INBOX

Readers Object to Advice About Critiquing Résumés

To the Editor:

Please allow me to respectfully voice my strong disagreement with the advice about seeking a résumé critique in your April 20 column.

As a certified résumé writer and career-services professional with 12 years of direct experience writing résumés for high-profile clients, and an additional 20 years in business and human resources, I beg to differ. Friends and colleagues, though attempting to be helpful, are quite capable for dispensing conflicting and, at times, just plain wrong advice. The fact that there are certainly some unqualified and unprofessional résumé practitioners (just as there are shoddy mechanics and contractors) is by no means a reason to avoid seeking out those who are recognized for excellence in this profession.

There are many in my field, like me, who have taken the time and effort to become certified and to strive for excellence, a rigorous process involving: testing, judging by a panel of esteemed practitioners, maintaining annual continuing-education units, attending annual conferences, publishing articles in journals, and regularly performing community service.

Debra Oppenheim, the recruiter quoted in your advice column, would do well to investigate the professionals in the résumé-writing community more thoroughly before so indiscriminately attacking our integrity.

To get more information, see the Web site of the (Professional Résumé Writing & Research Association),

To the Editor:

In your April 20 response to the question of "How do I get someone to critique my résumé?," you quote Debra Oppenheim dismissing consultants with "don't bother" and calling them "a waste of time and money."

I'm amazed that any hiring authority would recommend soliciting résumé advice from "a former boss, co-worker, or someone else," especially because, as Ms. Oppenheim herself points out in the next paragraph, "If you talk to 10 people, you're likely to get 10 different opinions about what a résumé should contain." Everyone's an expert on résumés -- which is one of the primary reasons the overall quality of résumés is quite low, and many candidates favor clever embellishments over accurate, informative descriptions.

The solution? Good advice, and it can often be found through résumé consultants, career coaches, and other professionals in the careers industry. Ms. Oppenheim tars myself and my colleagues with one broad brush, which is a disservice to everyone in careers professions, your readers, and the employers that would benefit from improvements in résumé writing.

Better to refer your readers to one of the many well-written publications on résumés, or provide information on finding a reputable professional to assist them, don't you think?

Send your letters to Inbox at editor@philanthropy.com.