From Good to Great: How Professional Editing Showcases Your Expertise

Job applications are super important. We know you feel the burden of that, dear reader. Truly, we get it. You’ve spent hours and hours pouring yourself into every paragraph of your resume/cover letter/business proposal, and now you’re left in the aftermath staring at the darn thing thinking, “Is this actually any good? Will I get a job with this?”

Your job application documents are speaking for you in a room where you’re not present, and you can’t look at anyone’s face to gauge their reaction. Sometimes we all forget how much heavy lifting our words do for us. The question then becomes: how do you make sure your documents represent you in the best way – clearly, professionally, and confidently? Well, you could either sit around hoping for the best or get a helping hand. Enter the professional editor (*roaring cheering from the crowd, glitter cannons go off, people throw their small children in the air*).

An editor is the trump card in your job application deck. They are your eagle eyes, the spit and polish, the megaphone to your voice. This goes beyond fixing those pesky typos – it’s about structure, clarity, and optimisation. The editing process is like polishing a beautiful gemstone: the brilliance and brightness were always there, but now you can see it shining so obviously! Your editor will take your good and fairy godmother it into great! All the while saving you time and stress.

1.        First Impressions Matter

If you could make a solid first impression on a potential new employer, how would you want to appear? You would like to look like a credible, trustworthy professional that any hiring manager would be a fool to turn away, right? Well, that’s the exact impression a polished, error-free application instantly creates for you. That’s the power of a good editor: they make you look capable and competent. A high-quality job application sends a clear message to a hiring manager that you are a detail-oriented professional who would be a valuable asset to any team.

Paul Kelly & the Messengers said it first (although, in a very different context…): From little things, big things grow. Big assumptions are made about your work ethic from the little details in your job application. These tiny changes made by your editor go a long way in creating the impression of an impactful, hardworking professional.

Even without shouting across the rooftops that you hired a professional editor to help you, you are showing that you hold yourself to a higher standard of presentation and communication. Coincidentally (or not so coincidentally), hiring managers tend to LOVE an overachiever type.

2.        Customisation is Crucial

Editors have an incredible talent for personalisation. They can tailor your documents to specific industries and roles, ensuring that your application highlights the most relevant and compelling aspects of your experience and expertise. In this way, editors can adapt your tone and style, ensuring you use industry terminology and jargon correctly to maximise impact and exceed the expectations of your target audience.

It is important to note that while editors will make necessary adjustments to your documents, they strive to maintain your voice. This fine-tuning will enable you to speak to your target audience, rather than at them. This refinement creates the impression of emotional intelligence and communication savvy.

3.        Confidence via Consistency

An editor will scour your documents and make changes so that all of your documents sound like, well, you. Your voice must be loud and proud throughout all of your documents to make the desired impression on your reader.

In addition to voice, your editor will finesse all the hairy technical stuff that can bog the average Joe down. We’re talking about style guides. For those not in the know, a style guide is the rulebook that proofreaders and editors worship like the bible. There are lots of them, and depending on your industry and dialect (yes, dear reader, the English language has dialects), you may be required to use different ones, which is where an editor can be your secret weapon to making sure you’re following all the rules and looking schmick.

And then there’s the old trap of not knowing what you don’t know. You see, when reading their own work, most people can’t spot their own mistakes. Meanwhile, editors can easily catch your typos, awkward phrasing, and inconsistencies before you hand them in to someone you want to impress. These hidden mistakes can undermine your good work and confidence. An editor is tasked with eliminating these mistakes and boosting your confidence. So many birds with that one stone!

4.        Stand Out From the Crowd

Bear with me on this one, dear reader, but let’s take a step back in time to the 90s and early 2000s, when Hollywood produced a seemingly endless amount of formulaic, cheesy teen rom-coms. All these movies have that scene. We’re talking, of course, about when the awkward, social reject girl takes her glasses off, her best friend dabs some blush and lip gloss on her face, and she dons a cute but probably kind of edgy dress (even though she’s a total tom boy and loathes dresses), and then, BOOM! She’s suddenly a total hottie and wins over the captain of the football team at prom. Roll the credits. Stay with me, dear reader – we’re getting to the point. Think of an editor as the best friend with the dabby-dab lip gloss. Your resume/cover letter/business proposal was always beautiful; it just needed a glow-up montage!

The reality is that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can slap their education and work experience in a Word Document and call it a CV. Most people in the adult world can write one (and if you can’t, please email us, we have templates!), but that doesn’t mean it’s decent. However, anyone who hires a professional editor is telling the world that they care that much more – that they don’t want to settle for just good, when they could be great. Talk about professionalism, excellent work ethic, and credibility!

5.        Save Yourself the Stress

Outsourcing editing allows you to focus on preparing for the interview, sorting out your portfolio, or just taking a load off in a world that’s busier and more stressful than ever. Investing in yourself like this is an act of self-care.

Hiring an editor buys you back some time. Instead of spending days or even weeks second-guessing yourself and struggling through the writing process, you can hand in your half-baked attempt to someone you can trust to make it shine! (Because editors can, in fact, polish turds!) So, dear reader, what are you waiting for? You can enquire about hiring an editor for your documents here, right now!