Choosing the Best Executive Resume Writer for You

Identifying the best executive resume writer to design your resume and job search strategy can be a challenging task. How can you decide who is the best writer for your career goals? What criteria should you use in evaluating the writer’s talents, credentials and capabilities?

When researching and selecting the best professional resume writer for you, I suggest that you find an employment and job search expert with both practical recruiting experience and executive resume writing expertise. Real world hiring experience held by the resume contributed heavily to the job seeker’s success. Use the following criteria in hiring an executive resume writer:

• Have they been a search firm and/or corporate recruiting experience in their past career? What real world hiring and recruiting expertise do they have? How recent is that expertise?

• Have they worked directly with ATS systems before and understand how resumes look in applicant tracking systems. Will know how to format your resume accordingly?

• Do they provide resume samples for you to review their work?

• How familiar are they with your industry?

• Do they know and teach effective job search tactics and understand the resume’s role in that process to ensure the document is optimized and designed effectively?

• Do they have articulated results from their resumes and job search techniques?

• How many professional resume, job search and career certifications do they have? Do they belong to career and HR related organizations?

• What is their resume development and coaching process? Do you work with the writer one-on-one who help you invest in your resume package? Does the writer do all the work themselves or collaborate with a team behind them, but you still have the writer as your point person? Does the person who sold you the package partner you up with another writer on their team from the start? Are you filling out questionnaires only? Do you get to speak to the writer throughout the process?

• How familiar is your writer about social media and marketing skills? How prominent of a social media presence do they have? Do you find them easily in many corners of the internet? (LinkedIn, Google+, Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, etc…)

• Is their business model a high-volume operation (low-cost subsidized by high volume of clients) or a low-volume operation (higher cost with a lower volume of clients)? Do you need personalized attention? Higher priced resume writers will be able to spend more time with the client on custom materials whereas the lower priced resume writer will pull in client information into a template to accommodate many clients.

• Do they charge for a detailed evaluation or offer free evaluations that cite common resume ailments? A detailed evaluation takes time and a busy writer, aka one that is in-demand, will charge for that detailed evaluation and give you actionable items to fix.

• What services are included and what additional services do they offer to ensure you can use the resume properly to land a job?

• Do they offer a guarantee? Executive resume writers will not make promises they cannot keep or guarantee what they cannot control (i.e. market conditions and job seeker efforts). If they are genuinely interested in your success, they will not sign you on as a client if they believe they cannot help you to generate results.

Written by Lisa Rangel, Executive Resume Writer