My very first client, a senior engineer who had experienced unemployment for over a year, contacted me earlier today with some amazing news. Within just 37 days of his resume revision he’d landed 6 interviews and 3 offers. Yes, 3 offers! He’s already decided which job he’s going to accept and his success has brought me so much joy. So, for all of the readers out there wondering if it’s really worth $350 to have your resume rewritten by a professional, I want to share a little bit about the Dark Horse process and why I think this client was able to achieve such striking results.
(Not Albert Einstein)
To my client’s credit, once he realized that he wasn’t getting the results he desired, he was able to take a step back and think critically about his strengths and weaknesses. He determined that his resume was holding him back. He reached out to Dark Horse and, in my initial conversation with him, it immediately became clear that he was a brilliant guy with a lot of highly sought after abilities that weren’t apparent on his resume. I drew out this information in an hour-long interview, added lots of additional detail to the document, refined the formatting to make it easier for the reader to locate pertinent information, and applied some tricks I’d learned in the field to help bridge the gap between technical folks and non-technical gatekeepers. The result was a more succinct, aesthetically-pleasing resume that contained vastly more detail than the original. We reconnected twice for minor edits and my client had his new resume within a matter of days. He was motivated to find work and immediately began researching opportunities and setting up interviews. The results speak for themselves.
So, what did we do right?
First, my client was self-aware enough to recognize that, while he’s an accomplished engineer, he is not a professional resume writer… and that’s okay! His goal wasn't to become a resume writer. His goal was to get back to engineering! So, he called on a professional to get the job done. He recognized that submitting the same resume and expecting a different result was the equivalent of Rita Mae Brown’s definition of insanity and he decided to change things up. It was a smart decision.
We talked for a long while before I did any editing. We probably spoke over the phone for a total of an hour and a half prior to the initial round of edits. During this time we engaged in a conversational interview where I drew out pertinent information and took notes. This piece is key. There are plenty of companies out there that will take your money and simply reformat your resume. That’s not how I work. I get to know my clients on a level that allows me to describe their professional experience in great detail and expand upon the information contained within their existing resume. I think my clients will tell you that this part of the process is the most critical differentiator between Dark Horse and other companies.
I kept our target audience in mind and applied some insider tricks I’d learned in the field as a hiring manager. I’m a strong believer in the idea that a resume should be a persuasive document. To be effective, it must anticipate and overcome any objections that would disqualify one from consideration. Together, my client and I made sure that all possible objections were addressed within the resume itself.
My client is a smart, motivated guy who is able to articulate his value in conversation. Once he had a resume that worked for him, he knew how to get it in front of the right people, land interviews, and negotiate offers. In his case, it really was just the resume that was holding him back all that time. Mind blowing, isn’t it?
So, if you suspect that a weak resume is keeping you from landing the job you want but you’re not sure whether it’s worth paying a professional to rework it, consider the story above. Then, rather than asking if you can afford the help of a professional, ask how long you can afford to wait. In this instance a professional resume rewrite and 37 days worth of effort was all it took to end a long-term unemployment streak.
Keep going, friends. You’ve got this.