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New Year's resolution #2: hire a professional resume writer
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I’ve heard from many job seekers who ask about the benefits of investing in having a resume written by a professional resume writer.
Your most critical marketing tool as a job seeker is your resume. A poorly written resume is a sure way to sabotage your chances to getting an interview. Think of it this way: looking for a job requires a level of expertise that most job seekers simply don’t possess and a resume is your first step – your calling card – to job seeking success.
A professional resume writer understands which top skills, experiences and talents are essential to highlight in order to grab a recruiter’s attention. In addition, many resumes are today scanned through an applicant tracking system (ATS). Companies are inundated with resumes and in order to create an efficient sorting and screening system, corporate recruiters program an ATS to identify specific key words or key phrases in resumes. If these key words are not found in the resume, the resume will most likely not be considered.
I contacted several professional resume writers and over the next couple of days, will write a series of articles to help familiarize job seekers with what to look for, how much to expecte to pa and what questions to ask if you decide to hire a professional resume writer.
Today, let’s start with the basics:
Why hire a resume writer?
“There are several benefits to using a professional resume writer” says Steve Kendus, the owner and executive writing consultant for GoodResume.com. “Assuming you are using a reputable, qualified, and skilled resume writer, you are trusting an expert's skills and command of English grammar to prepare a meaningful, succinct, and grammatically correct resume. Potential employers typically won't even call you in for an interview if your resume is poorly worded, unclear, and full of spelling and grammar mistakes.”
“Professional resume writers are trained to think strategically about what information to highlight and what information to downplay to demonstrate that the candidate is qualified for the targeted position,” says Wendy Gelberg, a professional job seeker consultant (www.gentlejobsearch.com)and the author of The Successful Introvert: How to Enhance Your Job Search and Advance Your Career. “They know how to address unusual issues that individuals may have in their backgrounds.”
“Hiring managers typically spend no more than 30 seconds reading a resume,” Gelberg notes. “Professional resume writers know how to present information to make a powerful impression in that quick read and increase the likelihood that the hiring manager will want to read in more depth rather than gloss over – or pass over – the resume.
Paul Freiberger, President of Shimmering Resumes (www.shimmeringresumes.com) says having a third-party perspective helps to break the narrow focus of a job seeker’s self perceptions. “It's hard to write about yourself,” Freiberger says. “You may be modest, or boastful or sensitive about weaknesses or accomplishments. Any of those can lead to trouble on the resume. A professional can put all this in perspective. This is arguably the most important document of your life. Do it right. This is no time to experiment.”
Then there’s the more practical side of hiring a pro: professional resume writers are experts in knowing how to make your talents and skills differentiate you from other jobseekers.
Gelberg notes that professional resume writers have superior word processing and desktop publishing skills and can format the document to create a customized resume that highlights the candidate’s strengths. “They have a lot of design tricks up their sleeves to organize the information in ways most candidates would not have thought of, to help the candidate stand out.”
Steven Kendus of GoodResume.com agrees. “Professional resume writers know how to summarize your diverse skills, duties, and accomplishments into hard-hitting, powerful bullet points. Through experience, they are skilled at taking long, detailed job descriptions and summarizing key points and using key phrases that will present you in the best light to potential employers.”
Tomorrow: How much should a job-seeker expect to pay for a professionally written resume and what should they expect from this investment?
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