Over the last few years, I’ve heard a lot of very intelligent job seekers casually remark they had sent out hundreds of resumes while looking for a job. These people firmly believed job searching was entirely a numbers game. So the more resumes they sent out, the more likely they were to be hired. Unfortunately, these job seekers were flawed in their thinking—and were generally not getting any hits from their resumes. While it’s true you have to be actively applying for jobs in order to get one, it’s also true sending a generalized resume out to dozens of openings for which you’re only peripherally qualified is a huge waste of time. Job searching is time consuming for everyone, and it can be especially challenging for those who are already working full-time. If you only have three hours per week that you can devote to job searches, chances are you’ll fare better spending one hour each on three well-targeted applications rather than taking 15 minutes each to submit a dozen resumes. Competition is stiff for every single job out there. The other day, I was talking to someone who had received 300 applications for an administrative position. Many of the applicants had graduate degrees but were unable to find work suitable to their advanced qualifications. Faced with those kind of odds, a general resume will almost always go directly into the discard pile. Your challenge as a job seeker is to produce a cover letter and resume that truly stand out to the hiring manager for each job you pursue. The simple truth is doing this requires spending a significant amount of time on every application you submit. One of the greatest advantages to hiring a professional resume writer is the amount of time it saves you in your job search. A skilled writer will spend some time learning about who you are as a person and a candidate. He/she will then create documents that require minimal changes each time you apply for a job. By hiring a professional, you’re better able to play the numbers game by submitting a greater number of high quality applications. As a result, you make the best use of your valuable time. It’s the quality of your job applications—not the quantity—that will ultimately get you hired. How does your resume match up?
