10 Best Executive Resume Writing Services: Criteria to Evaluate the Best Resume Writing Service for You
10 Best Executive Resume Writing Services–A False Designation?
Your List Is Based on Your Needs
In short, there is no single 10 Best Executive Resume Writing Services list that will satisfy all of your specific expectations for the ideal executive resume writing provider. You as the consumer have to choose, knowing that the ranking systems are so very often skewed by their authors and adjudicators. Choose your executive resume service wisely, according to all that you know about yourself and your unique career management needs.
If you are looking for criteria to evaluate the 10 best executive resume writing services, you need to know the right way to qualify these services. Use these decision points to determine whether the executive resume writing strategy you have chosen is going to serve you most effectively.
1. Location
You might want to know that your executive resume writing service is local to your home city. For example, many executives reach out to Amy L. Adler at Five Strengths Career Transition Experts because they want a Salt Lake City, UT, writer. If location doesn’t matter to you, then by all means engage with a resume writer in your home city or choose one from across the globe.
In no case should a resume writer claim to be #1 in a market in which he or she does not live and work–doing so would be false advertising and presenting a false credential to the public.
2. Experience
Executives seeking resume writing services should evaluate the length of time and depth of expertise of their prospective executive resume writer. Newer entrants to the marketplace are not likely to have the benefit that only years of experience can convey, and perhaps you don’t want your resume writer to be learning on the job and practicing with your executive resume.
Amy L. Adler has been writing and editing professionally for 28 years, the last 10 of which has been as an executive resume writer. Feel free to check out examples of Amy L. Adler’s resume writing style and expertise here. This executive resume is Amy’s favorite, and it is a TORI winner.
3. Awards and Honors
Not all resume writers enter annual resume writing competitions, but those who do and who have won might represent your brand and story well. The Toast of the Resume Industry (TORI) Awards are coveted honors, and Five Strengths Career Transition Experts has won two TORIs.
After winning those awards, Amy L. Adler was invited to serve as a judge on the awards panel and has done so for several years. Note: Judges cannot enter the competition.
4. Industry Association Memberships
All resume writers who work within the resume writing community are likely to be members of at least one of the four major careers organizations that support resume writing and career coaching with training and annual conferences. These organizations are Career Directors International, Career Thought Leaders, The National Resume Writers’ Association, and Professional Association of Resume Writers.
Amy L. Adler is an active member and extensive volunteer with the first three resume writing associations on this list. A business that claims expertise in the industry should be affiliated with at least one oft these organizations.
5. Resume Writing Certifications
The professional organizations mentioned above all provide extensive training and certifications in resume writing and related disciplines. When your executive resume writer holds one or more of these credentials, you can be sure that that individual’s writing expertise and resume portfolio has been vetted by experts in the industry. They have proven themselves to understand the needs of resume writing clients and to be able to convey their clients’ expertise in written form, using all of the conventions associated with good resume writing.
Amy L. Adler holds these industry credentials: Certified Master Resume Writer, Certified Advanced Resume Writer, and Certified Employment Interview Coach (Career Directors International).
6. Education
Just like executive-level clients, you can expect that an expert resume writer is going to have a good match of industry experience (see above) and education. Most have college degrees; many have graduate degrees as well. Executive resume writers blend the two to maximize their understanding of their high-level clients’ deep and broad experiences.
Amy L. Adler holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Boston College, a Master of Arts (MA) with a focus on Book Publishing from New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Spanish (double major) from Franklin and Marshall College.
7. Pricing
In the resume writing industry, training and expertise takes a great deal of time. Typically, those in business for just a few years charge low rates because they have not put in their 10,000 hours of practice and training to become expert in the field. Those who consider themselves experts in executive resume writing should be able to prove that they have years of editorial experience and the credentials that go with that coveted designation.
Amy L. Adler’s packages for executive resume writing and executive-level career portfolio development may be found here.
8. Individual Practitioner or Agency Leadership
Executive resume writing companies come in two flavors: Individual practitioners and agency models. Individual practitioners run their complete business and engage with their clients on all aspects of development of their career portfolios. Agency model owners often have been resume writers and recruiters themselves and hold the proper certifications but now lead the team providing individual services because they choose to, not because they have no credentials. Both are valuable, and both are respected within the industry. When the owner or individual practitioner knows a great deal about each client and adds their expertise to that client’s strategy, the result for that executive client is bound to be more effective.
Unfortunately, agency models in which the leader or owner is detached from the business, perhaps due to lack of experience or knowledge, could offer you little recourse if your resume writer fails to deliver on your strategy.
Amy L. Adler is an individual practitioner, which enables her to do what she loves–write executive resumes for vice presidents, presidents, general managers, CEOs, COOs, CTOs, CIOs, and CISOs (a personal favorite).
9. Credible Web Presence
Experienced executive resume writers have great websites. They are informative and honestly describe the executive resume writer’s experience, expertise, and ideal client. They do not boast about being #1 in markets and functions in which they do not have experience. They do have very real testimonials (although sometimes these testimonials are anonymized to protect the identity of their executive clients). Photos of these clients can be reverse-searched on Google Images to reveal their veracity. Video testimonials should also present very real clients.
Amy L. Adler’s web home is here, https://fivestrengths.com. The testimonials are real, as are those on her LinkedIn profile, https://linkedin.com/in/amyladler. She does not rely on outside review sites as measures of credibility, as these can be manipulated by bad actors.
10. Ethical Behavior and Honesty in Resume Writing Practice
Perhaps most important of all of these is a commitment to ethics and honesty in the practice of resume writing. Ethical practice and honesty take a few forms:
- Refraining from offering a guarantee, for example for interviews or a job, to which the service cannot possible commit.
- Avoiding self-designated proclamations of expertise without credible corroboration of that talent set.
- Deep pride in very real expertise and honest humility when a prospective client asks for a service set outside the provider’s expertise. This provider should be willing to recommend a colleague, by name, with the right expertise, should the situation warrant it.
Amy L. Adler offers no guarantees except that she will work with her clients until the client says that the engagement is complete. She shows her expertise, through examples of her work, testimonials, education, and certifications; the statement that she held the #1 Best Executive Resume Writer, as conferred by a major TORI win, is real and can be verified here. Finally, because Amy L. Adler has an extensive network within the resume writing industry, individuals she proudly calls friends and colleagues, she gladly refers clients to ideal providers when the situation calls for this type of referral.
