Why Should You Use Professional Resume Writers?

If you’ve ever considered using professional resume writers or a professional resume writing service, now is the time to do it.  While you may be wondering whether the cost is worth the benefit, if you have spent any time in the job market lately you’ve realized two things:  law jobs are scant, and applicants are numerous.  You can’t afford not to use a professional resume writer if you want to give your legal resume a fighting chance.

Consider this:  The Department of Labor reported this past month that the number of unemployed lawyers jumped to 20,000 – a 66% increase from last year, and the highest figure in ten years.  Big Law alone has let go 4,218 attorneys and 6,259 staffers in the past 15 months – a figure that doesn’t include revoked offers, cancelled summer programs, and deferred start dates.

Law firms are laying off, corporate law departments are not hiring, government jobs are scarce, and for every position you manage to find, there are literally hundreds of applicants sending their resume – each more qualified than the next.   In this incredibly challenging job market you need every advantage available to make your candidacy stand out, and that includes a professionally written legal resume.  While everyone’s situation is different, here are some indicators to help you figure out whether you might benefit from using a professional resume writer.

You Are Not Getting Interviews From Your Resume.

If you have not yet used a professional resume writing service, you may be concerned about the cost of working with a professional resume writer, and/or fear that your legal resume will not be significantly better than the one you’ve already drafted.  After all, if you are an attorney seeking a job you may think to yourself: “I know how to write, I have plenty of time to do it, and I can save money.”

If you are getting plenty of interviews from your resume, then your ‘do-it-yourself” approach to resume writing may be just fine.  If you’ve been submitting your legal resume for over a month and have not gotten interviews yet, you probably have a resume problem. Take this as a hint, and bring your resume to a professional resume writer.

First, there are a number of affordable and effective professional resume writing services out there.  The key is to do a little research.  Secondly, while you may fancy yourself as a great writer, resume writing is a particular skill.  What they say about attorneys who choose to represent themselves in court is also true about those who decide to write their own resumes.   It’s not necessarily a good idea.

While you may be good at presenting a case in writing, you may be selling yourself short by trying to write your own resume.  One of the things that can be lost in a “do-it-yourself” approach to resume writing is objectivity.  Evaluations are usually best left to others, and that includes your resume.  There are also a number of tricks of the trade that professional resume writers know from working with employers that you may simply not know. 

Your resume is one of the most important documents you’ll ever write.  The last thing you want is for your resume not to be the most effective it can be, and miss out on a chance to impress potential employers.   If you are serious about your job search and you are not getting the type of response you are looking for from your resume, you need to consider working with a professional resume writing service.

The Benefits Outweigh The Costs.

If you are seeking a job, chances are you are operating with a tight budget.  While working with a resume writer is an investment, you may quickly find that the benefits clearly outweigh the costs.

First, professional resume writers write resumes.  That’s all they do, everyday, all day.  There are benefits to hiring professional writers to create or revise your resume – they are trained and have experience doing exactly that.  Chances are you are not writing resumes as often as they are, or rarely, or never.  Professional resume writers are trained to design original formats and use proven content strategies that produce results.  Their success depends on the effectiveness of your resume.  In other words, experts will always do a better job doing what they are trained to do.

Second, there are unwritten and unofficial rules to resume writing that you won’t find in textbooks or Internet samples.  Standards of resume writing are constantly changing and evolving according to the industry, the employers, and the positions that are being targeted.  Many of the norms and preferences of resume composition are determined by real world experience and market conditions, and professional resume writers are best situated to identify and take advantage of these trends than anyone else.

Did you know not every resume needs an objective?  Did you know that placement of certain sections, words, and phrases are more likely to succeed than others?  Professional resume writers know what employers want in a cover letter and resume, and what recruiters are looking for when screening candidate materials.  Many of these professional resume writers have worked as professional recruiter themselves and are in the know when it comes to effective resumes and cover letters.

Did you know that nearly a third of all resumes contain some form of typo of grammatical errors?   According to professional recruiters, simple typos or grammatical errors on an attorney resume can automatically disqualify a candidate from consideration.  If you think your resume is error-free, think again.   In the technology world of spell-checkers you would be amazed at how many resumes still come through with errors.  Even if you take the time to proofread your resume, chances are you might miss something that a fresh and professional pair of eyes won’t.   Professional resume writers know how to create easy-to-read, error-free resumes that will keep you in contention.

In today’s busy legal recruiting market, many law firms and companies are receiving hundreds of thousands of resumes a year.  In order to deal with the sheer number of applicants, organizations are increasingly relying on databases, including resume-scanning software to assess attorney resumes.  Therefore, it is crucial that your attorney resume contain the right keywords in the right section. 

Do you know how to select the right keywords?  Do you know where and how to insert keywords in your resume?  Chances are, you do not.  Professional resume writers on the other hand do, and that can make the difference between getting selected for an interview and rendering your resume invisible to a database. A professional resume writer, particularly one who specializes in your industry, will know how and where to include keywords that will help live recruiters or resume-scanning software select your resume from the crowd.

The old adage “you get what you pay for” is as true to resume writing as anything else.  Think about this when considering hiring a professional resume writer.  Some job seekers find that the peace of mind they get from a professionally prepared resume is worth the cost, which can range from $50 to $1,000.

Conclusion.

While professional resume writers can increase your chances of getting interviews, they are not miracle workers.  They cannot make-up experience or expertise where there is none.   They can smooth out gaps in your resume, but cannot make them disappear.  They can help translate your skills to another industry, but cannot make you the expert that you are not.  They can provide you with a great deal of career advice, but they cannot land you the job.  Professional resume writers can make a difference, but remember to be realistic in your expectations.




By: Vanessa Vidal

Date: 11/22/23