by Yana Parker, author of The Damn Good Resume Guide

 Who to Avoid Who Are the Good Guys? Questions to AskThe Damn Good Resume Team

Getting help from a BAD resume writer is not only a waste of money, it could actually LOSE you the chance at a good job interview, making it a very pricey mistake. You would be a LOT better off struggling with the resume yourself than hiring a hack resume writer -- and there are many of them out there, with fees ranging from "$9 and up" to $500 or more. So what IS a resume worth and how can a job hunter intelligently choose a reputable, competent resume writer?

The safest route is to find a satisfied customer. Ask around and see if any of your friends have had a good experience with a local resume writer. Ask WHY they liked the service and ask to look at their resume. If it appears to come up to your standards, then the next question is: was the price right? (See below.) Another route is to ask for a referral from a local career center or copy center -- they tend to know who is doing the best work.

If you can't find anyone who has received good service from a resume writer, and you can't get a good referral, then you have to do a little sleuthing on your own so you'll be able to assess the resume writers' skill. The easy route of glancing through the yellow pages is a start, but remember that the ads are only showing you the companies that are best at advertising themselves, and not necessarily those best at writing resumes! To find out who can WRITE, you have to ask some sharp questions:

Here are Some Questions I would ask of an unknown resume writer or writing service, to identify those who offer superior service:

1. May I speak with the person who will actually be writing my resume? (You don't want to speak to a salesman, you want to speak to the actual resume writer.)

2. May I talk to that person for a few minutes about what strategy they'll use for dealing with my particular problem? (If they aren't willing to discuss your problem, or they don't have a good strategy for handling it, keep on looking.)

3. How much actual time will I be spending face-to-face with my resume writer? (If all they offer is a minimal interview and they do all the writing when you are gone, the results won't be as good as if you were there to consult with the writer during the writing.)

A smart job-hunter might call ALL the resume writers listed in the Yellow Pages, asking the SAME QUESTIONS of each of them so she'd be able to make a realistic comparison. She would also inquire about the turnaround time, method of payment, policy on typos, and what other related services were available.

The Good Guys -- Resume Writers You Want to FIND

A good resume writer knows that an effective resume is a marketing piece, not a "career obituary," and that it should be targeted as sharply as possible to a specific career field.

They also know that they'll have to interview a job hunter carefully to discover their unique experience and strengths, in order to produce a resume of serious interest to a potential employer -- one that meets the needs of BOTH the job hunter and the employer.

Superior resume writing takes time and doesn't come cheap. But it CAN be an excellent investment. What should it cost?

It will cost more than word processing (check out those rates IN YOUR LOCALITY for comparison) IF you get more service than word processing.

It will cost something close to career counseling rates (again, check the LOCAL "going rates") IF skill-assessment and extensive interviewing are combined with good writing.

In the San Francisco Bay Area this would mean somewhere in the range of $300, depending on complexity -- i.e., the professional level of the job sought and the difficulty of the resume problems to be resolved. Check out The Damn Good Resume Team to see what we offer.

The Bad Guys -- Resume Writers To Stay Away From

* Be wary of resume companies that insist that you come in to their office in person before they will answer any of your questions. They may want you in there for a hard-sell or bait-and-switch "closing."

* Also be wary of companies that rely solely or primarily on YOU filling out a long form with your work history and job duties. Chances are that all you'll get back are your own words typed into a standardized format with perhaps a few bits of jargon thrown into the bargain. This is really no more than word processing and any professional typist can do this for you a lot cheaper. Far better to use your own honest words than those of a schlock resume writer!

* Do not hire any resume writer who prints out resumes on 11 x 17 parchment paper, folding them into a pretentious brochure! Avoid ANY company that makes a big deal out of the kind of paper they print on. This is an almost sure sign of incompetence and misplaced priorities. The CONTENT, not the form, is what matters. Printing on decent paper costs pennies, not dollars, so paper is not even an issue. Bad resume companies try to impress clients with fancy paper. Employers know this and have no respect for these fold-over parchment resumes, which stand out like a sore thumb and get immediately discarded.

* Do not hire a resume writer who charges by-the-page. An outstanding one-page resume is worth far more than ANY three-page resume, and possibly more than a two-page resume, so charging by the page makes no sense at all -- UNLESS they are doing primarily word processing, not resume writing! Higher prices are justified by MORE WORK involved in writing, not by a greater quantity of WORDS. An excessively long resume, in fact, sends a message to the employer that this candidate is an insecure motor-mouth who can't prioritize and get to the point!

* Having done "thousands of resumes" or having been in business a long time, is not necessarily a measure of competence. (I have seen terrible resumes done by people who claim to have done thousands of them--God help those thousands of job hunters!).