What to Expect from an Executive Resume Writing Service (And What to Know Before You Hire One)

The Benefits of Using an Executive Resume Writing Service

A good resume writing firm can help you with your career transition in multiple ways that can be truly life-changing. By writing your executive resume to the role you want, the firm can help you to achieve your goals, which may include a higher title, a move to a bigger or better company, increasing your overall compensation, or all of these and more.

More specifically, by writing a resume “up” to your next role, an executive resume writing service helps you to create a powerful draw—helping the readers of your executive resume understand your specific value proposition for the role you want. This, in turn, sets a mental marker in their mind that attaches your abilities to the skills and requirements of the up-leveled title. This has a very natural ripple effect. It’s very typical for my clients to land much more money and a much higher title, secure more interest and more interviews, and have generally more leverage in the market. All of these things happen when the foundation of your goals is well mapped out and your marketing materials—your executive resume, executive biography, and LinkedIn profile—are clearly written to the role you want next.

An Executive Resume Team Can Rectify Your Poor Marketing Messages

Have you ever had recruiters reach out to you through LinkedIn for roles that were just at or slightly under your capabilities? This is simply a marketing/perception issue based on your current LinkedIn profile. A good executive resume writing service with a strong marketing orientation can quickly and easily solve this for you by redesigning and rebranding your executive LinkedIn profile to compliment your executive resume. A good executive resume writer will lead you to focus on contextualizing your preferred outcome and then working backwards. This includes getting a good sense of the keyword patterns in the roles to which you are most attracted. When you are vetting a potential executive resume writing service, be sure to ask them about their process and philosophy of resume writing, and how they plan to market you. Hopefully, they will use a similar approach. If you’re interested in learning more about what it takes to optimized a LinkedIn profile, click here.

Set Realistic Expectations of Your Resume Writing Team

It is imperative that you have a grounded and realistic understanding of the processes, services, and deliverables your executive resume writing service is prepared to provide, and that you are ready to participate and partner with them to achieve the best success.

This includes an openness to work on details of your executive career track; to define impact and metrics; participation during the editing process; and an openness or willingness to embrace transitional strategies that could accelerate your results. An unwillingness to participate actively in any of these things—or a general expectation that you are “paying” for everything to be done for you—could negatively impact your results.

The truth is that the success of your partnership with an executive resume writing service will depend heavily on you and will in fact be largely what you make it. In understanding the rather large “performance management” component of a partnership, it’s safe to say that a positive attitude is everything. A negative attitude can completely hinder the success and progress of your project—no matter how good the firm or writer helping you is.

Whenever I have worked with my own personal business coaches or other experts, I may have walked away with only one or two key points; however, those points often became very important puzzle pieces to increasing my efficiencies or helping me grow my overall business. I didn’t disparage those encounters for not delivering on every question or challenge I brought to the table; rather, I focused on the tenfold ROI that those one or two points on which they really delivered benefited me. I went in with an open mind. What I learned made me better and my company better, and that is valuable!

Set Realistic Expectations of How Long Your Job Search Will Take

I greatly cherish and am inspired by all of the ongoing testimonials I receive from my clients. I think it shows a consistency of success from which I, too, learn as I continue to grow in my expertise and abilities. We never stop learning!

Within these testimonials, an important distinction is that some of these client’s career transitions took longer than others. Most of my C-level clients make their transitions (anecdotally speaking) in just a few months. I think that is extraordinary compared to the market statistics which are usually somewhere between 12 to 14 months for executives. Some transitions take longer and some searches are a little more challenging (e.g. changing industries); this can be due to a multitude of factors that span across industry health, future economic outlook, client qualifications, complexity of goals, and even the time of year or the time the client is able to invest in their job transition. I try to help all of my clients pre-plan and map out their next moves in a realistic way, because all of these aforementioned factors have one thing in common: They are all outside of an executive resume writing service’s personal control.

What I can control, though, is on what I focus to empower my clients. In addition to contextualizing goals, I am there for the occasional issue, and willing to help with any client transitions that don’t go 100% smoothly—as long as I have a willing and positive partner client. This is where the rubber meets the road; and to me, when I find a consultant or a company that is willing to stick it out with me to tackle challenges or address issues in a quick, straightforward way—this is a value trait I honor and respect. Often, these are my closest advisors and most preferred vendors.

I hope this rather vulnerable perspective helps you as you look for an executive resume writing service or similar career firm.

Interested in Working with Us?

If you’re interested in learning how we can create a powerful executive resume, click here to set up a 15-minute introductory call. I offer several executive resume writing services that also include coaching, as well as LinkedIn optimization, resume distribution, and more. Let me help you create a career package and strategy that work for you.

Mary Elizabeth Bradford is the Founder and Executive Director of CEOresumewriter.com (founded 2008) and a past executive recruiter. A thought leader in the career services industry for over 20 years, she holds 7 distinct advanced certifications for senior-level resume writing, online branding and executive-level job search coaching (CERM, CMRW, CARW, MCD, NCOPE, IBDC.D, MQLED.D). She has been seen and heard in major media including Forbes, Time, WSJ, Newsweek and NBC affiliate stations. She holds 2 CDI TORI awards and is a top tier judge for the elite CDI TORI awards for four consecutive years. Mary Elizabeth Bradford’s elite team of award-winning, certified, top executive resume writers, former top executive recruiters, and global HR executives help many of the world’s premier C-suite, board members and thought leaders worldwide secure the transitions and compensation packages they want. Read about Mary Elizabeth Bradford Reviews and why some resume writing companies are publishing fake reviews to mislead you. Book a free consultation to discuss your executive transition goals here.

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