Career Foundations Adds Career Branding Expert Kelly Welch

Online, January 19, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Raleigh, N.C. -- Career Foundations, an executive recruitment and professional search firm, announced today its partnership with Human Resource Management Expert and Certified Personal Branding Strategist Kelly Welch as Career Branding Strategist.

In the newly created position, Welch will help candidates differentiate themselves from the competition through understanding their distinguishing factors in this job market, networking and preparation for interviews. She will work as both a strategic communicator and coach to help professionals discover and embrace their personal career brand.

"In today's recruiting environment, it's more important than ever to help our candidates leverage their strengths and communicate their brand in order to stand apart from the rest," says Jeff Rogers, Principal of Career Foundations. "Career Branding is the right step to help us achieve that."

Welch brings more than 14 years of experience in strategic Human Resource Management, with core competencies in coaching, recruiting, compensation, leadership development and as an HR Generalist in private as well as publicly held Fortune 500 corporations. She has worked eight years as a technical recruiter with companies including Cisco, Lucent Technologies, Lucent New Ventures, Bristol Myers Squibb, AT&T, and Nortel.

Welch has a master's degree in HR Management, certification as a Professional Resume Writer (CPRW), Personal Branding Strategist (CPBS), and Global Certification as a Professional in HR (GPHR).

"Understanding recruitment has made working with an executive search firm a natural partnership; being passionate about best practices, stellar customer service, and doing business ethically and with integrity is what attracted me specifically to Career Foundations," Welch says. "I have business credibility because I have been 'on the other side of the desk' creating hiring forecasts, interviewing, and devising leadership development plans.

"This foundation, along with my credentials, has built an amazing combination of resources and my insights are of great value to candidates."

Welch says working to understand career goals, target audience, and requirements of the type of position or organization they seek are important, but there's more to the job-placement process.

"The piece which compliments that is to unearth and prioritize the candidate's strengths and motivated skills, and to analyze the match between the pieces for congruency, thus creating the candidate's Unique Value Proposition (UVP) for that position, or company," Welch says.

"The client (company) receives a branded resume from a candidate who is able to clearly communicate their value proposition, both on paper and in interviews. Working through the career branding process, the candidate becomes focused in what he or she offers, how they differentiate from other candidates, and why hiring them will benefit the client's organizational goals and culture. If companies were only concerned with the skills of a candidate, they would hire straight from resumes."

About Career Foundations:

Career Foundations Inc. is an award-winning career management, professional placement, and executive search firm with more than 20 years of experience assisting individuals with achieving lifetime career goals. The firm's clients range from VC-backed startups to mid-size businesses and Fortune 500 organizations within a broad range of industries. Its core specialty is providing professional opportunities to the career-minded and defining talent for organizations undergoing hyper-growth, strategic business transitions, company transformations, departmental revitalizations, and enhancements to their current staff.

For more information about Career Foundations, visit www.careerfoundations.com.