Contracting Resume Writing Services, Pt. 1

Perform a search on Google, Bing or Ask.com and you will come up with literally THOUSANDS of resume writing services.  Some are very flashy, some are very plain and then there are those that are obviously thrown together.  In all of those websites, one thing remains in common; they all want your business.

Rest assured, this blog is not an attempt at a sales job for our products and services.  In fact, we can guarantee that you will not see the words “we offer” anywhere in this piece.  That is truly not our goal.  There are several articles online that speak about many of the things that we will cover, so understand that some of our conclusions are not original, however we can say that the majority of the information we are about to present is an original way of going about selecting a service.  This blog is meant as an educational piece to assist you should you find yourself in need of a resume.  We readily recognize that our services do not fit the needs of all resume seekers.

Now that we have established intent, let’s begin to look at the Contracting Resume Writing Services process.  How do you choose a resume writing service to fit your needs?  How do you decipher what is flash and what is real when selecting a resume writing service?  There is a way…

1. Website and Credentialing
2. The Writing Process

Due to the overall length of each consideration, we will post the considerations in two separate blogs.

Contracting Resume Writing Services, Pt. 3

In continuation from http://wp.me/p3aqKD-Z.

The Writing Process

A proper resume writing process should contain the follow elements:

1. Verbal interaction with your consultant.
2. A data privacy agreement with the company and a consultant with an employment background.
3. A documentation gathering process that includes both a questionnaire and the ability to accept job descriptions from you to assist in building your resume.
4. An interview to review an initial draft of your resume.
5. A process that allows at a minimum two free revisions after your resume has been finalized.

Verbal Interaction with a Consultant

A consultant, by nature, should crave interaction with their clients.  The definition of a consultant as defined by Merriam-Webster is 1. One who consults another, 2. One who gives professional advice or services.  A true resume writer embraces the consultant hat and has no problem speaking with a potential client or an established client to answer questions, share information or clarify points.  Contact the resume writing services you are considering prior to selecting their services to make sure that the company you’ve selected is truly the right company for you before money changes hands.

Data Privacy Agreement/Consultant Background

There are few processes more intimate than completing a professional resume.  A consultant worth gold will draft your resume from the standpoint of a potential employer.  Just because your resume writer is a certified resume writer does not mean that they have any experience in hiring processes.  A good resume writer is someone who has an extensive personal staffing background.  They have experience in the attraction, recruitment, onboarding and retention of employees.  Do not be afraid to ask your potential consultant about their background.  Just like you are relying on them to assist you with entry into an interview process, they should have no problem answering the questions that you have about their qualifications.

A data privacy agreement provides the client with an expectation that their information will not be shared without their express written permission with a third party.  A resume writer with a staffing background will ask the tough and sometimes uncomfortable questions of their clients during the resume drafting process in order to provide a document that a client can stand behind with ease.  In other words, there may be areas that raise red flags in your work history that need to be addressed in order to realize the goal of having your resume selected.  You should be able to work with your resume writer honestly in order to produce a properly reflective resume that represents you and your abilities without fear of reprisal.

Think really hard before contracting services with a resume service that does not offer a written data privacy agreement.  You should have a reasonable expectation that your resume will not be posted as an example on the web because your personal information is listed.  Identity theft is a true concern in the electronic space we live in and resumes are perfect for that nefarious purpose.  Why would you want your resume with your personal data in just anyone’s hands?  If your resume is used as an example, it should be done in a controlled manner devoid of plagiarism opportunities, identity theft and protect you from becoming a boxed resume candidate.  Ask the question of your consultant about data privacy practices and address your concerns before paying for a service.

Documentation Gathering Process

A company should have a documentation gathering process that is simple and not labor intensive on the client.  Most resume writers have a written questionnaire that will email to you for your typewritten completion.  Do not expect to handwrite documents.  Anything you say can appear on your resume, so do yourself and your consultant a favor by typing your questionnaires and communicate in an electronic format.  You should be able to send as much documentation as you like for the resume writer to draw from.  This means previous resume versions, job descriptions of jobs you’ve held, job descriptions of jobs you are considering applying for.  Ask about documentation restrictions upfront before you pay for your service.  Once you’ve paid, it’s too late to back the process up.  Most companies will not begin work until payment is secured, so be careful.

