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Writing a good resume with professional help

By Nagasunder Sharanappa in Resume | CV Writing, posted

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A perfect resume is a marketing tool for your own career progression and not just a professional summary statement or a generic reply to a job ad or job posting.

Your ultimate resume objective is to end your job search and land an interview and then the job.

However, it’s a fact that not everyone is a great writer.

That doesn’t mean you’re not suited to the job role being advertised – you could be the perfect candidate with all the skills needed.

But if you send a Resume that’s poorly put together, which is full of typos, you almost certainly won’t get that interview.

Fortunately, there is help at hand for people who may struggle in this area of job-hunting.

There are now companies that will work with you and produce a CV for you.

Our experts have put together some advice for people who want to get professional help with their Resume.

Pay more for a better service

The prices of professional Resume writing services vary massively.

Like with most things, if you choose the cheap option you might not get the best service.

Choosing a low rate might mean you get an inexperienced writer who is happy to be paid less.

A typical rate is anywhere between around $100 and $400, which depends on how advanced your Resume needs to be.

Some companies offer a $25 service with your CV back in 24 hours.

These companies might be a real find and a genuine bargain, but a lot of the time, you get what you pay for.

However, it’s the job of the writer to create a good Resume that will help you, not just to produce something as quickly as possible.

It might be the case you need something quickly for an unexpected interview, but it’s better to take a bit more time.

The best idea is to do a lot of research before you make your choice.

Look out for samples and to find out what experience the person or people you’ll be working with have before you make your decision.

Read the small print

A lot of resume writers offer some kind of guarantee, like “doubling your interviews”, offering unlimited revisions or even a refund.

These need to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially guaranteeing you’ll get an interview, which isn’t really possible.

What this guarantee is likely to mean is that the company will rewrite your CV, not that you’ll get an interview every time.

Remember that if they did a bad job the first time it’s unlikely they’ll produce something brilliant if they do it again.

Unlimited revisions are also largely useless if the deadline for the job has already passed.

It takes time

Be warned, it’s very much not the case that the Resume writing company will do all the work.

For a start, they need to have material, which means you’ll have to fill out a lengthy form with all your details before they can even start.

There will be a lot of conversations while they construct the resume.

And then it will need checking before it’s ready to send.

Do you really need professional help?

Professional Resume writers aren’t miracle workers.

They can’t give you more experience or skills you don’t have that are required for the job.

Other things you need to consider is whether you can afford it, and, actually, whether your own writing skills mean you can do your own resume without help.

A good time to consider getting help is if you’re looking for a promotion or pay rise and feel you need that extra advantage over the other candidates.

More Resume writing tips

Make sure you’ve got a strong cover letter – more advice on this can be found here.

Your resume layout needs to be right, or it will end up in the trash.

It’s vital it makes sense and any career experience is written in the past tense and information on your current role is in the present tense.

There are some essentials that you need to include to get it right, particularly details of your past jobs and a skills section containing all the relevant information.

Below are some professional resume writing tips from WhatJobs’ career experts as to how to balance providing information to draw attention to your skill set so you can show you’re the right person for the job.

Make sure the fundamentals are correct

If you’re looking for a career change, then you will be writing your resume to make that job application.

It’s a good idea to brush up on the basic information and resume formatting.

The recruiter and the interviewer to know your career path before they speak to you, and you need to make that clear to them.

Make sure personal information and contact details, a resume education section with details of your university degree, professional experience, and referencesare included and are all correct.

A resume summary statement at the top of the document could also be a good idea.

These provide a quick indication of who you are and what you’ve done straight away, which could catch the eye of a recruiter with little time and a lot of resumes to get through.

It can be three to five sentences or done in a bullet-point format.

The summaries are very useful for candidates with a lot of experience who are struggling to keep their resume to a reasonable word count.

What to put in your resume

As a rule, you work in reverse chronological order, with your most recent experience or qualifications listed first.

Using bullet points can be a good option if your resume starts getting a bit long.

Listing every job dating back to part-time work as a teenager probably isn’t necessary, but you need to give a clear indication of your work experience and your relevant skills.

A list of skills is just as important as your work history, particularly transferable skills for the role you’ve applied for.

Remember to mention “soft skills” too.

These include:

Critical thinking
Problem solving
Public speaking
Teamwork
Leadership

Hard skills mean things like specific knowledge of certain software platforms or any particular training you may have completed.

Make sure you reference any certifications you may have in these and any courses you have completed.

Likewise, if you’ve ever won any company awards, put it in your Resume.

Mentioning this gives your interviewer a good indication of how you could fit in to the team.

Employers are very keen on good time management, so it’s important to make reference to that in your resume.

A good way to make yourself stand out for any job opportunities is to highlight any charity work you’ve done.

It’s a good idea to refer to your volunteer experience in your resume as it gives a good indication you have good social skills.

Employers often like the idea of staff having done volunteer work.

Check, check and check again

Creating a checklist could be useful to avoid any errors.

