This morning I interviewed Marty Nemko, PhD, author of Cool Careers for Dummies. I’ve long known Marty disapproves of resume writers because, he believes, they “put lipstick on a pig.” He states that more often than not, they make a worse candidate look better, making the actually better candidate, who might not have paid to have his resume professionally written, look worse by comparison.
Last time we tangled about this, I pushed back by telling about my own experience as a job seeker who hired a resume writer:
My writer, Bob Burch, a career counselor in El Cerrito, introduced me to the concept of selling my capabilities on a resume. Not only did I not know how to do that, I didn’t know you were supposed to do that. He helped me remember things I did on each job by asking, “And what else did you do?” over and over again until I ran out of tasks. He used probing questions, like, “And why was that important to the business?” or “Who did you work with on that?” or “What was the result?”
I knew how to write, puncuate, use grammar correctly and spell — I was a proofreader and copyeditor — but I knew nothing about resumes and didn’t realize there were books on it. Back then, there was probably only Yana Parker’s Damn Good Resume Guide. And even though I knew Yana personally (God rest her soul) because I took a book marketing class with her, I still didn’t know jack about resumes.
Another thing Bob did for me was help me think like an employer. He actually taught me what employers found valuable. When I told Marty that some months ago, he said he might rethink his position on resumes. However, today he wrote on his blog:
“Hiring a resume writer is no more ethical than a high school student hiring a professional to write his or her college application essay. Imagine you were looking to hire someone, even if it was a job working with their hands. Wouldn’t you appreciate being able to judge how well the applicants organize their thoughts? When an applicant hires a resume writer, s/he gets an unfair advantage–the employer sees the resume writer’s thinking and communication skills, not the applicant’s. Resume writing is an unethical profession.”
What Marty is ignoring is that the resume doesn’t get you the job; it gets you the phone interview. A good person with solid experience and a crappy looking resume that is at least coherent, spelled right and has real achievements on it will pass to the phone interview phase unless the company is inundated, which I understand many are in this economy. The bad candidate with the pretty resume might reach the phone interview phase, but wouldn’t make it past that, and the recruiters would go back to the pool of applicants and call more people, eventually tapping the good person passed over earlier. The same thing happens in the face-to-face interview. If someone is not an organized thinker, they won’t be able to hide that in a discussion with an employer no matter how good their resume is. I’ve been on both sides: I’ve been a job seeker and I’ve been a hiring manager, and I know what I’m talking about.
A good reason why some very capable people go to a resume writer is that they have a hard time writing about themselves. Multiple times, Marty, who has not one, but two radio shows, has said, “You have to have a pretty big ego to be a radio show host.” Well, Marty, not everyone has your ego. Some people have difficult time putting themselves forth and go to a writer for help with that. I had an extremely successful PR professional come to me for a resume. He was a behind-the-scenes guy. He’d done major splashes in the go-go 80s and 90s and was hardly done with his career, but his life was all about pushing others into the limelight, not himself.
Consider, for a moment, all the applicants for a director-level job. They’re probably all pretty good, or they wouldn’t have gotten to senior management. What’s wrong with a resume tune-up for one of them? There isn’t a “pig” in the bunch.
Marty, who would you rather have work on you? A heart surgeon who is better with the scapel than the pencil or someone who writes better than he operates? Much of resume writing is editing. The job seeker may be very accomplished and is having trouble choosing what to leave out.
Sometimes, a candidate is a good thinker, speller, doer, but is too close. Yes, they could hand it to a friend or someone in the industry, but unless that person has been a hiring manager or in HR, their opinion might not be very helpful: “Looks good to me.“
So Marty thinks resume writers, their clients and probably more than a few career counselors are damned to hell and are going to bring about the downfall of civilization. If that’s the case, why does he refer people to resume writers?
maureenpnelson
Anyone without the motivation to keep digging through their background for nuggets and/or to search Google for resume-writing advice is a person with deficits an employer should know about.
And if all a resume writer was correct the spelling and punctuation of candidates for whom those skills are not important, fine. But as you well know, Maureen, even the most ethical career counselors organize the person’s thoughts and write them succinctly. That gives a misleading and unfair advantage to that candidate.
And with regard to why I was going to refer a resume-seeking client to you, when a person explicitly asks for a resume writer, I figure, he’s going to hire someone, it might as well be someone I respect–and that’s where you come in.
By the way, beautifully designed blog, Maureen!!!
