Speaking & Teaching - Career Path Writing Solutions

Customized professional development and outplacement workshops and webinars

Are you looking for an engaging speaker who can help prepare your students or program participants to get a job in the new economy? Or perhaps you’re looking for someone who can help your employees who struggle with their writing—who feel like writing emails and reports is like wading through quicksand. As a formally trained educator, I have delivered more than 100 interactive workshops, webinars, and presentations on proactive career management and effective communication. I firmly believe cookie cutters need to stay in the kitchen and out of a presentation, which is why I customize every single presentation to meet the needs of the program or group I’m working with.

Organizations bring me in to teach on the following topics:

Resume, CV, and cover letter writing
Job search strategy
Networking
Using LinkedIn effectively
Interview preparation
Proactive career management when you’re working full-time
Embracing your strengths (using Clifton Strengths)
Effective business writing

My teaching experience stems from a background in higher education and has steadily grown in my 10 years of business ownership. I hold a PhD in History from Duke University, worked at Duke’s Writing Studio for six years, and was Adjunct Professor of Professional Development at North Carolina State University for two years. One specialty is helping graduate students and postdocs prepare for the non-academic job search; I also work with undergraduate programs and leadership development programs for more seasoned professionals. Active with the Professional Association of Resume Writers and Career Coaches (PARWCC), I hold four career services certifications, served on the certifying committee for the Certified Professional Resume Writer credential (2018-2022), and write for PARWCC’s monthly publication, The Spotlight.

Contact me to schedule a call to discuss your needs.

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Outplacement Services

Outplacement services include a customizable program delivered via a series of in-person workshops or webinars as well as individual consulting. Offering this in collaboration with an award-winning recruiter, we bring both the perspectives of a career services professional and a seasoned recruiter who has read resumes each day for more than a decade. We are committed to helping organizations serve their downsized employees by providing premier outplacement services that will accelerate an individual’s job search campaign.

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WHY

I have navigated career change and understand the uncertainties that accompany it. For a dozen years, I worked to become a history professor, but halfway through my doctoral training, I realized I wanted my contribution to this world to be different. Rather than write history, I wanted to help people create their own, forging their careers. This insight prompted me to conceptualize my new Plan A: business ownership. With this decision to pursue entrepreneurship, I assumed I would be giving up my opportunity to teach, a tradeoff I reluctantly accepted.

Yet, I was wrong. Each day, I use the training I gained from mentorship by my professors and from the formal teaching courses I took while pursuing my doctoral and undergraduate degrees. Whether working individually with clients, teaching a cohort of students for a full semester, or delivering a single workshop or presentation to busy working professionals, I approach everything I do from the perspective of an educator who is thoroughly committed to helping people in what I consider to be two of the most important areas of life: their careers and financial security.

I’ve forged my own path, and I’m honored to help others do the same.

HOW I work

I partner with program directors, coordinators, conference planners, and human resource professionals to develop workshops and webinars that address the unique needs of their students, participants, or employees. In many cases, we work together to identify the most pressing needs and then develop an action plan.

I can easily work with decision makers to help them facilitate an environment where their students or participants can be successful in running an effective job search campaign. And, I advise at the program level to ensure proper curriculum development if we are rolling out a larger program that extends beyond my direct work. I’m proud that I have become known as a trusted source for assistance, helping others–whether that is in leadership development program facilitators, human resource professionals, program directors, or student services professionals–execute their mission to serve students, employees, and conference attendees.

WHO I work with

Straddling the world of business and academia, I work with higher education institutions, corporations, non-profit organizations, and leadership development programs.

Let's Work Together!

How can I help you accomplish your goals?

REVIEWS

“We recently partnered with Heidi Giusto to provide a workshop for a group of our engineers and project managers to improve our writing skills. Heidi took the time to ensure that her material was customized for our needs. She was engaging, easy to work with, and provided us with all the necessary tools to communicate effectively with our clients. It would be a pleasure to work with Heidi again and I highly recommend her and her services to all! Thank you, Heidi!”

Courtney Allen, Operations Manager - South Atlantic, Hallam-ICS

“I cannot recommend Dr. Giusto highly enough – she is the epitome of professional, highly effective at any task she undertakes, and will take any meeting, presentation, or consultation to the next level – producing a polished, valuable product for you or your organization. If you want an exceptional return on your investment, you are in the right place – Dr. Giusto and Career Writing Path Solutions will provide customized solutions to meet you needs.”

Rebekah Layton, PhD, CMC, PCC, Director of Professional Development Programs

“An Aerospace Member Association organization I worked for was hosting a 3000+ attendee conference. I was looking for someone who was an expert in resume building and professional development – she fit both bills. Heidi was pleasant to speak to, insightful, smart and funny … I hit the jackpot! We had unprecedented enrollment in each Leadership Development course. She had presented in a way that was easy to grasp, take hold, and put practices into action. I was grateful for her partnership and knowledge in helping me build something that was not only educational, but also meaningful. I trust and believe in Heidi and would absolutely hire her again to present, lead a course or to help me personally.”

