Working with a Resume Writer - Lesson #1 Response

Working with a Resume Writer - Lesson #1 Response
Posted by Teena Rose, resumes and cover letters to give you the advantage.

For those on you just tuning in, I opted to throw my hat into the ring for a resume-writing challenge conducted by Jobacle.com. Yes me, Teena Rose. It seemed a bit silly at first because I’ve been writing resumes for nearly 10 years. I’ve worked with the crème de la crème … the echelon of the working world, if you will. But, I’ll be the first to tell you that I’m still a work on progress when it comes to resumes, cover letters, and the like.

I've never been much for joining challenges, since I've always built Resume to Referral off the growing successes of my happily employed list of clients. But, I heard about the Jobacle Resume Writing Challenge completely by accident; and since my workload was light at the time, I said, "sure, why not."

After all, I had some spare time. =]

Jobacle.com owner, Andrew GR (full name concealed for privacy purposes), is a professional Internet 2.0 strategist. For those of you who don’t know what Internet 2.0 means, the term simply refers to the next generation of the Internet to include social networking, blogging, podcasting, twittering, and so on.

Andrew applies his skill set to his personal endeavors, such as Jobacle.com and The Working Podcast, however, he also applies his online brand building and marketing strategies to his day job as well.

I’ll be forthright. I don’t write many resumes for professional bloggers, podcasters, and social networking gurus. Although, I suppose that’s about to change over the coming years (or maybe as minimal as the coming months). It’s not as if I’m new to the stuff. I blog. I twitter. I contribute to career forums. Compared to some, I’m probably on top of the new 2.0 tools, while others might feel I’m way behind. So, you could probably say I’m nestled somewhere in the middle. I know enough, but not everything.

So, accepting the challenge was going to put me out of my typical comfort zone. You see, I’m one of those crazy people who see unusual job titles and think, ooh, I wonder what’s involved in his job description. For example, I was watching a news broadcast where a terrorist consultant was being interviewed. It’s insane that anyone would even care about what a terrorist consultant does in his or her day-to-day job, but well, welcome to my world.

The purpose of the Jobacle Resume Writing Challenge was not only to receive a great resume (I’m guessing he plans to use one of the many he’s received), but to also blog about the experience and lessons learned while working with a resume writer.



Well, I thought it would be fun to turn the tables a bit.

This way, I can share the challenges that we as resume writers experience when working with a client. Of course, I contacted Andrew for his approval to blog about him. His response was as follows:

You are encouraged to blog about the process and the contest; though whether or not you choose to do so will have no impact on the challenge's outcome.

I kindly ask that you do NOT post anything we might discuss that I deem 'off the record.' Mainly, details about my current full-time job. I plan on making myself as available as possible to deal with whatever your writing process might be. However, please keep in mind that I do work full-time and am not always available to talk during business hours.

This is a new experience for us here at Jobacle. I think we might be on to something big...

Be well,
Andrew

With this said, specifics about Andrew’s job (i.e. employer name or any job tasks that might hint to his employer) will remain confidential.

Here we go …

Andrew's Lesson #1
When searching for a resume writer, have an understanding of how involved you want to be in the process and how much time you have to commit.

Andrew is absolutely correct on this one. Don’t expect the resume writer to receive your job titles and write a quality and thorough resume and cover letter without your input. It’s near impossible.

Sure, we can somewhat write and build docs without you. Let’s face it, most outside sales professionals have similar duties. What differs, however, are products and services sold, scope of clients, territorial focuses, proposed or new market-entry strategies … and well, you get my point.

Specific identifying details about your job can only come from you.

Now, what Andrew also references in his post is how he “logged hours upon hours of time talking and e-mailing with different resume writers.”

Resume writers vary on how they collect the details needed to write a customized resume. The method of collection is really based on the resume writer’s comfort level, as well as, the client’s preferred method of contact.

Resume writers might use …
* Email
* Phone
* Combo Email/Phone

From my experience, I float between the three choices. It really depends upon my client. I have some that prefer email, maybe because they work during the day so phone consults are impossible. While others, specifically my executive clients, prefer phone consults.

I really don’t prefer one method over another. My objective is to cater to the client’s needs and preferences, so I simply follow their lead.

Over the coming weeks I’ll attempt to keep up with Andrew’s blog posts, writing my thoughts and comments in response to his thoughts and comments. Should be fun, right?

Regards,
Teena Rose

Copyright 2008, Teena Rose, All Rights Reserved

Labels: jobacle

posted by Teena Rose, Highly Endorsed Job-Search Expert @ 11:14 AM