Why it's a big mistake to let someone else write your resume

I’m going to be a bit of a hypocrite in this post.  For the longest time, I wrote resumes professionally as part of my career coaching services.  Here’s the hypocrisy, I don’t think anyone should get someone else to prepare their resume. Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are some professionals that know how to write an amazing resume.  I also know that there a lot of duds out there.

Here are my top 3 reasons for writing your own resume:

1. It robs you of the preparation that you need for when you are alone in the interview.  If you present yourself with a different level of confidence than the resume presents you, if you don’t use the same language, if you don’t know the content of your resume inside and out, you could end up looking like a fraud.
2. It’s incredible how many times I’ve received a call or email saying “HELP! I found the perfect job and need you to prepare my resume”.  If you can find someone who will adjust your resume in a panic, you can bet you are going to be paying a premium.
3. For a resume to succeed in getting you an interview, it needs to be customized.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received a resume with the question attached “is this a good resume”.  My automatic response is “I don’t know unless you give me a copy of the job you are applying for?”  If you don’t care one way or the other, using a generic resume is fine.  If this is your dream job, don’t chance sending the same resume as you sent for other jobs.  Match the level of effort you put into your resume to your level of desire to get an interview.

Do yourself a favour and rather than getting someone to write your resume, get someone to teach you how to write your own resume. It’s a lot of work, but cutting corners is a risk you may end up paying dearly for.

I've been writing and critiquing resumes for over 20 years.  I kept thinking that at some point, candidates would eventually figure out how to write a good resume.  Based on the resumes that I and my colleagues still receive that hasn't happened.  That's why I finally created a course on How to Write the Perfect Resume.  Not only will you learn how to write the perfect resume, but once it's done, you will get an in-depth resume critique and 1 hour private coaching session with me. Click on the link to learn more.