5 Common Misconceptions About Resume Writing Services

The current job market has many amazing opportunities to offer, but it is also as competitive as ever. Building a resume that showcases your unique talent, and how you would add value to the position and organization, is essential in helping you land any role.

Taking the time to ensure your resume is the most perfect document you have ever created is required for your success, but not all of us are skilled writers. Being in that situation may draw you to begin researching a resume service. Though there are resources available to help you, there are also a lot of misconceptions among those resources:

1. They Will Make You Stand Out

How are you going to stand out in the job market when you are getting the same standardized resume created as your competitors? Resume services are focused on volume, that’s how they earn profit. They are not incentivized to take their time with your resume, so to improve their production, they often apply the same approach to every resume in their queue, without even taking the time to get to know you.

The best way to stand out is to enable your personality and passions to shine through from your resume to a recruiter, and the best person to showcase that is you.

2. They Are Low-Effort

Utilizing a resume writing service does not equal low effort on your part. There is a lot of information gathering that must be done to appropriately represent your experience, and depending on the resume writing service, you will likely need to write out the information yourself anyway.

If you are already going through that endeavor, you might as well save yourself a fee and attempt a draft yourself, with friends or family providing feedback. With a bit more effort on your part, you can both save yourself some money and allow your resume to accurately represent your personality.

3. They Are Professionals

Not only might your resume writer not have any recruiting experience, but they may not have any insight into your industry! A well-written resume is great, yes, but not without that resume being tailored to your unique skills and aligning with industry standards.

You could be more qualified to write your resume than the individual you are thinking about hiring. Attempt your resume yourself first, you might be surprised by the result.

4. They Are The Best Resource For Formatting

Resume writing services are an expensive way to format your resume. There are plenty of free, formatted, resume templates at your fingertips – literally – they are just a Google search away. Find a template, fill each section in its entirety (maintaining consistent tenses), Google action verbs to begin your bullets with, proofread your resume top to bottom for mistakes (multiple times), then share your resume with friends, family, a LinkedIn connection, professor, anyone, and get their feedback.

The more eyes on your resume, the more perfect it will be. It’s important to remember small errors on your resume could be perceived as a lack of attention to detail by recruiters. Do not let a typo hold you back from getting an interview!

5. They Guarantee Interviews

You are not guaranteed an interview, regardless of what the service may advertise. Your ability to obtain an interview hinges on your skills and competencies – your resume is just a means to highlight those qualifications. If the qualifications aren’t there, you won’t be able to land an interview.

That may feel harsh, but it’s important to be realistic about your skillset and experience, then adjust your expectations accordingly. Most positions posted to job boards today specifically list the required skills and competencies, paired with the hiring manager’s desired proficiency levels. Use that information as a guide for your own self-reflection.

Not only will the requirements reveal whether you are qualified for the role, but they can also highlight a development gap you can convert into a goal to hone a particular skill – which will do nothing but benefit you long term.

Now, you may be feeling overwhelmed about creating a flawless resume, particularly if you were relying on working with a resume writing service. A standardized resume, with clear sentences, will always be better than a resume that’s difficult to follow. When looking for the right resume writing service, find one that will speak with you on the phone, or via virtual meeting, about your experience – almost in an interview manner.

This setting allows your writer to gather more details regarding how you stand out, but also give you a space to proactively share accomplishments you’re proud of. The interpersonal conversation gives your writer a sense of the details within your experience, or the role of interest, that bring your passion to life. Your passion and hard-earned skills are the two things that will catalyst you into your dream job. Make sure they shine through on your resume.