Anyone hire a resume writer? Opinions of it in general? I’m thinking of making a career change and have trouble articulating what I’ve done in general terms.

What change do you want? A “general” resume isn’t going to work. At the end of the day, repositioning your resume for a career change isn’t about you, or the algorithms - it’s about the job you are targeting. Hitting the base for the algorithms is simple. A hundred general resumes tossed there in the dark can do that. Getting the hiring manager on the other side to believe you are the one to talk to based on your resume is the key. You don’t want be general. You want to be targeted. You are literally selling yourself. What does the req say they need? How can you match and exceed that? You don’t need to hit every point, but do you have what they need to meet their goals? For example: a successful career chef can follow instructions precisely, be trusted to improvise quickly, operate to high standards of performance, leadership, cleanliness, and organization in a high-pressure entrepreneurial business, with tight margins and long hours in an uncomfortable environment. And that’s without tasting their food. What do you bring to the table? Get on LinkedIn and research other people with the job you want. Talk to some of them. Find out what they think you have to offer. “General” is a waste of your time, and won’t get you an interview. Target, reposition, and go after what you really want.

I’ve used one. From my experience they’re SEO experts and editors not magicians. If the original content is bad/ you can’t articulate what you do the end product may not be that good. You’ll get an intake form and basically put down what you do and they’ll refine it to hit the algorithms.

I agree with the other answers. I work with a team of resume writers and we can help with formatting (applicant tracking systems that read resumes are not perfect), having the right keywords and making it work with the constraints of the document. However, we can’t know your work as well as you do- and often people forget or are unwilling to include their best numbers, results or the most relevant examples to get them the job. Also in this market, you need to be able to tailor your resume (and I do think that having a resume writer can help you get a format that is more customizable) but you’d have to be ready won’t the work. I had someone this week who left the Emmy they won off their resume...and last week someone forgot to mention that they not only got their KPI but they saved $5 million on the same project. No resume writer can catch that...

I personally decided to hire a resume writer for my current career pivot point. That said, I had it built out as a Financial Advisor, my most recent and relevant role as I haven’t yet decided what direction to go. I figure that having a professionally written framework will allow me to quickly customize it to any job I end up applying to directly, and gives a clear picture for any recruiters that may be trying to fit my knowledge and experience into their needs gap. Final thoughts - I always struggled to boast my own accomplishments and having a third party articulate them for me really helped me to gain a bit of self-confidence in this somewhat tumultuous period.