has become a popular federal agency trainer to teach federal employees and trainers how to write a federal resume. The Resume Place developed a successful government contacting division in.
After the unprecedented events on 9/11, she wrote another book, Ten Steps to a Federal Job, which was designed for the first-time federal applicant, as many people were interested in homeland security at that time. Soon available in its 2nd edition, this book may also be of interest to people seeking a position in President-elect Obama’s administration.
In 2002, Kathryn recognized the need for a program and certification training designation for career counselors at military bases, veterans organizations and workforce centers. She created curriculum and a 3-day certification program that has to date trained over 350 federal career counselors.
Over the years, Kathryn has recruited, hired and trained many expert federal resume writers and consultants. She and her team have assisted thousands of federal jobseekers with very complex job applications. Many of these applicants successfully land federal jobs.
The company website, www.resume-place.com lands approximately 6 out of the top 10 searches in google.com for federal resume writing. This placement results in interest from federal jobseekers.
As the business has grown, Kathryn has begun the process of succession planning, and has broken K. Troutman Holdings into separate companies with two divisions each. These companies are: 1) Federal Career Training Institute, which covers the government contacting training and certification programs; and, 2) The Resume Place, Inc. which includes the resume writing service business and publishing company.
As President of the company, Kathryn Troutman has managed the firm for over 35 years. She is still the principal author, publisher, government trainer, manager of the federal resume consulting firm, and director of the Certification programs.