Response to a client --

That's okay; I'm used to it. At least you hadn't had a bad experience with one of the resume mills. Those people soured me against "resume services" when I first moved here from Illinois 21 years ago. That is all explained on my website. Especially beware of so-called "Certified Resume Writers" -- for $75 or so, any illiterate can buy a certificate, suitable for framing.

• Great writers don't need a store-bought certificate; they produce results -- quality copy -- and win repeat and incremental business. Hemmingway, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Frost, Poe, King, Shakespeare, Dickens -- etc. weren't foolish enough to buy a store-bought "certificate."
  

Those 27,000 client files of mine are my credentials. I actually have clients who have journalism degrees but who cannot write a simple cover letter and who are working in factories (nothing wrong with factory work; I worked in one myself for a year when I was a kid, but what a waste of college money). They are certifiable -- not certified, at least by my standards. I teach remedial business writing to business executives.

Some people spend tens of thousands of dollars on buying that college diploma, and then don't perceive the value of a $100-$300 investment in a professional employment marketing resume!

Incidentally, I just picked up another potential client currently serving on the USS Anzio aircraft carrier, referred to me by two of his buddies.