Every person writing your resume should have sat on the other side of the table, reading hundreds or thousands of executive resumes with the authority to advance or reject. Writers who've never been recruiters don't know, at a gut level, what makes a recruiter skim past a candidate in seven seconds versus forward them to the hiring executive. "I was an HR generalist" isn't the same, because they didn't focus 100% on recruiting. "I was a corporate recruiter at [named company] for [X] years," or "I was a search firm recruiter for [X] years," is the answer you want.

At Chameleon Resumes, every writer on our team is a former corporate or search firm recruiter, or a high-level hiring manager. I was an executive search firm recruiter and oversaw other staffing practices. I also sit on the advisory board of an agentic AI company that builds agents for recruiters, so I understand firsthand how recruiters are using AI right now. Having recruiting experience is one of the non-negotiable hiring standards for our team. And it's the question you should be asking everyone you're vetting as an executive resume writer.

Many large firms process your investment, put a friendly, but often junior, intake coordinator on the call, and then route your draft to an inexperienced contracted writer that hasn’t worked for the executive resume writing firm very long. At the executive level, that's a deal-breaker. You're paying for senior-level judgment, not a ghostwritten template edited by a junior writer who never has been involved with executive hiring.

Ask directly: "Will the person I'm speaking with right now be the person writing my document? If not, who will be writing my document, and what is the process you use to match me to a writer?"

There are great writing companies who have you work with the owner of the firm (sole proprietor) and have you work with a team (company owner). The business model does not dictate if it’s a good firm or not.   There are great firms and poor firms in both categories. 

However, if they promise to match you to a writer on the sales call without knowing more about you, that's a concern. They should be able to speak if they can work with your background and target roles from the initial call. But you want the company to factor in your communication style before assigning you to a writer. At the executive level, it's more than a profession/industry box-checking match. It's once they get to know you through onboarding steps that allow them to make a quality match to you as a person that matters most.

A writer whose practice is 80% mid-career with a few executives sprinkled in is not an executive resume writer. At a principal-led executive boutique, that number should be above 80%. But not 100%.

You may wonder why it shouldn't be 100%. If the firm says it's 100%, follow up with: "Who do you refer your clients' entry-level family members and non-executive friends to?" If they don't offer another writer's name they refer to and instead say they handle them too, well, then they don't do 100% executive-level work, right? Which means they aren't telling you the truth. They're telling you what they think you want to hear. There's nothing wrong with helping a client's family and friends, and nothing wrong with referring it out. Just don't fib to get a new client.

If they can't give you the number, they don't track it, which is a different problem you should avoid.

This is the 214-recommendation standard discussed above at the time of this publishing. You're not asking for testimonials curated by the firm on their own marketing site. You're asking for public, named, clickable LinkedIn recommendations from executives at comparable titles and comparable company sizes to yours, sitting on the writer's (or founder's) LinkedIn profile.

If you're a CFO at a $2B industrial company, you want to see LinkedIn recommendations from other CFOs and operating executives at companies of that scale. If all the writer has are anonymous Trustpilot reviews, a Google rating, or unnamed "senior executive" quotes on their own site, you're buying on faith. Those reviews can be paid for and manufactured, and they're often impossible to verify.

A serious executive engagement is not a template process. You should expect:

• A structured intake conversation (60 to 90 minutes minimum), split across a minimum of two calls when factoring in editing
• A first draft, a custom "edit until you are happy" process, and final delivery within a defined window (typically 2 to 4 weeks for an executive-level engagement)
• A parallel LinkedIn profile rewrite if you've contracted for it
• Post-delivery support available for a defined period (interview prep, negotiation, advice on document revisions for specific target roles)

If the process is "fill out a questionnaire and we'll email you a draft in 5 days," you're most likely buying a template populated by AI.

Executive resume engagements often include, or optionally include: executive resume, board resume (a separate document for independent directorships), LinkedIn profile rewrite, executive bio, a cover letter framework, networking amplification services, AI network analysis and expansion, recruiter distribution, interview coaching, and negotiation support. 

Know what you're buying. Don't assume.

Ask for executive resume samples to get a feel for the firm's style. Their samples should be varied and from clients who've landed. Here are our executive resume samples: chameleonresumes.com/executive-resume-samples.

A board resume isn't a shortened version of an operating executive resume. It's a distinct document that emphasizes governance, audit, risk, M&A, fiduciary judgment, and board-relevant exposure. If you're pursuing independent or corporate directorships, you need a board resume in addition to your executive resume. Ask for a sample. If the firm can't produce one, they don't specialize in board candidates. Here are our board resume samples: chameleonresumes.com/board-resume-samples.

Our pricing for our two packages is published at chameleonresumes.com/executive-resume-writing-services.

Published pricing is a useful signal. Most reputable executive boutiques quote per engagement because scope legitimately varies, but they should be able to tell you a range on the first call. At the principal-led boutique tier, expect $2,500 to $10,000+ for a C-suite engagement. Packages under $2,500 almost always signal a junior writer, a heavy template process, or an outsourced draft.

Also ask: "If the first draft misses, how many rounds of revisions are included, and at what point does additional work incur a new fee?"

No reputable executive writer will guarantee you a job, because we don't control hiring decisions, market conditions, or how you perform in interviews. But a reputable writer will commit to process outcomes: a delivery date, a number of revision rounds, amount of coaching calls, specific number of outreaches, length of time of support and a specific scope of deliverables. 

Generative AI is in every part of the resume industry now. The honest answer from a reputable writer goes something like this: "I use AI selectively for research, keyword triangulation, and structure-testing. The judgment, positioning, and narrative come from me, a human former recruiter, every time. I don't feed your story to a tool and ship its output."

If the writer tells you they use no AI at all, they're either being inaccurate or they're behind the market. If they admit they produce first drafts with AI and lightly edit them, you're paying boutique prices for automated work.