Resume writing is a bit of an art form, and we’ve said this before. Experienced resume writers understand how to organize and display your skills to their best advantage, providing hiring managers with clear evidence of your proficiency. While anyone can benefit from using a professional resume service, there are a few types of people that tend to benefit the most, including the following.
1. Changing Careers? Use A Resume Service
Sometimes we start out our professional careers in a field that doesn’t quite fit our personality and passions, and we decide to make a change. If you are changing fields, this can be an exciting endeavor, but it also makes resume writing a bit more difficult.
When changing careers, you need to be able to show that you can handle the requirements of this new job, and you need to be able to show how the skills you used in your previous career benefit your new employer.
For instance, perhaps you were a customer service specialist in your previous career, and you’ve taken the plunge, gone back to school and are ready for a new and rewarding career as a nurse. While you didn’t spend your days administering care to patients, chances are you did acquire some skills that good nurses need as well as good office managers.
For instance, in customer service, you learn how to listen to the concerns of customers and respond in such a way that calms and placates these customers. Strong communication skills are essential for nurses, so your experience in this area can be a huge bonus.
A great resume service hires experienced writers that understand how to package the skills you gained in a previous career and repackage them so that a hiring manager gets a sense of how those skills will benefit them. Skills such as communication skills, organizational skills and management skills are needed for just about any job, and if you are strong in these areas, this will appeal to the hiring team or manager.
2. Mind The Gap
We find that many people use a resume service if their resume contains gaps in employment. Whether you spent a year traveling the globe or spent 10 years raising your children or perhaps spent several years caring for an ailing parent, heading back into the job market can be daunting, but a great resume can be a huge help.
For instance, spending time caring for children or family members might not seem to provide you with skills an employer would need, but that is definitely not the case. Communication skills, problem solving skills and patience are three skills you attain as a caregiver, and these will benefit any employer.
Our best advice for those with employment gaps is to keep your skills as current as possible. This might include taking a few classes online or attending a few seminars if you can, so that you can list these on a resume or discuss this during a job interview.
Using a resume service can be especially important for those with employment gaps, as these people have been out of the job-hunting loop for a while and what hiring managers wanted to see 10 or even five years ago, might be vastly different from what is expected now.
Additionally, most resume services also offer career coaching, which can help you learn how to best explain employment gaps and how to showcase how your skills truly will benefit an employer. If you also have other issues, such as being fired from your previous job or perhaps a stint in prison, career coaching can help you learn how to present this information in the best possible light during a job interview.
3. Transitioning From Military To Civilian
After spending many years serving your country as a member of the armed services, it might be time to retire and move on to a career in the private sector. The good news is that your military career provided you with a host of skills that any company would want, but it still can be a tough transition.
Using a resume service is a great way to ensure that hiring managers clearly understand how the skills you acquired during your military career will translate into your civilian career. Additionally, if you headed into the military after high school or college, it’s quite possible that this is your first experience with resume writing, so it just makes sense to have a professional complete this task.
It might also be a good idea to opt for career coaching services, which will help you nail those interviews. If you opt not to use career coaching, simply spend some time researching typical interview questions and practice answering these questions and you’ll feel more confident as you head into interviews.
4. Writing Is Not Your Forte
For some people, writing comes easily and naturally. For others, writing can be a huge chore. Improving your writing skills can be crucial for many jobs, fortunately improving your resume writing skills doesn’t have to be a crucial skills because there are so many resume services available to handle this task for you.
If you’ve been staring at your computer screen, unsure of how to get started with a resume, just contact a resume service. Perhaps you’ve written a ton but have no idea if what you’ve written is too much or if the content will appeal to hiring managers. Using a resume service alleviates this issue. Great resume writers know what hiring managers seek, and how to deliver results. If you aren’t super confident about your writing or editing skills, use a professional service instead.
Even great writers might benefit from a professional resume service. After all, while you might be a great blogger or an ace at creating fantastic brochure copy, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be a great resume writer. You might write too much or you might not use the dynamic keywords that appeal both to hiring managers and applicant-tracking software.
5. You’re Having Trouble
Have you written your own resume and cover letter, but just aren’t getting any results? It could be that these documents need a polish. Contact a resume service and have them review and update your resume. Perhaps they’ll identify the reason why your reason isn’t yielding interviews.
It might be as simple as spelling errors, which truly can kill your chances of being called in for a meeting. It also might be that the skills you list are too generic and don’t really apply to the job postings. It’s also possible that your resume is poorly organized and difficult for hiring managers to skim and quickly gain an understanding of your skills.
If you’ve been receiving calls after submitting your resume, but haven’t received any offers, a resume service may be able to help with this issue, as well. Career coaching services can help you identify your weak areas, as well as your strengths and help you nail the interview process.
In general, if you are going on interviews but aren’t seeing results; take a step back and look at yourself. Ensure that you are presenting a professional image and practice answering those tricky interview questions. You can even contact a hiring manager or two and ask them for some constructive criticism. It might sting a bit, but knowing what you are doing wrong can help you improve and get it right the next time.
Before You Contact A Resume Service . . .
Of course, a resume writer will need a bit of help from you in order to create an amazing resume or cover letter, so be prepared to provide the following:
1. Samples Of Jobs You Want
If you have a couple of current job postings that appeal to you, consider presenting these to your resume writer, so that they can get a solid idea of what those hiring managers want to see.
2. Describe Your Goals
If your resume writer has a good idea of what you truly want, career-wise, they will do a better job crafting your resume.
3. Gather Up The Goods
Your resume writer needs to know all about your educational experience, your skills, your work experience, volunteer experiences and so on. Don’t leave anything out. An experienced resume writer will know what to include and what to omit.
4. A Thought About Contact Information
You obviously want to provide contact information to you resume service, but be sure to triple-check this info. Even the greatest resume writer on earth won’t know if your phone number is correct or not, so it’s up to you to proof this info.
If you have been searching for a resume service, the team at Top 5 Resume Writers highly recommends that you select Resume Writing Group. They produced a dynamic, error-free resume and their team of professional resume writers can handle writing just about any type of resume you might need.