All best,
Marty
Comment by Marty Nemko, Ph.D. — November 12, 2010 @ 2:40 am |
I think that a resume isn’t just a writing sample or an academic test, it’s an example of a finished product. Asking at least one person to proof-read your resume isn’t cheating – it’s smart. Knowing your limitations is smart. In most business situations the emphasis is not on doing everything yourself but on getting something done on time, on budget, and well. It is ethical for applicants to go to the interview in clothes that they didn’t sew themselves. I think it’s smart to get resume advice from friends or family members. What if someone doesn’t have friends or family members who can help them or who know the field they are applying to? Is there an ethical divide between asking a friend or your mom for help vs. paying someone?
If the employer asks “Did you have help writing this?” and the applicant lies, that’s unethical. However, if the applicant gets ruled out for a typo he or she won’t even get to the phone interview stage.
Comment by Miriam — November 12, 2010 @ 6:35 am |
“even the most ethical career counselors organize the person’s thoughts and write them succinctly. That gives a misleading and unfair advantage to that candidate”
Absurd. For one, it is inherently impossible for an advantage to be misleading (I recommend seeking the assistance of a professional comment writer before submitting a response but I gather that would be unethical).
Does Marty actually believe that everyone can “dig through their backgrounds” or find information on Google sufficient to prepare the best career marketing documents possible? If it were that easy, why would he write a book offering career advice? After all, one need simply reflect or browse some search engine results. More importantly, why would he include information about resumes in his book? Per his own ideas, would it not be unethical to make people PAY for the information about resumes? If his book is not free (which it is not, btw), then all this banter about resume writers being unethical is hypocritical and his book a specious money grab, at best.
This is rich criticism coming from a PhD. I’m sure Marty never once went to a tutor, never once had a academic mentor, never once had a peer or professor review his research papers or theses for grammar, accuracy of content, or clarity of thought. Even the most ethical tutors and academic advisers help organize a student’s thoughts to facilitate understanding, which gives a misleading (sic) and unfair academic advantage to that student.
Comment by Chuck — November 13, 2010 @ 2:35 am |
Maureen –
Thank you for your kind and educational words about the process of composing a resume.
I wonder how Dr. Nemko rationalizes these two statements, both from him:
1] “Resume writing is an unethical profession.” [quoted above by you, from his blog on 11/12/10]
2] …”when a person explicitly asks for a resume writer, I figure, he’s going to hire someone, it might as well be someone I respect–and that’s where you come in.” [from his comment in response to your blog]
Does this mean that, to Dr. Nemko, not all resume writing is unethical? Or, conversely, that he respects some people [you, for instance] who do unethical things for a living? I would appreciate his explanation of how these two apparently contradictory statements can be reconciled.
Many thanks!
Debra
Comment by Debra O'Reilly — November 13, 2010 @ 3:32 am |
Just like Marty hires help to edit and promote his book (in order to further his professional career) job seekers also seek out professional help with their marketing documents. To say one is ethical and the other isn’t – well, this just seems like a lot of provocation with very little substance.
Comment by Mary Elizabeth Bradford — November 13, 2010 @ 3:31 pm |
Maureen, just fascinating, that Marty the PhD has such a real grasp of the business world. When Proctor & Gamble, IBM, Microsoft and all those other Fortune 500 companies hire advertising agencies and PR firms they must really be stupid or gullible. After all, why would you pay them when you have an advertising and PR department of your own?
Did Marty (please don’t confuse him with me) ever go to an auto mechanic to fix his car when he might have been able to buy “A DUMMY BOOK?” Did he ever hire a computer geek to fix his computer or straighten out his computer software? I am sure he bought a “Dummy Book.” With his broad grasp of using his superior intellect, I am sure he can do everything by himself and the use of a “Dummy Book.” I am sure he can paint a masterpiece, write a book without a proofreader and editor, pen a top 40 hit record, and develop an award winning advertising campaign.
You know, I have had senior executives of major companies tell me how much they valued my expertise and how helpful I have been to their careers and earnings. Believe me, I have no illusions that I am the only resume writer who receives those kinds of accolades.
Oh yes, he also wrote a book for people to buy who were too stupid to figure it out by themselves. Oh to be so all knowing and sanctimonious is a wonderful thing!
By the way, I am a lousy proofreader and pay someone to proof all the résumés I write. Doesn’t that beat all, a writer who is a lousy proofreader.
