Why use a resume writer or resume writing service?

Here are some of the questions our clients or potential clients have asked us in the past, along with our answers. We hope you find them and that they help you make an informed decision.

However, you may have a question that we have not answered. If so, please contact us (mailto:[email protected]) to discuss. Simply give us your name and an active email address to respond. Finally, note that the terms Curriculum Vitae and CV (or Curriculum Vitae) are interchangeable for the purposes of this article. The resume is the norm in the US, Australia and elsewhere, while the CV is the widely accepted document in the UK.

Questions:

1. Why did someone else write my resume? I know what I’ve done and where I’ve worked, so why go to a third party?

2. Surely I can only list my achievements, qualifications, and experience. Isn’t that enough?

3. I have registered with an agency. They have offered to write my CV for free. Why should you pay for one?

4. I have seen a CD-ROM based program for producing resumes. Why not use this?

5. My friend just got a job with a CV he wrote himself. He can probably do the same, right?

6. Why use Top Professional Resume Limited?

And the answers to those questions:

1. Why did someone else write my resume? I know what I’ve done and where I’ve worked, so why go to a third party?

This is probably the most frequently asked question we receive. There are a number of reasons for a professional to write her CV or resume.

First of all, most people can’t be objective enough to get it right. What you consider to be your greatest strength or achievement may not be relevant to the target employer or the job you’re applying for, and you almost certainly won’t appreciate how much weight to apply to those strengths and achievements if they are relevant. Unless you keep abreast of changing trends in presentation and formatting, the layout and emphasis of the various aspects of the information you provide will be unpredictable at best.

Second, with specific regard to the format. Recruiters and HR professionals running the hiring process expect the CVs or resumes they receive to be in a “standard” format. This allows them to quickly filter and prioritize the people they want to interview and weed out the rest. This format must be fully known and understood so that, within this rather narrow reference point, the Client can present himself in the best way so that he stands out from the crowd. Having said that, a good resume writer will be able to write the resume in such a way that relevant strengths and skills are maximized, while weaknesses are minimized or eliminated, and encapsulate all of this within a calculated format to maximize the chance of selection for the interview.

Which brings us to the third point, which is that none of us can be good at everything.

Whatever our strengths or abilities, that’s why most people turn to a lawyer to draft contracts, a builder to do structural work on their homes or offices, an accountant to minimize their tax liability, and a mechanic to fix the car. car. They employ professionals.

Because we can all operate a word processor, many of us think that therefore we can write a resume or CV for ourselves. While we can certainly list achievements, qualifications, previous employers, etc., and perhaps have a flair for artistic design (which, by the way, is the WORST thing you can apply to a CV), only a professional has the ability Collate this information and present it in a way that will help you get a head start on any competition.

It would be crazy to trust something as critical as getting your next job or career change to someone other than a Professional.

2. Surely I can only list my achievements, qualifications, and experience. Isn’t that enough?

This is actually related to the answer to Question 1 and partially explained by it. But to elaborate a bit, this is like saying that it’s enough to present the specs of a new car to a prospective buyer and hope that that alone will sell the product.

Compare a Hyundai car with a Mercedes. Both have engines, gearbox, 4 wheels and internal upholstery for driver and passengers. Both will get you from where you are (geographically speaking) to where you want to go, and at the same time if you respect the speed limits. However, there is a vastly different perceived value between them, which explains the huge price difference. That price differential and difference in perceived value stem primarily from the way the vehicles are marketed and sold, rather than from any actual physical disparities. It’s almost safe to say, I think you’ll agree, that most people, if all other things like price were equal, would prefer and buy a Mercedes. This purchase decision is made based on product benefits (reliability, comfort, accolades) rather than features or specifications (4-cylinder engine, synchromesh gearbox, 16-inch wheels, etc.).

The same goes for a professionally written resume or resume. Other things being equal, do you think your future employer would prefer a Mercedes or a Hyundai? The only way you’ll notice a difference between two candidates you haven’t met before, especially if their qualifications and experience are similar, is by comparing the appearance of their resumes. Unfortunately, this initial evaluation is over in about 8 seconds, so he or she needs to have the relevant factors sold to him or her in that short interval. In sales parlance, the recruiter should be presented with the benefits of hiring you rather than just the characteristics of your previous experience and qualifications.

