Is Hiring a Resume Writer Misrepresenting Yourself?

Every now and then, the subject comes up at to whether or not hiring a resume writer is considered perpetrating a fraud upon the reader. Usually, those who are asking the question do not truly understand the hiring process is supposed to achieve. Or just not thinking about it. Let’s use an example to illustrate the point.

A company finds itself in need of a top-notch business development professional. There are several critical qualifications of each applicant they will want to consider. However, this critical juncture in the sourcing and hiring process also involves limited reader time and concentration. After all, you are looking at anywhere from dozens to hundreds of resumes that need to be reviews prior to selecting the lucky interviewees. Now, if our esteemed HR professional has to review 175 resumes in order to find 15 qualified and this needs to be done by end of business tomorrow, what type of document do you believe this professional would want to see? Do you believe this individual would want to wade through poorly organized resumes to determine our business development professional’s network building skills, presentation development acumen, or sales closing skills?

Think of it this way: is someone misrepresenting themselves in a court of law when they hire an attorney to speak on their behalf? Of course not. A smart person knows that in order to get the desired legal judgment, they need someone who knows the process and has the resources to quickly get and interpret the information necessary for their defense. What a professional resume writer does for their clients is similar in nature to what an attorney does for theirs. We help our clients to navigate the process by avoiding the pitfalls that can hurt your cause. You can bet that our HR professional does not care who wrote the resume. As long as it clearly and honestly communicates our professional’s relevant skill set in a way that can be easily digested, they will be happy.

After all, do you believe our hiring authority really cares about the resume writing skill of a rainmaker who can bring home a $38 million account? Nah, me either.