Martin Weitzman
Gilbert Resumes
Executiveresumewriter.com
Comment by Martin Weitzman — November 13, 2010 @ 3:50 pm |
I’ve decided to use this topic on my KGO Radio show tomorrow night (Sunday) at 9:08 PM, so in preparation, I’m going to take the time here to respond to these comments. I’ll also post them on my blog.
In response to Miriam:
– I DO believe that even having someone proofread your resume is no more ethical than a student, on a take-home exam, having someone review their work before the student submitted it. The resulting product therefore would not fully the job applicant’s work. The student, or in the case of a resume written by a resume proofreader, the employer is misled, yes, misled, into thinking the candidate has better writing skills and is more detail-oriented in having fixed all errors than in fact s/he is.
– Far worse, resume writers do far more than proofread someone’s resume. Proofreading refers to eliminating an extra comma, a typographical spelling error, etc. Every resume writer I know WRITES the person’s resume. If they were proofreaders, they’d call themselves not a Resume Writer but a Resume Proofreader, and virtually no one would hire them.
– Miriam asserts that buying clothing for an interview rather than sewing them is as misleading as using a resume writer. Really?! The employer assumes all the candidates bought their clothes and, unless the job opening is for a seamstress, wouldn’t care whether they bought or sewed their clothes. But a resume reflects the person’s thinking, writing, organizational ability, and detail-orientedness, all of which bear, to at least some extent, on most jobs. If someone else writes the resume for candidate A but not for candidate B, it’s truly unfair both to the employer trying to pick the best candidate and of course, to candidate B. And no, there is no ethical divide between asking a friend or asking a resume writer to write your resume. Both are equally unethical.
Regarding Chuck’s comments:
– Of course it’s possible to have a misleading advantage. If an athlete takes a banned performance enhancing substance, it’s an misleading advantage. It misleads the opponents, the referees, and the fans into thinking the player is better than they are, and results in winning games unfairly.
– No, I don’t believe everyone can, without doing some research, know how to write a resume. That, like every other endeavor, is what books and articles are for, including mine. There’s a world of difference between a job applicant reading an article on the principles of writing a resume and then writing it than to get someone else to write their resume. The person having read that article(s) demonstrates that he has the motivation and ability to do research to prepare to do a project well. That’s infinitely different than hiring someone to do it. On the job, the person won’t be hiring someone to do the research preparation for the projects he has to do. Think about it? Is there no difference between an artist, who, in preparing to create a painting, reads books and articles on it, and hiring someone to paint the picture?
With regard to Debra’s comment, I respect that Maureen is a bright and very dedicated career counselor and so, if a person comes to me asking for a resume writer, I know he’ll get SOME resume writer to do it, so I might as well refer the person to Maureen, even though I don’t believe that when she’s writing someone’s resume, she’s being ethical.
Comment by Marty Nemko, Ph.D. — November 13, 2010 @ 6:01 pm |
In response to Marty Nemko:
I think we differ on the expectations and uses of a resume. When a student takes a test there are “rules” about which parts the student needs to do without help. The phrase “purely academic” is defined as not practical, theoretical, speculative, and “not real life”. Getting a job is serious “real life” with far-reaching implications, and a resume is part of that.
Another point of disagreement is the definition of “research”. You feel it’s fine to use the internet to research something but not fine to ask a person to help. I feel the lines are blurry. If I need help with a technical question, I feel comfortable googling it, looking in a book, or asking an acquaintance. I need to accomplish my goal, and no one really cares which way I get the answers. I try to get the best answer the fastest way. Sometimes asking a person is best. My work is usually judged by how well and how fast it is done. I don’t get points taken away because I looked it up on the internet or asked someone a question. That is the “real world”, not an academic situation.
My point about buying clothing for an interview vs. sewing it by hand was not that it was misleading, but that it was the final product/impression that counted, not exactly how the applicant created it. If the same clothes were borrowed instead of bought it would be the same impression. Let’s say an applicant gets help choosing clothes form a salesperson in a store and then borrows a briefcase or computer bag from a friend. Your way of looking at it would be that the person should have done it all without help and was giving a misleading impression, which is dishonest. My take on it is that the applicant used various resources to market themselves and I don’t see it as dishonest. I expect applicants to dress well for interviews but also know that they may better or more carefully dressed then they will be on the job.
I was always told that a resume should be flawless in terms of spelling, grammar, and punctuation. I was told that any error meant that the person was sloppy and would probably cause them to be rejected. My expectation is that most people would have someone else check their work to prevent sending a document with errors. I don’t see a resume with an error and think it’s OK because they wrote it themselves. I was taught that resumes should be perfect to a standard far above most writing.
