1. What led you to writing resumes? Do you have a background that made you an ideal fit for the industry?
When I graduated from school, some friends and I faced a challenge of not receiving an entrance ticket to a dream job through interviews. Since having the same problem, we got together, collected info, and learned how to solve this problem effectively. Personal experience drove me to scrutinize every part of job search to figure out where I can do better, and the first lesson I learnt was to own a professional résumé, which is a trigger to each successful job search. So I got involved in résumé writing and stepped into this industry
I think the job search is a series of processes of talking to yourself, knowing your value, and marketing yourself. Both backgrounds and successful experience in social work and marketing let me effectively listen to our clients’ needs, dig up their value, and put their UVPs into self-marketing pieces.
2. How long have you been in the industry? Would you recommend it to others? Why?
I have been in this industry for four years from only for marketing myself and friends but to running a business to help more people.
I love my job but would not recommend people enter the industry if they don’t have sufficient passion and professional knowledge. For me, this is not just a job, but a life-long decision that can influence people’s career lives. Before creating a business, I asked my friends with the same problems to be my free clients first, and then decided to create a business backed up by knowledge and credentials from PARWCC to help and influence people knowing the true value and impact on a good résumé.
Secondly, this industry is a toddler in Asia, which means I have to educate people to adopt this new concept, causing unstable cash flows at the beginning. Even now, sometimes I still need to count on my savings or take other jobs to maintain my daily life. Thus, if you just want to have a secure life but without enthusiasm, it may not be right for you.
3. What is the single best tool you recommend for building client relations? Building your business? Improve efficiency?
I would say blog, which can show your professionalism and have effects on education and promotion. As for the choice of blog platforms, I would recommend you use Blogger or WordPress to set up your own blog, because they are more stable and flexible.
4. If you could share one learning experience/great lesson, what would it be?
You should be always ready to answer prospective client’s questions with full preparation, and think about quality first rather than earning money. If you can provide something with excellent quality, clients will refer new clients to you and come back for following/updating services. Keeping a habit of learning and sharpening your skills is always right in any industry.
5. Looking back, what would you have done differently? Done the same?
I would sign up for PARWCC and gain all the credentials from PARWCC as early as possible, which are not just proof of your professionalism but a commitment to constantly enhancing your expertise. 6. What advice would you give someone just entering the resume-writing industry? Earn your credential as early as possible to show you are a professional in this industry and get paid for what you deserve; don’t sell yourself short and use your quality to satisfy your client instead of pricing.
7. How do you see our industry transforming over the next 12 months? 5 years?
What do think resume writers need to know in order to survive? I like this question because I consider it all the time. What I majored at graduate school was marketing, which always focuses on consumers, especially their needs.
As you know, our direct consumers are our clients, but if we think further, we have customers’ customers, which are recruiters. Thus, they are exactly our END consumers after our direct customers receive our work. The recruiters’ ultimate need is to find the most suitable person rather than the best by searching for candidates from multiple résumés..
In terms of this point, what they do is exactly like a “search engine,” Google, so we can take Google as the reference to shape our industry’s future. What Google emphasized in 2012 and 2013 as many people mentioned on the multiple media is “the importance of your content.”
Whenever a searcher enters a term, Google will provide the most suitable and accurate content, maybe not the best to her searchers. But even this way, Google has still earned its searchers’ respect and loyalty worldwide.
Given this point, the answer of our industry transforming is very clear: Even though technology will change the format of a résumé, the core ability, “content writing” never changes. As long as we understand how to effectively market our direct clients─crafting clear and accurate content, to meet our END customers’ need─searching for a suitable candidate, just as what Google does, we will always survive.
