Word-of-mouth customers can be the best customers for any business — they've been personally introduced to your company, and the cost of marketing to them was, well ... zero.

Similarly, it's well-known that finding a job through a word-of-mouth connection from your family and friends can make job hunting a snap ... When somebody gives you that warm introduction to a hiring manager, the endorsement works wonders.

But what do you do when word-of-mouth fails you?

When times are good and jobs are plentiful, everybody knows somebody who's hiring. But what do you do in the worst recession in 80 years?

Well, when a business needs more customers, they advertise.

And when a job-hunter needs a job.... they advertise.

Because the plain truth is — your resume is an advertisement written about you. It has to tell the hiring manager what skills and talents you will bring to their business today.

We did a survey of 2,000 TheLadders.com subscribers to find out which was a more effective advertisement — a self-written resume, or one written by a professional? Half of those surveyed had written their own resume, and the other 1,000 had used a professional resume writer.

What did we find?

Those with professionally written resumes were:

• 40% more likely to receive job offers,
• 31% more likely to land interviews, and
• 38% more likely to be contacted by recruiters.

Why? Because professional writers have experience in crafting your story, just like professional copywriters have experience writing great advertisements.

And whether you get your resume written by TheLadders network, or by another CPRW (Certified Professional Resume Writer) accredited by the PARW/CC, it makes a world of difference to your job hunt.

Here are just some of your fellow subscribers' experiences:

A Wordy Resume Becomes a Two-Page Marketing Machine

Marcus Crayton is looking for a job as a marketing director, though his functional experience is disparate. The 34-year-old project manager has sent out "thousands of resumes and applied for countless jobs," he admitted. With help from certified resume writer Mary Schumacher, he was able to turn a wordy resume into a concise marketing document.


Marketing Pro Sells Soft Skills on Resume

Anne Neczypor soothed personality disputes and eased tensions in her last role as editor of Broadcast Standards & Practices. The ability to build that type of camaraderie is invaluable to a company. It's also something that Neczypor's resume omitted until mid-May, when she had her resume rewritten by Andrew Pearl, a certified professional resume writer who works with TheLadders.


Overachieving Manager Puts 110% Into New Resume

OpsLadder member Leshia Evans of Cumming, Ga., hadn't needed a resume for more than 20 years at the same company. After a layoff, a professional rewrite let her numbers speak for themselves.




Engineering a Hybrid Resume for a Tech Pro

"It had been a long time since I had done much with my resume, since I got my job back when the opportunities were more plentiful," TechnologyLadder member Jeff Held said. Resume writer Steve Burdan likened Held's mix of formatting details to dumping ketchup over a meal.Here's how Burdan and Held created a tastier story for the former CIO.


A New Advertising Sales Resume to Sell a New Medium

Jessica Coates is a pioneer in the new world of digital-display advertising. But her old resume wasn't selling her career properly. "My resume was getting redundant," Coates said. "I needed a new way of expressing, 'I sold advertising to display advertisers.' "



Technology Director Highlights ROI on Resume

Thad Fox took his time completing a self-assessment before handing over his resume for a rewrite. The result spells out his ROI in capital letters. "If you go back and earnestly answer those questions on that resume worksheet ... you will often discover you had forgotten some of your most important accomplishments and that you went well beyond the job description in your performance," Fox said.


Resume Lands TV Marketing VP New Job

Allyson Terry-Goldsby spent 16 years as a marketing and management executive in the television industry. This vice president of entertainment and television had the people skills to make any situation a "win-win" but needed help to make her resume shine as brightly as her tenured career.


Downplaying Short Tenures on a Medical Resume

Phillip Woellner is a senior-level health-care executive with experience in psychiatric and hospital management. Lifetime employees are a thing of the past, but multiple short-tenured jobs aren't exactly what this health-care executive wanted to lead with. When Woellner was laid off, he needed to turn gaps in his resume to his advantage.


Owner/Entrepreneur Remakes Engineering Resume

After starting his own manufacturing business, OpsLadder member Scott Hammac needed a resume that could transfer to the corporate world. Translating his experience meant rewriting his resume, said Ken Moore, a certified professional resume writer who works with TheLadders and helped Hammac craft a new one.


New MBA Gets New Resume

After receiving her master's degree, Roe Polczynski needed help graduating her mid-level resume to an executive-level spotlight. When she joined TheLadders, she decided to try out the company's free resume critique. "It was respectful, but it was also blunt and extremely honest about why it was so poorly done and outdated," Polczynski said. "My old resume wasn't telling anyone what I was really talented at in my career."


OK, folks, go spread the word about what you can do and have a great week!

Warmest regards,

Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.