Can I do without a professional resume writer? Is my resume good enough, even if I’m not certain what a professional resume looks like?

If you think that a professional resume is overkill because you are applying for a mundane job and not the high-level dream job you really want, you may be doing yourself a disservice. Even jobs that employers were once desperate to fill now attract significant competition.



You do not have to be unemployed and looking for a job to know that the job market is in terrible shape. For every sign of positive job growth, there seems to be a negative indicator in the wings, and this applies to the entire spectrum of the market, at all levels and in almost all fields.

At first glance, the numbers may not look too bad. Officially, the unemployment rate stands at around nine percent, but there is a catch: The federal government includes only those job seekers who have failed to find jobs of at least 35 hours per week and who have actively looked for jobs over the preceding month.

Anecdotal evidence is just as daunting. Caterpillar Inc., the big manufacturer best known for its heavy equipment, attracted 2,500 people to a recent job fair and expects 4,000 applicants for jobs at all levels of a new plant in North Carolina. The catch: The company plans to fill less than 400 full-time positions.

The Caterpillar situation is typical, with employers very much in control of today’s market, and it is applicable across all fields and in every level of experience and skill. For job seekers, that means that the competition is fierce everywhere. As a result, applicants need every advantage they can possibly get.

The obvious question, then, is how to give yourself an edge. The answer can be found by looking at the hiring process and understanding what the hiring manager sees.

The hiring manager does not see people or glowing references or how well you did your last job. That manager sees stacks of resumes, each of which may get only a few seconds of review, and nine out of ten of those resumes will be discarded.

Your resume has to make the right impression quickly. The hiring manager will not try to parse the details of your career or make allowances for a resume that fails to stand out. If you are using a standard template, so is everyone else. If the resume’s organization is not optimal, the manager is not going to devote the time to read between the lines. If it does not convince within a very few seconds, at least enough to make it worth a closer look, it is destined for the shredder.

If you have any doubts about your resume’s effectiveness, consider getting a professional to give you some help, even if the job in question is mundane, relatively low-level and far from the job you really want. It can be a good investment. You are likely to learn some things that will help you in the future with other opportunities.

If you are thinking that your resume is “good enough,” because you are obviously perfect for the job and this employer would be crazy to pass you by, that very same thought has occurred to many people who are still out there looking.