Why Hire a Resume and Cover Letter Editing Service?

How do you know if it’s time to hire a resume and cover letter editing service?

Give yourself one point if any of these are true:

• You have applied to 64.5 jobs and have received no responses.
• You have applied to zero jobs because you can’t bring yourself to look at your resume.
• You are transitioning to a new industry and don’t know how to translate your old skills to a new field.
• You know your resume and cover letter are too wordy but don’t have time to edit them.
• You feel lost because you don’t know how to approach the resume or cover letter (approach slowly, quiet voices–they won’t bite).
• You know your resume and cover letter look generic or outdated, but you don’t have the time or skills to reformat them.

If you scored 1–6 points, it might be time to seek a resume and cover letter editing service. But why? What does a resume and cover letter writer actually do?

For starters, a career portfolio writer will ask the incisive questions that help you articulate your value.

After all, effective resumes and cover letters tell employers what you can do for them, not the reverse.

From Job Descriptions to Job Accomplishments

A resume that rehashes your job description misses the opportunity to showcase your accomplishments. According to Don Orlando (CPRW), when HR managers review your resume, they want to know as quickly as possible whether you will generate a greater economic boost than the cost of onboarding you.

Your resume writer can help you shift bullets from job descriptions to job achievements by asking “how many” and “how much” questions. Adding quantified achievements refocuses your resume on results.

A winning formula for bullet points is known as Context, Action, ​Result (CAR).

Let’s begin with the action.

• The action is the powerful verb that begins each bullet and tells the HR manager what tasks you performed.
• The context is the surrounding details about the situation, project, team, or program you were implementing.
• The result is the glowing achievement that demonstrates your value.

To understand that shift from job description to job accomplishment, let’s look at an example of an under-developed bullet:

• “Worked with colleagues to complete projects.”

As a resume writer, I have SO many questions about this sentence: How many people did you work with? What sort of projects were you completing? What was the end result? How much revenue did you help generate?

After a consultation with your resume writer, the bullet might look something like this:

• Marshalled a team of 63 colleagues from marketing, legal, and sales to execute go-to-market strategies for 3 clients that generated $25M in revenue.

A resume bullet point with these quantified achievements gives the employer precise knowledge about the scope, scale, and impact of your work.

However, recruiters aren’t your only audience. Your resume also needs to please The Robots.

Optimizing Your Resume to Beat Applicant Tracking Systems

According to Forbes, 99% of Fortune 500 companies use Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to collect and organize applicant data. These systems prevent 75% of resumes from ever feeling the warmth of a human gaze.

To appease The Robots, your resume needs to feed the machines the buzz words they’re craving. Since ATS software is not typically sophisticated, the keyword pairing should be identical.

Think of ATS software like a highly sensitive child. If she asks for waffles, and you give her pancakes, she will throw the waffles on the floor.

Luckily, there are several ways your resume writer can optimize the document to keep the ATS robots happy. At Red Pen Wench, all of our resume templates use ATS-friendly layouts.

Your resume writer will also create a customized “expertise” section in your resume with a dish of ready-made keywords to match the jargon in the job descriptions that interest you.

On LinkedIn and other job boards, companies sprinkle keywords into job descriptions to give job applicants a list of required skills.

Your resume writer will pinpoint these keywords and include them in the expertise section so that your resume aligns effectively with the job of your dreams.

For instance, if the company is seeking someone with experience in “Change Management,” it’s important to use the actual phrase “Change Management.”

There’s room for creativity elsewhere, but, in this case, a resume writer selects these precise terms that carry your resume from The Robots to a human’s screen.

Now a human is reading your cover letter. What should it say?

Cut the Clichés!

There are countless ways to approach the cover letter, but using it to tell a story about how you solve problems is ideal. The narrative approach captures your reader’s attention and demonstrates the qualities that distinguish you from other applicants.

Rather than restating the content from your resume, which they just read, a compelling story gives context, color, and a visual image to the soft skills that make you successful.

A cover letter is definitely a great place to describe your soft skills, but it’s not typically sufficient to simply list them. A pile of soft skills clichés might look something like this:

• “I am a highly collaborative problem-solver who works across functions to surpass targets. I am equipped with outstanding time management, communication, and organizational skills. I thrive in fast-paced and ambiguous environments under minimal supervision.”

So many times, applicants say that they are collaborative problem solvers, but since EVERYONE makes that claim, explaining HOW you solve problems will help differentiate you from the pack.

Using the Cover Letter to Tell a Story

Your cover letter writer can craft a story that demonstrates the value you bring by providing illustrations of your applicable soft skills.

The cover letter story can follow the basic pattern of the hero’s journey to demonstrate your value. How do you craft a hero’s journey? Fundamentally, any narrative has a beginning, middle, and end and follows this basic pattern:

1. In the beginning, there was a problem.
2. In the middle, you perform an intervention. What did you do to resolve the problem? What approach did you take? What skills did you apply? What collaborations did you forge?
3. The end is the result. What new value did you add to the company through your glorious contribution?

After your consultation with a cover letter writer, the pile of soft skills clichés will have transformed into something like this:

1. [Beginning] When I entered the role of Development Director, four team members had underperforming portfolios, and seven clients were threatening to leave the company.
2. [Intervention] In response, I swiftly implemented new oversight processes, which involved weekly check-ins with individual team members. During these meetings, I provided encouraging and constructive feedback while offering targeted industry insight to keep project managers moving forward to achieve all milestones. Activating a strengths-based leadership approach, I revised each team member’s job description to leverage their best qualities and strongest skills.
3. [Result] After instituting this procedural change, the team doubled its grant submissions, generating an additional $250,000 in revenue for our thankful clients.”

Your cover letter writer can help craft your hero’s journey by asking deep and penetrating questions about how you solve problems and achieve goals. The writer will also align the story to the position you are seeking so that the fit between you and your new employer will be abundantly clear.

Need Assistance With Your Resume and Cover Letter?

If you need a guide to walk you through these steps or simply don’t have enough time to undertake this project alone, Red Pen Wench offers customized resume and cover letter editing services, LinkedIn profile optimization, and interview coaching for professionals and executives across all industries.

Our highly experienced team here at Red Pen Wench includes published writers, Certified Professional Resume Writers, PhDs, and professional marketers, who have collectively written and edited over 1,000 resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles to date.

Return to the tasks that best suit your skillset and enjoy watching the most important documents in your career reveal your value.

-Dena Marks, PhD, CPRW, Resume Writer at Red Pen Wench