The questionnaire that you fill out should ask for more than work history, it should ask about your goals, your objective in finding a job as well as companies that you are considering applying to.  Your potential resume writer needs to know this information in order to draft a properly focused resume for you that can be used to target your potential employer’s interest.  For example, if you would like to apply for a job in trading Finance and your background is banking, why would you want a general finance resume?  Your skills and experiences should support your ability to transition into a trading firm, not remain in banking or apply to an accounting firm.  Those nuisances can only be determined by knowing more than just your work history.  If the resume writer isn’t asking goal oriented questions of you prior to drafting your resume, make it clear to them what your objective is.

Initial Draft Review

There should be a verbal review of your initial resume draft.  Why is verbal important?  It’s really simple.  You save time on revising your document.  The initial resume should be very close to complete.  If it’s not, you need to be able to verbally communicate the problems or issues with your resume writer in real time.  As we’ve said before, your resume writer should have no problem dedicating focused time with you to satisfy your needs.  Email is not a platform that accurately conveys perception issues.  The writer may include a statement that you don’t understand as a point of one of your jobs and there may be a rich discussion needed to address the issue.

If your draft is way off the mark for what you would like to represent about your credentials, a verbal conversation is most definitely needed.  Most companies limit the amount of touches to a resume once you have a working draft, so you want to make your review conversations count.  Ask about resume touches before you begin your contract with the company.  Do not be afraid to say that you do not like something on your document.  The resume writer does not have to defend the information contained in your resume to a potential employer, you, however, do.  Make sure your resume writer gets it right and do not worry about feelings being hurt along the way.  This shouldn’t be a problem with a good company with truly professional resume writers.  Professional resume writers do not get so emotionally attached to their documents that they lose focus on the client’s needs.

Revisions to a Finalized Document

Industry standard usually allows two free revisions of your resume document in a certain time period after you have completed your initial transaction with a resume writing service.  Just because that is industry standard, it doesn’t mean that it’s guaranteed by your resume writing service.  Ask the question, directly.  Each business is run differently and there is no true governing body that monitors how business is conducted.

Final Thoughts

1. Develop a list of desired resume writing traits before you begin seeking resume writing services.
2. Use a check list when talking to potential providers that includes some of the information covered above.
3. Do not contract (pay) for services before your checklist is satisfied, because once you contract, you’re committed to that company unless they expressly have a refund or void transaction policy in place.

Contracting Resume Writing Services, Pt. 2

In continuation from http://wp.me/p3aqKD-6.

Website and Credentialing

The service you select should have some sort of online presence.  Why is this important?  The quick and dirty answer is that by having a website, you have an opportunity to preview the amount of dedication a service has to it’s products and services.  Websites are not the be all end all, but in today’s electronic job seeking environment, do you really want to deal with a company that has no web presence?  Websites can reveal writing abilities, the ability to market themselves and their products and overall business health as determined by their web provider.

Professional websites look quite different from free fan pages.  In short, a resume writing service’s website is their very own personal online resume, free for your perusal.  As a consumer, your potential writing service should not have a fly by the seat of your pants web presence.  A few cute pictures and hasty text doth not a website make, conversely a flat page of text is just as bad if not worse.  Website maintenance and having an active internet presence requires dedication and should be informative not distracting or boring.

View the website with a fine tooth comb.  If there are spelling errors, cartoonish/non-diverse graphics, fees too good to be true or fees so large that they must be good, pages and pages of testimonials and boasts of guaranteed job landings, this is NOT the site for an educated consumer.  Some of these things are obvious turn offs to selecting this particular company/writer’s services, while others seem okay on the surface.