At the same time, I’m not sloppy, but I’m not that perfect either. I always have help proofreading. I work with some brilliant engineers who are excellent at organizing. Although English is not their first language, they communicate very well, but not at that perfect level. Would you consider it ethical for them to have help with their resumes? I think the heart of our disagreement is that I expect that someone will do whatever it takes, including getting help, to have a technically flawless resume. I don’t feel that getting help is dishonest, I expect it is the norm. You expect that people will write the resume without any help.
You said: “On the job, the person won’t be hiring someone to do the research preparation for the projects he has to do.” Actually, some positions do involve hiring, delegating or overseeing other people. By the way, there are tons of examples of artists and designers hiring people to do their painting. Jeff Koons is an example of an artist who hired people to create all his artworks for him. He was a stock broker who decided to become an artist and didn’t do his own painting/sculpting. I’m not saying I like his work, but he had a lot of money and fame. I am saying there is a difference between accademic and real world.
I agree that there are plenty of exceptions. It isn’t “purely academic” if it’s a vita for an academic job. If the job is primarily writing then the expectation would rightfully be that the applicant wrote the resume themselves, but then the employer should ask for writing samples. If the job is to design or create clothing then the expectation might rightfully be that the applicant made his or her clothes.
Comment by Miriam — November 14, 2010 @ 6:12 am |
“Educating the Educated” Chapter 1
In the world of academia…life is blissfully textbook and oh so ideal.
In the world of Corporate America hiring a professional resume writer is in fact very much a ‘necessary accessory’ to the entire wardrobing package. If a touch of ‘lipstick on a pig’ boosts the pigs opportunities…so be it!
I am curious Dr. Nemko…
How do you view the candidate that dumps $2K on buying a new wardrobe for a first interview? Should the person sew his/her own clothing?
How do you explain the vast number of CEO’s with inept communication skills; verbal and written? Executive communication experts not only write their speeches but also write their email communications company-wide and internationally.
CEO’s also hire resume writers…lucky for me!
How about the IT or engineering genius? Many (not all) cannot spell and could care less about their resumes. They are more concerned with keeping military planes flying, bridges safely suspended and integrating technology responsibly.
Should these genius’rely on code, quantum physics or typo’s to get them noticed?
How do you see the “Strengthen your strengths” philosophy? Asking for assistance from others with a skilled expertise is both productive to individuals as well as to society. Strength Finders and Gallup certainly would agree!
Having worked in both Fortune (100) and (mis)Fortune companies, branding is the key to success; product and people!
With Personal branding placed upon careerists, now more than ever, individuals are reaching out to ask for help to sustain a market edge, prepare for a future of independent contractors and add polish to their panache!
“Necessary Accessory”
And lastly…
How exactly do you frame up your ‘pig with lipstick’ analogy when in the company of high powered women executives?
You see, for women working in multi-billion dollar retail, fashion, hospitality or entertainment industries, polish and panache are a ‘necessary accessory’.
Imagine…
A brilliantly skilled female executive breezes through her first phone interview which she obtained through networking (so glad our work has paid off). Kathryn is one of the lucky ones; no resume needed (yet).
She splurged on a couture suit. Her Christian Louboutins steadily pacing each step towards her first in-person interview. Final touch-up on her understated lipstick.
“Hello, I am Kathryn.” Like a well orchestrated symphony, Kathryn reveals her resume portfolio with grace, anticipation and brand confident crescendo.
Taking center stage, all props fulfilling the supporting role, Kathryn ignited the interview with fact, courage and a brand unlike any other candidate.
Fast forward…Kathryn was hired.
_________________________________________________________________________________
As for the ‘pig in lipstick’…
“Good going pig! Understated matte finish looks fantastic with this seasons peak-a-boo pumps. Remember to scuff the soles before wearing them for the first time.”
Comment by Tina Kashlak Nicolai — November 13, 2010 @ 8:46 pm |
What most of the commenters are missing when they analogize resume writers to, for example, car mechanics, is that when hiring a resume writer, you’re deceiving someone about to pay you thousands of dollars that it is YOU who created the job sample (the resume) when in fact is was someone else. If in fact, the candidate felt fine about having had someone else write his resume, why doesn’t he say to the resume writer, “Sure, add a line that says, “This resume was written by Jane Jones, a professional resume writer?” Why don’t resume writers ask their clients for permission to do so?
