How Long Does a Professional Resume Writer Take to Write a Resume

How Long Does a Professional Resume Writer Take to Write a Resume This post has been edited to strike through the text about a relationship with JC Resumes. After getting the first comment from a trusted user (and friend), and more investigation, we determined that we didnt want to have the JibberJobber brand/name associated with their services or brand. Julie Walraven of Design Resumes has a great post titled The Chief Cause Of Many Poor Hiring Decisions.  She starts off with CareerBuilders new stat about how long hiring managers spend reviewing resumesas we know, its pathetically low. But then Julie takes her post in an unexpected direction: how long SHE, as a professional resume writer (she is certified and has been doing this, afaik, for over two decades): she will easily spend six hours creating a resume.  Usually that is for an entry-level person.  Its not unusual for her to spend ten or more hours designing a resume. Julie is a resume expert, having investing more than 10,000 hours in her trade to claim expertise.  When I lost my job I spent a couple of weeks fumbling around trying to piece together my own resume.  I had no expertise, experience or training just an attitude that if I could put myself through two degrees, I could certainly write a one or two page document! Right?? I didnt understand that a resume was not simply a list with work history, dates and some cool action verbs.  I thought I could easily put that document together but what I didnt realize was what a great resume really is. A great, even an excellent resume, is a marketing document. Coincidentally, a sucky resume is also a marketing document it just screams: dont hire me! A resume is not a standard business document for filing away in a three ring binder,  simply to be forgotten.  Your resume has a very specific purpose.  Whats more, the judge of your resume is going to take your days, weeks, and for some of you, months of work and give it a cursory 30 or 120 seconds its almost an atrocity! But really, spending less than two minutes really is NOT an atrocity. You see, its not about YOU.  Its not about the amount of work you put in.  Its not about how amazing you are, how clever you are, or how dumb the viewer is for not getting how brilliant you are. This is all about THEM. Pursuing you will reflect on them and could have an impact on their career. Are they capable of hiring the RIGHT person?  Can they hire the BEST person?  Or will they hire a dud, or a lemon?  This could cost them their job!  Hiring the wrong person could sink the entire company! If an expert, like Julie Walraven, spends six hours to develop the most basic of resumes, which she can only do because she has over ten thousand+ hours of writing resumes, what makes you think that you, or I, without this expertise, can throw something together in a few hours, and have it be good enough (much less great!)? The mistakes I would make would undoubtedly cause my resume to be in the under-ten-seconds-and-then-throw-away pile.  Whether that is a typo or a grammar mistake, or not using the best word(s) to put us in the right light, it will cost me. I know there are people out there, including one of my favorite recruiters (Steve Levy read his blog!) who say that we must write our own resumes, and hiring a resume writer is as good as hiring a charlatan (those are my words, but thats the message I hear from him).  I agree that we should do a lot of work to help get the resume done.  We should put our hearts into it.  We should spend time going through our past, listing our accomplishments, and doing the very hard work of self- and career-evaluation. But I still think we should run it past a real resume writer who will polish our final marketing document so that it gets more time, and more respect, from the person evaluating whether they should bring you in for an interview or not. (professional resume writers are not merely polishers.  They are experts in creating perhaps the most important marketing document at this point in your career) Convinced you need resume help? I suggest considering either of these two options: First Option:  look for someone whos experience matches exactly what you need and who you are.  There are resume professionals like Liz Handlin (Ultimate Resumes) who are so focused on executives, especially finance executives, that you should NOT consider using someone who doesnt do finance executive resumes before talking to someone like her.  There are resume experts that specialize in IT executives, CEOs, entry level (recent college graduates), and everywhere inbetween.  When you are looking for the right match, dont disrespect these professionals and tell them how the process works.  See if they are a right fit, and then humbly work with them within their system.  Otherwise, you might hear a very kind Im not sure Im the right person for you let me recommend you to one of my colleagues.  That really means I wouldnt choose to work with you for double the money I can tell you are going to be a massive pain to work with. Second Option:  if you are looking for a low-cost just-get-me-to-the-next-level and clean up what I already have, consider JibberJobbers new partnership with JC Resumes (we have negotiated discount bundle available to you to get you what you need).  I have been hesitant to do a partnership like this for YEARS.  But I have talked to the owners of this service and I always come back to is this high quality?  I dont want to recommend a resume mill that just pumps them out like typists.  I have asked them about their writing and quality process, and Im really quite impressed.  I personally should have spent the money to do this instead of wasting a week or two trying to write my own get it done, have something you can be proud of, and if you find out its not good enough, then go back to the first option above.  But I doubt it will be money wasted.  