When I graduated college 8 years ago and got my first job, I was super excited to be done with the job hunting process for awhile. Because after all, job searching can be a super stressful and frustrating time. After years at the same firm, I was ready to take the next step in my career. When I started my search, I realized was more than a little bit rusty. It had been so long since I even applied for a job, much less went through the whole hiring process. Luckily, a friend of mine has some hiring experience in the past and had a few tips to give me. Even better, she pointed me to a service that helped me tremendously: TopResume. Looking back, my friend’s tips were valuable and TopResume made things much easier for me.

Use A Professional Resume Writing ServiceA professionally written resume makes you 38% more likely to be contacted, 31% more likely to get an interview, and 40% more likely to land the job. You can also earn up to $5,000 more per year.* The main advantage is getting around the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that most employers use to scan resumes. The ATS scans your resume and searches for specific keywords and phrases as they relate to the job qualifications. If the ATS doesn’t see the right ones on your resume, it might not even be seen by an actual person. TopResume has professional resume writers that know exactly how ATS works and how to craft a top quality resume.

Tell A Story In Your Cover Letter When ApplyingToo often, people use their cover letters to just explain their resume in greater detail, but that’s not what a cover letter is about. It’s a way for you to tell a story about your career and specify why you would be a great match for the particular position you’re applying for. If you don’t research the company thoroughly and specify why you would be a good fit for the company, it may seem like you don’t understand the culture. I personally was never the strongest writer, so I struggled a bit with this. Luckily TopResume also offers a service that will write your cover letter for you. I reached out and told them about my career journey and they helped me turn it into an intriguing cover letter story. I never would have been able to come up with that on my own.

Take Advantage Of LinkedIn During Your Job SearchThese days, your LinkedIn profile is almost as important as your resume, if not more. Not only do most employers check your LinkedIn page after you apply for the job, LinkedIn itself is a great way to find a job. I tried to keep my LinkedIn profile as up to date as possible while working at my last job, but like my resume, I just never found the time to do it properly. Once again though, TopResume hooked me up, by rewriting my entire LinkedIn profile to make sure it was different than my resume. After that, I was having way more success getting responses from places I applied to, and I even started to see more recruiters reach out to me about jobs.

No one likes writing their resumes, and figuring out how to sell themselves to potential employers. Some people are naturally good at it. For those of us that aren’t, these tips and TopResume can make a huge difference. They certainly did for me.

Update: Stop stressing over your resume and hand it over to the experts. Get a professionally written resume today!

*Source: beSatisfied Resume Rewrite Impact Study, March 2009