Professional Resume Writers
What is a "professional resume writer"?
A professional résumé writer is someone who will take all of your work experience and put it into a highly marketable brochure, if you will, for you. Your résumé needs to be a marketing piece, and someone who is a good résumé writer will know how to strategise your background, your skills, your volunteer experience, your education, and everything else that you've done, and put it into a highly marketable piece that is going to promote you, and also help you stand out from the competition. Finding a good résumé writer can be tough, I'll be honest with you, because a lot of résumé writers buy into the antiquated idea that you have to keep your résumé at one or two pages. That is bunk. Hear me now, believe me later, your résumé needs to be as long as it needs to be in order to tell your entire story. So, when you're looking for a résumé writer, ask them if they have a number of different types of formats that they use, or if they kind of put everybody into the one-size-fits-all résumé. I would recommend that you stay away from those types or résumé writers and get with someone who really understands what the employment process is all about and who knows how to strategise. That's the most important part.
When do I need a professional resume writer?
With regards to a professional resume writer, you know you need a professional resume writer when you're sending out your resume by the dozens and you're not getting any response. This is a big red flag showing that something certainly isn't working. So, a good resume writer will help you to really take a look at that resume with a fine tooth comb, find out what's working and what isn't working. Maybe there are some grammatical or spelling errors that perhaps you didn't catch, that the professional resume writers can. Maybe you have some challenges with your resume, for example, if you've had a number of different jobs over the last couple of years, maybe you're an ex-offender, or maybe you've had some health challenges. A good professional resume writer will help you to strategize and re-write that resume to make sure those things make sense to a prospective employer.
How much does a professional resume writer cost?
Resume writers can range anywhere from no cost if you are going to a service agency or job corp, perhaps a community college. Those types of career counseling centers will usually create resumes for you for free. I've seen resume writers as high as $2500. So it really depends on where you live, how experienced this resume writer is, what their track record is, all of those types of things. Make sure you ask a lot of questions. Get an estimate for how much your resume is going to cost up front. and if there are any types of contracts or agreements that you need to sign, make sure you go over those very carefully before you give anyone any money whatsoever.
