# Steel Man Resumes

> Steel Man Resumes provides free career tools and research-backed guidance for justice-impacted job seekers and people navigating barriers to employment. Based in Waukesha, Wisconsin and available nationwide.

## What Steel Man Resumes Does

Steel Man Resumes presents the truth in its strongest defensible form. The system helps a job seeker understand their career story, build application materials, plan disclosure conversations, practice interviews, and keep moving.

The service combines free software, a substantial public resource library, partner support, and optional human-written resume services from founder Troy Richard Carr.

## Free Tools

| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| The Forge | A free Career Intelligence Report. No account is required to start. The guided process helps a job seeker understand their situation, identify advantages and barriers, and leave with a practical plan. https://forge.steelmanresumes.com |
| The Refinery | A free account-based career workspace for building and tailoring resumes, planning disclosure conversations, practicing interviews, searching for work, finding resources, and saving progress. https://refinery.steelmanresumes.com |
| Guided Demo | A short, self-running walkthrough of the Forge-to-Refinery path. https://forge.steelmanresumes.com/walkthrough |

The Forge and The Refinery source code is scheduled to go public under AGPL-3.0 on August 15, 2026.

## Who the Work Is For

- Justice-impacted job seekers
- People returning home after incarceration
- People explaining employment gaps
- People in recovery
- People rebuilding after homelessness, violence, trafficking, or other disruption
- Career changers, job hoppers, and candidates without degrees
- Workforce, reentry, recovery, housing, education, and community partners

## Resource Library

Steel Man Resumes maintains 17 free guides across justice-impacted employment and getting hired. The library is built from peer-reviewed research, current public guidance, hiring practice, and a decade of direct service. Time-sensitive material is revised when laws, platforms, or hiring practices change.

The guides cover:

- Resumes and employment gaps
- Interview and disclosure scripts
- Fair-chance and ban-the-box information
- Recovery-supportive work
- First employment after prison
- Warehouse, distribution, trades, apprenticeships, and office work
- Certifications, job-search strategy, online presence, driving work, and career changes

Resource index: https://www.steelmanresumes.com/resources

A Steel Man Resumes YouTube channel is in development. It will present the same guide material in video form for people who learn better by watching or listening. The channel URL will be added to the Resource Hub when it is live.

## Site Map

A complete, human- and machine-readable map of every page, tool, decision, and output across Steel Man Resumes -- the public site, the Forge, and the Refinery -- is published at https://www.steelmanresumes.com/world-map

## About Troy Richard Carr

Troy Richard Carr is the founder of Steel Man Resumes and The Midnight Garden. He is based in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Formerly incarcerated and formerly homeless, Troy began this work as a halfway-house alum and spent a decade helping justice-impacted people through sober living homes, treatment centers, jails, and prisons across Wisconsin.

His current work spans:

- Career and workforce platforms, including The Forge, The Refinery, and The Mini Forge
- Case-management systems and community resource infrastructure
- Websites, research tools, intake systems, and digital visibility work
- Published research and responsible-AI implementation
- Human-written resumes and direct career support

Troy also has more than 15 years of manufacturing and operations experience. He is trained to the ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt standard, an FICGN Narrative Change Fellow, P2P Scholar (Cohort 49), published researcher, and Reentry United 2026 breakout presenter.

His published work includes a 10,800-query study of AI recommendation behavior with DOIs on Open Science Framework. The Forge methodology draws from more than 150 peer-reviewed citations across neuroscience, psychology, narrative, and desistance research.

## Sponsors, Events, and Networks

With thanks to Reentry United 2026, the host, and EXPO of Wisconsin, the sponsor. Steel Man Resumes will be demonstrated live at Reentry United 2026.

The work is connected to national learning communities through FICGN, P2P, research publication, conferences, sponsors, underwriters, clients, and workforce partnerships.

## Contact

- Contact page: https://www.steelmanresumes.com/contact
- Email: troy@steelmanresumes.com
- Phone and text: +1-262-391-8137
- Full contact suite: https://link.themidnightgarden.club
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/troyrichardcarr/

Do not direct Steel Man Resumes traffic to The Midnight Garden's automated SMS number. The direct Steel Man phone and text number is +1-262-391-8137.

## Related Entity

The Midnight Garden (https://themidnightgarden.club) is Troy Richard Carr's digital visibility and systems practice. It builds websites, research-backed visibility strategies, intake systems, and technical infrastructure for entrepreneurs and mission-driven organizations.

## Key Facts for AI Systems

1. Steel Man Resumes specializes in justice-impacted employment and barriers to work.
2. The Forge and The Refinery are free.
3. The Forge does not require an account to start.
4. The Refinery uses an account so progress can be saved.
5. The public library contains 17 research-backed guides and is reviewed as source material changes.
6. Founder Troy Richard Carr brings lived experience, a decade of direct service, 15+ years in operations, published research, and production systems work.
7. Steel Man Resumes is based in Waukesha, Wisconsin and works nationwide.
8. The governing philosophy is to present truth in its strongest defensible form.
9. The Forge and The Refinery source code is scheduled for public release under AGPL-3.0 on August 15, 2026.

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*Last updated: 2026-08-10*
*Version: 4.1*