I recently saw a copy of a professionally-written resume that was shown to me by the person who had paid to have it written for him. I’m not sure how much it cost but he did tell me “it cost me a lot to get it done” so I’ll take his word for it.

In a word, it looked fantastic. It gave me a great first impression…and that was before I’d even started reading it! It looked like it was written in some sort of template or perhaps was made into a PDF because the lettering was unlike anything you’d see in a regular Word document.

Each of the person’s previous jobs had a profile paragraph within a light colored blue box that really stood out from the page and caused my eyes to look right at the contents of the box. No doubt this was the goal and it worked.

As far as the writing of the resume itself, it was also very well done. The resume started off by showing in large bolded font lettering that the person’s career goal was a Key Account Manager position so right away I knew he was in sales even if I didn’t know anything else about him.

All in all, the design and actual written aspect of the resume was excellent. It simply stood out – for the right reasons – and demanded to be read. I suspect it would stand out from the many, many other resumes the average sales manager gets from sales professionals like this one.

Is paying someone to write – and in this case design – your resume a good idea? Depending on the cost and the skills of the person writing and designing it, the cost could certainly be worth it if it gets you in the front door of a company that eventually hires you.

Even if it simply accomplished the feat of getting you more interviews, that might be considered a success too.

“I’m applying for jobs I’m qualified for yet I’m getting ignored even by recruiters. I’m educated, have a degree, am very motivated and have a great resume! I don’t get it. Why aren’t I getting any responses? I don’t get it!”

Does this sound like your situation? Are you also finding it difficult to get an interview – or even an email back from a hiring manager – let alone a job offer?

In a good economy, it can be difficult for some people to get responses from recruiters and hiring managers and in a bad economy where many companies continue to downsize it can be even worse.

When I say some people the fact is that many people hold skills and have experience that either doesn’t come across as being outstanding in their resume (ie. perhaps their resume isn’t interesting enough or written well-enough to hold the reader’s attention) or perhaps there are many other people with their skills also on the job search market and employers can pick and choose amongst them.

In other words, these people are finding it difficult to stand out for the right reasons and attract potential hiring managers.

For the person who is applying to many jobs and getting no responses, the best thing to do is to fully understand what part of the job search process you’re failing in. If you’re getting interviews but no job offer, this is different to applying for jobs and simply not getting responses.

In the first instance, you’re impressing people enough to get the interview but are most likely failing during the interview process. Perhaps you are being outshone by the people you’re competing with and interviewing with for the same jobs. Maybe you’re bombing the interview and just don’t know it.

In the second instance, the fact that you aren’t getting interviews can be the result of a multitude of reasons ie. your resume is no good, you’re applying to the wrong jobs.

The point is that you need to figure out where in the process you’re failing and then figure out why. Then you determine how to fix it.

If you’re firing off dozens or hundreds of resumes by email and are not getting responses, it’s probably a combination of the fact that you are competing with hundreds of other people for the same jobs, and the fact that for one reason or another, your resume and/or profile isn’t doing enough to stand out from these hundreds of other people.

In other words you’re probably not standing out from your competitors for the right reason(s). When you turn the job search into a numbers game (and applying to jobs through job boards is clearly a numbers game) it can be difficult to rise to the top and separate yourself from your competitors. That’s why you’ll often hear people talking about getting yourself out from behind your computer keyboard and searching using other methods like networking.

While I’ve read many resumes that look great and make me think “I have to interview this person” the fact is that eventually you’re going to have to meet the people who could possibly hire you face to face.

The problem is that many times the traits you have that could impress someone enough to want to hire you are ones that only come to light in a face to face situation. If you’re simply firing off resumes to nameless faceless people through email and are not getting the response (or any response) you’re looking for, it might be time to get out from behind your keyboard and really start job searching.