Your resume is without a doubt the most important tool when conducting a job search or pursuing career endeavors. You won’t ever have the opportunity to showcase your great interviewing skills if your resume never makes it past the trash bin.
Despite the great importance of having a top-notch resume, so many professionals attempt to create their own in hopes that it will be good enough to land them an interview. As a result, many wind up with mediocre and often dreadful resumes. Most jobseekers don’t seek out professional help until they realize that they aren’t getting the results they had hoped for.
Here are three reasons it’s a good idea to seek out the services of a qualified professional when preparing one of the most important documents a job seeker will ever need:
You’re wasting precious time. Internet job boards are flooded with thousands of resumes, most of which never make it to hiring professionals’ in-boxes. The small selection of considerable candidates is made by the process of elimination, and the poorly written resumes go in the trash first! You might be a perfect fit for the job, but if your resume is unattractive and second-rate, most employers won’t bother to contact you. You may have even established relationships with potential employers, however, those connections become null once you send them your tacky homemade resume. A professional resume writer knows exactly what it takes to get your resume noticed, how to market your skills and accomplishments, and what keywords will make your resume pop. You’re wasting precious time and missing out on potential opportunities when you submit a resume that just doesn’t stand out.
You’re selling yourself short. When most professionals attempt to write their own resumes, they end up leaving out a great deal of important information. Most of us are our biggest critics. As a result, we don’t give ourselves credit for all that we’ve accomplished and the many marketable skills that we’ve gained. When job seekers write their own resumes, they leave out key details in an attempt to save space or not seem overqualified. This is a huge mistake. A professionally trained resume writer and career consultant can help to identify and highlight your areas of expertise, career accomplishments, and individual strengths while not having to compromise the length and layout of your document.
You deserve more than a template. Many job seekers think that writing a resume is simple, especially when you use a template. Wrong! Templates are a professional resume writer’s worst nightmare. Even more detrimental, hiring managers can spot a template a mile away. Job seekers who use those cookie-cutter templates appear to be elementary, entry-level, and average. This is because templates are restrictive, common, and unimpressive. An expert resume writer will know how to develop a template-free resume, which allows for creativity and personalization.
The price you pay for doing your own resume can be far greater than the cost of professional help. Expert career services are a necessary investment in your future. Most of us wouldn’t try to replace our own car engine or fly our own plane. In that same light, it’s best to leave resume writing to the professionals.
Aisha Taylor (@realTAYLORmade) is co-owner and chief consultant at TAYLORmade Professional Career Consulting, a Web-based, full-service career consulting company committed to “equipping, preparing, and empowering today’s professional†globally. Check out her weekly insights on job-seeking and interviewing success every Friday on BlackEnterprise.com.