Your resume is your sales and marketing document; your product brochure. Just as not all cars are the same, neither are any two people. However, unless the benefits to the organization of employing you instead of the next person in the stack are quickly and credibly presented to the “buyer,” then they won’t even consider the features.

3. I have registered with an agency. They have offered to write my CV for free. Why should you pay for one?

Agencies exist to provide a steady stream of traffic to interviewers. They don’t care if the company offering the job hires you or the next person they send. The agency doesn’t care, they get paid anyway. With regard to the resume or CV they produce for you, the quality will reflect this “scattered” approach. Typically, you’ll fill out a form or have a short interview, and a data entry clerk will enter that information into a software package or word processor. Next, a document that pretends to be a printer’s resume will appear. The process is then repeated for the next candidate, and the next, and so on.

Agencies can “handle” hundreds of new candidates in a week, all of whom must be processed and have a “written” CV. Compare resumes produced by any agency and they will all look nearly identical. How will that help you, as an individual, get through the door? It is more likely to be luck and good fortune than design. With your resume, like most things in life, you get what you pay for. As the saying goes:

“The bitter aftertaste of poor quality lingers on the palate long after the sweet taste of low cost (or no cost) is gone forever”

Are you prepared to leave an issue as important as landing your next job on an indiscriminately word-processed, unfocused, mass-produced spec sheet?

Or would you prefer a specific, focused, useful, dynamic and relevant Personal Sales Brochure?

4. I have seen a CD-ROM based program for producing resumes. Why not use this?

There are more automation and labor-saving software tools on the market today (labor-saving if you’re on the other side of the “pond”) on the market than there are computers, and that’s a lot! Almost everyone is valuable to someone, and resume writing software is no exception. If you have the experience and objectivity to write your own CV (but also see the answer to the 3 questions above), then such software can make the job easier. They’ll give you a choice of formats or layouts (do you know whether to use a chronological or functional format, and under what circumstances?), and they’ll inject pre-written, pre-formatted blocks of text describing generic jobs or tasks, etc.

To a price.

However, what none of these packages can do is take into account your personal qualities, experience and circumstances. They will not and cannot be objective with respect to the preferences and aspirations of the targeted Client or employer. They won’t have industry-specific terminology built into the spell checkers, and they can’t give advice on what skill set to highlight, what weaknesses to minimize or eliminate (and these can be particularly problematic or subjective, depending on the position applied for), nor can they help you. overcome periods of unemployment or similar “blanks”?

For these you need human intervention – the services of a Professional.

5. My friend just got a job with a CV he wrote himself. He can probably do the same, right?

See the answers to all of the above!

Either he was lucky, or he had the experience. Give us your contact details – you can come and work for TPR!

Ed: One of our writers approached us in exactly this way, so we included the question. You never know. . . . . . ;-}

SHAMELESS MARKETING PLUG!

6. Why use Top Professional Resume Limited?

There are many other resume or resume writing services out there today, giving you, the client, a plethora of options.

We would always recommend that a potential client take a look at them before making the obvious selection.

However, we feel we provide a service that is second to none, and our customers stand behind it. At the end of the day, you basically have to decide only two things:

A. Who do I think will do the best job and get me an interview quickly?

B. Which organization, after evaluating all available options, represents the best value for money? As with all things, the cheapest is rarely the best!

Of course, we are a bit biased, so we will not answer the above rhetorical questions. However, we have been doing this for a while, we have many satisfied clients, we are a member of the Professional Resume Writing and Research Association (PRWRA), and we have a genuine desire to help you land that next all-important job. If we can be of assistance with any aspect of your search, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Obviously, we prefer that you become a valued customer. However, if for any reason you decide not to use our services, please take a few minutes to fill out our feedback form so that we can improve our services for others. Who knows, maybe you’ll come back! The website (http://www.top-pro-cvs.com) also provides a lot of additional details if you haven’t been there yet.

Good luck with your job search. I hope this article has been useful to you.

Copyright Top Professional Resumes Limited 2005