Wow, I am shocked that The Ladders would assume that “everyone” who writes his own resume is an “amateur.” Over the past 20 years, operating my own resume-writing company, I have come across many executives who do a fine job writing their own resume.

On the other hand, I also have had hundreds of executives who have contracted with me to write their resumes because either they have not received any results from the resumes they have written or simply do not know where to start, as they have been out of the job market for several years. In these instances, hiring a professional resume writer can be very helpful to candidates.

I would like to provide some advice on hiring a “real resume writer” as Nick stated at the end of his post. Also, at the end of this post, I will provide you with resources to find these professionals.

But first, you need to understand the difference between a professional resume writer and a “service” offered by a job board.

The key difference is the level of personalized attention you will receive from the resume writer for the “investment” made in your career.

Many resume-writing services associated with job boards have you only fill out a “form” with your information and submit it into cyber space to a person with whom you will never speak. Further, you will have no idea of the level of expertise the person possesses in the resume-writing field.

I would like job search candidates to ponder this next thought: If you can fill out a form and accurately portray your skills, abilities, and accomplishments, then why would you pay someone to “format” the resume for you?

A true professional resume writer will take the time to get to know you and your goals through a personal consultation. He / she will become your “strategic partner” in the resume-writing and job-search process, asking pointed question to bring out your unique qualifications, achievements, and the inherent value you can offer to a potential employer. He /she will uncover aspects in your career which you may not think are valuable and position you to stand out from your competition.

In addition, professional resume writers will be up-to-date on the latest hiring and technology trends used by employers to select candidates. That knowledge comes from participating in continuing education and seeking advice from the very people who will be reviewing the resumes. Further, professional resume writers will make it a point to earn certifications in their field, which speak to their expertise in writing resumes and the overall job search process.

Having your resume written by a professional can be quite expensive. However, do not use “price” as your only determining factor when selecting a professional resume writer.

Look for the professional resume writers who have taken the time to invest in their personal education in the employment field, provide personalized attention and are willing to become your strategic partner in the resume-writing process, have earned certifications, and have many years of experience writing resumes. These individuals will command a higher price for their services. However, the return-on-investment can be substantial.

By asking good questions based on the information provided above, you can get a feel for whether your professional resume writer has a good grasp of your candidacy level and will be the right fit for you. An ethical resume writer will provide you with an honest assessment of your current resume and will not try to sell you services you don’t need.

You can search for professional resume writers through several career-industry-related associations, such as The National Resume Writer’s Association (www.thenrwa.com), Career Directors International (www.careerdirectors.com), and the Career Management Alliance (www.careermanagementalliance.com).

Aside from the spelling error, the ad copy was fairly well written, don’t you think?

So would you be willing to give a ballpark figure for what would be a reasonable amount to pay for a “professional” resume?

(Hey–at least they didn’t hyphenate “professionally written”.)

Kathy,

Wow. An entire article about the business. Thanks for your point of view.

Working Girl,

Sorry, but Cenedella does not present his e-mail as ad copy. He casts it as part of his ongoing advice to his members. At the end of the note, he closes by saying, “It’s really one of the best pieces of advice I can offer.”

Clearly, though, it is ad copy. The coy presentation — the “friendly e-mail” charade — is a bit thin and insulting. Since he’s intending to provide friendly advice, no, I don’t think it’s well written at all. It’s tripe.

He uses these “advice mails” to sell. (I didn’t want to publish the entire sample e-mail because it is copyrighted.) Every piece of spam I receive is written like that.

For all its claims that it’s the home of $100K+ jobs, TheLadders is no better than HotJobs or others of its ilk.

So, let me ask you: If your $1,375 resume included just one spelling error, would you be thankful that it was “fairly well written”?

To answer your question, I have no idea what a resume is worth. What’s it worth to you?

Hi Nick!

So happy you started a blog; I’ll be sure to point all my clients to it, just as I do for your newsletter and book!

As a brief follow-on to my colleague Kathy’s excellent post…the resume is the very least of what you pay for when you work with an experienced and credentialed resume and/or personal branding professional.

The resume is the tangible deliverable and of course it has value. But as Kathy outlined, the big deal is really the “value discovery” process that identifies and clarifies your personal brand, the value proposition that the brand supports, and the accomplishments that support the value proposition.

Proof of performance that speaks to the target emerges, but more importantly, a prediction of immediate on-boarding contribution and continuing strategic impact becomes clear.

That knowledge delivers confidence on both sides of the desk. That’s what you really pay for. In fact a candidate armed with that knowledge can have a woefully poor resume and still get a great job if he does his job search right. (Of course a great resume doesn’t hurt!)

Deb Dib, the CEO Coach

Dear Nick:

So happy to see you are still plugging away. You probably know that you are the one writer in the country (or the world) that I never disagree with.
You hit all the notes that I have been crying “alarm” about, since 1970 myself. I’m happy to see you are writing a blog, now. It’s good, as all your stuff
always is. You are uncannily on target, all the time.
I just turned 80, What Color Is Your Parachute? just sold its 10 millionth copy, of its annual revisions.

God bless your work, as always.

Dick Bolles, author

Hello, Dick,

Thank you very much for your kind post. I am flattered and humbled. You have taught people something far more important than finding a job. You’ve taught generations how to find themselves, and made people realize that “they are their work.” As I started headhunting with my partner Harry Hamlin in 1979, your book presented a new challenge. We were good headhunters, but you challenged us to become coaches and advisors. Your thinking and teaching prodded us to do much, much more for our candidates, and for the managers we work with. For paving the way, I offer my gratitude.

