7 Must-Haves When Hiring a Professional Resume Writing Service

By Anna Johnson

Whether or not you use Resume Writing Pro, a similar service, or decide to hire a professional resume writer to prepare your resume, here are 6 must-have qualities to look for...

At a minimum, they should:

1. Have, as their primary focus, the aim of helping you get the right job interview(s), and the right job. Sure, you can have a LOT of interviews... but if they're not for positions you want... what good is that? The truth is, getting a lot of interviews is NOT the key to getting the right job. It's getting the RIGHT interviews. A good professional resume writer knows that, and prepares your resume accordingly.

2. Spends less time talking about themselves - and whether they are "certified", "qualified", "experienced", etc - and more time asking about YOU, the job you want, the company or companies you want to interview with, the person most likely to review your resume, etc. A professional resume writer is there to focus on your needs, not their own.

3. Provide a money-back guarantee. Let's be blunt here. If you pay a certain amount of money for a result... and you don't get that result... you're entitled to a refund of your money. Some resume writers will offer to re-do your resume. That might be okay with you. However, the best resume services either offer to refund your money immediately or at least give you the option of getting them to re-do your resume OR deliver a refund.

4. Customize each component of your job application - your cover letter, resume and thank-you letter - to the specific job and employer you're applying to.

If there's one thing that bugs me the most about so many resume writing services is that they offer to prepare a standard resume, with little thought to the specific job and company you're aiming for. I would never, ever, send exactly the same materials to every company I applied to (and I never have!).

Trust me, you'll get a much better response if your cover letter, resume and thank-you letter clearly show that you understand the needs of the company you're applying to, and are the best person for the job. Oh, and that's also why mass-mailing or "email blasting" your resume is probably THE most ineffective thing you can do...

5. "Keyword match" your resume by preparing it using the keywords in the relevant job advertisement and/or job description. This is MANDATORY, since many recruiters and companies will either use software or manually scan the resumes they receive for specific words and phrases.

6. Provide you with a resume in a range of formats. Nowadays, you need a resume in rich text format (which can be read and/or saved to word processing programs like Microsoft Word), HTML (suitable for uploading to a website), PDF (ideal for printing and attaching to an email) and text (suitable for sending in the body of an email, or for copying and pasting into standard job applications and resumes like those on big job sites such as Monster.com and Career Builder).

7. Forego "fancy" formatting and instead aim to help you stand out as a qualified professional. They do this by providing your resume in a plain, professional format. They definitely do NOT use fancy paper, strange fonts, and exotic designs, which oftentimes serve to distract and annoy recruiters and employers, rather than interest them!

In all honesty, Resume Writing Pro meets ALL of these criteria and more, so I'd definitely encourage you to use us. Alternatively, if you wish to engage someone else, make sure they satisfy each of these standards at a minimum.