Spelling Errors

Spelling errors indicate a rushed gotta get out there website design process.  If the company that you are reviewing for a writing service has spelling errors or poor grammar in describing their services, why would you expect a resume without more of the same?  If the text on the website is thrown together, your resume is guaranteed to be thrown together as well.

Graphics

Cartoonish graphics indicate a playful aspect at work.  If the company that you are reviewing has cartoonish graphics or no graphics at all, question their seriousness about professional image.  A flat, text heavy website is a clue to the type of resume that you will receive because your potential resume writer will probably use the same approach to writing that was used to approve the text for the website.  Cartoonish or non-diverse graphics are also a clue as to the client base the company is used to working with.  The graphics a company chooses to use truly indicates a particular philosophy that they are comfortable working with.

Fees

Exceptionally low end fees or conversely exceptionally high end fees are a warning sign.  Low end can indicate a resume mill at work that uses boxed resume templates that you, yourself, could purchase and the result would be the same.  The old adage, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.  We have seen resume writing services as low as $25USD to literally crank out a resume.  Trust us, if you choose to pay $25USD for a professionally written resume, you can do the resume yourself.  If the fees are exorbitant, buyers beware of the process.  Expense does not necessarily equate to quality or a timely resume.

Some writers have an over inflated sense of self when it comes to developing a reasonable fee structure.  Look for hidden costs, such as shipping printed copies to you, placing your credentials on CD and overall length of the resume development process.  Why pay to have a printed resume shipped to you when realistically you can take your electronic copy to a printing service or print it yourself much cheaper?  Why pay to have your credentials places on CD when you can do that as well?  Why suffer through a lengthy resume development process so that you can pay someone by the hour to produce a one to two page document?  The company you choose should have a middle ground.  Compare several sites and pricing structures before selecting a resume service.

Testimonials

Pages and pages of testimonials and claims of guarantees as to interview or job placement successes are ploys aimed at building confidence in their services.  The fine print around guarantees often show that there really isn’t a guarantee of employment based on a resume.  It is impossible to predict the success of obtaining an invite into an interview process or selection of your resume in a hiring process unless you contract a service that has a feeder into a staffing service.  Buyer beware, this road is fraught with pit falls and you could find yourself on the receiving end of unwanted solicitations for services you never signed up for.  You should not be selling your information to spam services while obtaining a resume.

Testimonials are a fine way of selling services; however, testimonials can be fictionalized.  Any plain stock picture of a person can be used and assigned a name and location with a glowing report of love for the company in question.  Pages on top of pages of this information should raise questions in your mind as to why a company needs so much praise in order to effectively sell its products and services.  Look for certifications and credentials instead to judge the effectiveness of the company’s products and services.

Credentials

Not many resume services hold memberships with the Better Business Bureau, nor do they hold membership with a resume specific certification society.  Be sure to ask about those things before selecting your resume writing service.  A BBB membership with a rating of A or A+ for a resume writing company is not unreasonable.  If the company is willing to display the BBB logo on their website, they have little to nothing to hide about their services.  Companies that hold an active membership with a resume specific certification society are under the same rules.  Look for prominently displayed logos for the certification society that they belong to, then check to see if they are still active.  If you do not see a logo proclaiming membership in a certification society, this may not be the service for you.  Membership does require some sort of due diligence on the company’s part as to resume and industry standards and once certified businesses automatically become a part of a continuing education group.

Prominent Display of Office Hours

A company that has no hours of contact listed is a resume mill, period.  They do not want you to contact them.  They have boxed software that you could obtain yourself and no insight into employment processes.  Reputable companies offer contact points in spades and give you a guideline as to the best ways to contact them.  Reputable companies also realize that their posted office hours may not coincide with your ability to work with them to complete a resume.  Companies that rely too heavily on an electronic only process should be a cause for concern.  We are not saying that you have to physically see your resume consultant in order to receive a quality product; we are saying that you should at least be able to talk to your consultant without feeling rushed or bothersome.