Comment by Marty Nemko — November 16, 2010 @ 7:25 am |
Agreed. From now on, I will offer two options: resume consulting with no strings attached OR resume revision with a signed agreement that the client will keep “Resume designed by Maureen Nelson, Certified Professional Resume Writer” at the bottom, the same way websites often have the name of the web designer at the bottom. Unfortunately, there’s no way to prevent the client from removing it. Perhaps signing the agreement will weed people out. A better sell would be to give a discount for resumes with the tagline. This would assume I would do some resumes w/o the line (not ethical) and still doesn’t address the issue that people could remove it at will.
Folks, I think both Marty and I are tired of this topic. Both sides of the argument have been stated adequately. If you have a clever solution to the problem outlined above, OR if you are a job seeker who would buy a resume with the credit line AND would keep it on, I’d like to hear from you. OR, if you’re an employer/hiring manager, tell us how seeing a resume with the resume writer’s credit line at the bottom would strike you. Would love to hear that.
Comment by maureenpnelson — November 16, 2010 @ 2:59 pm |
Do you think “Resume design” is accurate? Usually resume writers go far beyond design, which implies graphic design.
Comment by Marty Nemko, Ph.D. — November 17, 2010 @ 7:49 am |
Right. I’ll use “Resume prepared by Maureen Nelson” — I think that was your original suggestion.
Comment by Maureen — November 17, 2010 @ 3:34 pm |
A job seeker is selling their services and abilities – their “product”, if you will – to a company looking for that product. Much the same as a company sells their product to a consumer.
Think about advertising. When you see a clumsy home-made ad for a product, with design and copy done by the company owner rather than an advertising professional trained in creating polished and informative ads, are you inclined to even LOOK at the ad? Do you want to know more? Or do you skip over it in favor of looking at the polished and professionally designed and written advertisements that more effectively display what a company can offer you? Their products and services may be equal. However, most companies are simply not advertisers. They focus on actually providing a service or product, and rely on an agency or other trained personnel to help them put their best foot forward. They have business-plan writers, grant-proposal writers, magazine article and press-release writers, graphic design firms and advertising agencies, web-interface usability designers, content editors, focus groups, social media consultants, marketing consultants, PR departments, etc. Simply to promote their business product or service. Why can’t they simply say, “Hey guys, we do this or make this. Buy it! It will do this and this and that. You’ll love it!” That’s what they used to do. In the 30′s, 40′s, 50′s, 60′s, even the 70′s… Just look at old magazines or newspaper ads. But now, because there are SO MANY products or services out there that are SO similar, because there are so many choices for products of similar quality and function, it takes more. More polish. More hype. More than simply a product description and picture.
You have to know how to format an advertisement to be visually pleasing, to draw the consumer’s eye, to stand out and get them excited about it. You have to know how to describe it to someone who may have never heard of it before, in an easily understandable way, instead of focusing on industry jargon. It takes creativity, it takes skill, and it’s not something the majority of business owners can do themselves, no matter how much they think their product is the best. Consumers expect more. Yes, they expect that the product will do everything advertised, but they want to enjoy being sold on it.
A good point was made earlier about self-promotion versus other-promotion. It’s easy to give testimonials and praise and promote someone else. For many, however, it’s hard to accurately represent themselves. Many have the tendency to either overstate, or understate, whether you’re talking about a consumer product, or a job-seeker’s service or ability.
A job-seeker’s product is the job-seeker. The consumer is the company doing the hiring. Yes, the company wants to know what skills, accomplishments, and abilities that the job-seeker is bringing to the table. And in previous decades, a simple typewritten resume with a basic listing of skills and employers and accomplishments, with good grammar and punctuation showing attention to detail, was often enough. There was no computerized scanning for keywords. There was no fancy formatting from word-processing programs. It was all on the typewriter, they all looked the same. Or you went to a printing company, and had it professionally typeset (was that cheating? surely those stood out from the typewritten ones, being professionally typeset like that). Now, you have to know how to put your resume in multiple formats, for email, for the web, for print. You have to know about tables and font sizes and what font is most readable, and what layouts will scan best when the HR department lets their computer analyze the resume for them instead of reading each one. You have to know more than just the industry terms that you might be experienced in, you have to know whatever the HR department THINKS your job is about, even though they usually have no expertise in the area you work in.
