For media inquiries and to request specific quotes, please contact: media@thenrwa.com

The annual conference of The NRWA takes place usually the third week every September in locations throughout the United States. Members also connect regularly via a weekly newsletter providing tips, trends, and ideas as well as a members-only online discussion group.

Approximately 90% of the members are self-employed resume writers and small business owners. The remainder of the membership is comprised of resume writers who are employed at college placement, military transition, or state employment offices. In terms of geographic distribution, The NRWA members are primarily based in the U.S. with about a dozen international members. They are divided into six regions with the Southeastern region having the largest concentration at 21.1%.

Of the 90% of members who own small businesses, 86% of them are minority- or woman-owned businesses with 82% acting as sole business proprietors. Of those individual owners, 96% report having between 1-5 employees, guaranteeing personalized service when producing career documents.

Most (67%) The NRWA members have been in business writing resumes at least 5 years or more with 45% working in the industry more than 10 years.

Members have committed to continued professional development and 67% have earned some sort of industry credential to boost their expertise level and enhance their services. The NRWA offers the Nationally Certified Resume Writer (NCRW) credential for those writers who pass a rigorous accreditation process that tests each candidate for meticulous understanding of grammar, formatting, and resume writing strategy. They must also accumulate annual CEUs to demonstrate that they stay current with industry trends and best practices.

In terms of products offered, 99% of all The NRWA member companies offer resume and cover letter development and writing. Additional services include creation of biographies, curricula vitae (CV), outplacement services, career research, and career coaching.

The NRWA members are committed to their communities with more than 60% providing some kind of philanthropic service utilizing their background in some type of contribution. Many express concern for the impact that worsening economic conditions are having on their region and are providing some type of seminar or workshop for dislocated workers to help build their resume-building competencies.

Trend Spotting

• Economic Woes Making Job Marketplace More Crowded; Workers Turning to Professional Resume Writers to Gain Competitive Edge in Job Searches

With Wall Street taking a pounding, Main Street is beginning to suffer with related job losses and downsizing as executives tighten their company belts. Employees are getting concerned, and many are looking to either jump ship to more stable employment or have a pink slip in hand and are now just entering the job-search marketplace for the first time in years. With so much competition for just a single open position, many people are turning to professional resume writers to put the greatest amount of polish on their experience as possible to stand out as an ideal candidate. Doing so can make the difference in whether a resume gets a second look that leads to an interview.

In a poll of members of The National Resume Writers Association conducted in January of 2009, 52% of respondents indicated that they have definitely seen an increase in clients who are worried about their jobs and the economy. Many writers have seen at least a 10-40% increase in inquiries and new clients as a result of layoffs, downsizing, and in general, employment jitters.

"I’m seeing an especially large number of people downsized from the financial industry including Realtors®, lenders, and private bankers. It has been interesting…many of the lenders say they saw it coming but didn’t realize it would be so fast…yet most are still employed but looking," said Camille Roberts, owner of CC Computer Services & Training in Idaho Falls, ID.

Irene Marshall of Tools for Transition located in Fremont, CA, observed, "The thing that I am seeing with people at all levels is an increase in urgency. I’ve noticed a definite change since Labor Day weekend."

The change also affected former workers who thought they had retired. With losses topping the trillions on Wall Street, Portland, OR, resume writer Bonnie Kurka of Executive Career Suite recently heard from a previous client who needed to start earning money again. "A retired GM exec contacted me because he has to go back to work," Kurka said. "Seems the ‘lifetime benefits’ promised to him when he retired are gone as of the first of January."

Many customers are updating their resumes as precautionary measures, having picked up on troubling warning signs from their employer about poor corporate financial performance.

Resume writing has become a fast-growing professional service in the current economy and will likely continue to grow as people recognize the value of hiring a professional resume writer to become as competitive as possible in an increasingly crowded job marketplace.

• Biggest Failure of Job Applicants in Writing Their Resume: Not Mentioning Their Accomplishments

Seventy-six percent of professional resume writers cite the failure to outline the quantification of job applicant accomplishments as the number one problem with resumes. People seeking employment are usually in a hurry to list their job duties and completely overlook the results of the work they have done. To most employers, this is a lost opportunity for the prospective employees to show their value proposition.

“If you don’t outline what your action and then your results were with a particular employer, all I know, as the hiring manager, is that you say you can do the job duties. What makes you stand out as a possible new employee is what you can do for me as the employer,” said human resource consultant Nadine Cummins SPHR of Phoenix-based HR Compass, LLC. “What have you done that can have value to our organization?”

Many people who hire resume writers often indicate they have been struggling with how to promote themselves, so the concept of showing their value to a company is definitely on the radar screen. But getting around to expressing it on paper usually eludes the applicant. Professional writers can produce resume documents, help focus on results and can articulate results and top-line contributions to previous employers.

Other issues with resumes include poor spelling, grammar, punctuation, and language usage, which stand out as glaring errors and can quickly land an applicant in the round file, never to be interviewed.

Additionally, 74% of professional resume writers agree that in the resumes they see from clients, there is usually very unclear communication of skills, expertise, and abilities, in addition to lack of a branding statement or headline. Considering that human resource or hiring managers average between 10-30 seconds per resume, quickly and effectively communicating what an applicant is all about and can offer an employer is critical to getting to the top of the interview pile.

• Precision Resumes: The Wave of the Future?

With the fast pace of online social media and increasing use of mobile devices, communicating a personal brand and top-line accomplishments with power, personality, and brevity is paramount.

Deb Dib, professional resume writer and president of Executive Power Brand, shared that she produced a one-page precision resume for a CEO who had been with the same company for 20+ years.

Dib says the key to success is to "Write a resume profile that is strong, branded, devoid of superlatives, and stands on the facts for power." She says that job seekers need to, “Know their sweet spot (the thing they do best), tie their accomplishments to that, and edit ruthlessly when writing their resumes. Drop the long ‘responsible for’ laundry list and use statistics wherever possible."

She cautions that, "Shrinking a resume to one or two pages calls for innovative ways to convey the deep information decision makers need." Dib supplemented her precision CEO resume with a portfolio of documents including an executive biography, leadership process profile, and multi-page case study supplement as clear illustrations of the executive’s brand and accomplishments.

The resume-writing industry responds to market changes, spurring the fact that resumes are becoming more focused and results-oriented to show value and contribution, especially in a society where attention spans are becoming shorter with increasingly competing messaging.