Full disclosure: I am a resume writer.
That being said... I would like to counter some of your points, Louis, and say that ETHICAL resume writers take a great deal of time to drill down through the applicant's background to pull out achievement 'nuggets' that best demonstrate their value to employers. Anyone who is in this sector of the careers industry would agree with me that when people come to professional writers, it is usually because they are at the point that they cannot 'see the forest for the trees,' and need independent help parsing out exactly what in their background would be valuable or of interest to employers, especially as technology is changing the format in which this information is submitted.
However, if the applicant misrepresents themselves to the writer, then please don't blame the person who wrote their document. We as professional writers make every effort to extract true information... and on many countless occasions, I, like many of my reputable colleagues, have re-asked the question, "Is that true? Can you verify that?" in order to clarify a claim a client has made. And yes, I have caught several people lying. More than I'd like to see, actually, but I set them straight. But I can't be researcher and 'applicant cop' - I will write a resume as reliably and honestly as I can based on the information submitted by the job seeker. But I don't have time (nor are they paying me) to validate every claim they make, in addition to doing fact-checking. That's the employer's job to see if the person is being honest when the process gets to the background check phase.
I completely sympathize with how many HR folks get gooey resumes that look great on the outside but when you sink your teeth in, there isn't any substance because the applicant was a lying fool. That's frustrating, and actually, quite frankly, LYING.
But please understand that resume writers are not judge and jury on what is truth or what isn't in information the client supplies to us. Like I said, ethical writers ALWAYS tell their clients that they must be truthful at all times and never 'overinflate' anything - including their proficiency level, skills, accomplishments, or even job titles. (I've seen that and corrected a number of folks on job title 'upgrades' that they gave themselves.)
Excellent comment Dawn, thank you. I completely understand your points about helping a candidate draw focus to real skills and experiences. I know that I have had a difficult time with that. You never know what is going to stick and what could be misconstrued. I have also had experience with services that claim to be able to get you in an interview or placed faster because they know how to dupe the system.
It is a service, and when done ethically as you mentioned, really does help job seekers have a better understanding of what an employer is looking for - not tricking a company into thinking someone is more qualified than they actually are. I am glad you shared this.
Louis. Couple of point with your headline I would change to: Resume writing is an attractive nuance that clever (and smart) job seekers should utilize.
Never write your own resume, can you really be objective?
The majority of people are not up to date with industry standards of how resumes are written today.. ATS systems like CATSONE (disclosure: we used catsone many years ago and really like the platform) need to remind aggressive job seekers to have versions of their resume in: MS Word (.docx), Rich Text Format (.rtf) Plain Text (.txt): PDF (.pdf)
Most niche or specialty recruiters know when keywords dont align to accountability. And if one is not sure, they pick up the phone to better qualify.
If you have a professional resume with a strong value statement, transferable skills, significant accomplishments, education and innate talents add up - you will get a call. ( and lets not forget grammar and syntax)
Note that some employers view your "professionally written resume " as a sign of how you might operate within their business: Are you the type of candidate who just puts something on paper and hands it in - OR do you do your due diligence and work with a specialist get the best personal marketing document you can?
You will only waste your time in a meeting with a candidate if you dont network > ask for a reference or get a lead.
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