Jodie Hernandez

“I reached out to Career Path Writing Solutions to provide a workshop that early and mid career participants would find useful. I had a few discussions with Heidi in which we talked about the audience, the focus of the workshop, and how ensure that participants get direct feedback on ways to improve their resume. Heidi was able to make a customized workshop as well as a personalized resume review and feedback for over half of the participants. The workshop was engaging and left many of the participants with an updated resume that effectively captured their accomplishments and highlighted their strengths. Several of the participants followed-up with Heidi to get more in depth 1-on-1 resume and professional development advice.”

Barbara Nsiah

“Dr. Giusto is a fantastic speaker and an insightful career counselor! I work at North Carolina State University with various leadership programs, and Dr. Giusto has worked with two of these groups. The first one involved a group of professionals who wanted more time with Dr. Giusto given her guidance regarding etiquette and skills for business communications. They told me afterwards that they got A LOT out of her session and wished we had scheduled a longer session with her! Dr. Giusto also served as a career counselor for a group of Ph.D. students who participated in a leadership program that I manage. They, too, were grateful for her insights and assistance with their CVs, cover letters and career searches. I look forward to a continued working relationship with Dr. Giusto as she is very knowledgeable, a stellar professional and a wonderful person who truly works to help and support those who seek her services.”

Rhonda Sutton, PhD, Director of College Leadership Programs at North Carolina State University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

“Dr. Heidi Giusto has provided professional development and career coaching services to NC State University’s Global Luxury and Management program for the past year. Despite the complexity of our program, student population and industry, Dr. Giusto was undeterred. She provided invaluable guidance to our students in writing and developing luxury oriented resumes, cover letters and reference lists and to our program in strategizing and packaging completed resumes into a book that reflects our program and the luxury industry. Dr. Giusto is a pleasure to work with and continues to help our program develop a strategic framework for addressing the unique needs of our students and prospective employers.”

Kristie McGowan, PhD, Director, Global Luxury and Management, Poole College of Management, North Carolina State University

“Without any prior knowledge of our organization, Heidi accepted a cold-call invitation to craft and lead a personal branding workshop for an audience of over 150 students, job seekers, and mid-career professionals interested in global health careers at the 2019 Triangle Global Health Career Day. She was an incredible partner to work with, and she effortlessly fit her expertise and passion into our event. She listened to our vision for the program, gave great feedback and honest input, and clearly took the experience seriously – ultimately delivering an informative and engaging workshop that was well structured, clearly communicated, and thoughtfully crafted. The workshop was highly rated by virtually all attendees who responded to our post-event survey, and many individuals shared comments highlighting it as their favorite session of the day. Heidi has an amazing skillset, and she has a great ability to share her expertise with many different audiences. I would highly recommend her to anyone seeking help in telling their story when the stakes are high!”

Jacob T., PSM, MBA, Executive Director at a Health Consortium

“Heidi has done presentations and workshops with undergraduate students in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC & NC State three times over the past two years. Each time, she has presented material for what can often be a very overwhelming and nerve-wracking topic for 20 year olds – interviewing – in a clear and truly effective way. Her interview preparation strategy is so straightforward and she breaks it down into a step-by-step process which helps the students feel like they can confidently go into an interview rather than nervously play defense throughout. Our students were so interested in learning more from her that we increased the length of this last workshop from one hour to three. Heidi is a very engaging presenter and is always a pleasure to work with as we prepare for these events!“

Colleen M., Academic Industry Coordinator

Rhonda, S., Ph.D., Director of College Leadership Programs at North Carolina State University

“I hired Heidi to teach a series of writing workshops to a highly international group of engineering students at Duke. She was a dream to work with! She’s among the most organized people I know. She provided relevant content, customized her materials for our group, and constantly sought ways to improve her sessions and drive efficiencies. She delivered more than was promised and was very well received by our student population. I would be delighted to hire Heidi again and it’s a pleasure to recommend her.”

Bridget F., Director for Graduate Communication and Intercultural Programs at Duke University

“Heidi has been a presenter at each of our Beyond the Professoriate conferences, an online conference for PhDs in career transition. We keep asking Heidi back because she is an amazing presenter and we’ve had nothing but positive feed back from conference attendees. Her presentations are well organized and she presents the complexities and challenges of resume writing, LinkedIn, and interviewing, in a succinct way that is both interesting and accessible to our audience. If you are looking for a speaker who can help energize a room full of job seekers and who can provide the most up-to-date information about job search campaigns, Heidi is your person.”

L. Maren W., Ph.D., Founder of Education Company