Referral Friday is part of an ongoing series inspired by John Jantsch's Make-a-Referral Week. For more about that, and loads more referrals for everything from cobblers to coaches to gee-tar teachers, start here. Pass it on, baby!

The job market is...interesting these days.

Or so I hear.

And in times when something like the job market is defined as something like "interesting," you want someone to help you make sure you're putting your best foot forward in it. That person, I can say without any reservation, is one Liz Ryan.

A former HR exec at a Fortune 500 company, Liz would seem, on the surface, an odd person for a creative nutjob like myself with a cuss-filled, oddity-ridden website like this here blog to be recommending. But here's the thing: Liz ain't no corporate drone; she's a sharp, forward-thinking, social-media-getting gal with the best sense of humor outside of this here time zone. In other words, she is completely artist-friendly. In fact, she's got her own big streak of hambone, in addition to the razor-sharp wit, she's a bona-fide opera singer in her spare time.

How's that for a crazy hobby?

Anyway. Liz does all kinds of work for very fancy, probably non-artist types: corporate workshops, big-wig executive coaching, and high-flying speaking gigs (I salivated when I saw that client list, I swear, I love getting in front of suits and mixing it up). But she also offers two services for regular old regular people who are trying to stand out in a buyer's market: resume critiques and resume overhauls. Neither one is cheap, but I can all but guarantee they're a good value; I've been watching Liz do "resume spruceups" for years now on her popular mailing list, and how she manages to turn incomprehensible business-speak into summaries so crisp and compelling, I want to hop on a plane and go meet the person...well, it's Jedi-knight-level magical. (She also offers a by-the-hour consult option if you just want to ask the oracle.)

If you're not ready to buy, or if you're such a ninja that your own resume is already spectacular, I'd still suggest you join her popular online community, the Ask Liz Ryan group on Yahoo. 25,000 members strong as of this writing, it's a powerful resource for information on a wide-ranging bunch of issues at, as she puts it, "the intersection of work and life."

Including some phenomenal advice, and even an occasional example of how to spruce up your own dismal resume, from the maestro herself for the immensely reasonable price of bupkus.

Ask Liz Ryan
637-B South Broadway #222
Boulder, CO 80305

Phone: 303.440.0408
Fax: 866-630-0409