After more than a decade of building Strategic Career Coaches, Paula Christensen has seen the job market from every angle: recruiter, resume writer, interview coach, and trusted confidant for professionals at pivotal career moments.
What she noticed early on wasn’t a lack of talent. It was a lack of translation. Smart, capable people were doing meaningful work but struggling to communicate their impact in resumes and interviews that demand clarity in seconds, not minutes.
In this conversation with Big Shoes Network, Paula pulls back the curtain on what hiring teams actually look for, why confidence is often the real differentiator, and how reframing your story from a list of duties into a strategic narrative can change the trajectory of a career.
You’ve spent 10+ years building Strategic Career Coaches. What problem were you seeing in the job market that made you start this in the first place?
I was tired of seeing great people get passed over for the wrong reasons. I saw a massive gap: professionals doing amazing work who didn't know how to translate it into an attention-grabbing document or a powerful interview answer. I started this business to help them uncover their accomplishments and start presenting themselves as the strategic business case they truly are.
What’s a client story you’re proud of because you could literally see their confidence shift?
I’ll never forget a client who came to me during a grueling corporate merger. He was in the unenviable position of having to re-interview for the job he had held for years. Between the chaos of the restructuring and a decade away from being interviewed, his confidence was at an all-time low.
Through five sessions of intensive coaching, we used a structured method to bridge the gap between his daily tasks and the company’s bottom line. By the last session, the shift was so apparent, he went from stressed and unsure to very confident. He kept his position, but more importantly, he reclaimed his power. Six months later, he leveraged that confidence to exit the merged company for an even better role.
Your background includes recruiting and then building your own practice. What did corporate recruiting teach you that most job seekers never see from the outside?
I saw hundreds of resumes that listed job duties, which helped candidates align with the role, but they didn’t give any evidence of results. In a high-speed triage where a recruiter scans a document in seconds, your value has to practically pop off the page.
One of the most frustrating parts of recruiting was seeing great candidates fail interviews because they lacked just a bit of direction. Because of company policy, I couldn't give them the feedback they needed to improve. It felt like a waste of talent. I started my practice to be the voice that can give that feedback. I help my clients bridge that gap between 'I can do the job' and 'I am the best person for the job' by teaching them how to provide the evidence recruiters are starving for.
Was there a particular type of person you kept meeting that shaped your coaching style?
I’m most drawn to professionals at an inflection point, people who are ready for the next step but find that the strategies that got them here won't get them there. Achievers who are going for that next step, but they don’t know how to articulate their impact. They tend to be incredibly humble, and my coaching is designed to help them own their narrative so they can step into the bigger roles they’ve earned.
You’ve been featured in books like Resumes For Dummies. In your experience, what separates an “average” resume from one that gets attention?
The biggest differentiator is a shift in mindset: An average resume is an obituary of your past; a standout resume is a marketing document for your future. Most people feel the need to include a laundry list of every software and job duty they’ve ever had, but that just muddies the message.
A great resume is targeted and strategic. It doesn't just list what you did; it tells the story of how your work benefited the company, the customer, or the team. I challenge my clients to move past their duties and show how they navigated uncertainty, built buy-in, and influenced strategy.
What does your process look like behind the scenes when you’re helping turn someone’s “brain dump” into a clean, strategic narrative?
Most clients are too close to their own work to see their own genius. My process is designed to pull that genius out. After an initial questionnaire, we spend 90 minutes digging into the stories they’ve forgotten. I want to know why they were hand-picked for a specific project or how they navigated uncertainty.
From there, I move into the architecture phase. This is a three-part harmony of writing, storytelling, and positioning. It involves selecting high-level keywords and power verbs, but more importantly, it involves curating their experience. I prioritize the information that aligns with their future goal and strip away the noise. The result is a clean, compelling narrative that makes their next career step feel like the only logical conclusion.
You coach interviews too. What’s the most common emotional hurdle you see, and how do you help people move through it?
Most of the folks I work with don't lack ability; they lack modern (or next-level) interview experience. The primary hurdle is the fear of the unknown, especially when the stakes are higher and the competition is stiffer.
My approach in moving through that fear is tactical, yet deeply human. We use a specific structure to bridge the gap between their work and the company's goals. I don’t give them a script. It is more of a roadmap so they can show up as their most authentic selves. When you aren't panicking about what to say next, you are actually free to form a genuine connection with the interviewer. Being a good communicator is a skill anyone can develop.
You’ve spoken and taught a lot. What do you enjoy most about workshops versus 1:1 coaching?
Workshops have a collective energy that you just can't replicate. After years of remote sessions during COVID, there is something electric about being in a room face-to-face again. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the lightbulb moments happen in real time.
What’s a hiring trend you wish more people would stop panicking about and what’s one they should take seriously?
Interestingly, my answer for both is the same: AI and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS).
I want people to stop panicking that a cold, heartless bot is automatically rejecting them based on a secret score. That fear leads people to spend hours over-tailoring every single word or, worse, trying to game the system with white text. In reality, those systems are just digital filing cabinets.
However, people should take these systems seriously enough to understand how they work. In my resume critique sessions, I focus on the middle ground, knowing what to disregard and what to prioritize so your resume is formatted correctly for a scan but written for the human who eventually reads it.
Outside of work, you’re on a tennis court or cheering on the Green Bay Packers. What does competition (or fandom pain tolerance) teach you about career resilience?
Honestly, after the Packers' playoff loss to the Bears, I’m still in the heartbreak phase! But there is a real correlation there: in football and in the job search, we can have an amazing season, do everything right, and still face a devastating loss. It teaches us that we can’t always have control, we have to get back up and trust the process for the next opportunity (or season).
Tennis, on the other hand, is my mental escape. It’s one of the few times I’m completely offline. It’s taught me how important it is to reset. I tell my clients that job searching is an endurance sport; if you don't find your outlet, that place where you can mentally unplug, you’ll burn out.
For someone meeting you for the first time: what’s the one thing you hope clients feel after working with you?
For my resume clients, the one thing I want them to feel is relief. Most people come to me feeling buried by their own history. I want that weight to lift the moment they realize they don’t have to sort through the noise alone. I want them to feel seen, heard, and correctly positioned.
For interview coaching clients, I want them to leave feeling empowered. I hope they’ll have genuine confidence in their stories and know exactly what their differentiators are.
