In today's competitive job market, it's hard to know how to ensure that you stand out from the masses of people all applying for the same role. More people than ever before have Bachelors or Associate diplomas, resulting in an oversaturated applicant pool. Your resume is the first impression you make with a prospective employer, so it's essential to have a CV that can make it to the top of the pile and land you an in-person interview. You've probably heard all of the old-school resume rules before -- keep it to one page, most relevant experience at the top -- but writing your resume is a more technical process than you may think.

Recruiting software and resume-scanning tools have shifted the way employers define a well-constructed resume. In order to even get read by a hiring manager, your resume needs to fit certain criteria you probably don't know about. Resume writing services like TopResume claim that using expert writers with years of experience beating resume-scanning software gives you a much-needed advantage in the job market. But does a professionally crafted resume really increase the chances of your application making it into the right hands? What about getting an interview?

A recent study of recruiters and job seekers conducted by TopResume set out to gauge the benefits of professionally written resumes, both for candidates and employers. They asked experienced recruiters to evaluate resumes that were professionally written by TopResume against those created by the job seekers themselves. They looked at four main aspects: how "polished" the candidate appears, how well the resume communicated the candidate's ability to deliver results, what salary the candidate might be worth, and how confident they would feel presenting the candidate to a client.

The study's results showed clearly that professionally written resumes resulted in higher salary offerings: "a professionally written resume gives job seekers a competitive edge over those whose resumes were self-written. Recruiters perceived candidates with professionally written resumes to be worth 7% more than those without them. They also perceived these candidates as more polished and better able to deliver results, and they felt more confident about the prospect of presenting these candidates to clients."

Next, they tracked TopResume users to find out how their job prospects were faring compared to applicants not using a professional resume writing service. What they found was astonishing: "Candidates who had their resumes professionally rewritten by TopResume had a 32% higher rate of landing a new job than those who do not.'' Interestingly, they also discovered that 68% of candidates that used TopResume landed a job, and 42% of them were promoted within just 3 months. TopResume concluded that a professionally written resume achieves 3 critical goals that most people struggle with:

1. Presents a compelling career narrative
2. Balances visual elements
3. Highlights a candidate's value

There's a lot of mixed advice out there for job applicants, and it can be hard to know what actually benefits you professionally. Both employers and job seekers agree that investing in a well-written resume written with sorting software in mind will pay off in the long term. TopResume's professional writers are experts at making sure your resume does your experience justice, but also ensuring that it is structured in a way that will catch the eye of a prospective employer.

Many companies are now using software that can detect if certain keywords are included in your CV, and will use this to decide if you make it to an interview round. The studies are clear: TopResume crafts your resume in a way that tailors it perfectly for your prospective industry's standards, giving you a proven edge over other job seekers.

Update: Stop stressing over your resume and hand it over to the experts. Get a professionally written resume today!