AAA Targeted Writing & Coaching Services

I worked with Clay about 6 months ago in order to revamp my resume & a cover letter. I had a wonderful experience & would highly recommend Clay’s services. He was very thorough in discussing my career goals & tailoring my resume to meet my needs. I was very pleased with the finished product & would definitely work with Clay in the future, if I needed similar services.

Clay did a great job with my resume. He took the time to really understand how to play up my strengths. Got a job in a week and a half after applying with my new resume. Thanx clay.

Clay is the Man. He seems a bit quirky at first but there’s no bang for the buck as good as Clay can provide. I first met Clay in the fall of 2006 and he helped me with my resume. I started getting calls right away. His office is filled with books and materials on resume and job hunting strategies. He is truly an expert in this field. I’ve used him on two other occasions and he has done a great job. I have sent him many referrals too. His work landed them jobs too almost immediately. I would recommend him highly.

Clay is the person you want when creating a resume and job hunting. He took my four page resume, interviewed me for an hour and created a new, much more sharply focused resume that worked magic. I only had to send out two of these new resumes and landed the job of my dreams. Clay is a careful listener and very easy to talk to. I highly recommend him.

Sorry Clay, I should have written sooner but I GOT THE JOB! I am constantly recommending Clay to everyone I know. I have limited resources and was apprehensive about paying for this service but doing it myself was getting me no where. When I started sending out the resume/​cover letter that Clay wrote for me, I started getting interviews. And I probably would have had gotten a job sooner, if only I had been more consistent with my job search. Also Clay was very honest with me about my choice of positions. At first, I must admit I was a little taken aback by his frankness, but I took a chance and trusted his judgment and in the end, he was right. After all I am paying for expert advice.
I highly recommend using his service.

Clay was indeed a really nice man. So much so that it pains me to have to write this review.
I spoke with Clay twice on the phone, and met with him twice in person. I expected this to be a very, very thorough process, and I was prepared to be impressed. I’d provided a previous and current resume, job descriptions that matched my search criteria, and my LinkedIn profile. I thought, «you know, this is expensive, but it’s going to help so much.»
Several days after those meetings, I received the first draft of my resume and cover letter. Separate jobs while with the same employer had been combined (one a contract position, one after I’d been hired full time), facts about the roles were switched. Dates were changed without initial explanation. The only thing special about this resume was the errors. I didn’t notice any keywords, the layout was neither customized nor clean: everything was templated. Verbiage used did not accurately describe my experience. The cover letter was very general, focusing on soft skills rather than compelling facts or achievements that would lead an employer to actually want to move on to the resume.
For obvious reasons, I asked for a rewrite.
I received the second draft, and I noticed that some of my requests had been answered but others went unchanged without explanation. The resume still just didn’t stand out and neither did the cover letter. Lastly, and likely most pointedly representative of my experience with this business: when the name of your alma mater contains the state in which it is located, its location should not be in error. For example, and I’m making this one up to illustrate the mistake that was made: Central Minnesota University is not located in Mount Sunrise, Indiana.
Each time I’d spoken with Clay, it was like he hadn’t reviewed any of the documents for which he’d asked and I’d supplied. I wound up rewriting and reformatting the resume and the cover letter myself, and I had a former leader help me review it.
I don’t mean to sound harsh, but when you’ve lost your job, throwing away good money and wasting time on meetings and document reviews that are eventually ignored anyway just aren’t productive job search activities. This service was not cheap, and the attention to detail simply wasn’t there. Perhaps he was focused on his upcoming vacation (of which he reminded me several times during this lengthy process), but I’d look elsewhere for assistance with your job search documents.

Clay wrote my resume and cover letter. Before I used his services, I had been looking for a job for months with no results. After I started submitting the resume he wrote for me, I got, on average, three calls/​emails per week. Its amazing what a difference he made. In addition, I used him as a consultant before every interview and again, the results were striking. He is ethical, smart, and helped me to feel confident when walking into an interview. I am sure that I will be successful in my job search, due in no small part to Clay. He’s the best.

Clay was the absolute best. He took my tired, lame and ignored resume and turned it into something great resulting in me getting a job that I always wanted. I can’t thank him enough. Listen to your friends who have used him — he is the best!

Clay was easy to work with, he understood what I was trying accomplish and created a resume that gave me a chance.
I was self employed for 18 years and decided to pick up and moved to SoCal in Jan 2014. I decided to work with him in April and received 3 job offers in May. I was pretty skeptical, I do not have an advanced degree just plenty of sales experience. The resume landed me some great opportunities and I will be starting my new job June 9^th. I would recommend working with him regardless of your location, we did interviews and revisions over the phone and internet.

