Do you cut your own hair? Perform your own dental work? Prepare your own taxes?

Chances are that you leave these important jobs to professionals who are trained to do them well. Why then would you write your own resume when your job search, and even your career, hinges on this critical document?

A resume is not an autobiography, it is a marketing tool designed to get you noticed and get your foot in the door for a first interview. Often, when individuals attempt to write their own resumes, they feel overwhelmed by the task. How much information should you include? How far back should your resume go? Can you use the same format you used when you wrote your first resume after college?

By presenting your career information to a resume writing professional, you can go over the options and advice best suited to your career experience and goals. The resume writer wants to present you in the best possible light while maintaining all the factual titles, dates and responsibilities that you have accumulated over the years.

Another benefit of having your resume written by professionals is objectivity. An objective writer can weed out the miscellaneous and filler information you may be tempted to include in your resume. A resume writer can also evaluate your career experience and highlight achievements and accomplishments that set you apart from the hundreds of other candidates vying for the same position.

A resume should not appear 'canned' or full of hype. When you consult with a professional resume writer, you can feel confident that your career information will be presented in the strongest, most appealing format for your particular industry.

A professionally written resume has the advantage of being prepared by writers who are as familiar with key industry terms as they are with grammar, spelling and punctuation. A professionally written resume should contain the key words that industry HR managers and executive headhunters need to see when scanning through the thousands of documents they receive each week.

Getting your resume professionally written is an investment. In return, a great resume can command a higher salary and, more importantly, help you land a job that you love. If you're not receiving responses to your applications and are constantly tweaking and struggling with your resume, working with a professional writer can be a faster route to landing interviews.

Writing your own resume is probably not on the top of your to-do list for today, or even tomorrow. Often, passive job seekers put off this important task until crunch time. Consult with a professional to avoid putting yourself in this position.

After all, your writer has a deadline to meet and can't procrastinate the way a typical job hunter does when faced with the daunting task of preparing his or her own resume!