Most people mistakenly think that a resume is a summary of one’s prior work experience and career. This is wrong! Properly written it is an advertisement specifically designed to earn a job interview!
Like it or not, getting an interview is 90% “how you market yourself” – regardless of how strong your employment record may be.
You get one shot to “create impact”. You better make it your best shot.
From an Employer’s Perspective…
As Sr. Vice President for a national healthcare recruiting agency I have read thousands of resumes and hired hundreds of job applicants. I am always amazed at the number of poorly written resumes that I see from what may be otherwise qualified candidates. You know what they say about first impressions!
From an employers perspective, you must quickly give me what I am looking for and make it easy to find it on your resume.
On this site you will learn exactly what makes for an effective resume – one that accomplishes its objective – to earn a job interview. Nothing more, nothing less. Getting the job will be up to you!
A resume’s sole purpose is to get you in the door for an interview. In order to accomplish that objective you must write with that in mind. This is really an advertising job. You need to write an effective, dynamic one or two page ad for your product – and your product is you.
Consider the costs
Do you know the cost of having a poorly prepared presentation?
How much is your resume costing you? Obviously the cost of not getting a job you really wanted is something to consider. However, if by using the techniques that we will discuss you were able to get a job 1 week SOONER than otherwise, it would save you $961 (based on a $50,000 salaried job)!
Using the same calculation, if by using a shoddy resume that took you an extra 30 days to secure your job, it would have cost you $4166 in lost salary – now that is expensive!
Writing resumes – Prepare your own or hire a professional resume writer?
Writing resumes is not simply a matter of regurgitating your work history on paper. It is a matter of skillfully positioning yourself at the top of an interviewers list of candidates through marketing savvy and writing skill.
There is much thought that must go into a professional job search campaign. Frankly, it goes way beyond just writing a resume, although that is certainly a major component. So, before deciding who should write your resume, it is worthwhile to look at what goes into a professional job search campaign.
Look at the big picture first…
It’s more than just writing resumes.
Why are you needing a new resume? Just in case: or do you desparately want a new job or career change? There are two ways that most people pursue the search for a new job or career: passively or pro-actively.
The later is always far more effective. But in order to run a pro-active campaign, you’ll need to have the tools and knowledge to do so – and most people don’t.
A passive job search:
- Candidate updates a one-size-fits-all resume;
- Candidate blind-faxes resume to a list of job classifieds;
- Candidate sits back and waits for responses;
- Responses are weak and very low-percentage in number.
A pro-active job search:
- Candidate has written out her career goals;
- Candidate has targeted the type of job she wants;
- Candidate develops action plan and works the plan;
- Candidate does advance research on her industry;
- Candidate developes a list of companies to target (even if no opening exists);
- Candidate works the action-plan and calls each company for “inside-info”;
- Candidate develops or edits resume for each potential job opening;
- Candidate crafts a customized resume cover letter for each job;
- Candidate submits each resume packet to each hiring manager;
- Candidate puts into motion follow-up procedures;
- Candidate receives calls from multiple companies with interview requests;
- Candidate has multiple job offers to choose from.
It’s your choice
In a pro-active job search campaign there is certainly more work involved. However, that is why you really need to do a lot of thinking about your life, your goals and your career.
Are you happy at your current employment level or do you want to go to the next level.
Maybe you are tired of working for somebody else and should start you own business? The point is, you should have thought all of these things through and be clear about your future career path – and then go out and grab it!
Now – who should write your resume?
There are obviously several factor to consider here, however, as mentioned above writing resumes takes skill and some level of marketing ability. The use of words and phrasing is very important.
If you are certain that you do not have these abilities, then you should certainly hire a professional resume writer or resume writing service. We suggest that if you do hire somebody, they be able to work with you closely on your “JobSearch Action Plan”.
If you do have a strong writing ability and some marketing savvy, your best option is to write your own resume. This way you are able to maintain a level of control over the process and really be able to manage the resume customization process without running into extra costs.
Whichever route you choose, you must be prepared to run an agressive, pro-active job search campaign. Your reward for doing so?
- Far more job interviews;
- Far more job offers;
- The ability to choose the best offer;
- More money – multiple offers equals higher average salary package!
Yes, writing resumes is not easy, but no matter who does it (you or somebody else) it must be written professionally. If it is, it is money in the bank for you!
In short, whoever can get that job done should write your resume.
Resume Writing Services
If you had decided to investigate resume writing services, then you should make sure that you understand what you are getting.
As mentioned elsewhere on this site, I believe that writing your own resume is the best option to give you the most flexibility when executing your job search action plan.
However, if you are simply not capable or absolutely do not have the time, then by all means – you need a professional.
The biggest reason is that to truly conduct a pro-active thorough job search campaign there is a lot of customization involved. You must edit virtually every resume, cover letter and follow up letter based on your research for each company. Remember, we are not going to just blind fax generic resumes to ads in the classifieds! That’s amateur hour…
Looking for resume writing services?When dealing with a resume writing service, the level of customization described above can end up costing you a lot of money.
Most resume writers or companies charge extra for each new edit to a resume or cover letter.
I am in no way bad mouthing these services – many do fine work; and if I was writing your resume, I would charge you a lot of money too for all the work it takes to put an effective campaign in place.
Did you know…?
- Resume writing is not simply summarizing your prior work history; it involves skillfully marketing yourself to employers.
- Hiring managers will initially only give your resume mere seconds to impress them.
- There are a few simple yet critical techniques you can use to separate yourself from 90% of the other candidates.
- A high percentage of resumes that candidates submit are flawed in at least one or more critical areas. This quickly eliminates them from consideration!
- The “Objective Tie-in” will instantly put your resume in the “to be read” stack – if used correctly.
- You should never have just one resume – one size does not fit all. Each job is different.