Clay designed a fantastic resume for me. I received four interviews after sending it out to five companies. I received two serious interviews and accepted a position. Prior to my first interview I did a mock interview with Clay where he touched on key questions that helped me on the official interview. I recommend doing mock interviews once he completes your resume. Clay knows what he is doing!

Clay was extremely professional and was also very easy to get in touch with. I had a hard time getting interviews with my old resume. Clay delivered a wonderful looking resume and I also used him for interview coaching. I got a job immediately, and a VERY good job. I highly recommend using his services.

I recently worked with Clay to revise my resume and I have to say I was impressed by him. He was always very professional and listens to what you want your next role to be and helps revise your resume to bring that out. He was also always available to answer any questions I had and help me with my interview questions. I would definitely recommend him to anyone who wants to land a great job.

Let me start by saying I had no confidence in my skills and certainly had no idea how to put the few I had on a resume that would get me the interview. I knew from the beginning of my job search that I didn’t want a mediocre resume. I found AAA Targeted Writing on Unilocal! Clay was efficient in getting me an appointment. I brought in an old resumes and a list of jobs that looked exciting to me. I have not had a «real» job in 22 yrs. He was able to take my years of volunteering experience and wrote a resume that was outstanding! In fact it was so good, I not only got an interview, I got a job doing exactly what I like! Imagine that! I will refer every friend or acquaintance I know to AAA Target Writing and Coaching Services None of us have time to waste! Go to the professionals first!

Clay just «gets» it.
I have a long and varied background and was really having difficulty telling my story in a way that didn’t seem too junior or overly tactical.
During our first call, I threw a lot of information Clay’s way during a one-​hour period. When he sent back the first draft, I was amazed at how much he had captured and articulated so well. With minor edits and a 30-​minute discussion, Clay sent back the next version and he simply nailed it.
I’ve already posted this new resume twice and gotten calls from each post.
Clay is reasonably priced, incredibly skilled and very professional. I highly recommend him.

Clay helped me a lot and for a fair amount of money. I have recommended him to many people.

So happy I went to Clay! In this tough economy, I knew I wanted a new resume and cover letter to sell my strengths.
After reading many great Unilocal reviews, I decided to give Clay a call. He was very inviting and I met with him for a free consultation. He listened well to what I was looking for and was honest about what he knew about my background and what he was thinking that I needed. He was not pushy and worked with my schedule. Clay is an honest person, and very well educated as he knows the latest of what is going on in the world and job related issues.
I came in again and he took more notes as he interviewed me for an hour asking specific questions to help add strengths and qualifications to my resume. In defending Clay for his poor review below, I suggest that you come in for the consultation and look at his resumes that he’s done for people in the past in the same line as yours before deciding whether or not you want to have it written that way or come in with a resume style that you are looking for.
I believe the money is worth it especially when it comes to the job market andthe competitive field, the resume and cover letter s what gets you started. I was hesistant about spending that much too as I know there are services out there that are cheaper, but for me it was completely worth it.
Clay finished my cover letter and resume and less than a week and emailed it to me. I was very pleased and am definitely recommending him to others.

***I am reposting my review because Unilocal took it down. I would just like to warn potential clients and have some recourse for the unprofessional way I was treated by the business owner. I joined Unilocal specifically to review this business and my review is not made up***
I used the services of a professional resume writer and career coach to revamp my resume and get a good cover letter in hopes of getting more responses in my job search. I chose Clay’s business due to the stellar reviews it received and to get personalized, hands on service. I had a mixed experience.
When I arrived for my appointment on January 5^th, Clay had a funny look on his face when he greeted me. He was in the middle of conducting another client’s appointment and was not expecting me. He then realized he had mistakenly written me down in the previous year’s appointment book. He said he was sorry and would make it up to me. One of the positions I was interested in had an application submission deadline of January 11^th, so he offered to take me that Monday. I was a little apprehensive of the experience but thought it was nice of him to let me come back asap and after hours.
I felt we had a good appointment on Monday and I accurately conveyed what I do and the experience and education I’d gained. However, I was a bit upset by what Clay said about my current resume. It was written by a friend who’d worked in Manhattan for the S&P 500 and had a lot of experience writing job descriptions. The format she used was what was popular in the NYC financial district at the time, and a representative from Robert Half who I met at a resume writing workshop told me it looked very good. Clay told me to tell my friend it was nothing special and actually quite common. Maybe he was right, but someone else I talked to who casually writes resumes thought it was a rude comment and that he wanted to sell me his resume service.
When I saw my new resume, it was not as life-​changingly phenomenal as I was expecting for $ 180. His original version was two pages, which is a definite no-​no unless you are well into your profession with years of experience and achievements to list. We were able to cut it down to one page, and while it was an improvement over my old resume, I don’t think it was worth quite that much money. He quoted a price of $ 160-​$ 250 during the consultation. I am very early in my career and had a good foundation resume, so I feel that $ 160 would have been a more fair price.
The cover letter was a disappointment. There were omitted words and grammatical errors I had to point out! I’ve always been told a cover letter fleshes out and highlights specific achievements that do not fit onto a resume. This cover letter was very generic and something I feel I could have written myself. It cost $ 60.
Clay was not very professional, and he even used an obscenity and assumed a defensive, threatening demeanor when I expressed reservations about his work. He literally told me, «you’re really starting to piss me off.» He repeatedly said he would just refund my money almost as if it were a threat. I felt like there was not much time or care put into the product and it did not convey what I told him about myself and my career as accurately as I thought I expressed myself in our interview. Come to find out an english professor at Northwestern actually wrote the resume and cover letter (I checked the author of the word doc) — that explains everything!
Although I paid him for his services and accepted his product, I would not work with this man again or recommend him to anyone I know. Even if he contacted me to make things right, I would not respond because I feel unsafe working with such an individual. No one should ever talk to a client that way. It is totally unacceptable. I went to Clay for professional, hands on service. If I wanted some disconnected stranger to write my resume, I would have used a dot com resume service. Please avoid!
***Update: I’ve made numerous small revisions to the resume, the most egregious of which was the misspelling of an employer’s name. Obviously I should have been more vigilant, but it potentially cost me about a dozen job interviews before I noticed.

