Review: Pro Resumes Made Easy by Andrea Drew

I'm a firm believer of personal and professional development, so when I came across the work of Australian writer Andrea Drew (when reading a review of her novel Gypsy Hunted), and noticed her book on resume writing Pro Resumes Made Easy, I purchased it straight away.

You see, when I'm not immersed in my love of books and reading, I have my own business called Extra Edge, where I prepare resumes for clients and edit the odd manuscript.

Given Drew's success and her claim on the cover to Get more Job Interviews in 30 days or less, I was looking forward to learning from her expertise. Sadly this didn't happen.

Drew includes several samples of cover letters and resumes but they're largely from the US. The examples are available for free online and she's pulled these into her book to provide a helpful resource for readers, however they don't support the advice she gives in her book. 

Some of the things she tells us not to include in a resume (such as horizontal lines and italics etc.) are all included in the examples she provides, which is a frustrating contradiction. It was also disappointing to find that the content within the samples was mostly American, despite being clear that the e-book was using Australian spelling. If you're going to write for an Australian audience and use Australian spelling, then why not include Australian examples and templates?

I guess Drew is reluctant to share her own (Australian) templates for the same reason I don't; and that's because she would be giving away her IP and could lose potential clients as a result. I understand this, but in her case readers/clients have already paid for some of her IP by purchasing her e-book, so perhaps she could have been more forthcoming.

The best part of Pro Resumes Made Easy was the list of power words / action verbs at the end but I wouldn't recommend this book to jobseekers. I'm confident there are better books on the topic.

My rating = **

Carpe Librum!