Should She Hire a Professional Resume Writer?

This posting is a guest entry from the Career Doctor, Randall S. Hansen, PhD:

Tamala writes:

I’m e-mailing you to find out if going to a professional resume writer is worth the time and money. Right now I really don’t have the funds, but I am desperate to find a job that I will be happy doing and making at least $35-40K a year.

The Career Doctor responds:

You need to look at your job-search as an investment in your future. You can do a haphazard job-search and maybe find another job, or you can really put a lot of effort into it and find a great job and great career move.

The same holds with each tool of your job-search, and your resume is an extremely important job-search tool. You need to make the decision to invest a lot of time and energy to make it the best resume for you — or — you need to hire an expert to do it for you. Either way, it’s an investment of time or money; but either way, the payoffs should be big.

If you have the time and inclination, I suggest you read up on resume writing. You can find some good resources online and in your local library. Most job-seekers should have the ability to write a solid resume.

You have one other option besides hiring someone to write your resume. You can also get your resume critiqued by a professional resume writer — usually free or for a very modest fee. You can then make the changes yourself or hire the expert to do it for you.

You can also find quite a lot of resume-writing advice and strategies in the Resume Resources section of Quintessential Careers.