How to Find the Best Resume Writer After Transitioning Out of the Military

Veterans in Salt Lake City and a host of many others throughout the United States often find themselves confused and stressed with the resume writing process, even after attending the Transition Assistance Program (TAP). If you’re struggling to write a military to civilian resume, or simply don’t have the time to write one, you can invest in the services of a resume writer. Keep in mind, all resume writers are not created equal. For this reason, we will show you how to find the best resume writer for you.

What is a Resume Writer?

A resume writer is a professional who prepares resumes consisting of a summary of your qualifications, any positions you’ve held, the skills you’ve obtained, and education to showcase your value to potential employers and hiring managers.

As stated above, all resume writers are not one in the same. Each resume writer comes with his or her own set of qualifications and skill sets. Additionally, some writers work for a resume writing service company, and other resume professionals are independent consultants.

Because there are no set standards in place to help you understand what you should look for when searching for a resume writer, here’s the five steps of finding the best resume writer for you:

Review the writer’s qualifications and credentials
Ensure the writer is familiar with your industry
Check the writer’s service offerings
Find out whether the writer provides guides and resources
Read the writer’s testimonials and reviews

These are the most important aspects of finding a resume writer. You should always consider these steps so you can avoid some mishaps and avoid the possibility of wasting your time and money with a resume writer with little to no experience. Let’s discuss step 1, reviewing the qualifications and credentials of the resume writer.

1. Review the Qualifications and Credentials

The qualifications and credentials is always your number 1 priority when finding the best resume writer as a veteran job finder.

You may be asking, “But what about a friend or a family member with awesome writing skills?”

Hiring a top notch resume writer or allowing a friend or family member to write your resume, is the difference between getting a call for an interview from your potential employer, and receiving the infamous standard rejection email, “Thank you for your application, but we’ve decided to pursue other candidates at this time.”

In a previous article, choosing a professional resume writing service, we mention the type of resume writer you need.

In order to get the best results and have potential employers knocking on your door –whether through LinkedIn, email or phone – you want a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW).

The Certified Professional Resume Writer is a person who holds the CPRW designation behind his or her name and has passed several exams from the Professional Association of Resume Writers.

Becoming a Certified Professional Resume Writer is no easy feat. As such, the credential is the industry standard and the most recognized achievement a resume writer can obtain.

Finally, you should take the time to review the resume writer’s educational background. The higher the education level, the better.

Be wary of resume writers who do not list their educational background. You want to be sure you pay for quality when you’re giving someone the opportunity to paint you in the best light.

After you find a qualified individual with this certification, you should ensure that the resume writer is familiar with your industry.

2. Ensure the Writer is Familiar with Your Industry

We often hear, “Are military resumes different?” The military is a highly skilled organization, and writing a military resume should be handled in a highly skilled manner.

If you think about the act of writing military to civilian resumes in this light, you will see that military resumes are different.

This is why you want a resume writer who is familiar with the military and understands military speak — the acronyms, terms, and slang.

Better yet, you’ll be doing 10 times better if you find a resume writer who is also a veteran, like you. This resume writer will be able to relate to you in incomparable ways that a resume writer without a military background cannot touch.

A resume writer who is also a veteran can also speak on what it’s like to transition out of the military back into the civilian world and give tips and suggestions to make your career search a breeze.

This writer also understands the frustrations concerning the Transition Assistance Program. Next on your list, checking the writer’s service offerings.

3. Check the Writer’s Service Offerings

A career search takes much more than a resume these days. If you don’t have time to write a resume, you can’t possibly have time to write the other documents and other materials needed to land a job.

In addition to helping you create an awesome resume, a great resume writer will offer a variety of services to veterans like you, including:

Cover letter and follow-up letter writing
Creating a veteran LinkedIn profile
Job search guidance
Interview assistance

With Salt Lake City, Utah leading the nation in diversity of jobs, as stated in the Bloomberg article in 2019, you want consistency throughout the entire process of your employment search.

4. Find Out Whether the Writer Provides Guides and Resources

A credible resume writer should offer a free resume review to help you decide whether you need to invest in his or her services.

Also, the free resume review allows you to gauge the writer’s expertise and discover whether they can meet your needs, prior to reaching in your wallet or purse to grab your card to make a payment.

Finally, the resume writer should have job search guidance, interview assistance, and resources to help you with your career strategy.

These guides and resources can be a document library or a detailed blog section on the writer’s website with a variety of helpful tips to help you get through your job search.

At the end of the day, you should avoid a writer that do not make you feel comfortable about the resume writing process or their services.

5. Read the Writer’s Testimonials and Reviews

Our final step in finding the best writer after transitioning out of the military, is reading the writer’s testimonials and reviews.

One way to do this is to check the many sources available to you today to find out as much as you can about a resume writer or a resume writing service. These sources include:

Review sites (Google and Yelp)
Social media (Facebook and LinkedIn)
Word of mouth referrals
People who have first-hand experience with the company

If you’re dealing with a resume writing service provider, see if you can reach the owner on LinkedIn. Check out his or her recommendations from others. Doing so will provide a great deal of insight on the company founder, president, or CEO and his or her values.

Often times, a company takes on the values and persona of the founder. More than likely, if the founder is a person of quality, so is the company — to include anyone such as employees, independent contractors, and partners that are affiliated with the company to make it the best company in the industry.

Empire Resume Helps Thousands of Veterans with Their Career Search

If you’ve made it this far and you’re not having luck finding the best resume writer for you, we extend an invitation for you to check out Empire Resume for one key reason.

The Empire Resume difference is unmatched, considering that the president of our company is an Air Force veteran.

Our resumes are optimized for today’s applicant tracking systems (ATS), and we’ve helped more than 95% of people get interviews with our professional resume writing service.

Additionally, we have a 100% customer satisfaction guarantee. Meaning, we stand by our services and back all our resumes.

Here’s how we work:

Get your free resume review: Get to know us with a free resume review.
Submit your order: If you like us, simply purchasing a writing package.
Email documents: Email your current resume, if you have one.
Phone consult: Have a one-on-one interview to discuss the process.
Receive resume: Get your completed resume back in just 3 business days!

We hope these tips will help you be able to find the best resume writer for you and other veterans that are making the military transition.

Sometimes, you may feel that it’s best to take the DIY route and write your resume on your own. Be sure to stop by the career resources blog on our website to get all of the resources and help you need.

However, if you’ve reached a point where you feel like you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to give us a call at 801-690-4085 or send us an email at info@empireresume.com.

Resume writing can be a daunting task, but with the power of Empire Resume by your side, you’ll be able to get the results you need to get your foot in the door, guaranteed!

Dr. Phillip Gold is President/CEO of Empire Resume and has vast experience writing resumes for service-members transitioning from the military into civilian roles. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force responsible for leading nuclear missile security. Phillip is a Certified Professional Resume Writer and holds a BA in Communications from The Ohio State University, an MS in Instructional Technology, an MBA in Finance, and a PhD in Finance.