Resume Writers - Do we do it for love or money...or both? As one who has chosen my career path because I wanted to combine my love and talent for writing with a desire to assist others in achieving their goals, while making a decent living, I guess I can say it is for both. But when I read words and phrases, such as "loser" and "nothing to offer an employer" I find myself thinking that some cynicism has crept into our everyday working relationships with our clients. Do people with only 5 years experience not need our services? When they come to us, saying some other "professional" wrote a pack of lies, what should our response be? I have dealt with this situation on numerous occasions, when people are trying to improve their positions, and are thinking that the only way to advance is to lie, just because everyone else is doing it. My response to these clients is that I won't lie on a resume for any reason. I have professional ethics and personal morals to uphold and I won't go against my own convictions. I am also responsible to the association that certified me and must uphold their code of ethics. If the client then chooses not to use my services, its up to them, and there are no hard feelings. However, after giving that explanation, I offer to create a resume for them based on their skills and abilities that will be just as effective and won't come back to haunt them at some time in the future. Most of the time, it is a relief to the client when they hear that someone has the ability to work with them, at their level of professionalism, and create a document that reflects their individual talents, and gets them a job with an organization where they won't have to live and work on the basis of a lie. Isn't that our job? While someone may not have experience in a certain area, they may have an exceptional ability to quickly learn and apply new knowledge and processes. Utilizing a combination functional/chronological format that concentrates on a person's knowledge, skills, and abilities, rather than on a person's experience is something all of us do when writing resumes for students and others with little or no experience. We should be utilizing those same skills when writing resumes for those who want to change careers. Everyone has to start somewhere. I know I did. And so did all of us who are now in this profession. Did that make us losers? Did it mean that we didn't have anything to offer an employer? I don't think so. When I hear statements, it makes me wonder if people have forgotten what it was like to be at the bottom of the food chain trying to work their way to the top. Do entry-level job seekers not need our services. Are we so great that we are above giving them the benefit of our knowledge? Does it occur to us that if we do a good job for this client, he or she may bring us hundreds or thousands of dollars in referral business or become a lifetime client? Does it cross our minds that because of our personal efforts we may be able to instill some old-fashioned ethics into some young person who will eventually become the C(X)O of Company Z and not end up on the news for stealing money from the investors? Everyone, regardless of their background, if they have the ability to pay for our services (and sometimes when they don't), deserves the best that we have to offer. That's why they are willing to pay a real professional to do the job. If we do our jobs properly, in keeping with a professional code of ethics, and with the final goal of seeing a client achieve success, we can go to sleep at night knowing we did the best job we could do for the client. It's something to think about. On a lighter note: For those struggling to assist a client who wants to change careers two of the most useful resources I have found are the O*Net Center and the Department of Labor websites. When working with clients who aren't sure what skills they have that will transfer to another position, these sites can be of great help in directing targeted questions to, and receiving useful answers from, the client. Not only that, O*Net doesn't care if you use their statements, word-for-word, in the development of any type of document. That's what they expect, as a matter of fact. So, if you are struggling to create a great bullet point for someone, and you know little about their field, give these resources a try.