Why should I hire a resume reviewer when I can revise my own resume? Is there any benefit? What goes into revising my own resume?
These questions have been asked since the beginning of specialized “careers!” Resumes require adjustments consistent with your new experience, and you might need to bring in an expert to help!
Then again, you might not. Many of the skills required to get your resume to that 90% success rate are at your fingertips. Once it’s there, send it over to kyle@stolengroundmedia.com to give it that extra 10% that makes you irresistible to hiring managers!
How Should I Revise My Resume?
If you’ve been on a job hunt for over a month before, you might be asking yourself, “how do I revise my resume for different jobs when I’m only one person?” In fact, 8% of people can’t even remember the last time they touched their resume!
This is a common question in the world of job seekers and the sole reason that the Growth Package exists: you MUST have multiple, custom resumes for each job type.
If you’re an accountant applying to two jobs: one as a tax accountant and one as a company’s primary bookkeeper, you’ll need to emphasize your skills separately using two separately revised resumes.
One would emphasize your tracking, project management, and notetaking skills (as a bookkeeper) and one would emphasize your legal, compliance, & mathematical skills (as a tax accountant).
Both accurately describe who you are as a person, but you’re adopting two different “brands” that emphasize your unique strengths for each job.
How Can I Help My Resume Get More Interviews?
Whether your resume gets the interview has to do with relevance to the job description. The ability to drive social media clicks doesn’t translate to a hire as an email marketer.
You can transfer skills from social media associate to email marketer, but skills like email automation and optimization for lots of email opens are much more valuable in the eyes of a hiring manager or HR professional… especially when they’re reading 300 other resumes with email marketing-specific skillsets!
Here is a list of transferable skills to beef up your resume after you’ve added your specifics.
While this resume adjustment is often a requirement to move forward, the interview itself is a great place to connect resume bullets with the job description.
“As a social media expert, I routinely researched ad copy best practices & emphasized highly impactful headlines which, as you mentioned earlier in our interview, is a valuable skill at this company.”
Another great way to help resumes get past initial screenings is to use language consistent with the company. Most think this is equivalent to matching qualifications to a job description, but I’m talking about cultural language.
My wife is in behavioral health and has called her clients by three different names at each: “patients,” “clients,” and “kids.”
If you can match language with the company (calling your patients “kids” when the job description also refers to them as “kids”), you’ll prove yourself a candidate consistent with the company’s brand. There’s nothing more valuable than a person whose personality naturally fits with the brand.
Prove yourself a “natural fit.”
What Does A Resume Writing Service Do For Me?
If Point A is your past experience, Point B is your resume, and Point C is your career goals, then a resume writing service’s job is to place Point B directly between Points A & C.
That’s why anyone you hire to touch your resume needs to demand clear vision from you in terms of your short-term career goals.
The biggest flaw in resume writing services is their inability to align with goals. Stolen Ground Media requires the link to a job description in which our clients are interested because it initiates a conversation about goals and elicits an internal dialogue within my clients about what’s next for their careers.
Additionally, you should insist that your resume writing service highlights a growth pattern in your resume that shows clear movement toward your goal.
In other words, if you’re moving toward project manager for a radio station, you should see growth from apprentice at the sound board all the way into leading a team of fact-checkers that will help to propel you into that role.
Rarely is a candidate hired who hasn’t demonstrated career progression in their bullets. This is a tricky business, which is why a resume writing service is often the most profitable route for the time spent.
Rather than a candidate spending hours and hours learning how to optimize for this or, even worse, applying to multiple jobs without those edits inside their resume, they can hire a person to implement those concepts for a one-time fee.
How Much Does A Resume Revision Cost?
A resume revision usually costs around $100, excluding optional add-ons for cover letters, reference sheets, biographies, etc.
This covers your initial interview conversation, which some services require, as well as your reviewer’s time on the clock, which generally ranges from 3-5 hours of work.
While resumes don’t tend to come with a lifetime guarantee, many at least include a single revision in case you want to edit something with your reviewer.
If you’re ready to get started with a resume review, visit my Resume Revisions page to explore available packages!
Resources:
https://www.monster.com/career-advice/article/five-steps-for-updating-your-resume-hot-jobs
https://www.livecareer.com/resources/resumes/basics/transferable-skills-set
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-match-your-qualifications-to-a-job-2060941
https://www.getinterviews.com/four-ways-your-resume-should-show-off-a-career-progression.html
