Thank you for your interest in creating a more effective résumé in order to market yourself in the job market!

Most of my clients want to meet with me in person, although I have many clients with whom I have only communicated by email, teleconference and/or fax.

I have clients in 50 states and 20 countries, including about ten civilian contractors now working in Iraq. One of them was referred to me by his father in Omaha, and the others were referred by him or one another.

A job description from your current or recent employer would also help. If you are in the military, gather your performance evaluations, award certificates and commendation letters, training certificates, academic transcripts, etc., and bring them with you. These are invaluable to me in composing a military/civilian conversion résumé.

BUT the most important part of the process is our consultation, whether it be in person or over the phone. I will interview you and recommend appropriate information to include in your résumé.

I am the only advertising journalist listed under résumés in the local Omaha, Nebraska, Yellow Pages. I don't use formulaic, "cookie cutter," "one-size-fits-all" document templates with sing-song generic phraseology. I "think outside the box" when launching a new product (you, the employment candidate) into the job market. Your résumé must sound like you at your best; it must be written in the language of your industry. It is far too important a document to trust to a mere typist with little or no training in grammar, syntax, parsing and orthography, much less the psychology and strategies of marketing.

Your résumé should be much more than a mere outline -- it should be a marketing tool. It will arrive at the employer's office along with dozens or hundreds of other résumés. Most of them will be glanced at and discarded. I want yours to make that first cut, to make it to that shorter stack of résumés that will be read. I want my client's résumé to make a first impression that leads to a lasting impression and an interview -- not a last impression.

I am available by appointment at my office 7 days a week. Between Monday and Friday I am available between 10 and 7 daily. I am the busiest résumé service in town, but I usually can fit you in on the day that you call. January and February are my busiest months, now all the more so with a recession threatening. I will need more than a few days to prepare the first draft of your document, but in the future I can provide updates and cover letters usually next afternoon. Part of my service is that I archive all documents on disk. I have approximately 27,000 clients stored on floppy disks -- going back to 1981 when Professor Gray owned Executive Writing Services. Over 45% of my new clients are referrals from satisfied clients.

I will quote my firm tax deductible fee during our free consultation. My fees are based on this formula. -- Document design -- typesetting using MS Word and a laser printer with 370 type fonts and symbol sets to choose from, letterhead name and address at the top (that will appear on your reference page and cover letter also); headline type for your name and for the section headings; 12 pitch type for easy reading; short paragraphs separated by plenty of white space for easy reading; justified (blocked) margins; print emphasis with bold and/or italics for academic degrees, credentials, job titles, etc.; indented paragraphs with "bullets"; special characters for Greek letter societies and scientific symbols -- document design would be $55 for the first page, $25 for a second page, $5 for a page of references and $7.50 for a single cover letter (additional cover letters would be $3.50 each).

Composition and editing of your job descriptions, bullet achievements, summary of qualifications would be $65/hour. This is probably what you pay your auto mechanic -- but unlike your mechanic, I will quote you a FIRM NUMBER and there will be no surprises at the other end. A one page document, if I were starting from scratch rather than from an old résumé, might come in at 1/2 hour. But I would quote you a *firm* fee at the commencement of our project, and that fee includes any further edits, corrections and/or modifications. There will be no surprises at the other end! Of course we will "tweak" the document when you come back to read the first draft. But there is no additional charge for any additional fine-tuning that you may require after you have taken the document home. In any case, the investment you make in your résumé will be one of the smallest investments you have made in your career -- certainly less than in what you wear to that interview -- but, strategically speaking, it will be the most important investment you have made in eliciting that affirmative interviewing response.

Then, in the future, when you need an update of your résumé, your update would be priced at $5 per paragraph affected and/or page reformatted, plus my time.

Send me a request by e-mail for an information fax form for a new résumé and/or a cover letter fax form, and I will respond by e-mail. OR just print these forms out from my website at writearesume.biz. Please visit my website, read the Tribute to Our Founder, and check out my helpful links section.

I hope I have answered all of your preliminary questions and look forward to meeting you. Please call for a chat and an appointment.

ô¿ô Mike
P. Michæl Young
Executive Writing Services
writearesume.biz