For example, a classic resume mistake is forgetting to put your personal email address and phone number.

After you spend time reading it, make sure you get someone else to look at your resume – a pair of fresh eyes can pick up things you might have missed.

And don’t forget to make it easy to read and check there aren’t any grammatical errors that might make you look foolish.

You need to give it your best shot and you don’t want to miss out on your dream job because of a silly typo.

Different types of resume

An alternative to the traditional resume is to write a combination resume, which combines the traditional chronological resume format and the more modern functional resume, which highlights your skills and relevant experience equally.

Some recruiters use Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) software to filter through applications.

These scan applications for relevant keywords, so make sure you read up on the sort of terms you might need if you’re applying for a company that uses this software.

This is technology that is able to filter the best applicants, so you really need to be on your game with regard to your resume.

More things to remember include making sure your resume is in a standard font (Not Comic Sans) and all in the same font size.

Some of the best fonts to use include: Arial, Arial Narrow, Calibri, Cambria,and Helvetica.

Also remember to highlight any career success, technical skills, and academic achievements.

Questions to ask yourself while writing your resume

Potential employers are going to want to learn how you benefited your last company, and, essentially, how good you are at your job.

If you’re putting together your resume, you should think about what your new employer might want to know straight away.

Asking yourself questions is a great way to think about this.

Here are some examples

How many customers did I deal with on a daily basis?
How much income did I generate?
How did I contribute to the team and the office environment?
What positive things did your former boss say about you?
How did your presence improve the business?

Presentation is key

When you apply for a new position, you are trying to create a first impression and grab a potential employer’s attention with a great resume showing off your know-how.

It’s not just about the previous experience shown in your resume, it’s also about how that information is presented.

You need to do all the work so the HR manager does not have to and prove you’re a good fit for the company.

It’s a good idea to assume the recruiter knows very little about your current role and that it’s your job to make them understand that by the time they’ve finished reading.

It goes without saying you need to include your contact info when applying for a new job.

However, there are also a number of things you should not put in your resume.

Although it’s great to use fancy fonts and formatting, bear in mind how many resumes your potential future employer has to look through.

Most people probably don’t have much time or patience.

This means if they have to search through your resume to find your key skills they are more likely to disregard it.

So make sure you tailor your resume to the job you’re applying for with all the necessary work history.

Use section titles

Another tip is using section titles and putting all the relevant work experience in chronological order.

Using section headings is a great way to break up big chunks of text that could be difficult to read.

There are a number of online software tools you can use to help you craft your resume.

You don’t have to link to your social media profiles, but be aware your interviewer could look at them.

Some employers are particularly keen on a good LinkedIn profile.

If you are struggling there are plenty of online resume builder websites that can help you.

Websites also have a resume template you can use to create your own.

A lot charge, but WhatJobs? Resume examples are completely free.

Keep it brief

Recruiters are time-poor, they just have too many applications to go through.

The hiring process is massive for them and they won’t give your resume a second look if they think it’s poor.

You need to make sure your resume is as concise as possible.

Ideally, it should be one page long, at a push two pages, and must detail your skills and experience.

No recruiter is going to sit down and read a mini-autobiography.

Essentially it’s a step-by-step guide to you and your previous experience that should give the interview a good idea of your proficiency level.

You only need to summarize past jobs, just include a brief description of your role there.

It’s a balance though, as you don’t want to leave out information if it is relevant to the job, and you want to include your professional achievements.

The trick is to have all of the necessary information but in a concise resume format.

Make sure you understand the job role

Before applying for a job, read the job description thoroughly to make sure you understand what qualities are needed for the role.

Check your resume and make sure it highlights where your past experience matches the qualities needed for the job title and shows any experience you already have in this sector.

Applications like Grammarly and Microsoft’s own spellchecker are great to ensure there are no mistakes in your resume.

Making it clear you have a good idea of the job duties will give you a big advantage.

If a job description mentions that you will have to be trained and gain qualifications to do the role, write you are ‘eager to learn and update your skillset.’

Consider things employers might like

Always think what you have to offer another applicant might not.

If your resume has a unique aspect which catches the eye of the interviewer, then what could give you the edge.

Employers could well be interested in:

If you speak another language
If you’ve achieved something incredible outside of work
If you’ve achieved anything for outstanding work – awards, honors etc.

Different resumes for different roles

More formal industries like law and politics will expect a simple, traditional resume.

Clean lines and simple colors are recommended for these resumes.

For more creative industries, for example marketing, you can be a bit more elaborate with your resume design.

You can include brighter colors, different fonts and graphics to create a more eye-catching resume.

Update your Resume

It’s very important to keep your professional experience listed on your resume up to date.

If you take on a new project or get more experience in a different area make sure you add it to your job history so that potential employers can quickly see your experience and skill level.

More about you

A good resume should always feature a little bit about you and what you like outside work.

A couple of sentences at the end of the resume detailing some of your interests is likely to go down well with your interviewer.