ABOUT US

This is who we are, and why we are so successful:

Rather than give you the usual "Mission Statement" stuff, we have reproduced our MD's handwritten description (on the right). This was written back in 2002 when he was asked to give some information for a press release. We think it does admirably in telling you just what we are about! >

. . . . and today's message from Stephen Thompson, Managing Director:

We started Top Professional Resumes in July of 1997, after I had been made redundant as the Financial Controller of a manufacturing company in Yorkshire. Having previously spent 20 years in the British Army (and having also been made redundant from there - so much for "jobs for life"!), I had become acutely aware of the lack of good resources available for professionals when it came to job-searching.

There was plenty of help available for manual workers, retail people and the like, but very little for people like me. I was on the books of several agencies as an accountant, but so also were hundreds of others! The best agencies charged an arm and a leg to register with them (£600 to £1000, €870 to €1450, US$1110 to US$1850), or "stung" the future employer with a percentage of first year salary, effectively pricing many clients out of the market.

These findings have been reinforced since in my work as a freelance Management Consultant and HR Professional. However one common denominator surfaced during my research that had a huge - some would say disproportionate - influence on whether or not prospective employees got through the door to that all-important first interview. The Curriculum Vitae (CV), or resume, and Covering Letter. So I went about scouring the libraries for books and resources on how to write my own CV. I bought, borrowed and read every bit of information I could lay my hands on (and there is a LOT of it!) and began marketing myself. The seeds of TPR were sown!

In the intervening years I have discovered that the standard of resume or CV writing in the UK, Europe and the US is generally appalling. They vary from the DIY (we all think we can do it - after all, we all have word processors, don't we?), which themselves range from poor to just about readable, to the agency-type of formula-written, nondescript, indistinguishable drivel that they literally mass produce.

The fact is that in the first place very few of us can be selective or objective enough to successfully write our own, and those generated by the agencies are designed more to reassure the job-seeker that said agency is doing a "proper job" of getting their details in front of employers. Because of the sheer volume of clients they carry, all of whom need a 'quick' resume so that they can be instantly "marketed", the CV is usually generated by software plug-in and a data-entry clerk, with the attendant similarity of "quality" and style. Without wishing to state the obvious, this makes them all look the same, right down to the formatting, and usually complete with "typo's", or spelling and grammatical errors.

Particularly in the case of what we at TPR term as "top professionals" (lawyers, accountants, engineers, teachers, boardroom-level directors and such like), a very focused, grammatically-perfect and highly relevant CV is needed today that immediately strikes the selector squarely between the eyes. It has to be presented in such a way as to instantly carve out and separate our Client from the dross.

For this reason, I still personally write most of the CV's for this level. In fact, although the background work and construction of your CV may be carried out by one of our consultants, I will not allow the final product to leave the Company until I have personally reviewed it and 'signed it off'. I feel that the only way to ensure consistent quality control over such an important document is to review each and every one myself.

This isn't an inability to delegate, or a reflection on the considerable talents of my writers. At the end of the day it is my personal integrity and reputation on the line - and I take that very seriously.

At Top Professional Resumes I believe we have created an excellent product and service that serves our clients superbly. Better still it achieves what it sets out to do - get our Client an interview.

In advertising parlance the Top Professional Resume or Top Pro CV "does exactly what it says on the tin!"

Since our inauspicious start in 1997 we have grown from a "one-man-band" to a thriving organisation that caters mainly for professional people, typically those senior people looking for a serious career move or advancement. CV's and resumes for this social group necessarily have to be incredibly strong and focused, and have to directly market our clients to prospective employers the minute the envelope is opened.

[Picture - Steve doing the other thing he loves ... getting wet and cold, diving in the Irish Sea]

The HR person carrying out the selection at this level is him or herself by definition a busy, committed and highly-motivated professional. A CV from Top Professional Resumes instantly makes their job so much easier because the choices are narrowed immediately. The number of these individuals who have themselves subsequently come to us as clients because of what they have seen from the other side of the table, so to speak, is staggering. I believe it proves a point though . . . .

We must be doing something right. In 2005 we Incorporated (became a Limited Company) and lurched into the 21st Century by getting ourselves "on the web". We are going from strength to strength, and hopefully, with your help will continue to do so. If there is anything you like or don't like about the website, our service (wait until you become a client for this though!), or if you just want to send or obtain some further information, then please contact us by email, phone, fax or "snail-mail".

A Reminder of Our Risk-Free Guarantee . . .

Our guarantee is very simple, and absolutely free of risk:

If your Top-Pro-CV fails to get you an interview within 30 days, or if for any other reason you are dissatisfied with the finished product, then we will take the blame and work with you to rewrite or rework the resume until it does!

How's that for a guarantee?