Career Hazard: Amateur Resumes

Would you go to a dentist that had only seen six patients?

Would you let an accountant who had only done seven tax returns do your taxes?

Would you see a doctor, if you were his fifth patient? Ever?

No?

So then why are you letting yourself write your own resume?

At our TheLadders.com Live Events, I have met with many subscribers like you. And your experiences are amazing – you've built businesses, run amazing marketing campaigns, designed and built technologies that fly planes. The stories are impressive.

But what you haven't done, is been a professional resume writer. And, unfortunately, it shows.

You see, a resume is a document that sells you, not a document that tells about everything you've ever done.

My best analogy is the product manual vs. the advertisement, as I mentioned a few weeks ago regarding Bose headphones.

Just like the advertisement, you need to tell the recruiter or hiring manager what you can do for them. Today.

And what I've discovered over the years I have been in this business is that it takes a professional writer, who is familiar with what recruiters are looking for, to turn your resume into a very effective advertisement of your skills, talents, abilities and background.

About 5% of the resumes we review get an "A" from us. The vast majority are "B"s and "C"s.

And that's unfortunate, because when I meet you in person, I can see the gleam in your eye, the fire in your belly – all of the great talents that aren't exhibited very clearly on the typical resume.

In this economy, I have to tell you, recruiters have a surfeit of candidates to choose from. Even here at TheLadders.com, where we screen all job seekers to ensure they are appropriate for our $100k+ community, we have seen average applicants per job rise from 15 per job two years ago to 26 today.

And that extra competition means you have about 10 seconds to stand out – to ensure that your audience can find exactly what they need to know about you, and find it fast.

And those are the most important 10 seconds in your job hunt.

Are you going to leave your fate in the hands of an amateur?

Warmest regards,

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.