CPRW Certification Odyssey: My Journey & Strategy
Create Your Resume Now
They say the devil is in the details. Oh boy, it really is! Especially when it comes to the CPRW certification exam. I know a thing or two about it. So, have I been consumed by the fire of strict requirements or survived it and risen like the Phoenix from the ashes? And most importantly, what can you learn from my experience? Read on to find out!
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What Is CPRW?
Before I try to make you stay with my words right to the very end of this article, I’ll risk boring you with some technical details and a short history lesson. So, the Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW) certification is one of the most well-known and prestigious ones that anyone specializing in resume writing can acquire to officially verify their professional qualifications.
The CPRW exam is organized by the Professional Association of Résumé Writers & Career Coaches™. The PARWCC has a history spanning over three decades, as it was founded in 1990.
Sounds intimidating enough?
Fortunately, all the people working there that I saw while watching video workshops while preparing for the exam were very professional. At the same time, they were full of positive energy. If I were the type that feels stressed before exams, that would surely help me deal with the pressure better!
How a Set of Pastel Highlighters Can Save The Day
February 6th, 2024. While most people were thinking about upcoming Valentines and how much they love or despise them, my attention was already captivated by something entirely different. One inconspicuous email waiting for me in my inbox.
Can you guess what was inside it? The answer to how difficult the CPRW exam will be for me. So, did it turn out to be easy? I wouldn’t say so since working on the exam materials took implementing some serious analytical skills and critical thinking, not to mention superhuman attention to detail.
But—what exactly was I required to do?
The task was to prepare a resume and a cover letter or an e-note (I had to choose which was a better fit in that particular scenario), plus a justification page. Fortunately, the latter wasn’t graded, but it was still required. The job application documents had to be prepared for an imaginary candidate whose persona was meticulously described in a pretty long PDF file.
Not only I had to select the information that I deemed worth including carefully, but also adhere to the PARWCC’s guidelines on how a perfect resume and a killer cover letter should look like. But—before I even started thinking about how to write the resume for my candidate, I had to decide what to put in it.
Picking the most important bits of information from the candidate’s long work history, professional skills, and so on at first seemed a bit daunting. But—this is where my top life-saving skill acquired during law school entered the stage—printing everything out and highlighting like there’s no tomorrow!
This immediately made things seem much easier. And fun.
Einstein Was Right
I never doubted Einstein’s theory of time dilation. Fun fact: did you know that you age slower on a plane? Yup, yet another reason to love planes!
However, during my CPRW exam, it felt like I’ve experienced a totally different dimension of time relativity. I had only 72 hours to send all the documents. And let me tell you, it felt like time had suddenly sped up like a supersonic aircraft.
So, how do you handle stress and pressure of the ticking clock? If you ask me: by focusing on the task and giving your 100 %. That’s why I’ve adopted a stoic approach and kept my cool. This allowed me to devote all my energy and brain power to writing the best possible resume and cover letter for the candidate that I was assigned.
Yup, I think no matter what challenge you’re facing, you should always aim to make all the great stoics proud of you. But—let’s go back to how the story of me attempting to pass the CPRW exam went.
What seemed like the most intricate part of the CPRW exam was now behind me. Yup, once I’ve selected all the necessary information, I could focus on the resume design.
You see, I wish I could have just used one of the professional resume templates that Zety offers, believe me. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an option when taking a resume-writing certification exam—I had to prove my skills and format my resume from scratch. This meant becoming close friends with all the text formatting options that Google Docs offers.
And let me tell you—after having created a whole job application from scratch, I appreciate the existence of beautiful, ready-to-use resume templates much, much more!
Plus, a great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:
See more cover letter templates and start writing.
Unleashing My Inner Perfectionist
Remember when I mentioned giving my 100%? I believe I truly did since I’ve even gone the extra mile of finding a font that would mimic the logo of a well-known kitchen appliance manufacturer—the company that my candidate, Mr Mitchell, was targeting. And yes, I also made sure that the color scheme of the job application matched the main colors that this brand used on their official website.
But before I tell you more about the final results of my work, let me tell you a bit more about how taking the CPRW exam felt. It felt like juggling many different aspects of what makes a job application tailored to a job offer and professional but, at the same time, one-of-a-kind and eye-catching.
There were times when I felt unsure of the decisions I’d made and started second-guessing them. I knew that every detail mattered and could become that one deciding factor of whether I’d pass the CPRW certification exam. No pressure, huh?
But, after double-checking my resume and cover letter into what seemed like infinity and making endless “last changes” (which resulted in a dozen or so versions before I created the one that my inner perfectionist deemed sufficient), I finally decided it was time to press the big red button and hit “send.” Okay, in all honesty, the button was blue, but I was just trying to be more dramatic here!
The Grand Finale
My CPRW exam resume was 2-pages long. Yes, it’s one of the biggest resume-writing myths that the perfect resume length is just one page. If you have enough relevant experience to include in your resume, don’t hesitate to present it on two pages.
I tried to make my cover letter short and to the point. After all, no one has time to read a lengthy document that could be a sleeping pill alternative. That’s why I presented the candidate’s professional strengths and conveyed why he was the perfect match for the job. After all, selling yourself in a cover letter well can significantly increase your chances of getting invited to a job interview!
I must say, I was quite proud of my CPRW certification exam resume and cover letter. And yup, it means a lot coming from a perfectionist! But the most important question is—were they good enough to pass the CPRW certification exam? Thankfully, yes!
And if you need a proof, here it is!
Thanks for reading my article! If you have any questions about my story or the CPRW certification exam, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below.
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Sources
- BBC, "Why you age slower on a plane (and other incredibly strange effects of relativity)"
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Stoicism"
- Professional Association of Résumé Writers & Career Coaches, "Certified Professional Résumé Writer (CPRW) credential"
- Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches
