5 Reasons Why You’ll Never Succeed at Resumes and How We Can Help

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Introduction

Let’s be honest here.

Writing a resume isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do.

Even after writing thousands of resumes for our clients, I’ll still say this: It’s not easy.

If you’re reading this article, then chances are: you’re thinking.

You’re thinking whether or not you want to continue writing that resume yourself, or you’d want to consider hiring someone else to do it.

If that’s the case, then this article will hopefully give you a little nudge over the cliff of faith and get you to at least try out a writing service for that extra career boost through the dreaded eyes of the HR Manager.

In this article, I’ll share five simple reasons why professionals should write your resume and some of the pitfalls that you can potentially avoid along the way.

#1 Writing About Yourself Can be Hard and Cringeworthy

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Ever tried writing about yourself?

Chances are, it felt highly cringeworthy, didn’t it?

Yet, that’s the mistake that most of us make when we think we can write a resume by ourselves.

We think that we are the easiest person to write about in the entire world, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In the end, our resumes start looking like awkward statements chunked together into a resume that doesn’t deserve to see the light of day.

Even writers can write beautifully for others but can’t quite do the same for themselves and apply to resume writing services.

It’s a real problem.

One that a professional writer can solve for you.

By hiring a professional writer, you essentially are hiring someone who can write objectively; who can better describe your capabilities from a third-party standpoint.

Humans are weird, and we can describe other things better than ourselves.

Hiring a resume writer takes the cringe out of the worthy and presents you better for it.

#2 The Tendency to exaggerate Can Harm Your Resume

It’s no secret that we tend to exaggerate things when it comes to speaking about ourselves.

Even more so when it comes to writing our resume.

The more we write, the more descriptive we make our resumes look, the better.

But it isn’t always the case.

I’ve seen so many people fluffing up their achievements about projects, speaking about how they managed the team when they completely missed the plot.

It’s not so much as how much you write, but relatively brief you write it.

For example, in the course of my career, I’ve seen job descriptions that look something like this:

I was chosen from a select pool of candidates by upper management to look through the different segments of the market, where I oversaw the team’s success in powering through our objectives.

This is not the best to write your description by any means.

Why? Because you are walking through the nitty-gritty.

Instead, a professional resume writer might write something like this:

Reported directly to upper management, tasked with oversight of Asia operations and supervising team’s KPIs consistently.

Do you see the difference?

We tend to over-exaggerate every minute detail when we write, but this is not what headhunters or recruiters look for.

In short, headhunters and recruiters look for crucial points of interest – keywords that stand out to them that summarize your previous roles, so that they can decide on whether or not you’ll fit their company.

That means that your resume has to be objective, and it has to be detail-oriented in the right way.

Can you guess what the best way to do it is? You guessed it. Hire a professional resume writer.

A resume writer can be extraordinarily fact-based and can cut the fat off unnecessary exaggerations while increasing the value of your contributions at the same time.

This helps you to remove the smokescreen that so many employers are turned off by.

#3 Ruthless Editing Calls for Someone Who’s Not You

If you’ve written your resume before, you’ll know that it can be a challenge when you are trying to trim it down.

I’ve had clients in the past who kept on asking me the following questions:

How do I cut down my achievements? There are so many?
Do you want me to remove some of my accomplishments? No way! I worked hard for them.
It’s so hard to summarize everything when I want to put everything!

Consider this your wake-up call.

The truth is, while your career might be colourful and full of experiences, not every company will find value in all of your adventures.

The trick is to understand the role you are applying for in-depth, then aggressively edit your resume to tailor fit this role – leaving nothing else inside.

I’ll give you an example.

Say that you came from the entertainment industry.

You spent a decade running your own business before you decided to re-enter the job market as a Call Center Supervisor.

Now, you’d think that you should put your entertainment background into your resume, talking about how you ran the entire business from the ground up.

However, you’re mistaken.

Assuming you are focusing on applying for a role in Call Center operations, you should instead focus not on the fundamental aspect of building a business but rather talk about the people you’ve had the opportunity to help, service, and work together.

Why? Because that’s the nature of the role that you are applying for.

A Call Center Supervisor needs to have extensive client relations, but at the same time, have leadership skills.

They don’t need entrepreneurship skills nor DJ-ing abilities.

Throughout my writing career, I’ve come to call this process “judgment day”.

Why? Because this is the time when you have to decide, depending on the impression you want to give your employer, the information you want to keep, and the information you want to delete.

Hard? It can be so.

That, in my personal opinion, is when a resume writer is precious.

A good resume writer works with you to understand the role that you are gunning for, then obsessively makes sure that all the content in your resume is tailored to suit that role.

Naturally, this places you in a favourable position as compared to the other applicants.

Note: while writing a resume has to be tailored to fit the role you are applying for, writing a LinkedIn profile will be very different. Check here for more information.

#4 Power Words, Anyone?

Have you ever tried to communicate your achievement about something, but you couldn’t find a way to bring your point across in a business-ey way?

Throughout my career, I’ve found this problem to be the most extensive and the most prominent.

Most of the professionals I work with consistently complain that they just can’t put their thoughts onto paper with impact and authority.

But the answer is surprisingly simple.

Use power words.

In other words, power words accentuate the effect of your sentences and bring your points across with much more emotional appeal and value to the reader.

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However, just knowing about these trigger words isn’t enough.

Instead, having a list of trigger words in your head is the last thing you should think about. Why?

Because when it comes down to it, finding the right way to use those trigger words is the key to writing a successful resume that can get you through the doors of HR.

This is where a professional resume writer can come in.

Using laser focus, a professional resume writer can sprinkle keywords that make your achievements stand out in the recruiter’s eyes and can instantly set you apart from all the other applicants.

#5 At the End of the Day, Conversion is All That Matters

Let me ask you a question.

Is it worth more of your time going out there to find a job, or does it make more sense to hire someone who’s been doing it for over ten years to do it for you?

If you’re a normal human being, chances are, you’ll say the first one (unless you’re an egomaniacal writer like I am).

Next question.

Would you rather have the opportunity to not worry about how your resume looks and instead have the time to go out there, get on calls, and actively look for work?

Throughout my career, I’ve heard so many professionals crying out for more time to find the right jobs and have an opportunity to sell themselves out there.

But how can you do that when:

Your resume is not professionally done
You’re wasting your own valuable time writing your resume when you could be out there networking and selling your services?

Why do we care so much about writing a resume ourselves when that isn’t the key focus that we are after?

Conversion of the resume into a career that you can be proud of is what truly matters.

Just as your employer is likely to accept something written with value, a resume writer can bring that value to your resume and get you through the doorsteps of that job you’ve always wanted.

Conclusion

Whatever you take away from this post, make sure you take away this: your time is valuable.

I don’t care if you’re sitting on the couch, playing video games, or just enjoying that movie right after reading this, but from a professional standpoint, every second counts.

That means that every second you work on your resume with your untrained eyes and mind is a second that you could either spend getting the word out about your services or even for yourself.

The question is: Are you going to sit there for three months poring over how to perfect your resume, or are you going to do something about it?

Author:

John has helped professionals from multinational corporations like Microsoft and Accenture scale their brands with the right content. He holds a black belt in the art of content weaving and has helped thousands of people express themselves with clarity on print and the Web.

His words have translated into hundreds of thousands of dollars for his clients. Some call him a “talented content creator”, known for his ability to bridge the gap between thought and paper.