We had the good fortune of connecting with Jacquelinne Mejia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jacquelinne, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My dad was an entrepreneur for over 20 years with his own used car sales business he started in his late 20s after coming from El Salvador as a refugee from the civil war. In high school, both my parents started a smoothie shop and I always say that was my first marketing job! I designed the marketing for the shop’s signs when I was 15.

I was always inspired by my parents’ immigrant stories and work ethic and knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur as well—but hadn’t quite found what I wanted to start a business in until the spring of 2020.

My background in career services stems from my job in college. I worked at the University of Missouri Career Center all four years and had professional training in resume and cover letter writing, mock interview coaching, and giving career assessments. I always enjoyed helping people land acceptances intro grad or law school, or having them come back and tell me they got the interview for an internship or job they were applying to.

When the pandemic hit and millions of people lost their jobs, I had friends who were personally affected and reached out to me to provide resume services. When I saw the need at the time and knew I had the skills to help people, My Resume Squad was born in April 2020.

In one weekend, I brainstormed the name with my family, set up my website and business accounts, and we were off to the races!

My Resume Squad’s name is rooted in our mission to give a cheering squad to help our clients feel encouraged during every step of their job search or career transformation process. We never want anyone to feel alone during the job search process—with My Resume Squad, they have a squad cheering them on!

Since our launch, we have expanded our services beyond resume/cover letter services to also include LinkedIn optimizations, career coaching, mock interview coaching and we are currently in the process of designing group courses.

I am proud of where our business is headed and that I was able to turn a dream of starting a business into a reality!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I am extremely proud to call myself a business owner, as well as the founder of a woman-owned/Latina-owned business.

As a business owner who is also handling balancing a demanding full-time corporate job, the journey of owning a business is definitely not easy but it is absolutely worth it.

There is something magical and empowering about building a business from scratch and knowing that the services you are providing truly are changing people’s lives for the better. For My Resume Squad, we are providing what can be seen as life-changing services—a revamped resume can lead to a job interview that can then lead to a job offer, with a client making perhaps more money in the tens of thousands of dollars than they made in their last job.

As a business owner, I think what has helped me overcome obstacles is what I like to say is my B+ personality. I have some type A tendencies (I love making check lists and I often go to three advisors to make my planning as methodical as possible), but I also have an ability to be highly-flexible and adaptive.

My type A personality traits have served me well when I have needed to figure out the formalities of owning a business, like when to turn a sole-prop into a LLC or how to file my business license with the city when I first started out.

As for my type B personality traits, I think my easy-going nature and ability to adapt to my client’s needs have proven successful in a field like career services.

I have overcome challenges in my business by doing a lot of pivoting and testing out what works and what doesn’t. When I see a pattern, I follow it until the data or customer feedback tells me otherwise. For example, in the last year we saw career and mock interview coaching gain popularity in our suite of services over cover letters, so we switched out those offerings in our career packages.

In closing, what I most want people to know about My Resume Squad is that this is a business built from a genuine mission of wanting to help people achieve career success and have them feel more confident in the way they present themselves on paper (a resume) or in person (job interviews or networking mixers).

What makes My Resume Squad stand out from our competitors is that we offer a personalized career plan with a knowledgable career counselor who is there for you every step of the way. Some other places make you fill out a form and give you your resume back without ever speaking to a person. We know asking for help in a career setting can sometimes be vulnerable for some people, so we make sure to offer a 1-1 approach for all of our services.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If I had a best friend visiting me from out of town, my week-long itinerary would include great food, tasty cocktails, a lot of dancing, and of course some fun at Disneyland.

For food, I would take them to my favorite family-owned Italian restaurant called Cafe Corleone. In addition to their amazing housemade Italian dressing, pizza, lasagna, and eggplant parmigiana, Cafe Corleone also hosts monthly family-style Italian dinners that explore the different regions of Italy.

For desserts, a stop at Porto’s is a must for cheese rolls, guava pastelitos, and all their decadent Cuban desserts.

Narrowing down my favorite tacos spots is a difficult one, but you can never go wrong heading to Yxta Cocina Mexicana in the Arts District.

For dancing, I like attending The Music Center’s Dance DTLA nights during the summer, line dancing at Cowboy Country and The Ranch in Orange County, and salsa dancing at Treehouse Lounge in Chinatown.

For fun, I love getting competitive and playing skeeball at Arts District Brewery or going to trivia night on Tuesdays at Chapman Crafted Beer in Orange. I can’t invite someone down to SoCal without having them stop at Disneyland at least for half a day…it’s my happy place!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I have several people who have made a world of a difference in my journey as a business owner.

The first shoutout goes to my family—they are my kitchen cabinet of advisors and the cheering squad behind me!

My friend Zule was my first client and I always thank her for believing in My Resume Squad’s value and mission.

My “Uncle” Floyd and my business mentor David are always guiding me with wise advice on everything from how to get an EIN to making sure I don’t burn out.

My friend Sahar is my business counsel and she is always open to giving me advice as both a friend and legal counsel. And she makes my video content! Talk about multi-talented!

And a special shoutout to all my My Resume Squad clients! I have truly enjoyed being part of your career journeys and successes. Thank you for believing in us!

Website: http://myresumesquad.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myresumesquad/?hl=en

Other: For a complimentary 15-minute consultation with a My Resume Squad career counselor, a reader can click our calendar below: https://calendly.com/myresumesquad/15min?month=2023-08

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.