Resume Writer Matthew Greene

What Are the Qualifications of a Skilled
Resume Writer?

What will qualify a professional writer to assist you?

First and foremost, very strong analytical skills. He or she will need to analyze and discover many additional facts about you, your skills, strengths, and achievements -- in order to determine your potential value or worth to an employer. This, in turn, will have to be translated into skills that are both transferrable and marketable.

A background that includes both career counseling as well as experience in the job market will therefore be useful. To know what skills are required in various jobs and at different levels, a skilled writer needs to read career literature, consult the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and constantly check classified job ads in newspapers and on the Internet -- even more than you do! Jobs and job requirements are constantly changing.

In particular, he or she could help you target specific positions by carefully matching up an employer's stated needs with what you are able to offer. More importantly, if you lack one or more of those essential requirements, an experienced professional is usually able to suggest other equivalents or items that may fairly be substituted. (This is often the way to "improve" one's formal education!)

Second, a good resume writer knows a lot about the art of presentation. It is the skilled way in which your information is selected, organized, and presented that will enhance your perceived value and impress the reader. This requires a knowledge of resume "cosmetics" and "surgery"-- but never anything unethical. The word, resume means "summary".

Third, he or she must understand how the "buyer" thinks -- those who screen as well as those who do the actual hiring. A knowledge of which items might be "red flags" or "turn-offs" is essential along with an ability to draft your best selling points.

Fourth, a skilled writer must know how an effective sales device or marketing tool should be designed and constructed in your particular case. There are no standard resumes. People are not clones. Yours has to be custom-made using your own, unique "ingredients."

And last, but not least, a professional writer should be able to write good English - in the language of the employer and not of literature. A good job resume should not include flowery, fancy or exaggerated language. It is a job search tool, not a literary masterpiece.

Why do I mention English last and not first? Because hundreds of English majors consult with resume-writing professionals -- even graduates with a GPA of 3.9. What they want help with is the specific language of resume writing and how to organize and present their data in the most effective way.

Finally, a resume writer's best credential is his or her track record of developing hundreds and even thousands of resumes that have already helped clients. What are his or her testimonials or success stories? Word of mouth is usually the best recommendation.

NOTE: It may surprise you to learn that there are highly skilled and successful resume writers who have never bothered to become "certified" as professional resume writers. They don't need to be. Their expert articles and books they've written on the subject of resume writing, their extensive experience of creating resumes and their successes speak more loudly than any certificate!

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