Real Market Pain

This month’s already been a rough one.

One client, upon receipt of her resume, wanted to forgo the revision process, wanted a partial refund, and asked to “end this relationship” with no further explanation. Wow.

Another resume client refused to do career counseling despite her being completely at a loss for where to go next.

One job-seeker sent us a list of demands and concerns a mile long, and hadn’t even placed an order yet!

A valued former client threatened to stop making referrals if we didn’t get her in our already tight project queue.

Sheesh.

It’s enough to make a business owner want to throw in the towel and go pick Pink Lady apples for a living. What’s going on? Let me make sure we’re doing our job right, here.

Is it our product?

We’ve put together the most talented resume team out there; Seriously, our writers are word wizards; they’ve won awards; they’re nationally certified, even multi-credentialed with certifications, degrees, and relevant career paths. More than that, they take the whole client into account to design a personalized document that addresses every single stated challenge and concern. People would be amazed at how much thought we put into a 1-3 page document.

Is it our process?

We have the most comprehensive information gathering process I’ve seen, comprised of an hour of coaching/consulting and a very well crafted questionnaire to both help clients generate resume content and prepare them for their interview process.

What about customer service?

We’re responsive as all get-out. When I can’t answer the phone personally, our administrative manager certainly does, if only to get back to customers with a real live voice to say “we’re super busy, how can I help”.

Maybe we’re slacking on followup?

Our infrastructure is technologically rich, making it possible to track projects through every step and get back to existing clients immediately to address their needs. At any given time, 3 people are paying attention to a single client.

Am I ranting?

That’s not the goal here (well, not the primary goal). The point is we’re doing all we can to keep customers happy. We’re staying relatively small, offering a high-touch service, and bringing clients into the process all along the way. Put another way, we’ve set up a system to control our extensive resume development process so that nothing and nobody gets overlooked or under-serviced.

But I guess there is one thing that we can’t control:

The economy.

In following up with all of the aforementioned aggrieved clients, this what they had to say

“Things are tight right now.”
“I was really counting on this resume to change everything.”
“I just don’t have the money.”
“It’s hard to justify paying for anything.”
“I need help now, not in a month.”
“No one will hire me no matter what I do.”

The pain is real and it flows amongst anyone involved in the job search process, directly or indirectly. I suppose I need to buck up with my self-absorbed complaints of “difficult months” and instead relish the fact that I’m employed and in a position to help. And although my intentions with BrightSide are honest, simply offering or even successfully delivering, such help may not be enough to make the pain disappear.

Only getting a job can do that.

If I’m truly open to criticism (which I try to be), it hurts a little. And I suppose we’re all hurting at least a little in this economy. If it’s not us, someone we know is out of work and not getting the recognition they deserve–sometimes for no other reason than there are just too many applicants for each job available.

After several months of non-response, anyone–even the most seasoned, well-established career professional–will get discouraged. It’s a lonely, frustrating feeling and it seems to be inextricably linked to looking for work.

At the base of the issue, it just hurts.

And I guess one way to offer support to anyone in this position is to hurt a little bit with them.

9 July 2010 | Career Transition, Job Market, Resumes | Comments

6 Responses to “Real Market Pain”

  1. 1 Robert 9 July 2010 @ 4:01 pm

    Job seekers are encouraged to use writeCLICKresume.com’s (http://www.writeCLICKresume.com) new online resume builder, and then, if necessary, use a professional resume service. The site’s online resume builder makes writing a professional resume (and cover letter) fast and very easy.

  2. 2 Another Resume Writer 28 July 2010 @ 7:16 pm

    You are NOT alone — I am having similar client issues. Oh the joys of those lists of demands and concerns. :) These are of course magnified by the reports of how many scamming resume writers and career coaches there are out there. It’s kind of like how a few “ambulance chasers” ruin the reputation for all attorneys / lawyers.

    I am getting people that are asking to contact references (which is fine) but some of them have actually asked my former clients to see the work I did. They have declined and then wrote to me saying that it makes them uncomfortable. They do not want to send strangers their files. I don’t blame them because many of them are in a secret job search and confidentiality is super important…it’s just absurd!

    I also had a recent client INSIST that her formatted resume should be able to be look *exactly* the same copied and pasted into a web form. I explained to her many times that it won’t work and that is why I offer plain text files. She got really upset with me and asked why we even bothered making the resume look good if she couldn’t use the nice format. She told me to do it over without extra pay.

    Afraid she would dispute her credit card charges, I did it once (stupid me) but after she tried to copy and paste that one again, she came back mad saying it still wasn’t working and that I just have to “suck it up and do it over.”

    Well, the customer is always right but refuse to take abuse, so I politely educated her on current job search methods and reminded her that applying to advertised jobs through web databases is not a good job search strategy. Then, I refused to answer any additional e-mails from her.

    She turned out to be impossible to satisfy. I had the warning (tried to negotiate the rates, needed lots of reassuring) but she seemed nice so I went ahead and worked with her. Unfortunately, I will likely pay the price. She hasn’t disputed the charges yet, but I honestly expect it any time.

    Ugh.

    I have never in all of my years of doing this had the type of customers that I have had over the last six months. These clients do make me want to go out and get a regular “9 to 5″ job so I can leave work at work and get paid for my hours no matter what.

    But I won’t. I worked too hard for this. And, I love what I do.

    It will turn around again. Until then, feel free to rant. :)

  3. 3 Cliff Flamer 13 September 2010 @ 3:52 pm

    LOL… thanks for sharing some of your day! I completely hear your client about “why build a beautiful resume if it’s going to be uglified in a cut-and-paste maneuver. It pains me to think about the alphabet soup that a beautiful resume can turn into thanks for mandatory web form applications. ASCII resumes are always a good solution but no where near the visual paradise of a great Word/PDF resume.

  4. 4 Cliff Flamer 13 September 2010 @ 3:56 pm

    Thanks for the resource, Robert. I definitely want our clients and prospective clients to have all the options they can. This could be an inexpensive alternative to getting a professionally prepared resume. That said, it’s my experience that resumes are getting less and less linear and bits of everyone’s work history tend to need some explaining. That’s where we excel: overcoming obstacles and laying down a resume that always always highlights a client’s strengths…right down to the last minute detail.

  5. 5 Harriet Sokolski 7 February 2011 @ 2:38 pm

    Hi blog owner, listen, do you have a facebook fan page? I looked for one on facebook but could not find one.I really want to become a fan!

  6. 6 Cliff Flamer 8 February 2011 @ 12:20 pm

    Harriet, you bring up a great point. I should be all over Facebook. Thanks for the suggestion and support!

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