Resume Writing, a Growing Career Choice for Writers

Resume writing services have increased over the last few years as more unemployed people find jobs and others leave temporary part-time jobs for full-time jobs with benefits. Trying to track Department of Labor statistics isn't easy to justify exactly why this specialization continues to grow. Recently, the number of U.S. citizens filing for unemployment benefits has been trending down. There are some job analysts, however, who say that hiring has not sped up to the extent that we can positively claim our economy is in full recovery. Despite differing opinions on the health of the U.S. job market, it's clear that competition to find work is intense. Outsourcing marketplaces like Elance.com, Freelancer.com, and oDesk.com all reveal through their year-to-year job stats that resume writing is in high demand.

In simpler times, without the technology and online presence we have today, resumes were neutral laundry lists, nitpicking and highlighting a candidate's skills and accomplishments. Today, resumes are self-promotional pieces that pitch and position the candidate uniquely and creatively. Not surprisingly, freelancer writers adept at crafting these life-changing documents are in high demand.

A recent article in Forbes stated the average resume gets no more than 6.25 seconds of a hiring manager's attention. The same Forbes piece revealed that professional resumes are easier to navigate, ranking them 60% higher than resumes created by applicants themselves. The main problem: most job seekers don't know how to craft their career objectives and fail to sell themselves. However, professional resume writers have the vocabulary and insight to persuasively do this. Additionally, they stay abreast of changes in the human resources world to know what works and what doesn't.

For example:

• Typing a 1-2 sentence objective on top of a resume today is passé. Summaries are now preferred.
• Organizations once focused on skills. Now they look for talent.
• Knowing how to perform a particular function is no longer enough. Candidates have to be great at what they do, and support these claims with specific results or scenarios.

Every job seeker understands that a resume can be a shoe-in for an interview or at least a call back from the HR department. Unfortunately, homemade resumes often lack verve. They can be presented too imaginatively or not imaginatively enough. They commonly contain typos or are poorly formatted.

A notable event that attracts participants from around the world, the Toast of the Resume Industry Writing Competition, speaks to the growing significance of writers who specialize in making these critical decisions for job seekers.  Many seasoned pros compare resume writing with job marketing, though bringing a candidate to "life on paper" is marketing on a much more personal level.

Freelance writers were once hired to make resumes more visually appealing. They assembled and organized the information provided by the client and presented it better. Unlike people who only use Microsoft Word's most basic functions, these writers knew the full range of its margins, spacing, and fonts. Today a resume writer does more than just format, but also acts as a career counselor of sorts. As this specialization evolves and matures, job seekers and HR people will hold writers to much higher standards.

Writers who create resumes on a casual freelance basis can now enroll in a number of certification programs offered around the U.S. They can get training on how to run their own businesses and develop their knowledge on anything relevant to this field.

For example, one very important topic is on keywords. While an average job seeker may find it hard to believe, choosing what you say and how you say it on a resume calls for a great deal of savvy. Leaving out specific keywords from a candidate's online resume can fail to attract the attention from HR people who are conducting searches in specific job categories. A gifted resume writer, however, knows what keywords to use to attract recruiters. Unemployed job seekers don't mind paying $150 to $350 for a new resume, as long as they are convinced that the finished document will give them a competitive advantage.

Related links:

• Resume Writing as a Freelance Service (freelancewriting.com)
• How to Write a Better Career Summary (lousywriter.com)
• The Future of Freelancing (this blog)

I welcome your comments, suggestions, or corrections. Use the Comments form below.

Sincerely,
Brian Scott