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Your Resume is the one step in your job search over which you have total control. It is your personal career marketing document. Based upon the strength of that one or two pages of information, you will either be selected for an interview from among potentially hundreds of other candidates – or passed over.

The Resumes Function

The purpose of a Resume is not to get a job! Its purpose is to get an interview. And the competition is stiff, get used to it.

Put yourself in a Human Resource Director’s shoes. The morning’s mail has just arrived and a stack of 100 or 200 Resumes have been dropped on your desk. Your first goal is going to be narrowing down that stack to perhaps 10 or 20 candidates. So the first function a Resume serves is to eliminate most candidates from consideration.

Job recruiters spend approximately 15 seconds looking at each Resume. In that short time, they make a decision to place you in the “yes” pile or in the “no” pile. Is this fair, I don’t know but that’s the real world. Your job is to make your resume “stand out” from all the rest. If you have never written a resume before then it probably is a good idea to get professional help. Isn’t that expensive? You have already spent approximately $40 – $60,000 getting the college education you need but that is only the beginning. Now it’s time to go into the real world and going it alone isn’t the best idea.

Remember, this entire process happens solely on the strength of your Resume.

Should You Write Your Own Resume?

Probably not- unless you are a skilled professional writer who can also honestly look at your own strengths and weaknesses objectively. While there are dozens of “do-it-yourself” Resume books on the market, the truth is that if you do your own Resume, it is being prepared by an amateur.

Does it make sense to spend four years and $40,000 to earn a college degree and then market that investment to employers with a do-it-yourself Resume? Or to have solid credentials and a salary level of $30,000, $60,000 or $100,000… and use a less than professional Resume to represent you?

Think of a company like Coca-Cola. The executives who work for Coca-Cola probably know that product better than anyone else. Yet Coca-Cola uses a professional advertising agency to create the messages that are designed to sell us on buying Coca-Cola.

The Professional Resume Writer

Hiring a professional resume writer serves the same purpose in selling you to a potential employer as Coca-Cola’s advertising agency in selling their products to consumers. You’re getting the benefit of an expert who writes resumes every day and who knows how to present a client’s background and credentials to best advantage.

For example, there are three standard Resume formats: The Chronological, Functional and Modified (which is a combination of Chronological and Functional). Deciding which format will best present your career history is a critical strategic decision before the first word is ever written on paper.

Most job candidates also fall into one of three categories that are detrimental to the success of a do-it-yourself Resume:

1. Those who are reluctant to “brag” about their past accomplishments and successes and tend to underplay the specific information an employer wants to see in the Resume. Sometimes a candidate simply doesn’t realize how important some detail of his/her past performance would be to a future employer.

2. Sometimes the candidate says too much. Even though the candidate would be perfectly qualified for the available position, she/he can appear to be over-qualified, or a threat to the hiring manager, or too narrowly focused in one aspect of the job instead of being a generalist.

3. Finally, there may be some aspect of a candidate’s past that can be difficult to present on the Resume: frequent job changes, a long period of unemployment, lack of a college degree normally required for a particular position or the lack of any actual work experience in this particular field (career change, graduating students, military personnel returning to civilian job market), etc.

A professional Resume writer is an objective third party with the expertise to draw out relevant information from your work history, tone down the extent of your achievements, if necessary, and provide strategies for overcoming any difficult or negative aspects in your job search. If you need help contact one of our professional resume writers today!

About the Author: Frank Fox is the founder and Executive Director of the Professional Association of Resume Writers in St. Petersburg, Florida. www.parw.com

You are ready to write your next resume only to realize that you’re really not that ready? It may be that you’re not sure what format to follow or have never written a resume before or any number of things that can cause you to panic. It could be any number of things starting with the fact that you don’t have the basic writing skills needed. You really want to let the prospective employer know that you are the right person for this job.
If you find yourself struggling with the basic needed to get your resume together, then please consider looking for outside help. This outside help should come in the form of a professional resume writer. You can of course struggle with the problem of writing it yourself or getting a friend to help but is this the right choice for you? For many the answer is no; not if you want to stand out from the rest of the crowd of unemployed people.

The Benefits of a Resume Writer
There are a number of great benefits that come with working with a professional resume writer. The first is that you get the advantage of having someone help you who writes resumes every day. A professional resume writer knows what the employers want to see and will arrange your resume to enhance your chances of getting hired.
Another benefit of working with a professional resume writer is certification. While we are all able to write our own resumes, it helps to work with a certified resume writer. A certified writer has specialized training and that’s a benefit for you. It is similar to working with a tax professional that is used to catching the things you might overlook. Sure anyone can do their own taxes but a tax professional will get you more money back than you will on your own. Is it worth the money, absolutely!
The third benefit of working with a professional resume writer is having the third party source. Sometimes it’s hard to know what we need to focus on in our careers because we’re so close to the picture. However, a professional resume writer will know exactly how to put your resume a work of art.

If your resume not opening the doors you were hoping for then hiring a professional is the right thing to do. It can make the difference in getting a job or not!

Does your resume stand out from the rest or just look like everyone else? Your job credentials may be superior but unless your resume stands out the other candidate will get the job. With your resume writing being the key to getting your foot in the door, it is imperative that your first impression is one that will convince your potential employer that you are the one for the position. The best resumes – and not necessarily the best candidates – generate interviews. You need to know that only the top 5% of resumes get picked for interviews in the real world.

Exceptional achievements impress almost everyone. The stronger the results you have achieved, the more beneficial it is to open your resume with this information. Begin your resume with this to grab the attention of the reader.

Few people are impressed by a resume written with an overly detailed employment history or a lengthy list of irrelevant academic information. Streamline your resume to emphasize the information that is most relevant to the specific opportunity while making certain important facts are not buried in the text. Most people will tell you to keep your resume to a one page format, but if you have five years or more of employment history with significant accomplishments it’s OK to have two pages. Just be sure it isn’t boring reading.

Read over your resume repeatedly until you think it is perfect. If you just aren’t sure that it measures up, then it probably doesn’t. With the employment being as high as it is, it’s in your best interest to let a Professional Resume Writer prepare it. The number one resume killer is spelling and grammatical errors so especially watch for these. It can’t be said too often – don’t depend on the computer spell checker. If this isn’t your strong suit don’t be afraid to ask for help.

If you have ever watched any cooking shows on the cooking channel then you surely must know that the best chefs pay as much attention to presentation as to the cooking itself. The same applies here. Your presentation is the key to getting the reader’s attention. In other words make them want more. Use clear headings, bullet points, adequate margins, and a readable font to maximize your resume’s appeal. Use the “bold” sparingly.

You will only get one chance to make a good impression so make the most of it. That’s why we emphasize the importance of using a Professional Resume Writer. They know exactly how to arrange your resume into the best presentation. Competition is fierce so don’t blow it just to save a few dollars. Your correctly written resume can make the difference between — getting the job and not even being considered; even if your credentials are as good as the other applicants. Remember — only the top 5% of resumes get picked for interviews in the real world. Your resume is like an escalator, it either helps you ascend or descend. Isn’t it time you started going in the right direction?