We often get requests to update a resume and draft a cover letter, in partnership with the client, to apply for a specific position.

In a few cases, the client hasn’t looked or doesn’t realise they don’t have the ESSENTIAL experience or a qualification for the application.

Sometimes we don’t realise that either until we start redrafting the resume. But that’s not our responsibility. We write resumes, we don’t vet suitability.

It’s beholden on the client to check that they are the right fit for the job. That means reading the position description closely.

If an applicant doesn’t possess all or 90 per cent of the ESSENTIAL criteria, they are wasting their time and money.

The application will sink like a stone, even if Shakespeare did the co-writing. When recruiters and employers state ESSENTIAL, they’re not joking. There’s no ‘wriggle room’.

Another problem is people sometimes ask us whether we think they’d be a ‘good fit’, based on their resume, for a certain position.

We won’t answer that because it’s ‘leading the client’. It could be considered that we are advising the client to apply for a job, based on monetary gain.

Other ‘professional’ writers may do that but ethically, that’s not our scene.

Objectively assess the job criteria in light of one’s experience, qualifications, skills and capabilities