Rich Gardner

Rich is a lifelong Western New Yorker, currently operating a successful resume writing service, where he has interviewed over ten thousand people over the past twenty one years. In addition, he writes for local publications like City Newspaper, where he has contributed over one hundred articles. He is also an adventurer, walking around forty lakes in New York State. His inspiring words come from a mind that deeply cares about his community and the world. - Ben

BI: How did you get into your business?

RG: I was an art major at SUNY Geneseo. I graduated in 1974. I remember the flood of 1972, where the water was flooded over the Mount Morris dam. I did not live on campus, I was already married so I would travel back and forth to campus. I was buying food tickets from students on campus for the dining halls.

I started an intercollegiate newspaper. One of the reasons I started my newspaper is because students are treated like second class citizens, not the customers. In fact, last week I signed up for a design course at BOCES, and already I am treated poorly. I am paying for your salary through the course, and as a tax payer.

You know what is interesting; people will spend thousands of dollars on a college education, but will not spend fifty hours working for free for a good internship.

Unfortunately it went out of business just as it was making a lot of money and it was on the college newsstands. There was a national resume writing company with three hundred and twenty five offices nationwide which sounded interesting to me, so I joined up. Eventually the entire service folded, but in the meantime I became good at writing resumes and decided to start my own company. It is called Upstate Resume, and is on 2450 Monroe Avenue in Rochester. It’s amazing because I have heard of every kind of profession you can imagine; like laser surveyors who measure out water channels.

BI: Who are the majority of your clientele?

RG: There were a few years when we wrote well into six figures of resumes, but now everyone has a computer, so we have lost that market. Our core business is established middle aged people. We used to have people waiting at the door. Now it’s much more challenging.

Many of the people are 65 years old now and many went straight to work out of high school. They ended up going to work in the factory. When you retire from this, you go back to being eighteen years old. They often say to me; “If I shovel my driveway one more time, there will be no more driveway left, it’s all worn down, I have nothing to do!”

BI: You are personally very involved in the Rochester community. How did this all happen? Why did you become a community leader?

RG: I would not call myself a community leader, but someone who looks under his nose and sees that everything I could want is right here in Rochester. It goes back to the simplest thing; Are you someone who went to high school for four years and just walked in the door or someone who actually walked around the school and looked at it. Did you meet the janitor? Did you meet the bus driver?

BI: Why did you decide to start walking around lakes?

RG: I was coming out of a divorce, and was living alone, and decided to go to the beach every morning and walk the beach. I was standing on the lake before dawn, it was really dark and really still, and all of sudden there was a crash and a mallard duck jumped into the water. It made this huge splash. This made me realize that the lake was actually relatively small and finite, and I was going to walk around it.

It took me two years to prepare for it, financially and physically. I walked twenty five miles a day. After doing it I decided to walk around the other lakes, all in NY. I walked around forty other lakes. I have written articles for City Magazine having to do with my walks. I have written about one hundred articles. It’s all in Rochester, NY. You do not have to go to Hollywood or New York City.

BI: You wrote the Rochester blog for a period of time. Why?

RG: I wrote it because I was tired of hearing everyone in Rochester say that it is a conservative nowhere. Kodak is closing, and there is a lot of negative energy here. It gets to me. I had about three hundred thousand hits on it. I did it for three years. I marketed it, I emailed, called everyone I could think of including biking clubs, walking clubs, and historical clubs.

I also used to have one about the walk around Lake Ontario.

BI: So, what is the next step?

RG: I am finishing a book I am writing, called the Cobb’s Hill Diaries. I also proposed a book to the Syracuse University Press on the Seneca Army Depot situation. I am almost done with the outline.

BI: What are the challenges of your work?

RG: Every resume I have to sell to someone. With my articles or with my resumes, I am constantly selling. After 21 years, it gets a little tiring. All I do is sell, sell, sell. I have also become pretty good at marketing to people.

BI: How do you define success?

RG: Making a difference and being able to see results. This can be whether it is making twenty five aluminum cans, or raising money to bring school buses to children.

BI: What is one of the most interesting resume’s that you have ever done?

RG: Everyone has a story, even a 60 year old lady who was a secretary to a one doctor medical practice. The doctor aged, brought in his son to the practice, he aged, both doctors died. She had to coordinate the funerals of both. She was the only consistent thing in the lives of all of these physicians. She just wanted to find a job that paid $11 an hour. She wanted to work for five more years.

BI: Where is your favorite place in Rochester?

RG: Wherever I am. This is a good place. I live in George Eastman’s Attorney’s house. It is an 1890s mansion, split up into apartments. I have been there for 12 years. I also love my office. I love the seasons here. I love the fact that you walk out your door and see turn of the century mansions that most cities don’t have. Something old on the west coast is from the 1940s. Something old here is from the 1840s or even 1740s.

BI: Do you like the snow?

Well… There is nothing like the fresh earth after the snow melts.

BI: What would be your message to people in Western NY?

RG: Every place is a good place to be. Western NY is not an exception. You create your self delight and your destiny anywhere. I have created mine here. It sounds kind of serious. Sometimes, I take myself too seriously.

Bill Gates was paying attention. Everyone else was watching TV, but Bill Gates was paying attention. Now everyone is surprised, because Bill Gates has $40 billion dollars. But, they watched every series of Star Trek. Literally, walk around your house, look at the corners. There is opportunity everywhere. There is opportunity in everyone.

BI: If you could snap your fingers and create anything, what would it be?

RG: I already have what I want. I have good people in my life and a brain. Maybe I have not made a huge difference, but I have helped thousands of people get good jobs, to recreate their lives. I do resumes all over the world now. I end up doing the resumes of sons or daughters of people I did in the 80s. I am like the coroner, everyone comes through my door.

But really, walking around that lake took everything. “What do you mean? Where are you going to park?” people would say. I slept in cemeteries, under bridges, in fields, and in parks. I slept illegally. I stayed in cheap hotels.

People will run 26 miles in a marathon, with encouragement from the crowd, and for the t-shirt, but part of my journey was because I did it by myself.

You can contact Rich Gardner at Lakegard@frontiernet.net