SHORT VERSION:
I have a job because of Clay.
Ok, I got an INTERVIEW because of Clay… and then got the job based on my interview, but you see my point. My resume worked. I had no calls and then I had calls. I had no interviews and then I had interviews. I had no job and now I have a job.
DETAILED VERSION:
We moved to Illinois in June and I’ve been job searching since then. I was looking for a job in two different industries and had about a dozen versions of resumes that I had written, rewritten, re-​rewritten, etc. After sending out more than one hundred resumes (and posting on corporate sites, job search sites, various HR departments, etc) I had only one interview, but no offers. I honestly thought that it was just going to take a really long time to be able to break into the Chicago job market with my out-​of-​state experience.
I met with Clay and decided to purchase two different resumes, one for each industry. (media communications and legal) Clay also does cover letters and interview coaching, salary negotiation, and all kinds of other career-​related advice-​giving. If you’ve never negotiated for a salary, this is very helpful. (Ladies, I know you’re not as aggressive and brave as you should be when asking for what you deserve! Clay can help you through the negotiation conversation so you don’t come off as unreasonable or insecure.)
After I met with Clay and got my two brand new resumes, I began applying for jobs. I got calls within a couple of days. I got TWO interviews in both the industries I was looking in and — no joke– BOTH people I interviewed with said «you have a great resume! I can’t believe you haven’t been hired yet!» Courtesy statement or not, obviously something was working. And one of those interviews led to the job I started this week, working for a great firm, doing exactly what I wanted to do.
My husband, who has an amazing resume and work history is having the same trouble and met with Clay last week. Hopefully, a job for him is just around the corner.
Clay Cerny is a NICE, HONEST man who is talented at writing resumes. I highly recommend that you speak with him (first consultation is free!) about any concerns or questions or guidance you may need. If he knows of someone who does a specific type of resume better, he’ll refer you. (ie– a government resume)
Thank you Clay!

Clay is the best! He is a scientist in resume writing. He takes the time to go over every single detail of your previous experience and future career goals, then he comes back with a beautiful written resume that is clear, perfectly formatted, and somewhat understated (as opposed to flashy and wordy). And if you forget to include something or would like to add or change something he’ll be more than happy to do so. However, to save him time, I recommend that you are thoroughly prepared before meeting Clay. He is in demand and does everything himself.
As for my resume, I’ve gotten tons or response and am thrilled to be entering a completely different field that is VERY competitive thanks to Clay. He was able to relate my past experience to my new role. Do not hesitate, whatever the challenge is Clay will have the answer. Thank you Clay AND thank you Unilocalers!!! Cheers to a brighter future!

I have recommended Clay to everyone I know from family to friends, it might be a bit expensive but it was worth every penny. Especially when its about advancing your career. He helped me create two different kinds of resumes and cover letters, we went through everything about my professional career and he talked me through his methods and his style of writing.
As soon as I put my resume out there and started responding to job posting with my cover letter as well I instantly got call backs and email backs. Who knows it might be my industry and my experience but I don’t think so. Clay was a big help and I want to thank him for all he’s done because I got an amazing opportunity to work for UC Berkeley which I am currently working.
Thank you Clay for all your hard work! It paid off.