Have you ever been at a party or a networking event and asked someone what it is that they do? And had your eyes glaze over as they start rattling off so much mumbo-jumbo and technical aspects of their job that you simply can’t understand? “In English, please?” you might ask. And they look confused. They know all about their job. They are explaining it the way they know it, and it’s something a hiring manager for their type of job would know and understand. Unfortunately, you’re more like the HR department. You want the short, easy-to-understand highlights. Let the hiring manager talk mumbo-jumbo technical stuff at the interview.
Unfortunately, when a job-seeker is trying to describe their job functions and accomplishments and skills, it often comes out as a dry list of their skills and tasks. Unless they’re writers or journalists or advertisers, they may have real difficulty in expressing their skills on paper in a way that really captures attention and makes them stand out from the rest. They may be the absolute best at what they do, be organized and detail-oriented and even creative, well-spoken, easy to communicate with. But really, they need help in advertising. And that’s what this is really all about. It’s advertising. And not everyone is in the advertising field.
This is where a resume-writer comes in. They’re the advertising agency for the job-seeker’s product. They interview the job-seeker. They review the job-seeker’s current resume, which likely is already organized in a nice list of skills and job history. They dig deeper. They ask questions. They get the job-seeker thinking. They take the job-seeker’s words and thoughts and ideas, and apply them to that nice, neat list, and make it into a real advertisement for the job-seeker, which will display them at their best for their consumer target. The job-seeker’s strengths are in the skills they’re advertising, not in the advertisement itself. There’s no shame in this.
CEO’s have Executive Secretaries. These secretaries create business letters, proposals, contracts, etc. They’re often sounding-boards to help the CEO organize their thoughts into coherent and precise written words. Are the CEO’s cheating because they didn’t write the documents they’re signing their names to, or because they needed to sound it out with someone else in order to make the written words match their thoughts and knowledge? It’s often not even a strong point for CEO’s to be able to write and proofread their own documents. Sure they CAN do it if needed, but their strengths lie elsewhere.
Even journalists and professional writers have editors whose job it is to check for grammar, awkward phrasing, punctuation, and readability. Because even the most skilled of writers need an extra set of eyes. In school, we were taught to never turn something in without A) proofreading it ourselves, B) having someone else check it over, and C) writing a final, corrected draft. (And this post is surely an example of not doing any of the above.)
Have you ever seen those mind-bender puzzles where you try to spot the error? Usually a simple repeating of the word “the” in a multi-line sentence. How many times did you try to find the mistake before you found it? Or had it pointed out to you? Or what about the ones where there’s a whole paragraph written with the first and last letters of words in the right spots, but everything in between is jumbled. And you were amazed that you could still read the paragraph? Because the human brain doesn’t usually read letter-for-letter and word-for-word. We skim the sentences. We know the shapes of letters and words. Our brain deciphers and translates into what it knows SHOULD be there instead of what’s actually written. Especially if it’s something we’ve written ourselves.
Having a second set of eyes to look over something before submitting it to the consumer is part of producing conscientious, detail-oriented work. It’s why companies have Quality Control, and the President has his Advisors, and writers have editors, and designers have proofers.
Aside from proper English and grammar, which everyone should strive for, it’s not expected that everyone is a marketing genius. Employers want the right fit for the job, and that doesn’t always mean someone good with the written word. Always a bonus of course, but some jobs have more important requirements. The point in a well written resume is to get the job-seeker in front of the person with whom they can showcase THOSE skills, rather than getting lost in the HR screening. Some people do this with writers-for-hire, others have family, friends, or teachers to assist. Some people get by without a written resume at all because they know someone who knows someone. If the required skills for the job are accurately represented, how is this an ethics issue?
Of course, many self-written resumes are in-fact NOT accurate representations of the required skills. While many job-seekers don’t know how to make their skills and achievements shine, still others go to the other extreme of trying to play up skills that are, at best, mediocre. A good resume-writer gives a more accurate measure through questioning and reviewing and getting down to the nitty-gritty to create the most accurate and marketable portrait they can of the job-seeker.
If your job target requires skills in marketing, strong writing skills, copy-writing, editing, or proofreading, then by all means, you should be able to put together a great resume. But don’t expect that everyone has the same skills and strengths. Some of us need a little extra help – some just need that extra set of eyes, or some advice or examples – some just need to polish off the rough edges. And some need an ad agency to help really market an awesome product…
Comment by grayCe clark — July 6, 2011 @ 4:19 pm |
I ask you merely this: If hiring a resume writer is ethical and expected, why don’t resume writers, on the bottom of each resume they write, say, “This resume was written by Jane Jones,” professional resume writer.
Comment by Marty Nemko — November 16, 2011 @ 6:46 pm |