Congratulations on the 10 millionth copy of your book — and warmest wishes on your 80th birthday for good health and good spirits. Keep doing what you’re doing — and people will keep listening!

Dear Nick,
I sincerely appreciate your newsletters, too, and now your blog is a wonderful extension of your communication!

Kathy Sweeney’s and Deb Dib’s meaningful posts resonated with me. Credentialed resume writers and personal branding specialists are committed to the outcome of their clients career search. And as Deb said, “… the big deal is the ‘value discovery’ process.” I couldn’t agree more!

Though investment in mine and other similarly focused resume services is perceived by some as high, those who experience the process typically are life-time advocates and repeat clients.

Their take-aways from the in-depth processes we work through to ferret out nuggets of value proposition gold are enormous. In some ways, hiring a professional resume strategist is like hiring a personal trainer. The manual labor of the mind that we coach or consult our clients through often is painful and rigorous. But our commitment to endure the same or greater intellectual rigor in producing their tangible and intangible results is solid.

Most clients can only truly understand the value of such a process after experiencing it — but thankfully, advocates who have experienced the process are multiplying and driving new clients to our virtual doors.

Not only will they ferret out the critical drivers that will steer their career to the next level, they will create a repository of stories from which to pluck and refer to as they engage in the interview process that follows.

Jacqui Barrett, Master Resume Writer

Ask The Headhunter regulars know that I’m not a big fan of resumes because people use them as a crutch. I think it’s great that professional resume writers have taken the time to explain the benefits of what they do. My favorite comment above is about how a resume writer is a personal trainer. Done right, I can see that.

If you’re going to use a resume, my first advice is to do it yourself. The process is as important as the product.

If you’re going to have someone else do it for you, beware who you hire. As in any other career-related business, there are too many hacks out there. Look for credentials, look for references. Trust your sixth sense. If something smells, avoid it. If a vendor belongs to a professional resume-writing association, check the association’s rules and credentials. Hire the best. As in any other task, quality matters.

Funny, I don’t see any posts here from TheLadders’ resume team.

I am delighted to see you now have a blog, Nick.

May I jump on the bandwagon of my esteemed colleagues?

Most of us at the top level of resume writing and career coaching do much more than produce a written piece of paper. We are strategists and an integral part of an executive’s high–powered marketing team. If all a candidate had to do was provide a chronology of their career history, anyone could do it. However, stepping outside of one’s self can often be difficult since we own so much of the things we’ve done over the course of our careers. Meaning … it can cause us to have tunnel vision focusing on unimportant details.

Unfortunately, competing for those top positions today means a candidate needs to understand and be able to articulate his unique value proposition … because all that matters to a prospective company is “what can you do for me.” Translation: how can you make me money or save me money. A mere listing of what you did and where, followed by even the most impressive credentials simply won’t answer that question.

Senior–level executives are paid for what they know. They boost their income based on how they deliver. Our job is to help them understand how to leverage their documented contributions in order to maximize their income.

Cindy Kraft, the CFO–Coach

I worked with Ladders resume service to revamp my resume. What a waste of time, money and energy. There’s no phone contact allowed (trust me, I tried to get a # and was denied at every turn) and the customer does most of the legwork by filling out a long worksheet. A customer-friendly solution would be to have the resume writer interview client via phone and only use worksheet as a last resort. The resume I got back as certified proofread had several mistakes and typos in it. I finally got in touch with the big boss at The Ladders (Alesia Benedict) and she was rude, argumentative and condescending about the errors. She told me that phone contact was impossible b/c all the busy clients couldn’t be bothered–but she could not explain why phone contact isn’t even an option. The person who did my resume was nice and polite–but not a proofreader. When I asked Ms. Benedict if they used a proofreading service she told me writers proofed their own work–I let her know that’s rather unusual, as it’s pretty much impossible to proof your own work once you’ve been living with it. I suggested using a proofreading service called proofreadnow and she told me it would take way too long. I let her know that I use the service it and turnaround is possible in as little as one hour. She blew me off saying she had so many customers it could never work. She did offer me a $100 credit for my troubles but a much better solution would have been a full refund. As far as I’m concerned a resume that comes back from such a high-priced service with errors is rather suspect. Don’t waste your money on this service. I wasted mine on your behalf.

I would like to counter what “Ripped Off” had to relate concerning his/her experience. I’ve worked with Alesia Benedict on my resume development and I was quite pleased with the service I received. Because I travel extensively and my schedule is crazy, I thought it was not only more convenient but smarter to conduct the entire resume process by email. I don’t have time to schedule in what would be at least an hour’s conversation on the phone just to have my resume done! I took a weekend and completed the worksheets. Actually, it only took about an hour but I was able to take the time to dig up old paperwork that helped me refresh my memory on details. I found the entire exchange to be nothing but polite and professional. This was in January and since then, I’ve found a job using the resume her firm developed. I found it to be a smart investment in my career, especially since I’m an executive.

[…] it’s salt-and-pepper. So, who am I to talk? Anyway… the same reader then unloaded on another of my favorite dot.com job-board rackets, TheLadders: I made the mistake of wasting money on TheLadders.com until I got smart, and I had some nasty […]

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