Heres the page to get started. Were working on creating an list of specialized resume writers that you can reach out to on your own stay tuned The point is, make sure that you are putting enough time and resources into getting this marketing document put together the right way. How Long Does a Professional Resume Writer Take to Write a Resume This post has been edited to strike through the text about a relationship with JC Resumes. After getting the first comment from a trusted user (and friend), and more investigation, we determined that we didnt want to have the JibberJobber brand/name associated with their services or brand. Julie Walraven of Design Resumes has a great post titled The Chief Cause Of Many Poor Hiring Decisions.  She starts off with CareerBuilders new stat about how long hiring managers spend reviewing resumesas we know, its pathetically low. But then Julie takes her post in an unexpected direction: how long SHE, as a professional resume writer (she is certified and has been doing this, afaik, for over two decades): she will easily spend six hours creating a resume.  Usually that is for an entry-level person.  Its not unusual for her to spend ten or more hours designing a resume. Julie is a resume expert, having investing more than 10,000 hours in her trade to claim expertise.  When I lost my job I spent a couple of weeks fumbling around trying to piece together my own resume.  I had no expertise, experience or training just an attitude that if I could put myself through two degrees, I could certainly write a one or two page document! Right?? I didnt understand that a resume was not simply a list with work history, dates and some cool action verbs.  I thought I could easily put that document together but what I didnt realize was what a great resume really is. A great, even an excellent resume, is a marketing document. Coincidentally, a sucky resume is also a marketing document it just screams: dont hire me! A resume is not a standard business document for filing away in a three ring binder,  simply to be forgotten.  Your resume has a very specific purpose.  Whats more, the judge of your resume is going to take your days, weeks, and for some of you, months of work and give it a cursory 30 or 120 seconds its almost an atrocity! But really, spending less than two minutes really is NOT an atrocity. You see, its not about YOU.  Its not about the amount of work you put in.  Its not about how amazing you are, how clever you are, or how dumb the viewer is for not getting how brilliant you are. This is all about THEM. Pursuing you will reflect on them and could have an impact on their career. Are they capable of hiring the RIGHT person?  Can they hire the BEST person?  Or will they hire a dud, or a lemon?  This could cost them their job!  Hiring the wrong person could sink the entire company! If an expert, like Julie Walraven, spends six hours to develop the most basic of resumes, which she can only do because she has over ten thousand+ hours of writing resumes, what makes you think that you, or I, without this expertise, can throw something together in a few hours, and have it be good enough (much less great!)? The mistakes I would make would undoubtedly cause my resume to be in the under-ten-seconds-and-then-throw-away pile.  Whether that is a typo or a grammar mistake, or not using the best word(s) to put us in the right light, it will cost me. I know there are people out there, including one of my favorite recruiters (Steve Levy read his blog!) who say that we must write our own resumes, and hiring a resume writer is as good as hiring a charlatan (those are my words, but thats the message I hear from him).  I agree that we should do a lot of work to help get the resume done.  We should put our hearts into it.  We should spend time going through our past, listing our accomplishments, and doing the very hard work of self- and career-evaluation. But I still think we should run it past a real resume writer who will polish our final marketing document so that it gets more time, and more respect, from the person evaluating whether they should bring you in for an interview or not. (professional resume writers are not merely polishers.  They are experts in creating perhaps the most important marketing document at this point in your career) Convinced you need resume help? I suggest considering either of these two options: First Option:  look for someone whos experience matches exactly what you need and who you are.  There are resume professionals like Liz Handlin (Ultimate Resumes) who are so focused on executives, especially finance executives, that you should NOT consider using someone who doesnt do finance executive resumes before talking to someone like her.  There are resume experts that specialize in IT executives, CEOs, entry level (recent college graduates), and everywhere inbetween.  When you are looking for the right match, dont disrespect these professionals and tell them how the process works.  See if they are a right fit, and then humbly work with them within their system.  Otherwise, you might hear a very kind Im not sure Im the right person for you let me recommend you to one of my colleagues.  That really means I wouldnt choose to work with you for double the money I can tell you are going to be a massive pain to work with. Second Option:  if you are looking for a low-cost just-get-me-to-the-next-level and clean up what I already have, consider JibberJobbers new partnership with JC Resumes (we have negotiated discount bundle available to you to get you what you need).  I have been hesitant to do a partnership like this for YEARS.  But I have talked to the owners of this service and I always come back to is this high quality?  I dont want to recommend a resume mill that just pumps them out like typists.  I have asked them about their writing and quality process, and Im really quite impressed.  I personally should have spent the money to do this instead of wasting a week or two trying to write my own get it done, have something you can be proud of, and if you find out its not good enough, then go back to the first option above.  But I doubt it will be money wasted.  Heres the page to get started. Were working on creating an list of specialized resume writers that you can reach out to on your own stay tuned The point is, make sure that you are putting enough time and resources into getting this marketing document put together the right way.