Resume Writing
We all know that having a resume that stands out will help us to get to that interview for our dream job but in truth most of us don’t ever get to sit at the other side of the table and appraise other people’s resumes. In short most of us are clueless as to whether our resume is up to scratch.
Writing resumes for other people is huge business. Many job applicants are happy to pay for any edge that they can get, and if you can convince them that you have the inside track then you may well get the job.
You can buy software for writing resumes, but essentially this provides a formatting service. If the content is poor then the prettiest resume is not going to help. The best way to start to make progress is to ask your immediate network whether you can have a copy of their last resume. Assuming that they are all employed this means that you will end up with a file of “successful” resumes ideally at a number of different grades. Study these resumes and pay particular attention to the language, if you can then ask questions about things that you are not clear about or simply find interesting. You will already have done more than most people ever do.
You should also buy at least 2 books on writing resumes by different authors, focus on things like using positive (as opposed to negative) language and common mistakes that people make when writing their resumes. Then go back and review the resumes you collected earlier. Try re-writing them and get feedback from the original writers on the changes you made. Assuming you are comfortable with your newfound skills then you can start using the resume software to turn out different formats, which may be important for different industries, or even locations.
If you currently work in HR or for an executive search firm then you can shortcut the above process, as presumably you see hundreds of resumes every week, and know what makes a good one stand out from a bad one., you may even routinely summarise customers resumes for them to cast them in a better light with potential employers. If this is you then you have found your ideal 2nd income stream.
Marketing your service may be tricky as there are many people offering the same service on the internet. Start at pricing, you know from experience at work, or through your development exercises above how long it takes to “fix” a resume. Make sure that you earn a minimum of $50 and hour on average for your work, or charge about 75% of what the most expensive guys you can find are charging. Offer a limited guarantee, for example “We guarantee your money back if you apply for 10 jobs at the stated level in the stated industry, and do not secure one interview”. You will have to make some refunds but that in itself can lead to good reviews.
Resume building, as we have stated is competitive but you can still market your services and find customers using a number of techniques: -
Networking
Ebay
Website
Direct Response
Company endorsements
In terms of selling your services you probably can’t use your natural market (friends, family, colleagues) if you have already fixed their resumes as part of your own development. You can however ask them for referrals if they are impressed with what you have done, you can also extend this market into people that you know less well such as parents at school meetings, golf club members etc. Start by telling people that you do this as your business and hand out business cards, you will get regular enquiries about cost, credentials and effectiveness of your work.
Ebay has about 80 items listed under <resume writing>, although a simple search for <resume> will mainly get you a list of celebrity resumes. Changing your listing to <CV writing> will get you a total of 8 competitors and <Curriculum Vitae> a further 18. In short this is not a major product on Ebay but most of the listings are done by Ebay stores and as such these are regular advertisers. I am sure that they are getting orders this way.
A website may work as a way to find business but my experience tells me it is more useful as a tool to show your work and any testimonials that you receive, in other words it should be used as a way to build credibility. Using good SEO techniques and promoting the site online may bring you some business but with millions of other websites offering the same service it will be hard to make a name for yourself purely online.
Direct response can be made to work in one of two distinct ways. Either advertise in your local newspaper and any industry journals for industries which have seen recent redundancies, or target areas with high unemployment i.e. those with recent factory closures, or in areas of industrial decline and drop leaflets door to door. The key is to drive enquiries to your website or phone number and then to convert these into sales. You may need to sit down and interview the candidates in order to cast them in their best light, and you are likely to find customers who have no existing resume for you to work from.
Another way to gain work is to contact HR departments of large corporations and offer your services to them for re-trenched staff. You could offer a free initial evaluation session and then a charge of $X an hour for resume work, or simply a fixed charge per person to help retrenched employees to find new jobs.
If you have a home computer and a printer you are pretty much good to go. You may want to invest in a resume writing package so that you can do more attractive layouts and offer a greater choice to your clients. You should also definitely read at least 2 books on the subject unless you already have explicit experience in this field.
People who are out of work, especially recently are likely to be emotional, you need to deal with this sympathetically.
This is a business where you may be able to do all the work remotely if you are not into meeting your customers.