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With so many executive-level job candidates fighting for the same positions, the job market is tougher than ever.
Gaining the attention of hiring managers takes more than MBA degrees, sharp skills and years of leadership experience.
You also need a strong executive resume and cover letter.
An executive resume writer can help you submit an airtight executive resume demonstrating how you’re uniquely capable of solving a specific set of commercial challenges – and why you should be hired instead of any of the other 20 senior executives who have applied for the same job.
With experience in pitching business leaders for jobs across industries, executive resume writers may be your “secret weapon” on the ultra-competitive job search battlefield.
But is hiring such service necessary? Can you, with a few hours of spare time and a cup of coffee, write your own executive resume?
Well, like with all hiring decisions, the answer is nuanced. Here’s a list of 5 reasons you should hire an executive resume writer.
1. Unique Point Of Difference.
I’m sure you’ve seen this often-quoted statistic: on average, prospective employers spend six seconds scanning a resume before deciding whether it is worthy of deeper scrutiny.
What happens during these crucial few seconds in a recruiter’s mind?
A recruiter cares about one thing and one thing only – your unique point of difference.
In other words, what do you bring to the table that other candidates don’t? Why should they choose you versus any of those 20 equally qualified candidates?
The answer to that question lies in your unique value proposition. The number one priority of any good executive resume writer is to elicit, articulate and communicate it on your behalf via your documents.
This means going beyond generic, fluffy descriptions like “experienced executive with fantastic leadership skills and great business acumen”.
Instead, it means looking for a unique combination of skills, strengths and personality attributes that apply only to you and to no one else.
2. An Error-Free Resume.
Have you ever written a document, checked it four times, and were stunned when someone pointed out grammar errors you’ve missed?
This is normal.
The human eye skims through familiar text to improve reading speed. An unfortunate byproduct of this “feature” is our inability to pick up our typos.
And yet, a resume that contains grammatical slip-ups and spelling mistakes is a deal-breaker in the world of job search. It screams of inattention to detail, poor organisation and low conscientiousness. No employer wants a sloppy employee on there team.
Ha, I’m messing with you.
But I’m sure that you get my point.
Executive resume writers are also human and, despite their best intentions, cannot always create a 100% error-free first draft.
However, most offer a few rounds of revisions and, through the process of feedback and amendments, will deliver a final document that is devoid of all errors.
3. Strategic Career Coaching.
While career coaching is, strictly speaking, not one of the deliverables of a resume writing engagement, you may be surprised to find that the process provides you with new levels of clarity about your next career move.
This is particularly helpful if you’re at a career crossroads – and aren’t sure which path to take. For example, if you’r enot sure:
- whether you should step up to management or executive level
- how to move from private to government roles, and vice versa
- how to position your generalist background for a specific role
- whether you should move from one industry to another
4. Victory Over Applicant Tracking Systems.
The use of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) is common amongst recruiters. They save time by shortlisting your resume based on the system’s perception of your suitability for a role.
Such systems screen out up to 75% of applications.
To make matters more complicated, ATS technology is constantly improving. A few years ago, for example, most ATS could not read PDF files and had difficulty parsing out any keywords that weren’t an exact match.
Modern systems can digest several file formats and, thanks to machine learning, can understand context, nuance and even island.
Good resume writers do their best to stay abreast of the changes to ensure they can get your resume past the ATS bots.
5. Mountains Of Free Time.
Have you ever spent days trying to write your own resume? Tell me if this looks familiar to you:
- You start by writing everything that you’ve done.
- You then realise you’ve included too much information.
- You begin to cull.
- You don’t know what to cull, and what to leave.
- You find that you’ve painted yourself into a corner.
- You widen the scope.
- You realise that you’ve focused too much on BAU.
- You rewrite to focus on your achievements.
- You realise that your resume is too long.
- You begin to cull.
Days later, you’re frustrated, massively behind on your other projects – and your resume doesn’t suck any less.
I know that place very well because I always hear this story from my clients. Objectively writing about yourself is extremely time-consuming, even if you’re a great writer.
Irene
