How to become a resume writer
This is going to be a pretty ambitious email.
1. Start by being observant of your workplace and industry. Ask, who are the employees that are most often rewarded? Who is getting the acknowledgments and promotions? What are they doing that’s different from the group?
2. Look at who is being hired and who isn’t. Ask your supervisor if you can sit in on some of the interviews taking place or shadow them when it’s time to hire someone new into your group. Do this even if you’ve never seen another person doing this, and don’t worry about embarrassing yourself just for asking.
3. Find a way to practice writing resumes. But don’t just practice for the sake of practicing - you need a feedback mechanism in place in order to get really good at what you do. I helped my colleagues with their resumes, cover letters, and interview game. I also had plenty of “practice” by my personal job-hopping, moving from company to company as I sought out a healthy place to work.
4. As you practice, allow yourself to get curious. Don’t be afraid to bug supervisors, project managers, senior leaders, or even your immediate colleagues if it feels right. Ask them about the hiring process. Ask them what they like to see in their job candidates. Then consider the possibility that what a person says they want from a job candidate isn’t what they actually end up looking for.
5. I was lucky in that I eventually was allowed to become part of the hiring team at one of the companies I worked for. I was also lucky that I worked within a revolving door of an industry. Exposure is so incredibly important if you want to become good at your craft. There are books upon books out there that talk about writing the perfect resume, but I’ve never read a single one.
6. Eventually, you’re going to get this itch that you want to trade your skills and abilities for some form of compensation. I would jokingly demand a steak dinner whenever I worked on a colleague’s resume. But eventually, I realized that it was time to try this on a different playing field. This (for me) was the first major stage where I contemplated quitting as a resume writer. The overwhelming thought I had was that I was getting into this too deep, and maybe it was time to put this thing to bed.
7. Make your first sale. It’s incredibly easier to type this than to actually make this happen. Because in order to make your first sale, you need to overcome obstacles in fear, ego, doubt, frustration, and pride. I made my first sale on Reddit for $150. My client was a legal clerk looking to join an immigration law firm.
8. Keep making sales. It’s so incredibly tempting to quit after you make your first sale and after you work with your first client. Everything you thought you knew about working with clients flies out the window. You realize that every assumption you have about entrepreneurship is wrong. But regardless, keep making sales. Push through incredible discomfort and imposter syndrome. Cry it out if you’re having a particularly tough day. But if you want to be a resume writer, this is a stage that you just have to get through. You’re stretching and growing into a new version of yourself.
9. At some point, you’re going to experiment with pricing, experiment with building websites, resent the work, and resent your clients. And then, when you least expect it, you’re going to realize that you’re a resume writer. Someone is going to refer to you as a resume writer. Or maybe you’re doing the dishes, and as you put away one of your plates, you realize, wow, I’m a resume writer. This is one of my identities now.
10. At this stage, you get another chance to quit. If you’re anything like me or anything like the billions of people on this planet, you’re going to be afraid of your new identity, and it’s going to make you want to quit. I personally went through a phase where my deep pride for the work and for my clients’ successes gave way to a deep shame. My thoughts were something like: “Wow, I worked so hard to get here, and I put in all this time and energy into this. But what was it all for? And why did I pick resume writing? I could’ve spent all this time doing something cool, or popular, or socially acceptable, or whatever. But I picked resume writing?”
And the final stage - the eleventh stage, if you will - as you experience your inner turmoil and guilt and grief, you’re going to get an email. It’s going to read, “Hey there, you helped my friend land a job with this incredible company. Could you help me out, too?” And without thinking too much about it, because you’ve built this muscle memory for it, (or so you’ll tell yourself), you’ll reply back and say, “Absolutely. Tell me about your job search.”
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