Collaborate with your resume writer to create the optimal career marketing documents.

Once you have hired a resume writer, there are ways you can enhance your work together to produce the best career documents possible.

Make the project a priority: Hiring a resume writer means you will have a partner who will create career documents to assist with your job search. It does not mean the writer can complete the project without you. The project is likely to take between two and four weeks, depending on the number of documents and the complexity of your search. Set aside several hours a week for providing information and communicating with your resume writer.

Trust the process: Be prepared to follow an existing process. You don’t have to make this up as you go along. Neither do you have to inform your resume writer of what to do next or how to do it. If your resume writer has a good deal of experience, they already know what works best. You are definitely the expert on your career, and your resume writer is the expert on the resume writing process and product.

Collaborate: You will be asked for information about your skills, experience, and accomplishments. The information requested may be different from any you have seen in resumes before, particularly if you have not conducted a job search in some time. Your resume writer’s job is to make you stand out from the crowd of candidates in competition for the same positions you seek. Be willing to expand your ideas about resumes, accomplishments, and a job search.

Be candid: When asked for information, provide what is requested. Holding back information will not produce an optimal document. Deciding the resume writer needs information other than what is requested is also unproductive. If in doubt, ask your resume writer if more or other information would be helpful.

Ask questions: In fact, if you have questions about the process, product, or information, please ask. Most resume writers I know are very helpful people. They are vitally interested in their craft and their clients, genuinely invested in paving the way for a successful job search with powerful marketing documents. They would not want you wondering or uncomfortable for a second.

Keep your schedule: Most resume writers I know are also very busy, often handling multiple projects simultaneously. When you miss an appointment or fail to provide information on schedule, you are likely holding up the entire project. This leaves the resume writer with a gap in the schedule that likely will not be filled, as other clients are already scheduled. It also may push your project to the end of the queue and delay the completion date by days or even weeks.

Communicate: A good deal of resume project communication is via email. It doesn’t happen often, but occasionally, an email disappears. Someday, we will find those misdirected missives on some hacker’s server. In the meantime, I have initiated a policy for myself and a courtesy I ask of my clients, to answer every communication. If a client emails me a document, I email them an acknowledgement. Even as little as “Got it. Thanks.” keeps the project moving. If I don’t receive an email answer, I have it on my schedule to check with the client. That’s how important it is.

Keep the scope true: One of the first things you will talk about with your resume writer is the target of your job search. You will need to make this decision early in the project. Make sure that decision is comfortable for you because once the writing starts, changing the target expands the scope of the project. A scope change necessitates at least an additional investment if not an entirely new project.

Following these suggestions will help you keep your resume project happily on track.

If this sounds like a comfortable way to conduct a resume project, contact me right away to talk about starting your own project.

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